This article in the West Australian explains the push.

Under the trial, helmets would be optional for adults cycling on separated cycleways, dual-use paths and roads where the maximum speed is 50km/h or less.

This blog takes great pride in being the first to bring the news that the Mayor of Fremantle, Brad Pettitt supported an exemption .

Here you see Brad going public with his controversial plan. At that point it was targeted at enabling a bike share to work.  This should still be a key goal and a reason for urgency.

It’s both essential and  inevitable that Australia embraces public bikes since they are proven turbo charger of utility cycling.

It’s the public bikes of London, of Paris, of New York ( very soon) which entice non riders to discover what superb transportation is the humble situp bike for many short trips.

Naysayers predicted that London’ s public bikes would be a failure . But so successful have they been,  that they helped re elect Tory Mayor of London.  Boris Johnson.

He’s the  guy who brought them in, and who’s just now been re elected in large part because the public loves Boris Bikes, bucking a trend to labor one might add.

I hope that our Premier in NSW, Barry O’Farrell,  takes note that he’s on the wrong side of history when he disparages bikes as transport, when he talks about ripping out Clover Moore’s new separated bikeways.

She’s  Sydney’s Mayor and one of the few visionaries in the country when it comes to bikes as transport

Mr O’Farrell would do well to take  a leaf from  Boris’s  book, encouraging not only separated paths,  but a bike share scheme for Sydney as well.

Clover Moore would love to bring public bikes to Sydney  but she knows that our comp. helmet laws would doom it to limp along,   as they have Melbourne’s scheme.

This brings us  back full circle to the West and the hope that they succeed and show the rest of Australia the way.

In the meantime, for the fearful pollie, it’s comforting to know that the Northern Territories has had a partial helmet exemption for many yea rs with no ill  effects.

I went up to have a look. here’s my report.

For Much much more, visit Chris Gillham’s blog

I’ve never used racing as a a theme for my bike art. I guess this is because it’s so dominant in our bike culture  that  I’ve felt it needs no boost from the artist.

Moreover, with the standardized gear, their heads down,  racers don’t give me much to work with.

The face is the mirror of the soul, someone said. Well you usually can’t see the face of the sports or racing cyclist, and so no soul searching  is possible.

But here’s what came of my viewing. It was fun  to try an entirely new theme

I like first conga line a bit better than this busier version of the same thing.

What do you think?

The riders do look like machines to me and so I made the most of that.

This theme, below,  I also tried as a solar print. Here’s the lino cut version.

and here’s the solar print .

Whilst I enjoyed this foray into a new field, that’s enough.

I rushed back to doing what appeals, to where I could see faces, play with relationships,  and celebrate the small moments of everyday biking, like this woman unlocking her bike.

That’s a solar print. With the help of my mentor, Leonard Matkervich, I’m now able to get the feel of a drawing into my solar prints.

Here is the same plate, printed so as  to bring out the drawing aspects.  Which do you like better?

This one is based on Saskia with a Dutch child added.

Here’s a relationship  image. This woman, stepping off in Amsterdam , is  in many other works of mine, and often given the cold shoulder.

But here she might be about to meet someone.

We’d had a demo in Sydney,  Rolling with Clover, which called for riders to come in  suits. The turnout was great, about 500, but few suits. It was organized by Jane Salmon

Riders in suits often turn up in my art. A dream of things to come I hope,  shared  by Saskia  and her Sydney cycle chic blog.

This fattish man  forever rides away from me and from the big bottomed lady, a  frequent visitor in this art.

So, what’s this about a challenge to SBS?

I  invite the network to spend some of their bike programming  money on utility cycling,

Get out and meet  cyclists who don’t want to go that fast, who get around in their normal clothes, just going the places they need to go.

No audience for such a show, for a one off documentary, a series, you say?

Done the focus group tests, have you,  and found Australians just don’t see bikes as transport, or not  in numbers that count for ratings?

Even if that’s true,  there’s drama in  such disinterest since it puts us so out of step with much of the world

Create an audience, SBS.  You’ve  built one for you endless parade of cooking shows.

You’ve done your little bit  to create  a nation now desperately needing to trim down. So, get them on bikes for some program, and body, balance

Let me be even more specific. Your off to the London Olympics soon, are you not?

Lot’s of build up programming is in the works, I’m sure as audience anticipation  builds.

Well, how about  an in depth doco on the Boris bikes, the  5000 public bikes  named after Mayor, Boris Johnson, which are  such a success.

And an unexpected success at that.  No one predicted it. Can that  really be of no interest here?  Is it not the perfect  balance to all that competing, winning,  you are going over for?

Let’s  ask the million dollar question. Why can London have a successful public bike scheme and we cant?

Why do the Melbourne and Brisbane schemes  languish, and Sydney can’t even get started.

We can guess why. Well, let’s  see SBS showing  the courage to address that thorny issue  instead of just sticking with the safe cycle wicket your now on.

Such a program  can take us to the bike  future we have to have, at least to talk about it.

Here, I’ve made my own little movie, The Return of the Speedwells,  as a pump primer, grabbing a bit of your pzazz in passing.

Your turn now, SBS (from a fan)

Late Edition, this great site on how bike can change our economies which Violeta has sent me.

http://grist.org/biking/2011-02-28-how-bicycling-will-save-the-economy/

Egged on by the Tabloid press, the new state Premier is threatening to rip out the five kilometers of separated bike paths which the city Government has already built, plus block further construction

This has to be opposed. We want the whole separated path  network installed, all 55 kms of it.

We want to be able to  ride safely around the city on private and public bikes .

We’re Rolling with Clover, this  coming Sunday, April first.  starting at noon at the Town hall.

Clover’ll be there, I’m told, to see how we go.

We’re hoping hundreds of you will come to ride the hour and a half hour circuit,  ending up at Town hall again, and taking in some of the new separated bike ways.

We  want to extend a special invitation  to  visitors to Sydney, cyclists from other countries

My Friend,  Patrick Jeffery,   is working his way around the  the backpacker packer hostels this week to explain what we have in mind

The idea is that what you know about cycling in your home country,  can be useful here.

If you come from some city were bikes are big, public bike schemes thriving, please come along to tell us about it.

No doubt you’ve wondered  why you don’t see many people using bikes as transport here.

No doubt you’ve wondered where our public bikes are.

You have no bike  to ride in our rally most probably, but come anyway to the start of ride, noon at the Town Hall on George street,  and tell our cameras what it’s  like  where you live.

We expect the mainstream press to come.

Tell them Clover Moore is on the right track, that from your experience in Berlin, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Paris, wherever, that  separated bike paths do work, that they increase cycling, making  it safer, more pleasant.

Whether the press pays attention or not, I’ll be there with my camera,  and a movie, featuring your comments,  will be up on Youtube very soon after the event.

For those who can ride, there will be two prizes given. One for the best video of the actual ride.

The second for the most business-like rider, in appearance,  that is.

The The Daily Telegraph has recently claimed that business men and women don’t ride bikes  in this city. We want to show them that’s wrong.

In both cases,  the prize will be Bike Art worth $250 which I’m donating.

It could be these solar prints.

Or a lino cut.

or a rubbing.

There will also be a prize for the visitor who tells the best story about cycling elsewhere, who turns up either with or without a bike.

Sitting in a Sydney cafe this week planning the rally, a hip young architect stroked his phone screen and called up London’s public bike scheme, the famous Boris bikes.

His fingers,  by turns squeezing and spreading across the small screen,   conjured  up for me   the hundreds of docking stations across London and then,  where the 5000 blue bikes actually were….

…..at that very moment.

If we’d been in London, we could have walked round the corner, knowing  that 5 bikes out of 25 , were waiting for us to hop on and ride.

It was a gob smacking demonstration of,  the beyond-modern meets classic  technology.

For bikes are classic stuff, you know, essentially unchanged in the long stretch of  130 years

Ah, what a shame that there’s no such public bike scheme as yet in Sydney, one  that this architect could call up on his phone.

No bikes outside on Albion st. that we could ride to the next event in our busy day.

See you on sunday.

The piece looks at why Sydneysiders cycle half as much as Melbournians when it comes to using bikes as transport. Well worth a read!

I hope you can access the story here. I’ve actually subscribed to Crikey in order to continue  reading  Alan’s pieces

The urgent news is that Architect/cyclist,  Steven Fleming is organizing an Earth Hour bike   ride in Newcastle for tomorrow night ( Tues 20th) The idea is that this might become an annual bike awareness event.

You can find all about Bike Hour on Steven’s blog, cycle-space.com

Steven approached me suggesting  that  he’d challenge riders to make videos about their bike hour events, and that I’d donate bike art as the prize for the best video.

Since, the ride is tomorrow, I’ve been working hard to create some new art to add the the art pool for the prize. Here are some new rubbings which might become prizes.

This one uses the stepping posture I love and have used many times,  but never as a rubbing.

This also uses some favorite characters.

What do they see at the same moment?

What are they talking about?

Where go these green riders all in a line?

I’ve also  being making another version (this will be the third )  of Reaching for her Purse.

I’m doing this version as a commission  for M….. who’s nurse in Salt lake city .

On April First and Second there will be a ride in Sydney to answer the  State Govt. campaign against our new Bike-ways here  in Sydney.  It’s being organized by Jane Salmon. Find out more from her site, Rolling With Clover

For the full story on the attacks, see my last blog post, just below this one.

This Editorial in the Daily Telegraph, which has been leading the campaign, is part of a general attack on the Mayor which can’t go unaswered.

One last thing. I’ve produced a Bike Art Poster which I’m hoping bike shops will choose to display.

