Bikevibe is a Norwegian based journal documenting cycling culture in cities all over the world. Current issue Bikevibe Helsinki.

Velocio Apparel debuts film on the challenges of sustainable bike clothing.

“Why don’t we take better advantage of all the nature that surrounds us?” That was one of the questions that good friends Daniel Andersson and Pavel Sagen asked each other. The idea of making a map was born in the fall of 2019 and the work intensified in March of 2020 when the Corona virus hit. 

As in many cities in northern Europe since decades ago, bicycles seem to be a more constant presence nowadays. As other objects, a bicycle says something about who we are, leaving clues about our way of life and expectations. But cities talk even more, because they talk about people as a community.

We were told by several people we met that we should visit Rcicla whilst in Lisbon, and there was a bit of mysticism about this shop and it’s owner, Vitor.

Pedro Gil is a distinctive man. You can tell by looking at him that he might carry a fascination for times long passed. He is dapper, donning simple couture that is reminiscent of what men wore in the 40s or 50s.

For someone with over 16,000 instagram followers, the Rodagira’s shop is in a very unexpected place. Arriving at the entrance of what could, at first glance, be a faded, grand hotel complete with a reception desk, it turns out to be a former shopping centre with faux gilded shimmering surrounds to the balconies that overlook the unmoving escalators. The glass panels that show off the 18th century rock that existed before the building was constructed out of and around it.

Who owns the roads? People do; not just people in cars. Carlton Reid, executive editor of BikeBiz.com devoted four years of his life to research and write the 170 000 words that make up his book “Roads Were Not Built for Cars”.

Last Sunday the cyclists arrived in Paris for the finale stage of the 103rd Tour de France. We were there to experience the event up close and to get hands on with the cycling enthusiasts. The Tour holds an amazing history and they sure know how to put on a show, but it amazes me that there is still a difference between the women's and the men's race.

Discover why one gang of bike enthusiasts continue to come back to Amandola, a small Italian village, year after year.

In March, Bikevibe visited Sheffield, in the north of England, for the Outdoor City Festival. For a weekend the city centre is taken over by a whole range of activities set to showcase all of the amazing outdoor life that Sheffield has to offer, and with the vast natural playground that is the Peak District a stones throw away (you can see the hills tempting you in any direction that you look) it certainly lives up to the name.

Not all bicycles are created the same. Some can become companions for life; others not so much. For Salvador Esteves, the way to judge the character of a bicycle is to talk to it — and see if it replies.

SAYGRRR! is a cycling socks brand that was born in 2017 in the north of Portugal. It combines performance and design with the vast history and innovational legacy of cycling. We develop, produce and test our products while having fun riding our bicycles.

Helsinki to Lisbon – The Trans Europa Express. TDA and its tours around the globe.

Artur Lourenço was born in Lisbon but loves to travel, and doing so by bike, he feels, has no comparison: “You can do more than on foot, but see and experience more than in a car.” It is a passion that he says he will do continue doing his whole life. This combined with his passion for old bikes meet in A Clássica, the event he created in 2018.

Seven is a curious number. Seven deadly sins, seven wonders of the ancient world. Legend has it that the great Greek hero Odysseus founded the city based upon the seven hills, mirroring the seven hills of Rome. He got such pleasure exploring the land that he established the city by using Lisbon’s hills as a landmark.

Taking your time to enjoy the natural beauty around you is the Portuguese way. This ride isn’t a race, it’s a way to make every moment count.

On a Tuesday evening as darkness fell, a lone fixie rolled off the road and onto the polished, gleaming Praca Dom Pedro IV, otherwise known as Rossio Square.

We all know by now that cyclists and cafes go together like espresso and biscotti, and that any city with a strong cycling scene boasts a least one establishment that acts as the hub for the bike community. Where rides roll out from, the favourite place to end the outing, where to pick up that last-minute essential, the place to pop in to see a familiar face and get a good coffee.

With an average incline of 17% over 265 metres of cobblestones and tramtracks, the Subida à Glória, or Climb to Glory, certainly lives up to its billing. The current record holder is Ricardo Marinheiro with a time of 35.59 seconds, enough to earn him the nickname ‘The Torpedo’, which also sounds fitting.

Pedro Carvalho is a 56 year old professional bicycle guide, running daily mountain biketours in Sintra National Park, just outside Lisbon, and road bike tripsin the Alentejo area, south of the city. Bikevibe caught up with Pedro in the stunning coastal cliffs and forest trails on Sintra.

Fernando Pessoa’s poetry on Lisbon’s riverside bike path.

