Change Lots Of Lives. Build A Bike!

One of the most interesting things about blogging, to me at least, is getting the chance to see where our readers come from.  I use a stats program that can give me a world map of readership over a specified period of time.  When the world map comes up, there are little dots for where each visitor's general area is.

Today, when I looked there were dots in Finland, New Zealand, Rio de Janeiro, Ghana and Turkey all within the same time period.  What a global spread!!  It got me to wondering what kind of information I could easily find about bicycling in some of these places, starting with Turkey.

There isn't a lot of easily findable material from a first person perspective about bicycling in Turkey.  There are a few stories about people having a bicycle vacation in Turkey, but I didn't find (with a very limited search) anything written by a Turk about riding in Turkey.  I have to admit, I was a little disappointed.  Lucky for me, I wasn't disappointed for long!

In my search I found this story about De Fietsfabriek, The Bicycle Factory, in the Hurriyet Daily News.  It turns out that De Fietsfabriek was started by a Turkish immigrant to the Netherlands, Yalcin Cihangir.

"Cihangir discovered that he liked fixing bicycles and wanted to make his own bikes; after six months, he started his own business in Amsterdam. Teaming up with a local colleague in 2004, he started the Bicycle Factory (www.defietsfabriek.nl)."*

The best part of this story is that Cihangir has his parts manufactured in his small hometown in Turkey.

"Bike parts are produced in Büyükcamili, creating jobs for almost 30 men in a small place in danger of being abandoned. Cihangir opened the factory in his home village in order to give something back. People working at the factory have reasonable working hours and get a decent salary, between 1,300 and 1,700 Turkish Liras. Next to the bicycle factory, an atelier has been created where women make special clothing that is sold in the Netherlands and returns the revenues to Anatolia.

Cihangir is also financing a local agricultural project to grow products in an environmentally friendly way. His final goal is to make his home village an attractive place for young people to stay and make a living."*

Here are some of the people who make his bicycles in Turkey

and here is a wonderful little documentary of the opening of his factory. It is in Dutch and Turkish but you will get a very good idea of how big a deal this factory is and just how much good it is doing.

I have never met Yalcin Cihangir and I probably never will, but I would be very proud to own one of his bicycles.  He proves through his actions that there is so much more to bicycles than any of us think of when we jump on them to go to work or play.  Bicycles can save your home town!  Maybe Flint and Detroit, Michigan should get on the bandwagon, too.  After all, Henry Ford built and sold bicycles before cars and now Michigan is suffering the after effects.  Maybe those same bicycles could help repair some of that damage.  I know I would buy an American made bicycle like we used to be able to.  

I would certainly buy a De Fietsfabriek bicycle.  I may not be from a tiny village in Turkey, but it doesn't mean I can't help one out!

*excerpt from "The Turkish Bicycle Factory" by JOOST LAGENDİJK and linked to above.

Bikes Around The World

Knowing full well there is a world outside of San Francisco, I decided to put up some of the recent shots from around the world that have been posted on our Flickr group. We get some fantastic pictures from all over the globe. Every kind of bicycle imaginable, ridden in every conceivable way. Visual proof that there is no one way to ride a bike other than just getting on one and going!

image by RocketDog at A Pic A Ride (UK)

image by Greg Raisman (Portland, OR, USA)

image by rperks1 at Ocean Air Cycles (Ventura, CA, USA)

image by Claudio Olivares Medina (Chile)

image by Iam Sterdam (Netherlands)

image by a.pic.a.day

image by Chris.0917 (Maple Springs, New York, USA)

image by AlainG (Montreal, Canada)

image by y.hayama (Japan)

image by Ian of Slow RPM (Melbourne, Australia)

Give a bike, change a life! -Hans Rey

I recently received a note from a fellow blog-buddy to post, and decided to also post it here, because it is so very close to our collab blog here, and it is what this blog is all about, changing our lives for the better as citizens of this world and our planet. Thought I'd share.