If they do so  and a sale results from a viewing in a shop, then I’ll give a share of the sale to that shop.

If you know a bike shop where you could place one, get in touch and I’ll send it to you.

Or if you have some other interesting use for it, let me know that  too.

The Murdoch press,  which seems to dislike anything visionary, is having  nasty fun  as it joins forces with our Conservative State Premier, Barry O’Farrell who apparently has no interest in bikes as transport.

On TV,  Barry  reputedly said that people could walk to work on  pogo sticks, for all he cared. (Heard by my wife, Katya)

I guess he thinks that  cycling to work is equally  strange

The Tele much approves of  the Premier’s plans to take  away the mayor’s planning powers,  even as Mr. O”Farrell threatens to dismantle the bike ways she’s already built.

That would be quite popular judging by comments left on the Telegraph story.

“Bless, you Barry, than goodness.”

“Thank you so much,  Barry. This mad woman is killing the city”..

“The cycle lanes are a complete failure. You can watch them for five minutes and not a single rider goes by”

“Onya bike Clover. Sydney has had it with you”

People do love their cars here. Some do hate to see  cars losing space to bikes.

But readers might react differently if things were put in context.  If they knew   that what Clover is doing is normal good  practice world wide, for example

They’re not told of  the extensive  separated Bike-ways New York is building,

or those that London…

….Or Montreal…

…or about  the separated paths which  Paris has on the go where 25,000 public bikes a much loved.

Not told either about  Montreal cutting its car traffic by  14% through bike use,  and  vying to build more  bike-ways than  any city in North America.

We seem to be in a swirl of cross currents here.  At the same time at the Daily Telegraph mounts it campaign against bikes as transport, the Sunday Telegraph runs a story about bikes being, the new black

Many curious things in this story.

1.The riders are women who actually make up only a tiny  percentage of our  bike force.

2.The bikes shown are predominantly Dutch style sit-ups, not the bike of choice here at all.

3. The women wear fashionable clothes, not Lycra as is so common.

4. Almost none pose with helmets.

This package would have  been unthinkable a year ago.

So, what gives the Daily Telegraph  and its attack  a toe hold in the public mind here, seeing that they are so far out of step with global thinking,  as well as with local fashion trends?

Well, last Friday, March 9th 2012, I rode into town on my own bike   to see for myself.

I crossed into Sydney on our magnificent Anzac bridge, a major way into town  for cyclists.

I found a system of  separated paths already in place, far more extensive than I realized , giving an almost unimpeded run into the city.

It’s a network that you have to try to believe. A new Sydney!

Here,  the separated path, a bright green, runs down Union street…

…towards the Pyrmont bridge….

…which bikes cross, sharing  the space with pedestrians.

It’s  not ideal but O.K. because most riders do slow down to 10 Kph.

This leads to the Kent st. another key separated  cycle way, running north-south.

I took the bright green path up towards out famous Harbour bridge.

This stretch was  a revelation, a serious commitment of street space to bikes…

….becoming quite a steep hill as one approaches the bridge.

At the top, were even greater surprises, a beautiful sweep of separated bike-path coming in from the east…

…leading to this neat tunnel towards the city core..

.. that is  if you don’t want to head north over the bridge in the cage.

Boy, I had no idea this bike-ways “problem” had spread so far. And apparently this is only 10 Kms with 190 Kms. yet to be built.

Of those  kms. 55 will be separated paths like those I’m riding on today

You’ve already got a lot of  bike track  to pull out, Mr O’Farrell. Better get destructive  real fast.

Take us backwards, please, just as gas goes up!

“Good on you Barry. Let’s rip up these bike lanes and return the streets to the car.”

“No more subsidies for this tiny proportion of passenger transport”

So, there was no clue for me in the bright new  infrastructure I saw as to why comments to the tabloid press are so angry, why cyclists are so disliked.

The situation is so fertile with fury that visiting planner, John Pucher, from the US declared two years ago…

”Whether I was a pedestrian or cyclist,  I found the level of the hostility of enough Sydney motorists worse than I had seen anywhere in the world.”

As for speed, I didn’t see dangerous riding. But  our cyclists do  look like they are going fast perhaps because they are dressed for speed

They look like bike couriers or…

Even racers.

Women too look like they are in training which they probably are.

Here lies a big part of the problem I suspect.

Drivers sense they are sharing the road with riders who have another agenda,  and that is keeping fit for their weekend sports rides and  for racing.

(Our cyclists do look superbly fit in contrast to the generally obese population)

But it’s like sharing the road with race car drivers.

A friend who uses her bike a lot agrees that the image of riders in training is a problem.

When drivers shout  at her : “Get off the road,” she’s has the sense that behind the remark, is the idea that she’s like a kid playing cricket on the road and she should get into a park.

When in Lycra on a very fast machine, the temptation is naturally  to go as fast as you can, not to stop for lights, to weave through traffic, to look like your in some sort of game.

Not all do this of course, but that’s the impression the look gives.

This look of our commuting culture,  sets us apart from the rest of the world.

If you doubt we really bare so different, Google,  urban cycling in  Italy, France, Holland,  etc. and see what images come up

When you compare our scene with Europe, the difference is indeed startling.

This woman rides in Copenhagen (photo,  as with some others, from  Copenhagen Cycle Chic)

Cyclists  reply by saying  the way they dress here, their fast machines, is  because of greater distances  they must ride compared with Europe, and other practical reasons.

But I’m not convinced that’s the whole story

In Europe,   it turns out  people often commute just as far as we do, and whilst they  face less hills, their headwinds are fierce.

During the week in Europe ( Montreal in this case) the bike culture looks more like  this

Or this. (Copenhagen)

Or this in Dublin. (A Dublin lawyer rides between chambers and court)

An Amsterdam businessman. In Europe,  all social classes and all ages  ride  bikes. Here,  it’s predominantly young males

(From The Waltz of the Bikes)

On my morning shoot in Sydney, I saw only one rider sporting the European look. This woman looking very out of place.

Does it matter?

Well, considering the hostility  towards cyclists here,

considering Barry is planning to rip out the bike paths,

considering that sporty riders prefer the roads to bike paths,

it matters a lot.

We have to find ways to grow this other culture, the new Black as the Sunday Tele called it, the new look.

If we do, we’ll dilute the sports/training culture and change the vibe. Old ways will remain but a new color, a new friendliness,  is added

Wht will it look like? You just know this couple is not in training, not doing PB’s .

“Come ride with us” they seem to say on their Velibs in Paris.

Rather than, “Out of my way.”  (photo altered)

Our  cycling commuters are  currently disguised as something else. As  weekend sports riders, using  their commutes to train.

Let’s join them with these folks, natural lovers of  the separated paths who’ve even time to talk as they ride..

It’s no one’s fault we ended up with our  mono cycle culture.

I suspect it  all began  with our compulsory  helmet law, bought in  Australia  wide,  in the early nineties.

It seemed like a great idea at the time, but there was a downside.  Whilst many have pointed out that the new law drastically cut cycling numbers…..

so that this became a picture of the past, that is men riding to work….

(Not the only reason of course. Cheaper cars were a major factor)

But what has not been noticed,  is that the new helmet  law worked a bit  like a selective herbicide.

This Helmet herbicide effectively  killed off those who just rode  to school..

A masked ride at  Clovelly, ( State lib. of NSW Flicker stream)

Killed off too those got around with mates.

Or just rode  to the shops.

These riders  had all felt safe, couldn’t see the point  of helmets, and just stopped riding to avoid being hassled by the cops and paying  fines

At the same time,  the helmet herbicide helped grow the ranks of those who already  thought helmets a good idea, who were already using them. They thrived greatly in numbers at the expense of the others

Looking like this guy on Union st.  at  7.30 AM. (face altered)

And so we got this strange mono culture , a bike hero culture, revolving around the helmet which we still have today like nowhere else.

We thus came to to expect  our cycle magazines  to have  covers like his…

And never feature  riders like this.

And never,  never,  this.

But now the new Melbourne magazine, Treadlie,  comes in as a  fresh cross current to this  mono culture.

Note this cover.  No helmet, sit up bike. Basket

Copenhagen Cycle Chic has been a big influence here, Inspiring Saskia Howard to start Sydney Cycle Chic, as she explained in the New Black Story.

Is this a good move to question helmets? Surely we need them?

Well, high compliance of helmet use  has not made us any safer. (On my ride, I saw almost 100%)

Indeed,  we have more chance of being hurt on a bike in Aust.  with a helmet  than that Belgian father and child above.

Why is this, you might well ask.?

Many reasons.

1. There’s  safety in numbers and helmets cut the numbers.

2. Drivers tend to be more careless around helmeted riders and those not protected, a British study showed.

3. Because, in bringing in the helmet  law,  our Govts. virtually  washed their  hands of cycle safety, it was now the responsibility of the rider.

Thus authorities here, till Clover Moore and  a few other progressive politicians got going, did  nothing to build safe separated bike-ways.

Still,  politicians understand  that real cycle safety is  under the wheels not on the head. (see the film at the end on how the Dutch got their system)

We might feel safer. Whenever the comp. helmet topic comes up,  there’s a flood of testimony from riders who swear that their helmet saved their life.

These stories are  often enough to stop helmet reform in it’s tracks, especially when backed up by the sober warnings of Trauma doctors who, for some reason,  can’t see the big picture,  public healthwise

Meet here Dr. Tarek Razek,  Head of Trauma at McGill, Montreal.

Back in 2009, he was strongly urging the Montreal Bike share scheme, Bixi, to incorporate helmets.