In Marvila, right outside the city center, a blooming creative network of start-ups are thriving for opportunities. We met up with Hester Haars and Laura Vanweydeveld from the creative studio Dayclub, to talk about the struggles of change and how this effects people who commute by bike.

Hegira Cycling is a Portuguese brand that is born with the desire to pedal differently. They believe that in cycling we find a balance in modern life. But they go even further and believe that cycling changes lives. It’s the passion for cycling that led to the focus on design and quality of their equipment, developed to combine performance, experience and style.

Laura Alves is an activist in the real sense of the word - she doesn’t look to exact change by talking, writing to politicians or bemoaning to those around her, but by doing.

Anyone planning a city break and wanting a localised and cost effective travel option might well consider the available cycle hire schemes. As Uber’s Jump bikes are now available in Lisbon, the capital has another alternative to already existing services with their scope and functionality a prime concern for Portuguese General Manager, Francisco Maria Moutinho Da Cruz Vilaca.

As any visitor to Lisbon will attest, the hills and valleys that form the fabric of the city are at once a marvellous landmark of the Portuguese capital and a navigational challenge. This, coupled with the city’s warm climes, combines to make Lisbon an interesting candidate city for establishing a bike sharing system.

Tourism is inescapable in a 2019 Lisbon. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), Portugal saw around 6.8 million overseas visitors in 2010. Fast-forward a few years, and Portugal saw 18.2 million visitors, totaling an increase of 168 percent. Last year in 2018 Portuguese tourism met its record high, with the city seeing an influx of 21 million people coming to get a taste of the city.

Untill now, Bikevibe have tried to stay away from political views. But while visiting Lisbon the politicians where erger to talk to us. We went in somewhat skeptical, but came out very positive. In Lisbon they really do care about bettering the cycling facilities.

Eight years ago two architects travelled to Copenhagen. They found themselves in awe by the minimalistic way of living with a bike as a way of transportation. Dedicating themselves to bring this lifestyle with them back to Lisbon they quickly became a part of the sprout of bikeculture in the Portoguese capital. As the community grew, Joana and Gonçalo decided to leave their lives as architects behind to create their very own bag brand; Basho Bags.

After witnessing a hit and run between a cyclist and a car three years ago, Miguel decided to portray life on a bike head-on. He invested in a GoPro camera primarily for safety reasons, but a few days later he realized that the content he had recorded could be interesting to share with the public. This was the beginning of the YouTube channel “One Cyclist in Lisbon”.

I’m an activist for better cities, I work to make people’s lives better. My tool is the bicycle, which is a trojan horse for bigger things; our needs to strive as humans.

Joaquim Agostinho, is considered by many the best Portuguese cyclist ever. A humble man who started his cycling career after the age of 24. Agostinho died on May 10, 1984 at the age of 41, after a fall in the Algarve Tour on April 30, when a dog crossed the road. After the fall he got up and still cycled the 300 meters that was left to reach the finish line.

Inês has been riding fixed gear in Lisbon since the early days. We met up with her by the river to talk about how she got started and what the fixed gear scene in Lisbon is all about.

“A symbol of modernity and change, but also of elegance.”

Nuno Catarino, like many people, learnt to cycle as a child and relished the sense of freedom and adventure that a bike gives to young people when growing up but left it behind when things such as cars, beers and life beyond home called.

A year of waiting, and it feels really good to be back. After running this magazine for five years, I decided to take a well deserved break after the Paris edition, to gain some energy and inspiration, preparing for the launch of volume eight in spring 2019.

A collector is a person who collects things of a certain type. Word on the streets are that La Bicyclette is the best mechanics in town and that the family business is founded on collecting vintage bikes for the last 30 years. We had to pay them a visit.

Everybody has had that job: mind-numbing repetition, where you sit and daydream about the things you could be doing, coming up with elaborate plans with your workmates of the business you would start if you didn’t have to turn up at this office day in, day out.

Hidden away on a backstreet tucked behind Place de la République is La Chouette, a small but perfectly formed bicycle repair shop and café modeled after the bike cafés in London. Immediately walking in, it radiates skate shop vibes with the repair station in front and rock music playing in the background.

Louis Legon, now 23 years old, was racing as a fixed gear cyclist until June 2017 when he was involved in a fatal car accident that took the life of Nico Oury, his best friend and former cyclist, and sent himself into a coma.

In a small nook outside of Paris, Bikevibe met up with Paris Bike Polo in Pantin, located next to the Ourcq canal where runners went by and bikers took advantage of the beautiful skies. Pantin, a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, is an up and coming neighborhood that’s filled with diversity and young people. Paris Bike Polo’s practices are held on a court here, and many of the players live here, as well.