*cross post from Bikes and the City
I had not heard of Wheels4Life before. I enjoyed reading about the goals this group has formed to contribute and fundraise for a great cause, providing an efficient and access to school and multiple othe locations for everyday use indeveloping countries. I thought it was a nice cause for change and benefit of this planet and us as citizens of this world, so thought I'd share it with you all

(From Josh's email) Founded by mountain bike legend Hans Rey, W4L is hosting an auction selling off 10 dream mountain bikes to raise money, which in turn will go toward buying bikes for developing nations. Wheels4Life is a great charity that provides much needed transportation to closed off pockets of the world, but for more information check out their website at www.wheels4life.org 

A link to this video was also included in his note:




From their page: About Wheels4Life

Wheels4Life is a non-profit organization that provides bikes for people in developing countries who really need them. Often these people live in very primitive and remote areas with no access to public transportation. The closest school, doctor or work-place might be 10 or 20 miles away. In developing countries, children use bicycles to get to school, adults use them to get to work, and health care workers use them to access their patients. Without a bicycle, children can end up uneducated, families can be without enough income to survive, and illnesses are left untreated. Wheels4Life provides the life-altering mobility of a bicycle to make the daily necessities accessible. The gift of a bicycle can work miracles.

So, there are a few auctions left this month to participate in, if you are interseted. Not sure how many of you are into Mt. bikes, but these look pretty sweet.

Auctions

Auction 4: 12/6 - 12/12: Focus First XC and Titus El Guapo
Auction 5: 12/13 - 12/19: Focus Raven and Titus Rockstar 29

Check out more info on the auctions and bicycles here: Bid on a bike. Change a Life»

OK, that is all for now. Now off to riding a bike =)

The World In Review

Time now for a peek at what bicycling looks like in your neck of the woods-

One day I am going to get there! I am going to get to Amsterdam!

From Amsterdam and Amsters@m

Now that the trees are starting to turn I am ready to hit the road again. There is something about the colours that gives me wander lust.

From Washington State, USA and papahazama

Do you ever wonder where people are going? There are so many of them and they all must be going somewhere.

From Amsterdam (again) and Iam Sterdam

Alone in the crowd is just fine if you have what you need.

From Chile and Quiltro Elemento

Yeah, yeah, yeah.. it's getting cold outside. That's what clothes are for!

From Toronto, Canada and Xander

The title of the picture was "Behind Every Great Man..." You know the rest.

From Singapore and jeremyhughes

More Autumn!! I can not sit still!

From Bristol in the UK and Rocky IV

I wonder if I could get Hubby the Bikeman to let me hitch a ride? I don't think so. Maybe Greg can tote me around the next time I am in Portland?

From Portland, Oregon, USA and gregraisman

Thanks to all who have contributed to our Flikr pool! It is always a treat to see what the rest of the world looks like on a bicycle. What does your town look like? Show us!

Snapshots Of The Bicycle World

Bicycles should all come with cameras. The two go so well together that I am sometimes surprised when I see one without the other. Some, of course, take truly wonderful pictures of the world of bicycles and our Flickr group has some fantastic examples of those shots. Every now and then someone sends us some pictures that really stand out, and this week, that person goes by "macfred64".

I love how all of these pictures feel like a really nice dream. These all make me want to get out and ride my Batavus. They also make me wonder how so many of us fell for the "cars are better" farce we have been operating under for so long? How did we let anyone convince us that fresh air and independent power were undesirable?

Macfred, with his beautiful photograhpy, reminds us all that we haven't lost anything. All we have to do to get it back is get out and ride. And take our cameras along to help us remind others.

Policletos

Photo from El manubrio

The bike force is with you!!
Armed yourself with the most powerful social global weapon: la bicicleta
I'm digging the bike gloves, so formal =)
What do you think? I think it is a great idea for roaming around México City, the traffic sucks so bad, I have been able to walk 2 miles, faster than the moving traffic - and I'm a slow walker.
Ding-ding

The invasion of the policletos:
Español: La invasión de policletos
English: translated link »

tiphat/ via my g.reader friend RXN

My little story - by Alejandro

One of the best aspects of having a collaboration blog is having so many active comments and viewers participate, globally and locally. Here in San Francisco Ade, Melyssa and I talk about it from time to time and have conversations as if we all know you, or you all have ridden with us because our interactions are what makes us keep going and everytime we receive a story in the mail -basically the main point of our blog- we can't wait to share it with you all and show off all those tales, cities and photos that connect us as a beautiful bicycle community.

Thanks for reading and here is Alejandro's story, based out of Mexico City.
Mil gracias Ale
Enjoy!!

Hi this is me Alex, don't let the pic fool you as I'm a laid back cool guy. I've been full hardocore bike commuting for over a year now, to the point that I get dizzy if I have to hop in a car or a bus for an extended period of time, and as I enjoy having fun in everything I do nothing it's more fun than biking, reagardless to say I don't know how to drive or have an interest in doing it.