It was an impossible demand actually,  and would have effectively killed the Bixis bikes. Fortunately,  his advice  was ignored.

Now 6.8 million Bixi trips later,  with helmet freedom,  and less than 10 serious accidents, I wonder if the doctor now admits his alarmist tone  was not helpful.

I wonder too whether his colleagues here might learn from that.

Surely our obesity epidemic should be front and centre when weighing cost benefits.

Would riding a bike to school have helped here? (photo altered)

What we need to do to  swing our bike  culture  away from the mono, the sports leisure mode,  towards the slower culture of Europe and that includes helmet choice.

Of course whoever want to wear a helmet will can always do so

Then, I predict, the aggro will diminish and more women will ride.

Bike shops will make  just as much money I’m sure,  though they wont be selling as many bikes called, “Badboy” or “Hooligan” names for urban bikes  from the very popular,  Cannondale stable

How do we  do this? We have the means at hand, the veritable magic wand, the proven way to turn masses of non riders into riders of the European sort.

It’s called Bike share . These are the public bike systems which are transforming  140 cities around the world.

These are bikes in racks, usually every 300 meters in a participating city, usually free for the first 30 mins.  once you join up. These are bikes you don’t have to own, don’t have to worry about storing or being stolen.

These are bikes for that moment you need to make a short city trip,  and keep not a second more. They are always sit-up bikes.

Sturdy,  hassle free bikes,  unglamorous it’s true, but with everything you need  except a helmet.

That’s in part because there’s just no way to dispense a sterilized , inspected,  helmet automatically along with such a bike. Thus, wherever there’s bike share, there’s always  helmet choice, meaning most of the planet.

Tel Aviv and Mexico city both got rid of compulsory helmets to enable public bikes. That’s how important authorities ranked them

Boris Bikes in London.

Here’s the mayor himself,  Boris Johnson in London, saluting the success of his scheme over all the naysayers.

Bicings in Barcelona. There are 5000 on the streets of that lovely city,  clocking up 350,000 trips a day.

Bixis in Montreal, also 5000 strong, public bikes which have transformed that city, justified all the new bike ways that they’re  building .

My son, Nicolas who lives   in Montreal,  gave up his car a year ago, and now uses nothing but the  Bixis and public transport to get around. He works for big bank

We do have two public bike schemes here, one in Melbourne and one in Brisbane,  but they are just limping along because to ride these bikes,  you either have to be carrying your helmet with you,  or buy one for the ride.

And that’s not practical. Indeed, subverts the convenience, impulse nature, of public bikes

This is why I was so glad to see  this week that the City of Sydney has adopted  the idea of a special helmet exemption for public bikes, something this blog has been proposing for two years.

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/bike-hire-plans-hinge-on-helmets-20120304-1ub4f.html.

The Mayor suspects, I’m sure,   that public bikes are the key to filling her bike-ways and  quietening the opposition

She may also know that Public bikes have a history of calming  city traffic and cutting the aggro,  as Andrew Montague, Mayor of Dublin points out .

This is because such bikes come across as less threatening to drivers. Public bike cyclists may be annoying in other ways, not being such  good riders, for example,,  but they produce a smile because they are…

1. Just people going somewhere. Not in training,

2. They are not running lights, or much less.

3. And they love separated bike-ways

4. They are more track-able and accountable if anti social.

4. Riding on footpaths? Public bikes may still do that,  and in the Northern Territory, few know that  it’s legal, as is riding without a helmet on such paths.

Of course we’ll still have our sport/leisure  commuters , the present mono culture, but their numbers will be diluted and a new  cycling decorum  may well emerge ,  as it has elsewhere. See, The Waltz of the Bikes to get a glimpse of what this looks like

So that’s the modest proposal for the way forward. A new,  helmet choice bike culture to be  trialled in Sydney, specifically targeted to enable Bike share to work.

It wont be easy.  But then, it wasn’t easy for the Dutch either. They weren’t born on bike wheels as many imagine. They had to work hard for the bike solutions they now enjoy. You’ll be surprised how hard.

Here’s a funny video from Montreal which shows how you can live on your bike, albeit not a Bixi. 

The Man who Lived on his Bike made by Guillaume Blanchet.

Have you ever heard the voice of Karen Dalton? I hadn’t until I found this clip on Alan Davies site, The Melbourne Urbanist.

It seems to belong on this blog because the extroadinary images of scrapped cars which go with the song, reminding  us of the waste   associated with the machines we love so much.

Here’s Steve.

And  Here’s Zoe.

I first met Steve some years ago when he was working with Scott Dickason at EVs, developing electric bicycles for the postal service.

We made a film together about the excellent hill climbing  qualities of the EVs E  bikes, choosing a famous climb in the Dandenongs for demonstration  purposes.

I was tricked into being part of that demo!

Hmm, the film’s had 19,000 views. Not bad!

Then, Steve went off on his own and formed Niubike.

He was writing to me now about the exceptional lightness of one of the E bikes he’s offering, the eCoda which is only 17 Kilos, very light for an E bike though laughable for a racer of course.

Here’s the eCoda.

What looks like the water bottle is apparently the Lithium battery. He rode this E coda on the tour I’m going to tell you about whilst Zoe rode  the heavier more conventional, ETU (pron. E two)  you see here.

Note the voluminous panniers and the battery behind the seat post on her bike

The ride was in Victoria,  from Wangaratta to Bright via Beechworth.

It’s called, The Murray to Mountains Rail Trail

The trip took them five days, riding very leisurely, and covered about 250 Kms.

I’m pleased to be able to start this report with a photo from Wangaratta, circa 1922,  which shows two bikes of the era.

This photo recalls  that bikes were once important rural transport as you can discover in that excellent book, the Bicycle in the Bush, by Jim Fitzpatrick

T’was a  very wet  1922 day in Wangaratta,  it seems, with a very patient horse standing  there.

(Thanks to Museumvictoria for photo)

The town  still has  charm it’s nice to see.

The ride was mostly along the famous rail trails bike paths laid on former country rail lines.

Old rail lines make great bike paths since trains don’t like steep gradients and nor does the average touring cyclist.

Why did Steve and Zoe  go electric when  thousands of riders do this trail  under their own steam?

Well, because Steve sells E bikes, and because he’s come to believe that the E bike is a good way to get people who think they are past riding, back on bikes.

Providing exercise with a bit less pain, you could say.

This  rail trail they rode, for example, can be hard for the older rider.

It does have some gradients,  like here,  for example,  between  Everton and Beechworth.

That could be enough to discourage the less fit.

Another good reason for having a bit of help was because, to quote Zoe, “the headwinds were shocking”

Riding into a wind,  can be worse than any hill since it’s like a hill without end.

An E bike nicely  tames head winds.

Indeed,  it’s like having one’s own  gentle tailwind all the time.

This is probably why many Dutch folks ride E bikes, esp. older ones, the headwinds being famously fierce in the low countries.

The small motors,  just 200 watts,  pull the teeth out of the head winds and make the trip much more pleasant, freeing the cyclists  to enjoy the scenery…

…both wet and the dry.

Also,  the curiosities like this novel mail box,  an obvious homage to the style of passing traffic.

Along the way,  former railway stations have become shade and rest spots, quite nicely done,  I think .

A water tank and loos add to their practicality.

Steve and Zoe report finding only one cafe directly on the trail.

It was  at the curiously named, but nice to say, Porepunkah.

I wonder if it gets tedious, waiting for bikes to stop at the Rail Trail Cafe, Porepunkah?

Part of Steve’s touring E bike strategy was to convert a regular lightweight bike trailer to carry 60 Watt 36 volt  solar panels.

With strong sunlight, Steve tells me that this provides almost perpetual motion for his bike, the eCoda….

…..as well as for this  rolling billboard of his product line.

I wonder if the trailer with solar panels was  really necessary?

With both bikes  enjoying a range of 40kms at least on a charge, and  the camping spots generally having power to replenish the batteries, why bother with the solar panel?

Well,  the trailer’s usefulness is clear, carrying the camping gear when you see how much they have.

And having the tiny 200 watt motor to help pull that load  must be nice.

Knowing too that you can camp without power, still run a lap top, charge a phone….

…..Or just enjoy the natural show of lake Sambell.

And the solar trailer has other unexpected merits.

These are  so promising  that I’m telling Steve I think there could be  a market for such solar  trailers.

Firstly, they make an excellent table when camping, the surface being tough enough to take whatever you want to put on it

And here’s something nobody’s thought of yet. With the  the trailer, you can  fossick and stock up  as you go.

Along the trail in the picturesque towns,  there are many  interesting produce purchasing opportunities.

For instance,  here they are approaching Milawa

where there is a colourful cheesery…

….The Milawa Cheese factory.

Perhaps you’d love to take one of those home, but how to carry it without a trailer?

Maybe you’ve  noticed an initiative called, Pedal to the Produce.

But how could you lug a large cheese  with you in a wicker basket like that for several days?

Or how could you drop  by the Pennyweight Winery…

….and pick up a couple bottles of their famous drop….

… Without a nifty power assisted trailer to carry the load?

That seems to me to be the  great unrealized advantage of Steve’s trailer, the ability to return to our hunter-gather phase  whilst on the rail trail.

Now,  you can bemoan this  plug for yet more consumerism.  Yet I’m sure you like the idea of thriving country businesses selling wholesome produce to cyclists like you.

Anyway , the possibilities of stocking up are rich  and varied  near the Murray to Mountains rail trail.

In Beechworth, for example….

….still open late, they found the honey pot.

and like Pooh bear, stocked up with a jar or two .

