Egy úriember a sok közül, aki bírja a telet.

/jójó, itt még olyan 2 fok volt, nem ennyire katasztrofálisan szibériai.../

With winter comes a wonderful assortment of hats and caps. Above its all black with a black bike...

For the full photographic glory and the rest of the text, you know where to go. The Original Cycle Chic awaits.

Some aerial cycle chic from the streets of Copenhagen The Original Cycle Chic - straight from...

For the full photographic glory and the rest of the text, you know where to go. The Original Cycle Chic awaits.

I am glad that since our political leaders have been so soft on the issue of cycle safety, The London Times has stepped up and demanding that citizens who choose cycling as a form of transportation be as protected as citizens in cars. I would love to see the Star or the Globe do the same for Canadians.Click here to read "Cities Fit For Cycling" by the London Times. Here is their 8-point manifesto

Sadly we missed this exposition, but these bicycle adventure photos and posters make me ready to hop on and go!

This one makes me smile as I am shopping for a front-mounted child seat now. The more things change...

Guerre 1939-1945. Circulation à bicyclette dans Paris en mars 1941.

Unatkozó újságíróink és rémtörténetgyáros barátaink meglepődtek, hogy tél van. Hát igen, ez így februárban talán nem meglepő, de a langymeleg december és január után hirtelen elfelejtették, hogy tavaly és azelőtt szinte egész télen vagy szakadt a hó, vagy alig volt nulla fok. Végig. És aki nem az utcán él, vagy van fűtés a lakásában, annak ez nem is okozott különösebb megrázkódtatást. Ahogy északabbra is élnek emberek és ők is egész jól elvannak. Így szokott ez lenni, na.

Az utcát elnézve nem is történtek nagy megrázkódtatások. Süt a nap, de aki felöltözik, azt különösebben nem zavarja ez az idő. Jó, nincs nyár, de egy hónap múlva itt a tavasz, szóval aggódni sem kell. Úgyhogy mi azt javasoljuk az újságoknak, hogy vagy keressenek igazi politikai, társadalmi ügyeket, vagy menjenek el nyaralni, mert az, hogy télen hideg van, nem hír.

És ezt a pesti bringások is tudják, akik megint többen tekernek, mint egy évvel ezelőtt.
/A poszt aljára biggyesztettünk egy szavazást, mondd el te, hogy tekersz!/

A skandináv Koppenhágában például ennyire okoz gondot a tél:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Berlinben meg így tolják a -10 fokos szélben a helyiek:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

És ne felejtsük el a jó öreg Budapestet:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

És akkor idézzük fel újra, milyen volt két téllel ezelőtt bringázni, amikor esett a hó, jegek úsztak a Dunán, vagyis hideg volt:

poll by twiigs.com

Christine was working with us at Copenhagenize Consulting for a month or so. She's from Seattle and...

For the full photographic glory and the rest of the text, you know where to go. The Original Cycle Chic awaits.

First, why should you care?

http://ecowatch.org/2011/council-for-textile-recycling-launches-initiative-promoting-clothing-recycling/

 

The ‘Hey, that IS inspiring!’ award:
http://www.greeneileen.org/

Eileen Fisher is sortof an ‘old lady’ brand: their women’s clothes are simple, well made and a little pricey without being trendy. I think my Mom owns a Eileen Fisher sweater. But don’t take that the wrong way – I’ve gotten really punch drunk from seeing only certain kinds of sustainability initiatives come out of certain kinds of brands. Though they sell internationally the Green Eileen program is only in a limited area in New York, but hopefully to expand. And is only the latest in a holistic push from materials sustainability in the product line to workshops teaching people how to “unravel a sweater: recycling luxury yarns.”

The ‘Lipstick on a Pig’ Award: 
http://www.gapinc.com/content/csr/html/MakeADifference.html

Despite the inspiring promotional videos, and being one of the first companies to actually do something, I just can’t get really excited about these tiny percentage of overall efforts. Gap, and it’s many subsidiaries (aka socio-economic market demographics and their associated brands) have several programs from job readiness/bring your teen to work days at Old Navy (really? that doesn’t seem very upwardly mobile..), adding recycled content to packaging at Banana Republic and  jeans donation/recycling through the Gap stores. But with a huge market share a little adds up. “ In 2010, Gap’s “Recycle Your Blues” campaign collected more than 360,000 units of denim, which was used to create fiber insulation for nearly 700 homes. The donated denim was given “new life” by being converted into UltraTouch™ housing insulation, in partnership with Cotton Inc.’s COTTON FROM BLUE TO GREEN® program.” Still if there’s any question on “Why Being Less Bad is No Good,” you should be reading Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough & Michael Braungart.

