Andrew Butler, Design, Photography, Topsham, Devon :

Archive for ‘Bicycles’

The Bicycle City Film: Vimeo

What happens to an impoverished developing nation town when you flood it with 20,000 bicycles? You lift three times that number of people out of poverty. Pedals for Progress and founder David Schweidenback have been shipping used American bicycles to Rivas, Nicaragua for the last two decades and the transformation has been incredible. More

This one is here via Caleb Butler and is posted for a number of reasons. I saw the post a couple of weeks ago and thought it was a great example how a simple initiative can really affect people’s lives. I love bikes, I love the mechanical efficiency of them, the design, the variety of uses that they can be put to. I have far, far too many of them in my garage.

But I am going to have a minor rant now. I recently tried to ride the local cycle path that goes from Topsham to Lympstone. Now, I have worked as a cycle courier in London, at that time we travelled the whole of London, Croydon, Ealing, Enfield, and some strange ferry. I have never felt so endangered as when I tried to ride the cyclepath. I have put the details in a Boo Rantley, but in essence I find it hard not to believe that far from being welcomed and embraced as a valid means of transport cycling runs the risk of being marginalised by cyclepaths.

So to return to the video, a taster for a larger work, this filumn shows how the bicycle can be used to restore people’s livelihoods.

26/04/2011 Tags: bicycle, poverty, solution
Category: Bicycles No Comments

Berlin, Everyday’s Like a Sunday Here

One of the reasons I ride a motorbike is that I don’t like sitting in traffic, and when sat in traffic in Exeter I may well rant,

“if I am sat in traffic at least it could be because everyone’s going somewhere interesting!”

No such problem in Berlin, the argument falls over on both sides. It is difficult not to find somewhere interesting but if you are in traffic you are unlikely to get stuck: these roads are wide, really w-i-d-e. As a pedestrian it is wise to plan your journey across one well, there’s not a huge amount of traffic but you will need to cover ground at pace.

But these wide empty roads are one reason why it feels like everyday’s a Sunday here.

I like Cycling – but

Now I like cycling but I’m not sure about the Berlin cycling scene. I did go into a seriously cool little bike shop but, if I may refer briefly to the exhibit to the left, WTF?

There is an overland gas pipeline in Berlin, a rather jaunty pink affair, it travels throughout parts of the city, up and over roads, along the central reservation. What we are looking at here would seem to be a fairly close relation, indeed the lovechild of the gas line. This ‘bike’ is not so much a ‘step-through’, more a ‘trip-over.’

Part bike - part pipeline

The cyclists here are seriously militant too. Once you have acclimatised to the semiotics of the cycleways (basically a tone or two darker than the host footpath) things aren’t too bad, but stray onto the dark grey stuff as a pedestrian at your own risk and when the bicycles are made out of gas pipeline they will hurt.

However these upright cyclists are well dressed, not in lycra and are another reason why every day feels like a Sunday in Berlin.
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23/11/2010 Tags: art, bauhaus, Berlin, culture
Category: Arts, Bauhaus, Berlin, Bicycles, Design No Comments

London: Cycling’s Steel City

There is a boom in cycling and there is no finer expression this than in London at the moment. A couple of hours free with the old Canon Ixus 70 and time for a bit of bike spotting.

These bikes come in all shapes and sizes: delivery bikes, tricycles maybe the odd bit of carbon fibre. By and large though this isn’t about hi-tec machinery it is about steel and old steel at that. It is about the bikes that people like me wanted as a child, bikes that were superseded by better, lighter and stronger stuff, but bikes that have now found a new lease of life.

These bikes have been stripped down, many turned into London Fixies: no gears, little in the way of brakes, some almost devoid of handlebars. For the most part they have become vivd expressions of their current keeper. Some are off the peg: made to look like bikes used to but of course never actually did. Of course there are also Boris’s bikes bringing a bit of Barcelona to London, well not really but you get the idea.

A friend recently told me that she sold her motorbike when she returned to London, there is apparently little space to park one. Unlike Exeter where I can put my motorbike pretty much where I want London is no longer motorbike-freindly.