Approaching  Bright, it was another story

The alpine town,  famous for its stately avenues

was where they struck trailer trouble. The solar panels came loose.

But at Crispy hardware and Timber,  with the help of Zack, they managed to fix the loosened panels   just before Crispy closed.

To wrap the story up,  Zoe reports that the food was great and reasonably priced at the  Alpine Gate Cafe in Myrtleford.

And the fish and chips were excellent at the Ageing Frog in Beechworth.

As was the coffee at the Beechworth Bakery where some of the staff waved them on their way.

I would have loved to have ridden with them though if I did.  I would have  practiced CCD.

That stands for creative civil disobedience meaning there’s no way I would have worn a helmet out there in the fresh air, traffic non existent.

No way with the chance of  a head injury being  about about one in 2 million or the same as  getting a meteorite up your nose.

Indeed,  if this was the Northern Territory, you  could ride legally without  a helmet on such a trail,  as I recently discovered  and showed in the film, Darwin Shows the Way

That’s as it  should be, helmet choice, that is.

One can only hope, as more and more visitors from overseas discover this great trail, that they’ll point out  how stupid is our compulsory helmet law, how  out of step with the rest of the world it is, and  that change will come.

And then one will ride with the breeze in one’s hair as nature intended.

That’s an example of my Bicycle art.  celebrating the beauty of the body on the bike.

Who know,  one day my bicycle art might be there for the two wheeled hunter gatherers  to discover along to trail in some gallery or eatery.

Boy , they were tough in those days, the gold miners the shearers, the people of the bush.

As we glide around in cushioned comfort,  we have no idea of the the difficulty people once had in just moving around in this vast landscape of ours.

My awakening comes from Jim Fitzpatrick’s great book, The Bicycle and the Bush.

I’ll pass on some titbits  from Jim’s story after posting my special offering of the day, photographs of Gwalia., once the second largest gold mining town in Western Australia.

Its mine, The sons of Gwalia,  was run in the early days by Herbert Hoover, later to become the US president.

These pics of silent  Gwalia  came to me out of the blue from Tim Burns.

The town of Gwalia  is now an open museum.

It was abandoned  on the 21st of December 1963,  the day three trains came from Kalgoorlie to take away the 1500  residents, their jobs all gone with the closing of the Sons of Gwalia gold mine.

Here,  you see the last trains on the last day. This photo and the other historic ones.  come from the Leonora and Gwalia historical museum website

But from my point of view, equally interesting as any train, is what’s against the wall of this abandoned house.

Yes, that right , a jumble of rusty bike frames.

Sadly ,  as we’ve come to expect,  the bike always seems to be left in  the shadows when it comes to transport history.

Far more interesting apparently is  the steam tram which ran the three Kms. between Leonora and Gwalia when Gwalia was the mine site,  and Leonore, the place you lived.

Gradually Gwalia became a town too.

Here’s  the double decked steam tram enjoying pride of place on the historic site..An interesting beast, I must admit

But when it came to getting around the early goldfields, the humble bike was probably equally or even more important.

It cost almost nothing to run once purchased. It did not have to be fed or watered, and in that scorching place, water could cost a fortune.

Water  was up to a shilling a gallon on the goldfield in WA in the 1890′s, Jim’s book tells me.   That would make it more expensive than Scotch whiskey today.

Julius Price running camels at the time,  reports;  “my kindly feeling went down to a very low ebb as I stood there, watching gallon after gallon of water  (then at four pence a gallon)  disappear down the apparently insatiable throat of the animals. ” (P. 94)

Some indication of  the abstemious bike’s importance can be discovered here, as we view a  complete bike hanging on a Gwalia  fence.

Can you spot what I’m getting at in terms of clues as  to this bike’s importance, something we don’t have today?

This bike sports a registration plate! They were officially kept kept track of apparently, a fee to use one,  perhaps.

And bikes were not just personal transportation around the gold fields.

They also carried the  mail as I showed in my last post,  and were used for doing deliveries.

Perhaps it’s  in the window of this shop…..

…..that this delivery bike now sleeps today, careless of passing time?

How tough was it on a bike in those days?   (all info. from Jim’s book)

In 1904,  there  were 16,000, kms.  of roads in Western Australia of which 62% were cleared only,  and 25% formed only.

Most of the time you were riding  not on roads at all,  but on sand,  in mud, over stone,  on railroad tracks,  even along the telegraph line.

And,  if you were really lucky,  you pedaled your fixie on the pads, the narrow and very smooth paths trodden down by camels.

What roads their were,  were often cut into deep ruts by wagon teams so that you were; “looking  at harder work (trying to stay upright on a bike) than ever befell a human being” as one rider  exhaustedly reports.

Riding on corrugations, often thanks to early cars and the way they ribbed the tracks. “would shake your eyeballs out.”

Sand was the worst surface and it was all over the country.  “Sand, sand was everywhere . It rose in a fine impalpable dust which made the nostrils and throat feel as if on fire.” Tom Coleman 1898. (p.104)

(photo, Bicycle and the bush)

“sand caused more walking, pushing sweating and swearing than any other factor in rural Australia. “  (p.104) Yet sandy areas were frequently crossed,  and at impressive speeds .

For instance,  those bike post messengers, crossed the sand plain between Southern Cross and Coolgardie in WA (177 kms.) in 12 hours.

Boy,  were they tough,  or were they just tough, those early riders? What would they make of our cushy rides today?

Caked mud  was also a nightmare . “Until a path was worn through after the rains.. a jolting ride  was  the result, which according to Murif,  (a famous distance rider) was like cycling up and down a stairway with the stairs of unequal heights and width, blindfolded…..  Destructive to both machine and rider“

And  so what happened to those heroic bikes?

They’ve ended up in Gwalia as  part of fences.

Thus still,  they  lend some strength to the human agenda , fencing this abandoned town which you can now visit .

Both these photos. by John Lovett (splashing paint blog)

Rest well,  old frames,  so sturdy in your day!

And thanks to Tim Burns for telling your story in pictures  as no one else has thought to do before .

The bicycle art site, companion to this blog is here

As I mentioned last time, I’ve been very excited to read Jim Fitzpatrick”s book, The Bicycle and the Bush

I tracked Jim down in Queensland and found he’s got copies to sell at a very reasonable price, half what I paid for the book through the internet. You can find him through Star Hill studio.

This has led to some new bike art, new cycle style.  I was already in the mood for historic images, having gone on a ride with a penny farthing at Manly a month ago. here a composite of climbing up onto the penny.

These dangerous machines had their own cycle chic I find

This led to inspiration to try and capture something of the early miners, and shearers who traveled such huge distances across Australia on bikes  before cars swept them from the road.

Here you see two shearers with swags draped over the fond and back forks.

In the  diamond of the frame there was more space for carrying, often a specially shaped water bottle.

This is a lone shearer’s camp. it was often hundreds of miles between sheds and so a man would camp overnight.

Not an easy life with just your dog for company.

I imagine that sometimes the dog hitched a ride.

Gold prospectors also used bikes at the end of the 19th century and would proudly pose with their machines, their means of mobility to race to the next discovery.

There was a bicycle post in the mid 1890′s in the Calgoorlie area, and very expensive it was too,  a single letter could cost the equivalent of hundreds of  dollars to be rushed on a bike.

I guess staking a claim might have sometimes been at stake and time of the essence.

This character, below,  was called the Coolgardie Nugget. I don’t know that he with  anything to do with the cycle post but I’ve out him together with an envelope of the period bearing one of the private postal service stamps.

Here’s the letter I used as my model.

And a close up of the stamps who’s use was soon declared illegal by the goldfields  post office.

Before I close, I must report that I was recently in Melbourne and delighted to see that there are many more women riding than a year ago.

Moreover, almost all those I saw were in regular clothes, much less Lycra around. No pennys,  though.

Equally satisfying from my POV, most of these women were riding stately sit up bikes, meaning they’re great inspiration for future bicycle art as well as being comfortable.

Sadly,  the racks of blue public bikes stand as before,  forlorn,  mostly unused. In the three days I was in Melbourne, I saw only one public bike being ridden around the city.

When will the authorities admit that the compulsory  helmet is killing this vital scheme, and that that is just not acceptable?

You can see more of these on my bicycle art at this site. All the illustrations here are solar prints. You can find out about them in this previous post.

I’ve been doing them with the help of my teacher, Leonard Matkevich who you can in this same link

This is Leonard putting a print though his press for me. Thanks, mate!

I’d be very happy if you’d  like or link to this  site. As yet, Goggle does not find it.   And as for Jim’s book, I can’t recommend it too highly as window into  our forgotten past.

Thanks also  to Mikael Colville-Andersen for  alerting me to some early photos in our cycle history

It’s about the history of cycling in early Australia,  about how  the bike  was used as transport in cites and country, much more than we know.

I found this copy online and paid   a whopping $60 for it,  but no regrets so far.

Published in 1980, it’s by an American, Jim Fitzpatrick,  who’d moved to Australia. Jim had worked for the peace corps, as an urban planner,  and taught at Aust. universities.

Here’s Jim from the back flap. (All photos are from Jim’s book)

Along the way, Jim was intrigued to discover that in the late 19th century,  the bike become the vehicle of choice, the liberating means of personal transport in Australia.

Its use quickly spread from the cities  to the outback where  shearers, gold miners, linesmen,  all  traveled  huge distances on the new invention.

I’m not far into the story  as yet. But already I’m  astonished at what I’m reading.

Bikes  took off like a bush fire, becoming big sellers soon after the invention of the safety version in the 1880′s.

