No, the original NYT article was NOT cited.

We’re just back from Japan here and there’s still so much to show and tell. First I’ll get past the jetlag and clear the pile on my desk. In the meanwhile you can check out the 550 or so photos of Japan I posted on Flickr. I’m patting myself on the back here for making them pretty entertaining and informative.

Meanwhile I came across a nice bit of bike and fashion parody out of Shanghai, China. Most of you probably saw the slightly silly but timely articles on Dutch bikes such as “Riding the It Factor” in The New York Times. Yours truly was interviewed for said article, WorkCycles bikes were mentioned and used as props and the super photos of my friend Marc (a.k.a. Amsterdamize) were used for an accompanying slideshow about Dutch cycling.

Well shortly afterward some “economic refugee” Shanghai expats showed up with “It’s the S**t!” Factor parodying the NYT article above.

A couple days later “5000 Years of Civilized Riding” appeared… their take on the NYT fashion shoot with some worthy quotes such as:

…in China, bicycles have been part of the culture for 5,000 years. Fashionable Qin riders first unified China’s sense of style in 221 BC…

Oh, and I learned an excellent new (for me at least) acronym: BINO (Brand in Name Only).

Thanks to Fred Shasta, writer of these pieces.

…while hauling about a million styrofoam boxes on a cargo trike. All in a day’s work in China. Photo by Elyse Sewell, a fashion model living in China (I think). Her copious posts are sarcastic and insightful, filled with photos of the absurdities of her daily life as a “ladyposer” and all the weird things she comes across. Such as a guy talking on the phone while cycling with about 40 cubic meters of styrofoam. We don’t even see that in Amsterdam.

Thanks to Sally Applin for the tip.

Chinese Family Trike, originally uploaded by henry in a’dam.

WorkCycles mechanic Tom Resink has been traveling through China and Tibet and snapped this photo of a family on their cargo trike in Chengdu.

2007: Azor aluminium frames being hand-welded

I recently spotted some bullshit about the difference between “hand-built” and “hand-made” on some site or blog promoting somebody’s bikes, or maybe it was just a blog comment. Huh? I’ve been designing and making (often pretty nice) things with my own hands for many years and have always used “hand-built” and “hand-made” interchangeably. Furthermore when it comes to bicycles, they’re mostly built with quite human labor intensive processes: Steel and aluminium frames are generally soldered, brazed or welded at least partially by hand, finish work is manual, and assembly is mostly performed manually on an production line of some sort. This is true for the bikes of small and large producers.

Certainly all of our (WorkCycles) bikes are made this way. Most of our city bike frames are hand built/made in Belgium. Some are hand built/made in Holland and China. Ironically enough the frames made in China are the most consistently straight and best finished. So much for China bashing.

The notable exception to our “hand-made” (or was it “built”) rule is the Bakfiets Cargobike frame which is built/made by a (very sophisticated) robot in a factory in South Holland province. The robot bends and miters the tubes and then welds them together. All of our bikes are assembled and finished by hand… though the mechanics do utilize machines such as a headset press and seat tube reamer to work more efficiently. Will the manual labor police disqualify them from being called “hand-made” for this?

Anyhow this is all just a long introduction for a fantastic film from 1925 somebody put up on You Tube (in two parts). Its called “De Avonturen van Piet” (The Adventures of Piet) referring to Piet Pelle, a promotional cartoon character of Gazelle. Between Piet’s adventures of taking his Gazelle bike to the North Pole we see a proud overview of the workings of the Gazelle Bicycle Factory. Amongst other processes:

The commentary is all in Dutch but you’ll get the idea of what’s going on: they’re hand making bicycles… or are they “building” them. Who cares! Its fun to watch.

1925: Gazelle frames being hand aligned

There’s a more complete version of the Gazelle factory video here but it doesn’t seem to have any sound.

Oh yeah, here’s Piet Pelle of Gazelle:

An acquaintance Todd Boulanger in Portland Oregon (USA) spotted a new “4 in one” bike called the Zigo at the Interbike trade show and sent a note with a mention that was like the “very nice European bike that does the same” but much cheaper. I’m not sure whether Todd couldn’t remember the name of this European version, or simply didn’t want to mention it.

Regardless its called the TrioBike and I’d almost forgotten it until Todd’s mail. The TrioBike is a Danish designed product and its something of a joke amongst my colleagues here in Holland. Some laugh about it but how such a horrible product has won design awards, gotten mountains of (internet) press and glowing reviews from around the globe is both puzzling and troubling. One more lousy bike on the market doesn’t concern me, but the power of armchair internet reviewers does. Then again there are hardly any TrioBikes on the road so maybe its only a matter of perception and annoyance.

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@ PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images photo

I recently wrote about the 50,000 rental bicycles the Beijing city government is putting into service for the 2008 Olympics. Details were sketchy in the previous article but here’s another article with more information about the Chinese bike rental project from Bike Radar.com.

A somewhat edited synopsis follows…
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There’s been much in the news in the last years about China, particularly Beijing, abandoning the bicycles they’re so famous for in the name of “progress”. Like other modern, industrialized countries the automobile would be the transportation of China’s future. Naturally we liberal-minded cyclists reacted (amongst ourselves that is) with horror that the Chinese would behave so badly as the citizens of our own countries, thereby wreaking havoc on practically everything.

But lately the tide seems to have turned. I read some months ago (in an article I can’t remember) that China’s national minister of transportation had sharp words about Beijing’s anti-bicycle policies. He made statements to the effect that their bicycle use was not only practical and envivonmentally friendly, but also that its an important part of China’s identity and culture. Perhaps he also pointed out how the bicycle so strongly represents the Communist Party’s egalitarian philosophy… though I didn’t actually read that part.

The evidence for today is that Beijing is busy completing a system of 50,000 rental bikes for the upcoming Olympic Games. From Bike Europe, a website for the trade:

50,000 rental bikes for Chinese capital

BEIJING, China – The first 31 in a series of 200 bicycle rental stations have been opened in Beijing. The remaining will be open by next year’s Olympics, and there will be more than 50,000 bikes for rent. These bike rental stations are a parts of the government’s program to ensure clean air for next year’s Olympics.

The system works very easily. People can dial a hotline number to reserve a bike. And, if the bike you rent breaks down, you can go to the nearest station to swop it for another. The rental stations are located at subway stations, bus stops, commercial areas and the Olympics venues.

Following the success of the car reduction test event, which ended yesterday and recorded four consecutive days of Grade II air quality, the government unveiled a new bike rental scheme to maintain the momentum.

The city council hopes a new bike promotion campaign will meet equal popularity and reinforce Beijing’s status as the capital of the “Kingdom of the Bicycle”.

Published @ 22-08-2007

Fifty thousand bikes sounds like an awful lot, though this is Beijing so some might regard it as mostly symbolic, or for show, or basically for the Olympic visitors. Time will tell.

Original article can be found here though unfortunately with no cool pictures of 50,000 red bikes lined up ready for use.