France is home to one of the most well-known sporting events in the world: Tour de France. The annual bike race has been taking place in France for well over a century now. However, women still cannot participate in the event. Chiara, one of the founders of Paris’ all-female biking group, Girls on Wheels (GOW) declares, “It’s important to me for every girl to ride.”

Longchamp is the place to be if you want to do laps in Paris and don’t have time to go too far outside of the city. The loop is approximately 4 kilometers long surrounding the fabulous horse track – Hippodrome de Longchamp.

Growing up in Wales before studying graphic design at Falmouth University, William Holtam followed his heart with a move to Paris in 2015. Coffee and Longchamp laps followed Instagram introductions with a job offer from a fellow rider cementing William’s move to his new home.

Finding his passion for cycling after the age of 40, François Paoletti makes the history of the professional cycling world accessible for anyone interested.

Covering his 30th Tour de France next year, American photographer James Startt continues to admire the beauty of cycling. We met up with him in his apartment in Paris, talking about the importance of storytelling and how he ended up shooting Lance Armstrong’s cancer shots for his biography.

For the last couple of years a new exciting race has been featuring in the Paris cycling calendar. La Petite Course is a criterium race for fixed gear riders, in the mould of races like the London Nocturne and the Red Hook Series, arguably the biggest crit/urban racing in the world.

Le Coq Sportif is a brand synonymous with French sporting excellence, clothing rugby and tennis grand slam winners, and soccer world cup successes, but it is with cycling and cycling’s biggest race that they seem to hold the strongest link.

Paris is the ultimate end goal for cyclists starting the Tour de France. Since 1903, the Parc des Princes, the Vélodrome de la Cipale, and the Champ-Élysées have time after time been the place of extraordinary emotional moments for the Tour and its participants. Over the decades the French capital has continued to maintain its place as the crowning glory of the greatest legends of cycling.

There are few sites in cycling history holier than La Cipale. Constructed from iron and cement, in a similar style to the Eiffel Tower, this hallowed nineteenth-century masterpiece in Paris’ Bois de Vincennes has played host to some of the most spectacular moments in track cycling. For more than a century, this oval ribbon of concrete has soaked up both the tears of joy and despair shed by some of cycling’s greatest champions - and the blood of many more, who have fallen foul of the open-air track’s rough and unforgiving riding surface.

Paris is undeniably a city with history. The buildings and streets that have weathered wars, fires, the peak of an empire and billion tourists could tell a million stories. So could the bicycles of the world’s first truly successful bike sharing service – Vélib’ – inaugurated the day after Bastille Day in 2007.

In 2014, Anne Hidalgo was elected the first female Mayor of Paris on an ambitious platform to drastically lower the city’s carbon footprint and air pollution. She vowed to restrict car access to the city centre, improve public transport links and double the amount of bike lanes in the city from 700 to 1400 kilometres. Progress has sometimes been slow and has often been met with fierce opposition from pro-car advocates, but Hidalgo remains undeterred in her goal to transform Paris into a truly post-car city.

Known as the Queen of the Classics, the Hell of the North and a Sunday in Hell, the Paris-Roubaix is arguably the toughest one-day race in the world. First held in 1896, the gruelling course takes riders more than 250 kilometres north of the French capital through narrow cobblestoned farm tracks that are notoriously painful and exhausting.

There were was a time when you would be sure to find Fabrice ‘Fuego’ Levannier at one of Paris’ bike messenger hangout spots. Roll up to La Caravanne or a shitty pingpong bar in the 11th arrondissement and he’d be there late into the night, shooting the shit with other couriers while knocking back the beers and lighting spliffs. But today, he’s got too many early starts and responsibilities on his plate to be boozing and chilling until the early hours.

Let us introduce you to Marion Borras, a 20 year old track racer dreaming of competing in the Olympic Games for the French team. Originally hailing from Grenoble, Marion is now living in a city a bit outside of Paris. She is studying to be a physiotherapist in addition to pursuing her track racing career.

Home has proved a moveable feast for chef and culinary director Chloe Lasseron. Born in France before leaving for California at the age of 5; subsequent moves to New York and Berlin have since been followed by a return to her homeland with a job in Paris heading up R&D and innovation for a French chain of coffee shops.

The storefront of Alex Singer Cycles is an institution on rue Victor Hugo in Levallois-Perret in north-west Paris. The same building has borne the name for 80 years but you get the feeling that, on this busy street, backing onto to a major railway hub and surrounded by huge building projects growing into the sky, it is the only piece of continuity, a link to the past.