The tens of thousands if bikes coming into Australia in the mid 1890′s happened soon after  the invention of the  so-called, safety bike.

These replaced the dangerous  ordinaries,  or penny farthings,  which had also been rapidly taken up here,  but usually by men and mostly as a sports machine. Ordinaries were little use das transport.

The safety bike, which both men and women could ride in comfort at speed and over distances, change all that .

And as  tough Australians began to ride them huge distances over terrible roads, their fame  of these reliable bikes spread .

So great was the demand here  that  the big US and English and European  manufacturers had their models in Australia  just  months after they were available in their markets at home.

Interestingly, bikes which did well in the rough Australian conditions were sometimes shipped home to be used in advertizing to prove the model’s ruggedness.

Prices came down fast so that by the turn of the century, you could get a pretty   good bike for  three pounds and change

Here’s a palatial bike shop in Collins st. Melbourne, selling German Wertheim bikes in 1896.

Advertizing  made good use  of the many intrepid  riders who crossed the country in  amazingly  short periods on the new bikes .

Mrs.Maddock, for example,  rode from Melbourne to Sydney in 9 days on what must  have been pretty  rough roads.

Moreover, her bike would have been a fixed wheel, meaning the pedals would spin wildly as she coasted down hill.

Fixed wheel bikes,  common even  into the 20th. century,  could not carry  much luggage behind . That area had to be kept free for a step at the back so that you could quickly climb off backwards if your “grid” got out  of control.

Bikes were the fastest way to travel. Over distances,  they easily beat horses and sometimes  even trains.

They were  also amazingly durable. Though cheap for a working man,  amounting to about 4 weeks wages,  they could be expected to last 20 years with almost no maintenance. And what needed to be done, most riders did themselves.

Before the car came along,  making  us soft and erasing all memory of the heroic bike, we were a tough and lean nation it seems, as were the bikes themselves

Sales teams proved how strong the classic  diamond frame of the safety bike was with stunts like this.

Here,  16 men stand on a plank solely supported by a single bike.

I’m going to love this book, enjoy finding out that bikes were  sometimes called jiggers, for example,   and grids, and that across  the country,  there were early moves  to make networks of paths for bikes which they called,  pads.

Not surprising  these were often ruined, torn up,  by horses and carts?

I’ve just found a great article, also  inspired by Jim’s book, which sums up this unknown early history so very well.

Other news. My bike art collection is growing. I’ve been doing more linocuts,  partly prompted by being invited to put work in an Xmas group show at the Bridget McDonnell gallery in Melbourne.

This is a real honor for the bike art,  and so I’d doing works specially for that show.

Co-incidentially, another art show here  in Sydney on German art called; Mad Square Modernity in German Art 1910-1937, war, has prompted me to go back to that dark and fascinating  period for some new bike themes.

Here are  two based on Berlin in the 1920′s  This one’s  called, The bikes wait for the Tram.

And this,  Wet and windy night , Berlin

Apart from that, the  debate about compulsory helmets rages on.

My position is that,  because comp. helmets cripple public bike schemes like the ones in Melbourne and Brisbane, and because  public bikes are  a  proven way to rapidly build up utility cycling, there must be a helmet  exemption for these bikes, a trial at least.

You can read the debate here.

You know, it’s telling that the word,  “helmet”,  is not to be found in the  index to Jim’s 1980 book. Apparently we go through all those  early years, never giving a thought to lids. No we’re obsessed by them

I close  my post with this great film on the helmet issue made by  Geoff McLeod of Sputnik films in  Brisbane . It’s gratifying that it’s jumped from 300 views on YouTube when I first saw it, to over 12,000 today

But the things I learned in this film, prompted me to think  deeper about bikes and our relationship with them. They are  another of our best friends, are they not?   So,  I tagged on, “and Bike”

In any case, stop reading this right now and rush to see this film on SBS. It’s now available but perhaps not for very long,  in their On-demand section. Here’s the link.

Now that you’ve seen it and probably agree with me that it’s superb, thought provoking and the rest, here’s the bike related thought it stirred  in me.

You remember  that we discover in the secret life that many of the traits dogs posess have been hard wired into their DNA through their assocation with us.

For example, they’ve learned to scan the human face, to read it’s emotions  intuitively in ways that no  dog related animal can do.

Thus a dingo, even if raised domestically,  wont follow our expressions,  our eye movements  for clues as to what to expect and nor will any other animal, even primates who you thought closer to us than dogs, didn’t you?

From the tiny  pekinese up to the  great dane, and all in between,  all dogs do this instinctively, this scanning.

Reading our faces, the progam suggrests,  began to be  bred  into the dog when the dog was fist domesticated as a  hunting partner.

I guess we fed those that had the trick, they survived more frequently,  and so the trait got selected  as favoring survival.

Back to bikes, Following the same idea, I’m sure  that constant and intence  assocation with the wheel over a very long time, has hard wired our love of this  useful round thing, into our natures.

The power, the  freedom, the fun, the adventure the wheles  brings us, are part of  our now DNA,  I reckon

The problem is that in recent times,  ever since the oil began to gush,  these wheels we love so dearly, been mainly hooked up to carbon buring engines  so that now we’ve an addiction resting  on an addiction.

Seems to me what we’ve got do to do,  whilst  admitting  the lock the wheel has on us, is  to shift our addiction from carbon powered to leg powered wheels.

Bicycle art can focus our attention.

If  things are hard wired because they aid our our survival, it’s clearly a good move to make this shift since in every way, the leg powered wheel, is better placed that the cabon one   to help us  survive in a waming and depleted world.

To  boost the idea of the switch as good, we need to think of the bike,  as not just transport,  but as a state of mind of the sort we need to have to get by.

Given the way the world has gone to excess at breakneck speed, excessive in consumption, excessive  in greed, excessive  in force, given that we’ve  developed grotesque  ideas of entitlement, the bike in every way,  by its very nature, it’s simplicity,  says. “Whoah there, mate!”

The bike is wheels with a message.

Sure,  we’re inveterate roamers, fetilizing our daily lives by being constantly on the move.

Well, leg driven,   we can still be mobile but at a speed which will contantly reference us back the the natural world with which  we have to harmonize or die.

By cutting down the speed of all  this restless movement of ours,  and by removing the car cocoon, we get back into touch with wind,  with sun, with rain,  not to mention with bodies shorn of blubber by the very scissors of  our legs

We’ll  smell again.  we’ll  see again , we’ll  smile again at those whose equally  restless paths we cross……… You get the idea.

I’ve just realized this line of thought is almost hand crafted for my friend Nicholas  Dow. Nic  rides a biker of course,  but also has a dog which runs beside him everywhere he goes

I think I  should therefore shut up and pass this over to Nic, and yourselves,  for a reality check.

On my last post I told you about a superb PBS documentary, about 2o mins. long,  on the public bikes of Paris.

This film has inspired a series of of linocuts which are quite experimental for me.

I mean that  they are more free, more broken , more scratchy,  than my usual style.

Here is one of the most broken, featuring the very distinctive chain guard of the Velib, curves that intrigue me.

Linocuts are tricky because once a cut is made, it  comes up glaring white, accusingly, whether  right  or  wrong.

I’ve  decided not to worry about that and to cut much more freely and accidentially than usual.  This next is the most extreme, again a Velib.

The 20,000  Paris velibs sometimes  ride on secluded paths in beautiful settings but also in heavy traffic.

Here”s the finished version of the  linocut shown last time. I didn’t like it then. But  I’ve decided not to scrap it.

The car is too explicit. I wanted it to  be more vague,  more menacing. I just could not resist carving out  the details of the BMW grille.  It’s so hard to stop oneself, to remember that less is more.

But the rider, I like,  as he flees the car.

This traffic scene is much better.

And as for vague and menacing, I like this next one a lot.

I like to think it’s the Bois du Boulonge, but it’s not. That’s a stand of Velibs on the left and they don’t make it to the Bois I’m sure.

These  prints are all badly photographed, the light coming from one side.

I’ll do them better for the gallery web site.  http://situp-bike-art.com.

Now,  the urgent thing is to make contact with the film makers and thank them for the inspiration. For the film link, look at  the last post.

I’m quite persuaded that the Velibs are the most beautiful of public bikes.

I’ve been have a great deal of fun with my bike art recently. Progress comes through chance so often, doesn’t it?

In this case,  change let me  find a superb short documentary on the public Bikes of Paris, the Velibs.

You must see this film both for the content , and the superb shooting of some of the 20,000 Velibs in Paris just as winter is approaching.

Go to this site, click on webcasts at the top of the page. Then choose Paris, Velo liberte.

For me, there was an added thrill. I realized that here were the images I need to celebrate public bikes till now missing in my art collection.

Here was my inspiration and to show you what can come from this, Here’s my first image.

Someone is riding a Velib along the Seine at sunset or is it sunrise?

Of course I’m pleased with it, even a bit stunned.

It’s a rubbing, meaning that I coat the whole sheet of paper with oil paint and then rub back to white.

Probably even more significant in terms of where this might lead me,  was to realize that many of the memorable images  in the film were of the Velibs in heavy Parisian traffic.

Normally,  I’m repelled by such images. In the hundreds of pieces of bike art I’ve done,  I’ve never show a bike in traffic, and never a car.

But seeing this film, I realized a key part of the story the film tells  was that the Velibs are operating reasonably safely in the snarl of Paris traffic, and that this is important.

Important,  because it confirms that these stately sit up bikes are safer.

Firstly,  because you see better and are seen better, but also because drivers treat them with greater courtesy.