The ‘Holy shit! Why isn’t every company on the planet doing this RIGHT NOW?’ award: 
http://www.patagonia.com/us/common-threads/recycle

Patagonia is the GOLD STANDARD of ecologically responsible apparel. If they’re not already doing it, it’s probably because it’s not yet possible. And hopefully the innovation and brashness of what they’re doing, leagues ahead of anyone else – especially in the performance apparel space – will make them an even more popular choice for consumers as well as shame other companies into getting with the program. Through their ‘Common Threads’ initiative

I’d like to become a partner in the Common Threads Initiative to reduce excess consumption and give the planet’s vital systems a rest from pollution, resource depletion and greenhouse gases.

Patagonia agrees to build useful things that last, to repair what breaks and recycle what comes to the end of its useful life. I agree to buy only what I need (and will last), repair what breaks, reuse (share) what I no longer need and recycle everything else. So you can take your old Patagonia clothes into the store and they’ve got the back-end to deal with recycling from an industrial level, including some of those otherwise impossible to recycle synthetics. And unless you’re wearing pure wool exclusively, performance apparel means synthetic. They’ve got a full life cycle approach as well being committed to blue sign fabrics, supporting environmental non-profits and education. Now you know what to get me for Christmas.

What an amazing way to make the connection between plant life and their ability to absorb the harm we pump out into the atmosphere.More stunning images from the Plant for the Planet campaign here.More reason to donate to the About Face Collective in the previous post, so do it!

A friend sent me this link, looks like a possible addition to the Tweed Rides! 

Budapesti 'winter-cyclist' a pár fokkal melegebb téli napokból

I can always miss Barcelona. But a little bit more in the winter. The Original Cycle Chic...

For the full photographic glory and the rest of the text, you know where to go. The Original Cycle Chic awaits.

Good grief this is fantastic. If one of your new years resolutions was to a) get involved with AMAZING things, or b) start donating to very worthy causes. Then good news! You can kill two birds with one stone by heading over to over to our The Aboutface Collective's IndieGoGo and help them make the Everything Roof a reality. I am so proud to be able to say such awesome ladies are pals. Sometimes

So January is almost over, thank goodness. It's been bleak and somewhat depressing. Can't wait until February begins and spring starts to become a reality rather than a distant dream. Time to start looking ahead and planning the ideal spring cycling outfit. My first choice pictured above is this exquisite Mulberry anorak, (the skirt may be a little awkward though and one probably shouldn't hitch a Mulberry skirts in ones knickers)

This Louis Vuitton dress would be idea for spring jaunts on my pastel Blue Pashley Poppy.


 Loose fitting yet sleek and sophisticated, this outfit from Phillip Lim  would do rather nicely for cycling to the office.

This is a handsome bike. I think it might be a Pista from before they started clear coating over the labels, so there are no labels. The components are mostly Campy, that saddle is the Brooks with the hammered rivets. Everything about this bike is thoughtful, which is why it is so odd that it hasn't moved from this parking space in three weeks, apparently forgotten. It has rained almost every day, on to that beautiful saddle.
In three weeks no one has even touched this frame pump!
The bag is a Rixen & Kaul doggie bag.

Na meg a pirosnál bámuló srácok

That clothes drying rack isn't going to walk home by itself, now is it? Or that big, heavy box...

For the full photographic glory and the rest of the text, you know where to go. The Original Cycle Chic awaits.