Meet Vincent, a 22 year old hotel management student from an established family in Neuilly Sur Seine in Paris.

Most of us still remember that defining moment when it just clicked, and we were able to keep our balance on two wheels for the first time. We had a chat with New York native Simi Mahtani about learning to ride a bike in her early 20’s and how unlocking the secret of cycling developed into a passion.

Mike Rodriguez has both yours and your bike’s best interest at heart. We went out to his Brooklyn shop “Bicycle Station” for a chat about his 30 years in the bike business, and ended up on one of the most unique rides we’ve ever been on.

Ever since she moved from China to the Big Apple at 11 years old, Tiffany Tu has been an eager cyclist. After living in this city for 12 years, she is now well known in the cycling community, as both a Rapha ride leader and a track racer. We spoke to her about passion and cycling.

Maglia Rosa is a hidden gem. With its excellent cappuccinos it is one of New York’s few bicycle cafés – and it’s definitely worth a visit.

I’m keen on making my own energy bars to stuff in my kit pocket for long rides ones that aren’t processed with ingredients I can’t pronounce.

Riding in New York has made Alaina Sullivan a more curious cyclist. We had a chat with the graphic designer about riding in New York, the commitment of competing and the love for commuting.

It rains in New York an average of 122 days a year. For cyclists, it comes with the territory.

Our belief is that the best way to explore a city, or a neighborhood for that matter, is by bike. Luckily for us, Brooklyn Bicycle Co shares our belief. So when we met up with Ryan, president of Brooklyn Bicycle Co, he took us on a ride around the neighborhood that inspired him to start his brand back in 2011.

An industrial designer, recycling advocate and keen cyclist, Deco has crammed twelve bikes in to his Brooklyn apartment with each designed for a specific style of riding.

In 1994, the Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer was looking for a way to showcase his city’s greenways, promote healthier lifestyles and encourage people out of their cars. He teamed up with bike advocacy group Transportation Alternatives and launched the Tour de Bronx with a strong contingent of 300 riders. Today, it’s the largest free cycling event in New York State with over 8000 participants.

The streets of New York is filled with cyclists. Every corner you turn you will find them, one style after another. In true Bikevibe Tokyo style, we decided to bring back the original street view gallery, since it was the reason we started this journal in the first place.

Zach Thomas contends with more than most out on the road, steering what looks like (and probably is to the unskilled) the most unwieldy choice of two wheeled beast through the vehicle-clogged streets of New York - a cargo bike.

A veteran racer, community organiser and founder of the Professional Messenger Alliance, (PMA) along with running his own courier company, Kevin ‘Squid’ Bolger is somewhat of an elder statesman of New York’s messenger scene.

Darnell Williams, aka dblocks is an infamous cyclist based in NYC. He rides in a style that he calls “street riding”, a style he says was inspired largely by ‘Rough Ryderz’ videos, coupled with a desire simply “to be different.”

Riding fixed-gear bikes, no helmets, d-locks tucked into belts and wide messenger bags slung over shoulders.

“I’m not telling you to run a red light, that’s all on you,” Shardy Nieves says with a conspiratorial smile, as he kicks back on the steps of New York City’s MET Museum.

New York City has undergone a rapid transformation over the past decade, building almost 650 kilometres of new bike lanes, quadrupling ridership and creating a bike-share system with over 14 million trips per year.

All you need to know about the New York bike hire scheme.

If there is one thing you need to know before getting on a bike in New York, it is to “bike smart”.

In 1971, a little company called Cannondale set up shop above a pickle factory across from the old Cannondale train station in Connecticut.

The Red Hook Criterium began in 2008 as an unsanctioned night race between fifteen friends through a former industrial neighbourhood in Brooklyn.

For firefighter and former pro skateboarder Mike Hernandez, crashing while riding his track bike is not even an option. We had a chat with him about speed, danger and riding in New York.

Helping New York get more butts on bikes, Sam Polcer published the book; New York Bike Style and runs the street style blog Preferred Mode. We talked to Sam about scouting models on the move, connecting to surroundings while riding and inspiring more people to get on a bike.

If there is one word that will describe the NYC Bike Polo scene it is “community”. We attended a Sunday meet-up and got to know what bike polo in New York is all about.

Rapha Cycling Club Coordinator Ed Nessen wants you to discover how easily you can escape the urban landscape of New York.

From a hospital bed Kenny Kim designed the foundation for his clothing brand God & Famous. Six years in, the one-man label is still super excited about fashion within cycling.