Ive always claimed that, and this film confirms it.

So, for the first time I felt  ready to show bikes in traffic in a stylized way of course.

Here is the lino cut which resulted, and pleased I am with it too. It’s really a breakthrough for me, showing a bike and cars together and not puking.

A bit intoxicated with all this progress,  I started this morning to do a second traffic scene,  Velib inspired.

I thought I’d show you how one does a lino cut.

Here, I’ve drawn my image in grease pencil on the lino block which happens to come green.

I know what I want in terms of the image.  I want the bike to be strong and yet  pursued by the menacing BMW.

I want the elegance of the Velib too.  They are the best looking public bikes in my opinion. That mean stressing especially the distinctive curve of the handlebars.

I work on the drawing some more. This is the key stage. If the drawing is not good, you can never fix it later since one the block is cut, that’s it.

Now, I’ve  got the menacing feel  want.

I”m also falsely contented. With the pencils one can get a soft result as you see here

But when I cut, that will be lost and I’m forgetting that it might not look nearly this good.

But I do have one trick up my sleeve. I discovered doing the first lino,  that by heavy cross cutting of the road area , I can make not only interesting patterns,  but energy lines as well.

I start to cut , trying for  this again.

First,  I cut on one direction with my V shaped knife, the size of a pen.

Then, I  cut my road across these lines. Oh, I should have explained that first I cut around the bike and the cars.

It looks a mess but I’m hoping this will make the bike stand out against a very energetic background.

I also succumb to the temptation cut cut some details into me cars when I know that is probably a mistake.

Why do I do it then?  The passion to describe and to control by description.

Now,  I ink the block and am quite pleased with this hint of how it will print.

On the side you see the roller.

Now,  to put on the paper for  the first print, an exciting moment.

The fact that I can see the image through the rice paper is reassuring.

I’ve been rubbing over the paper with the back of a wooden spoon. .

Now,  for the first print. Here it is!

There are some things I like about it.

But then, I cut some more and made it worse so this one will go in the rubbish and I’ll  start again.

The image idea is good, of that I’m sure.

On the weekend of the 24th, the Saturday and Sunday, the bike art will again be on display. About 50 pieces. This time at the Gosford Regional Art gallery. More details on the bike art web site

Http://situp-bike-art.com

One the afternoon of the 24th, around 2 pm I’ll be there to explain things like this printing process.

Life is full of usually delightful surprises when one’s obsession is bikes.

I have  three to tell you about.

1. Surprise from Serge Huercio.

2. Surprise from Mikael Colville- Andersen.

3. Surprise from Bec in  San Francisco.

4. From Nick Baron and lastly from

5. from Wade Wallace

If you’ve read the blog before you know that I’ve turned to art as a way to get across the idea of the beauty of cycling.

I had my show at the Tap gallery and will lots of help from Katya, Leslie and Gill, it went very well. Sold lots of stuff. Just covered my costs which was great.

Since then I’ve expanded a bit, first adding some color.  At the show, most  works were sepia.

I’m still doing rubbings,  but they have some color sometimes  For example.

and this.

The second image shows that I’ve added another theme. I’m no longer confining myself to sit up cycles and their riders.

I call  the new theme,  circus cycling even the main exponent, the guy who’s inspiring me, calls it,  Bicylette Artistique.

His name is Serge Huercio. I think he’s French. And here is the video I stumbled on which got me excited enough to add this  topic to my art.

You  have to run in about 30 seconds to come to Serge in Action. You’ll  see what excited me.

Not only is he an amazing acrobat,  but his  stage rider has a  well defined character which is both touching and amusing.

Indeed,  he reminds me of Jacques Tati. You remember M. Hulot’s holiday amongst other classics?

So,  inspired by Serge,  I began  a series based on his postures. One is above. Here are two more.

At the end of his film clip,  is a hard-to-read email address.

So I wrote to Serge, using all the possible address variants. I asked him if he minded me using his art for my art.

I told him that I’d like to give him copies of what I was doing,  etc.

I hardly expected a reply but,  such is the magic of the internet,  that this morning there he was in my inbox.

He said he was  delighted to know what I was doing.  Photos were attached.

In his chatty letter, he marveled at coincidence. He’d  read my blog and discovered the frequent references to Copenhagen and our powerful blog friend based there, Mikael Colville-Andersen.

He had not heard of Mikael but now is going to invite him to his show. Seems to me it’s  something Mikael’s son might like.

I write to Wade from time to time,  urging him to write about utility cycling on his powerful blog.

But that is not his rermit and so not much luck. Now,  with Cadel’s amazing win at the Tour De France, I assumed that Wade would be even more focused on the sport side of cycling .

We’ll,  I almost fell over when I read his  recent piece.

Wade,  who has been adamantly pro compulsory  helmets ever since his blog  began, has changed his  opinion,  at least when it comes to public Bikes like Melbourne Bike Share

Having tried the Velibs in Paris , he’s come round to our way of thinking that for public bikes to work in Australia,  they need a special exemption.

Helmet choice must apply to them. Here’s Wade’s excellent piece.

It’s candily named, a change of tune. Good on you Wade.

A few days after writing to congratulate him,  and fearing he must be taking flack, I sent him  an excellent new Doco on the Paris Welibs,  film which shows how normal it is to use the system without helmets.

Here is the link to the film . Go to the section on Transport and click on Paris , Liberte.

On Friday this week, Cadel Evans will make a victor”s ride though Melbourne.

This would be a good occasion for the media to ask why it is that we are so strong in sports cycling, but are far behind Europe and Asia when is comes to utility cycling, that is using bikes as everyday transport.

Whilst Cadel’s win is great, (I  too was hooked on the coverage)   we really need to find out why we seem unable to take bikes seriously as transport.

You only have to go to the Federal Govt’s Green Vehicle  Guide for proof of that. . The bike,  the greenest wheels of all,  is not listed as a vehicle.

Whilst you do see many more bikes being used  for shopping and  commuting, especially around Melbourne where in Yarra they are up to 10% of traffic  in the mornings, we still lag far behind and are denying ourselves a real asset.

Not only that,  we  deny the chance for life to be more pleasant and more beautiful.

Photo by Marius.

It would make the point and be quite stunning if Cadel at the end of his ride on his race winning machine,  was to hop off and  and cut a few curves for the cameras on one of Melbourne’s 500 public bikes.

It would be stunning  because people just don’t put the two realities together, and don’t realize that those public bikes are languishing in part,   because of sports domination .

Racing and leisure cycling take almost all the oxygen in this country when it comes to two wheels.

Media tip, look into the way that the introduction of Comp. helmets acted as a selective herbicide, killing off one sort of cycling in favor of another.

Since sports  cycling does not fit very well with motor traffic,  much of the bike news is about conflict and hostility, not to mention accidents.

Cyclists are forced, more and more,  to  mount cameras on their helmets to record hostile drive behavior. I’ve never heard of this in Europe.

Without pointing the blame finger,  something is seriously out of kilter

No, it’s  not like this in Europe where transport bikes have their accepted place on the roads as well as enjoying generous infrastructure spending on separated  bikeways.

Here’s how  beautiful the a city bike landscape can look. Indeed here’s what to aim for.

Just  flip though the major cycling magazines as put out by Bicycle Victoria and Bicycle NSW, note the domination of Lycra and carbon fibre machines, and you’ll see what I mean  in terms of  the different culture which has grown up here. .

The classic  practical European bike equipped,  as a vehicle,  hardly gets a look in, though there is a new Magazine, Treadlie, which is working to redress this.

Cadel could further  kick off the necessary debate  if he were to be true to how these public bike are ridden everywhere else, (in approx. 140 countries)  and ride without  helmet.

Of course  he won’t. He’d  be risking a $154 ticket for one thing,   but he’d be making a key point.

Public bikes, indeed the whole utility bike movement,  have been held back by our compulsory helmet laws.

Melbourne bike share for example, limps along with about a tenth of the usage of a sister scheme in Dublin where the same number of bikes,  around  500,  are in constant use  with few helmets in  sight and yet a safety record we can only dream of

Just this last week the British Medical Journal has come out  with a survey of it members, the overwhelming majority of whom opposed comp.

Barcelona which has a very successful bike share scheme, the Bicing , is revealed to be actually saving lives even though few riders there   wear helmets,   by cutting  city pollution.

Image from Fotographia- Barcelona

By the way,  helmet Freedom.org where I  found this photo, is a great new blog dedicated to debating our helmet dilemma. 

Their motto; Helmets are good. Helmet laws are not.

We are owners of a failed experiment and Cadel’s victory is a good time to take a look at why .

On the art front, I continue to tidy after the successful show at the Tap gallery, even more convinced that art  images of the sit up bike, can help people to see bikes and their riders differently.

I’ve been  experimenting  with adding colour to some of my lino cuts,

inspired  by discovering the great work of the Grosvenor school of Lino cutting in London in the thirties .  It’s a  tricky craft,  adding color , but I think I’m going to like this new direction.

Here, I’m adding two colors, trying different combinations.

And this one, all the same orginal.

I’m interested in whether you think this is interesting of if you prefer the untouched Black and white seen here.

One Lino cut,  which was not good enough to put in the show, pleases me with some color added.

I print the black last, eager to see how the lines pull the colors together. Because registration is not very exact, each copy is different.

It’s so much fun, I’ve almost forgotten the debilitating shingles I’ve come down with, stress from the show, I guess.

In the meantime, I’m acquiring a few collectors around the world and the possibility that the message  behind the art will resonate widely .