So the trusty old peddle-iron is the functional expression, taken to work then left to sulk all day tied up to a lamppost occasionally throwing a sulk by lying down on the pavement and sometimes totally disappearing (well almost anyway).

23/10/2010 Tags: bikes, boris, fixies, london
Category: Bicycles, Design, London, Reynolds, Transport No Comments

Steel Just Got Cooler, Reynolds 953

From time to time one hears of elders passing down ‘the lore’ to the younger ones to care for and treasure. History will continue lessons will hopefully be learnt.

A Worthy Bicycle

The other day a dowager lady in a Topsham second hand shop described a suitcase as ‘worthy’ to me, ‘that looks like a worthy suitcase’ she said. The humble Dawes Galaxy is a legend in British cycling history, but, it is remarkably difficult to find anything out about them. Perhaps it is because they weren’t glamourous bikes (I am talking about the older ones here). I suspect the lady might describe an old Galaxy as a worthy bicycle. She would be correct to do so.
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17/08/2010 Category: 525, 531, 953, Anderson, Design Credo, Reynolds, Rourke 1 Comment

Cinelli – Just because

This is ‘just because’ really, follow the link to see the bike. About Â£5k will get you one, I suspect I would look a tad overdressed on it though.

24/07/2010 Category: Bicycles, Cinelli, Design, Design Credo No Comments

I’m Not in Paris for the end of Le Tour

The Tour is On and I’m Not There

The other day my after a trip to the beach where my daughter insisted on swimming fully clothed she borrowed an old T-shirt of mine bought at the final stage of the 1991 Tour de France. This was the stage where Djamolidine Abdujaparov famously crashed out. Every year since I have wanted to return to Le Tour, next year I will.

For now then a bit of a mish-mash which at some point I will re-visit this post.

First off a reminder of the end of the 1991 race.

The Colour of Cycling

World Colours

The cycling World Champion colours are not ones that any designer would generally place together, all a bit Play-School. That said in the world of cycling it works, don’t know why, it just does. These basic primary(ish) colours are repeated throughout the cycling world, and why not?

For the uninitiated cycle shirts aren’t just about carrying a brand. Some specific shirts have colours to denote the position of the rider within the race (or World). Whether it is the leader in the sprint race, the best climber or the overall leader there are shirts to be worn.

There seems to be some dispute over the origins of Le maillot jaune in the Tour de France. I certainly like the second suggestion.

The colour was chosen either to reflect the yellow newsprint of the organising newspaper, L’Auto, or because yellow was an unpopular colour and therefore the only one available with which a manufacturer could create jerseys at late notice. (Wiki)

Cycling World Champion shirt

Cycle Logo Design

As a youth, the Campagnolo Super Record Mech (shown) was about as good as it got, but I always preferred the look of the Record (below), which was much more ornate. However the Super Record did allow the Campagnolo logo to be seen in all its glory.

Campag Gears

Campagnolo Logo

People argue about the relative merits of the Japanese and European technology but for me it is European, in particular Italian all the way, and it’s about look and history. I ride a Dutch Gazelle with a strange mix of Campag, Sachs and 3ttt. Yes there are bits of Jap stuff in there but had I the money it would be Italian all the way, and probably steel too.

Cinelli Logo

Colnago Logo

Merckx Logo

There is a certain purity to any of these logos. Some such as the Cinelli logo are a world apart from their predecessors, have a look here.

My friend Msr Moutard was having a bit of a whinge about the loose bottom bracket on his (Taiwanese built) Colnago earlier this week but I don’t think I would tire of seeing this logo on t’ push-iron.

(Told you it was a mish-mash).

22/07/2010 Category: Bicycles, Design, Design Credo, Logo, Tour de France No Comments

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Archive for ‘Bicycles’

The Bicycle City Film: Vimeo

Berlin, Everyday’s Like a Sunday Here

I like Cycling – but

London: Cycling’s Steel City

Steel Just Got Cooler, Reynolds 953

A Worthy Bicycle

Cinelli – Just because

I’m Not in Paris for the end of Le Tour

The Tour is On and I’m Not There

The Colour of Cycling

Cycle Logo Design

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