Then again don't let the pic fool you as it doesn't shows really who am I and gives the impression I do hate biking or just treat my beloved bicycle (named Roberta) as an object but I can prove you wrong with this second photo.

As I wrote this I was wondering how riding a bike change my life, and I can put an endless list of things, and I think THE most importan way it has change my life, I have made some really good friends and it's constantly making me a more patient, yoga, zen kinda guy, to the extent I can now summon AND talk to animals.

But enough about me I want to introduce you to a really nice associantion I sometimes roll with, they are call Bicitekas (refering to bicicleta and the aztecs) It's an association with over 10 years here in the city with one sole purpose, making it a friendly city through the bike. We get together on wednesdays at night to prove bike can be done all over Mexico city and can be done at night, but their activities don't stop there.

In some special (and not so fun) ocassions we do gather to remember fallen fellow cyclist, brave persons (kids, young and old fellas, girls, people that work on their bikes) that were hit by a car and put a memento (the bicycle they rode with) that has been called all over the world ghost bikes.

The activities of Bicitekas don't stop there, they have manage recently to change the transit law in mexico to put priority on the weakest persons using the streets (pedestrian in first places, cyclist second). Also they created a comunity program named "paseo a ciegas" that put people with some visual disability or full blindness in the back part of a tandem bike drived buy a person who can see, and last but not least they are building an open workshop downtown so people can go learn how to repair or modify their bicycle and also it's attempted to be a resident house for people from all over the world that are doing something on sustainable transportation and are staying in the city.

So I have make some really cool friends in bicitekas, and it just came to me the reason why I love my brompton bike it's that the former president of the association just happen to sell them and he's a really cool brompton commuter/traveler.

So well that's bicitekas an association really doing something for my city, and accepting anyone regardless what bike you are using, how you dress or even if you wear a helmet or not. If anyone readin this happens to be in Mexico city you are more than welcome to join us riding your bike!

About to meet up.

Love this picture. From our flicker pool. Have a nice day everybody!

Muévete en bici hoy, será un buen día
Move by bike, it will be a good day

A punto de encontrarse
by By Quiltro Elemento

Be A Kid In A Bicycle Store

How was your weekend? Did anything you do make you feel like this?

photo be Amsterdamize

Or this?

photo by Patrick Barber

Did you feel like a kid with an ice cream cone?

photo by Dustinj

You had to grow up, but did you have one "weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" moment this weekend?

photo by Giorgio Vianini

Time To Flip The Script

The internet is an amazing place. It is not on a map, but it is most assuredly a place, and that is the strength of it. All people, from all places on geographical maps can gather in this electronic land and discuss what is important to them as a group. My firm belief is that these conversations are what will ultimately change our world for the better, not legislation or politicians or bailouts or any "ism" we can come up with.

That being said, I reposted a piece from last year over the weekend. I highly suggest you visit the comments section and then come back to this post. The conversation there is, currently, between Mexico City and Australia (Canberra and Brisbane) and Arizona and is about whether or not the current trend toward "cycle chic" is one that adds to or takes away from the total conversation of "bicycle culture".

photo by Richard Masoner of Cyclelicious

Looking at the picture above, I can see it from a few different perspectives, not all of them my own. There are those who feel that so many pictures of young, beautiful women on bicycles isn't much different than endless pictures of young men in spandex pounding the hills of France. In both instances, there is the perception of exclusivity and judgment of those who do not fit these molds. It is felt that because the woman in these pictures don't look like the "average" person that they no longer "represent" the "average cyclist". To make that claim though, there has to be consensus of just what the "average cyclist" is and if that is even relevant. Do we need more of what is currently the "average" in most parts of the Western world? Isn't that what has brought us, in part, to where we are today- that "average cyclist" has become something other than the cute girl next door out for a little fun on a Friday night.

Some would say that in those places where helmets are mandatory, that the idea of a "chic" cyclist is not possible. The helmets make cycling seem too dangerous, and thus, not attractive to people not already on bicycles. While I make no secret of my personal dislike of helmets, I do not believe that they have all that much power to deter and that the problem, instead, is the rhetoric around them that makes cycling less attractive to some. There is no doubt that in places where helmets are mandatory that cycling numbers have dropped tremendously, it has been shown repeatedly (go Google it). However, how often are people shown in helmets actually portrayed attractively?