Here’s  Ken in Canada, not only showing off how he’s framed to lino cuts but proving he’s the right sort of collector  by showing them with his 20 year old Gazelle  Premiur

That message in brief: The sit up bike is a superb presentational device for the human body.

Just as form follows function, looking good on a bike is a  product of adopting a delightful and health way of getting around, one whose  benefits we’ve  sadly overlooked..

I’ve been wrestling with how  we can use Cadel Evans‘ great win  to help strengthen utility cycling here in Australia.

And do so  without unfairly piggybacking on his win, without  stealing any of his thunder..

(Courier Mail)

Now,  after a couple of  days,  as I watch the ABC and SBS predicting  about how Cadel’s his win will encourage kids….

(Telegraph UK )

I say, Thanks to  Cadel Evans for a very different reason.

Watching his great victory, I’m   reminded of how very different sports cycling is to what we urgently need  to foster here, namely utility cycling.

So different that I’m convinced  that we have to start to peel away one  mode from the other so that both can grow without hampering each other.

Sports cycling is into  speed, helmets, lycra, and riding  lightweight high performance machines, mainly on roads and mountain tracks.

By contrast, utility cycling needs separated bikeways,

….needs the  freedom to ride in ordinary clothes

…. and without helmets if the rider  so desires.

Utility cyclists often ride heavier bikes.

Heavier because  they’re fully equipped as transport vehicles with lights, mudguards,  carrying racks, baskets etc.

In much of the world,  the utility bike is also a step through unisex machine.

All bike share bikes are step throughs like these Paris velibs, below.

Lastly, utility riders generally are not going as fast, not in training,  and often not as skilful.

Despite the latter , their safety record, world wide,  is much better than the sports mode so there is no irresponsibility in moving them from under the wing of the sports cyclist.

If we can peel these two cultures apart,  then we’ll begin to see the growth and balance  between the two which has been so natural in Europe.

There,  on  weekends , sports cyclists are kitted to the hilt ,.

whilst on weekdays, the same folks are   riding different machines, riding stately sit -ups,  riding in  different way for a  different purpose.

Different bikes for different hikes, you could say.

If we can peel these two cultures apart , we can begin to address the anomaly that we are now first in the world in sports cycling,  and last , or near last , in utility cycling. .

Thanks to Cadel for making  this all so much clearer,  by being so purely the former and not the latter.(Or does he ride a sit-up to the shops in Europe?)

Who will be the hero or rather heroine of the utility mode? That’s  yet to be discovered.

It’ll  probably be a woman. perhaps a young mum, for more women ride bikes as transport than men just as more men race than women.

Viva la Difference! Sex-wise, mode-wise

What does peeling the modes apart mean in  action terms?

1.It means helmet choice for the utility rider.

2.It means the media understanding the difference and giving a fair play to the utility cyclist, The media needs  to present the utility   mode in such a way as to appeal to the non rider. Hundreds of TV  hours on the sports cycling is fine as long as the utility mode gets its fair  share.

3. It means drivers realizing that  utility riders may be less experienced, especially the bike share rider,  and treating them with special consideration. (This is actually what happens experience shows)

Not to say that all riders don’t deserve consideration.

4. It means Governments  fast tracking plans to network our cities with separated bike paths,  and the media ceasing the one sided  attacks on the same.

5 Finally, it means  everyone understanding that utility cycling has a huge social contribution to make as we transition to lower carbon emissions, to less heart disease, obesity and diabetes, and to depleted oil reserves.

Mike Rubbo

All photos of Amsterdam by Violeta Brana-lafourcade

I have an idea how  Cadel Evans great win, almost assured as I write,  can help utility cycling in Australia, but you’ll have to skip down to find it.

In the meantime, all our approval for an amazing effort on the part of this modest hero.

Well, the  art show, Nothing But Bikes, is over!  And what a wonderful time it’s  been, baby sitting my 61 pieces of  bike art for 2 weeks.

I have to thank the Australian newspaper for a great start..

Much as I dislike  the Murdoch papers for their climate change scepticism and seeming sabotage,  this photo below which  Alan Prike took for Helen Trinka’s very balanced story,   was very important for my  hopeful mood all during   the show

Somehow, it affirmed for  me that I was on the right track, moving forward with purpose, confidence, and a big idea.

That idea?

That, even as the hunched and bunched riders of the Tour De France dominated  the news..

…my stately sit up bike,  built not for speed,  but just  for getting around comfortably and safely, will have its day here in Australia  too.

Then, another idea came.

Sometime during the non stop coverage of the famous race, to which I became addicted,  I noticed how much  they were featuring the beautiful French countryside, the chateaus etc.

Amazing scenery that the riders were charging through,  no time to stop and savor

So came  this other idea.

How about….acknowledging that,  whilst the Tour de France is exciting, even amazing,  the race does little for the state of the planet and  the dire straits we are in environmentally.

Global warming  gives us no days off.

So,  to be progressive, tour organizers  in future should take some time to celebrate  these other bikes, the ones which  win no yellow guernsey,  but which do make a  quiet contribution to a carbon leaner planet.

Bikes and riders like these.

Next year, between stages,  they could honor these unseen and unsung heroes, the  folks who  use bikes as every day transport, no high tech stuff, no special clothes.

Just a bike, a person,  and a necessary journey

It would make for a  nice balance with all the usual race excitement.

I’m going to write to the Tour organizers with this suggestion, that they  feature everyday riders, every day in short vignettes, reminding us that bikes are also  transport

Will you back me up?

That’s for Europe. Now,  for us in Australia.

I’ve just taken in the fact  out that our very own Cadel Evans has  almost won the  2011 Tour, the first time ever for an Australian.

Surely,  this is even more reason that we  should urge this additional focus.

I mean,  how ironic it is that Australia,  now first in racing cycling,  is  last,  or near last,  in utility cycling.

Monday morning,   the french will go back to the 25,000 sensible share bikes, their Velibs in Paris, bikes  they can ride up that same Champs D’elisees that’s about to welcome Cadel Evans.

They will have the choice whether to wear a helmet or not,  as will the thousands of Aussie visitors also in Paris,  there to see his victory.

Adults  treated as adults. Whilst we……  can have no effective bike share scheme here, and and are treated as if we are all high risk racing cyclists when it comes to helmets.

Yes, we are great at winning medals.Not detracting from Cadel’s amazing achievement,  we should understand that making our cities bike friendly,  is the also an important  medal to be won.

I think I’ll write to Cadel as well,  or to Wade.

Wade Wallace has an important bike blog , Cycling Tips, carried by the other newspaper chain, Fairfax. No doubt Wade’s over the moon with the win.

In the past, he’s  told me he can’t cover utility cycling on his blog. No interest, he says,  sadly.  But how about this new angle I’m suggesting,  Wade?

Back to the Tap. It was sad to pull the show down, to expose the outlined bikes we’d  added as unifying patterns on the Tap Gallery walls.

Frustrating too, to  find how hard they were to cover over. The wall on the left has already had two masking coats and the bikes still show

It’s as if they are lingering ghosts. not wanting to leave which how I feel as well.

Many thanks to Tap’s Leslie Dimmick for having faith in the show.

Here,  Gill Charlton and Art Teacher, Fiona Nevin,  help paint them out

But why talk of that when there’s so much to tell about the mid show party and the sales?

Sunday, 10th  July, about 60 people rolled up on bikes and on  foot (if they came by car,  they hid it.)

That’s Saskia Howard  (Sydney Cycle Chic ) pointing at me. She’s posted some  great photos (like the ones above and below) of riding to the show.

And  here’s an influential bunch. On the left, Paul Martin, Brisbane activist who’s come down specially for the show. Here’s the video he made of his day in Sydney .

Paul’s video’s   worth a look especially to see the huge potential Sydney has to welcome bikes if only we could  do a few more basic things, like complete Clover Moore’s Bikeways grid,  and get bike share up and running here

Next to him, glancing my way, is Nik Dow, who also came specially, but  from Melbourne . I appreciate their dedication

Last year, Nik, Paul, and I  staged a demo in Melbourne in favor of a helmet exemption for Melbourne Bike Share. We know that such an exemption would make Bike share possible here in  Sydney.

So says the manifesto of my show which I had pinned up

Then,   in the same photo, is Sydney City Councillor,  John McInerney who gave a short talk,  and the Architect, Caroline Pidcock who also spoke.

John is keen to get bike share here too. Maybe the Tour De France  win will help in some unexpected way

I was actually too muddled to do much photographing that Sunday. It all passed as in a dream.

As did the rest of the week with people stopping by to look and buy.

Here’s  my friend,  the great doco maker, David Bradbury . He’s  about to release a film on  director, Paul Cox,  called On Borrowed Time .

This was  with his favorite lino cut

Here too is  a clue as to what  prompts people to buy art.

We are all addicted to stories. If there is a story  attached to art….

I think my story of Cyclonica, the island paradise for bikes in the South Pacific,  hooked David .

This lino cut,  which at first sight, seems to have nothing to do with bikes, shows disgruntled riders, fed up with the war on our roads,  leaving town.

They’re taking the red eye flight to Cyclonica.

The plane, El Fugitivo, a DC3,  seen in the picture….

…leaves every Friday night  at 11. 30 pm from a secret location in the Blue mountains.

Once there,  you can join the bikes which fly around Cyclonica’s volcano,  like moths,  each evening.

Or ride around the  volcanic base on the bikes  you brought on the plane

Daytime, there is no car traffic on Cylonica.  Many people ride for minutes on end with their eyes shut, the  road verges being softly padded  for expected  falls,  and the native bird song, eyes shut , is   delightful.