Eating a plant based diet can be tres good for your body, your wallet (lentils are cheap!), and the planet. While we were occupying Bushwick, the Nigthshades ate largely vegetarian, mainly because it was the cheapest way to eat healthy. One dinner I feed 10 people on $8 dollars worth of groceries with this amazing curry.If anyone out there trains as an athlete, The Thrive Diet should be your

Szeretjük az ilyen meglepetéseket. Sugar Goebi nevű Kedves Olvasónk teljes hirtelenséggel betoppant a postaládánkba egy csomaggal, amibe 9 darab 1920x1080-as méretűre vágott fotónkat rejtette el. A képeket full képernyős méretükben letölthetitek innen. Goebi jól válogatott: a kedvenc pillanatainktól a kicsit elmosódott Puskás Petis lesifotóig készültek el ezek a nem hivatalos cyclechic hátterek.

Jó letöltögetést mindenkinek, mi pedig nagyon köszönjük Sugar Goebinek!

Ah science, how I love thee. Every day it seems like more solutions are being found to really important things, like materials science and the environment.

Renewable energy is on everyone’s mind but there’s a few things that are at the bleeding edge of “That would really be something.” Most accessible green energy technologies aren’t yet really green – wind turbines that kill birds & bats (controversial), “bio-fuels” that are dependent on tons of plant matter that should be used for things like growing food, etc. etc. So imagine how great it would be if something like algae (there’s a lot of it and it just keeps getting more out of hand) became that source of renewable energy. We could be taking out something that is often the ocean’s response to industrial pollutants and turn it into something that replaces things like oil and coal. Except there’s still a few key discoveries keeping the idea stuck at “potential.” It’s part of a huge list of science that has the power to be game changing, but has yet to be adopted by industry or “discovered” by people en masse.

 Then in the first month of 2012 there’s this:

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/337755/title/Seaweed_study_fuels_bioenergy_enthusiasm

When the team fed alginate to their engineered E. coli, the microbes pumped out ethanol, the researchers report in the Jan. 20 Science. The system yields 80 percent of the theoretical maximum amount of ethanol for a given amount of biomass, the scientists noted, and with further tweaking will probably be even more efficient.Part of the beauty of the system is its flexibility, says Yoshikuni. Because the alginate-degrading enzyme is released into the environment, initial breakdown products can easily be harvested for creating useful compounds such as precursors to nylon or plastics. And when E. coli consume the broken-down alginate the bacteria generate a lot of pyruvate, a chemical intermediate useful for making fuels such as butanol or biodiesel.Seaweed is already harvested at commercial scale in several countries for other uses, and Bio Architecture Lab is working on a pilot plant in Chile to convert seaweed into fuel, says company CEO Daniel Trunfio. Also, any seaweed will do, he notes. “We like to say we’re seaweed agnostic — we can process any brown algae.”

And here’s the really awesome thing that’s caused me to go from being a die-hard pessimist to a cautious optimist: Big Business is participating in trials, making sustainability pledges and finding new ways to do things across all industries. Even the airline and transportation industries!

http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2141558/scientists-hail-algae-biofuel-breakthrough
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/dec/05/aviation-low-carbon-fuel

“Unlike cars where there are millions of filling stations, there are only about 1,700 aviation stations in the world. So if you can get the right fuel, like mass-produced algae, then getting it to 1,700 outlets is not so difficult,” Branson said.Branson, who announced last month he hoped Virgin would soon be able to use waste gases from industrial steel and aluminium plants as a fuel, said the industry should aim for 50% sustainable fuels by 2020.”I would be very disapointed if not. Once the breakthrough takles place, getting to 50-100% is not unrealistic. Aviation fuel is 25-40% of the running costs of airlines so the industry is open to new fuels.”Branson, whose Virgin group owns 51% of Virgin Atlantic Airways, was speaking in advance of the launch in Durban of RenewableJetFuels.org, an open access website that assesses and updates the progress of companies planning to produce commercial-scale renewable fuel for aviation.

http://www.treehugger.com/renewable-energy/maersk-testing-algae-biofuel-europe-india-route.html

Shipping giant Maersk has been making a number on interesting efficient improvements in its containers ships as of late, and

now is testing algae-biofuels as well: Right now the Maersk Kalmar is en route from Northern Europe to India running a blend of algae-biofuel and petroleum-based fuel.During the 30-day trip, over 6500 nautical miles, a variety of blend percentages will be tested, including testing how well the ship performs on 100% biofuel. Emissions of greenhouse gases as well as particulate pollution are being monitored along the route.