If more people saw images of what wearing a helmet could look like, in situations that do not involve speed, steroids or jerseys, I suspect that helmets would become less of a deterrent (and yes, infrastructure is what really counts, but we are not talking about that here). If we stop focusing on the fact that the woman in the picture (our own Meligrosa) is young and on a road bike and fashionable and oh-my-god-I-could-never-look-like-that what we could see is a person who has chosen to embrace her surroundings and ride her bicycle her way and not the way we see people in bicycle catalogues. I know I will never look like this on my bicycle, but it shows me that I can look my way, even with a helmet.

photo by Iam Sterdam

The chances of the woman in the picture above being out and about in Denver, Colorado are pretty slim. People who ride bicycles for transportation in the vast majority of the US just do not look like this (people who ride bicycles for transportation in the vast majority of the world don't look like this). It is easy to dismiss this as "cycle chic" and leave it at that. More is required to see it for what it could be- not a judgment about what we each wear but a reminder that we can ride our bicycles with authority and confidence even in heels. There is nothing here that says you have to look like this to ride, only that looking like this doesn't mean that you can not ride.

photo by bitchcakesnyc of Bitch Cakes blog

When looking through photographs, I picked this one out specifically because it is a bit over the top. We have both ends of the spectrum here- chic/lycra, cruiser/road bike, heels/clipless... each rider completed the Tour de Queens (40ish miles). If they can ride together, then all those that fall in the spectrum between them can do the same. Each can just be who they are and ride.

The rest of us just need to start seeing in a broader perspective. When we worry about "chic", who has the best "infrastructure", hipsters, bicycles without brakes, high heels, vintage, carbon....we forget that the common denominator are the people who ride all those carbon, mixte, speed machines from 70's era Amsterdam. We can continue to worry about what the people look like, or we can celebrate all of the wonderful new people on bicycles, no matter how they got there. At least, it seems to me.

Addendum: I was just about to re-write this post because it wasn't coming across the way I wanted it to. But then I saw The-Most-Stupid-Bicycle-Article-Ever (two words- titanium chainguard) and some of the silly comments that accompany it and decided to keep it as is. 1 Girl, 2 Wheels probably puts it all together better than I do.

Orange With Pride

I was brought to the world of modern, urban transportation cycling after reading about the joy that is bicycling in the Netherlands. This week, the Dutch were in San Francisco, in a manner of speaking.

It isn't an accident that our local baseball team sports Orange (or maybe it is, but for this post it isn't).

San Francisco is the hometown of the United Nations. We love flags from all countries!

Spain won. Oh well. We shall cycle on with our heavy duty front racks in tact!

B&W International

From France.

photo by Strivv

From America.

It's black and white. Life on a bicycle is glorious!

Driver To Biker

All of us here at CYLRAB are the same in one respect- we LOVE opening our email to find stories from the people who read this blog! We started "Change Your Life. Ride A Bike!" with the express purpose of creating a forum for people to share their tales and spread the message that bicycles are simply the best way to get around.

This latest submission comes to us from Mexico thanks to Leonel Altamirano.

In Mexico City many years ago, there was a desperate driver, who every day journeyed in his car 10 miles, from his house to his work, taking him him up to 45 minutes, sometimes longer, sometimes less; over the years, it keeps taking longer; for example when there are manifestations in the streets, it can take up to two hours.

He found a solution to this problem with a folding bike, If he could have owned one, the problem of leaving the bike in the parking lot would be solved (also paying for the parking).


Since he has to go on the subway and then into his office, he could carry it with him. He looked in various places for one of these extraordinary methods of transportation. And he found a 28 pounds, one made of aluminum from Mexico, with Shimano gear shifts.

Now two or three days a week he travels on his bike from his home to the subway one kilometer in seven minutes. When he arrives to the entrance of the subway he folds the bike, and enters with it. Once inside the subway car, the folded bike is so compact that it fits under the seat.


When he arrives at the station where he gets off, he takes his bike out and he leaves the subway, then he unfolds the bike to ride the last and short stage of his trip to his office on the bike.where it leaves it under its writing-desk.

In this way he saves almost half of the time of the trip subway-bike in comparison with the car. “to be or not to be in the transit”, is the question.

Now, the desperate conductor is a gladder being and satisfied one, since he arrives earlier at its work and at its home, he coexists more with its family; and by the way he does a little more exercise, contaminating less.



Unfortunatelly, is forbiden to pass your bike in the subway from monday to saturday, but with the spread of this history, we can push authorities to make a change in favor the health.

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DriverToBiker

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