No,  those are not cars in the distance,  but Mangos, the name Cyclonicans give their fast reclining bikes.

This is David Hembrow, one of Cyclonica’s oldest residents,  in his mango

If you are interested in going to Cyclonica, there’s  a mobile number to ring. And if the name’s too hard to remember you can use it’s other name.

SCHIERMONNIKSOOG

Back to the wrap up. It’s interesting what people buy and why,  when it comes to art.

I sold almost thirty works, which is apparently exceptional.

See if you can see any pattern to the sales.

No  mystery why this one, reaching for her purse,  was so popular. I could have sold it several times over.

The lino cuts,  which I thought would be the best sellers at around $300,  (framed)  came third behind the solar prints.

This was the most popular lino, Jumble of bikes

followed by this one, three out of the saddle, my first lino cut, actually.

The solar prints which sold? They all have an old fashioned,   etched,  feel to them which I suspect  helped.

These, mostly unframed, were really cheap at  $75 each. As my guru, Leonard  Mackovitch predicted,  they walked off the walls.

I’ll print more and sell them from my home studio, each a limited edition of 40

.

Leonard says they should be called,  unique prints because they  are each  subtly different from copy to copy.

What is the secret of selling?  When living in Quebec, I discovered the charm and mystery of the disappearing road.

Where is going you wonder? What’s around that corner?

Such images are very close to the core of life’s story, that of the journey

And removing the color, I’ve made use of this powerful image type more recently.

The unity of the theme has helped the show. .No one has done an art  show about this one type of riding before,( not that I know of)  the elegant sit up style.

This picture too which encapsulates that message,  Two women chatting, I could have sold several times.

Maybe the political message too has helped.

Many of us like causes, like trying to make the world a better place, and we quickly warm to a good idea for change.

Using bikes to reduce our carbon footprint,  is surely a very good idea and not mine of course.

Indeed, in the carbon tax debate now raging, I think the Govt has made a big mistake in focusing the whole drama on the so-called 500 big polluters, the big baddies.

We are all responsible and should all be challenged to cut down .

Riding a bike for short trips is a beneficial way to do so,  and should be passionately pushed by the Gillard Govt.

It would help her credibility as well, I feel.

Julia is continually  confronted with having lied about the Carbon tax before the last election. But a  bigger lie, one that’s  far more serious, goes on being told to soothe people.   That’s the message that  change from a carbon economy will be painless.

We know that this is not true and the Prime Minister misses a chance to mobilize our best instincts when she claims we wont be a  penny out of pocket.

She would be much more credible is she told us the truth. That it will hurt but not that much,  and there will plusses.

We are  one of the most obese, diabetic nation, s on earth. Riding bikes as transport, can  add ten years to our lives.  Bikes must be part of the debate.

That should be our cause now,  to bring  utility  bike riding to  front and centre stage. Even  the greens, Bob Brown, seems  to be unable to bring himself to say the B word. Crazy!

In the meantime, as I said, I’m moving the exhibition to my home studio at Avoca Beach, NSW

Here’s the entrance , the Gallery name’s  not yet up.  Katya is peeping out. It was her idea , this move.

You’ll be able to see how the works are done, have a glass of wine if you like ,and  buy something  if you like.

All this at Avoca beach, 1. hour 30 min. north of Sydney

But by appointment only . michael.rubbo@gmail.com

The TAP Gallery has a nice glow from the street. Makes you want to walk in.

I’ve been very late getting my bike shadows finished and finalizing the catalogue with prices.

All done,  Sue Abbott arrived and decisively bought the;  woman reaching for her purse. http://www.situp-bike-art.com/

You might recall Sue’s fame for having taken  on the authorities re  compulsory helmets after being fined for not wearing one in Scone

I made several films about her trips to court and now,  she tells me  she as she unlocks her new Gazelle, her purchase done..

That she’s back in court in a  few days.

And few weeks after that,   she’ll take the protest to Melbourne for  a mass ride against the helmet law.

Good luck, Sue.

We agree , she and I, that the comp.  helmets are  holding back our cycle  culture here, that because of them, lots of growth is not happening .

I’m particularly concerned that the laws mean   we can’t have functioning bike share schemes in Australia

I  argue  that these public bike schemes, like the Paris Velibs, the Boris Bikes in London, the Bixis in Montreai, the Bicings in Barcelona,  that all these new systems,  are  the turbo chargers of transport cycling.

They are the quick  way to get masses of non riders, people who cant  conceive  of themselves  using a bike as transport, (that’s the average Australian)  to just try and then, to like it.

That’s what’s happened overseas and it can happen here. But first,  we have to toss the helmet  albatross.

I think about this as the message of my show as I paint the final silhouettes behind the art.

The Guy at the end  agrees.

That’s Mikael Colville- Andersen.( Copenhagenize.com.)   who started both Sue and I thinking   about the negative aspects of com.  helmets

His key point is that they surround cycling with an unjustified   cloak of fear, and that the small danger  involved,  is nothing compared with the loss of having so many people put off cycling for life

Meanwhile,  both fortunately and unfortunately,  more pics are selling.

Fortunately,  since this campaign for helmet choice,   needs funds. Unfortunately,  in that I hate see my favorite works  go out the door.

Esp. this one which many wouldn’t look  at twice,  but which  I love.

It shows roof deck  parking for bikes  in Amsterdam .

And this one of two friends chatting,  based on a Copenhagen cycle chic photo.

Anyway, my fears of a fiasco are receding fast,  and I’m  looking forward to the party at 3 pm on Sunday at the Tap, 45 Burton st. Darlinghurst.

Sunday July 3rd.  we carried the 60 plus works into the Tap gallery, all beautifully framed…

Stored them in a corner….

….to be ready for the next  day,  our turn on the walls.

Monday the 4th of July. Katya nicely lettered the Show’s name in the free style we’d chosen, Nothing But Bikes

Whilst I began on the big bike silhouettes I felt would tie the small works together, as if bikes were throwing shadows.

There was  a moment of doubt on my part when I realized I’d bought no bike photographs  as prompts

“If you don’t know how to draw bikes  by now,” said Katya. “It’s quite hopeless”

There was no need to worry.  The big bike outlines  flowed   onto the walls as Gill Charlton, the third member the team,  followed behind,  adding touches of  perfection.

We hadn’t realized how nicely the shiny floors,  complimented the show.

To our favorites,  we gave pride  of place

The opposite walls have no bikes shadows.

I’m now thinking they are needed.

And so that’s   what I’m doing now .

This is a bike from above,  with an umbrella on the rack

…. the illusion that bikes throw shadows on the walls.

This superb Gazelle has been lent by Paul van Bellen of Gazelle Australia.

But we were all very pleased with yesterday’s hanging. Thanks Gill.

And thanks to  Katya Korolkevitch-Rubbo,  my wonderful partner. Both of us  tired but happy

Happy,  except for a letter in this  morning’s Sydney Morning Herald.

Letters to the editor writer, Russell Edwards take a swipe at our failure to build  fast train systems,  compared with Asian cities.

He points out that they build high speed train systems in Asia  in the time it takes us to plan to upgrade ours. Very true.

But then he takes  a further hit at Sydney,  which is putting in beautiful bikeways, as if doing this,  is   locking us into  a past the Chinese have left behind .

“‘…. what are we proposing now? Bicycles. That’s right, a return to the world the Chinese left behind 25 years ago.”

What nonsense.! The largest public bike share schemes in the world is now successfully operating in Hangzhou, China, 51,000 bikes, set to expand to 170,000.

70 million electric bikes also  help the Chinese get around their cities and keep cars off their roads.

It’s easy to make fun of bikes,  but they are an important part of the modern transport mix and so recognized by all sensible societies

Such comments as these by Russell Edwards only show the  ignorance which cripples us.

If Russell was to visit Europe,  where vast numbers of people go to work by train, he would find,  at each railway station, thousands of bikes , awaiting their owners return at the end of the working day.

What you find at our stations in contrast , are ugly multi story commuter car parks.  His disparaging attitude to bikes is in part why they are there.

We don’t yet see bikes as transport . Often,  we can’t even say the B word. I hope this show helps change that

Last night,  the greens leader Bob Brown on lateline, could not bring himself to say that B word.

It’s cars, cars, cars, if not petrol driven, a mass of metal,  battery powered, will do, for Bob.

“we’d like to see fast, efficient public transport, including high speed rail, light rail, much more electrification of our cars in this country.

But those things are going to be slowed up because petrol’s going to remain, not subject to a carbon price. That’s how the big parties want it. They’re in lockstep on that and they will prevail.”

Tomorrow, Sunday I take the bike art the Tap gallery. The total looks like being 61 works  to be hung.

The house is in chaos.

Pictures everywhere. On the walls of course.

On the floor…

Katya’s fed up

having lost her table to weeks ago to the creative  frenzy

The image on top is one of the Solar etchings.  I have several variants.

The framing for the show’s  been  costly so to keep some of the prices down, I’m mounting lino cuts  on cardboard for cheaper sale, the aim being to get bike art on walls not make money

On top, there is one of my favorites and one of the most abstract.

Also,  some solar prints I’m putting behind stretch wrap to keep them down in price.

How do I feel about this mad dash prompted by my grandfather being honored across town?

Well, good in that I think the show will make a clear statement about the beauty of the classic sit up bike, something this blog’s been jabbering on about for 2 years now.

So, just as the Tour de France is starting and will dominate SBS TV here, there will be the small alternative vision of another way of riding, another bike type,   on offer

61 works on the same topic by the same artist in the same place, the Tap gallery 45 Burton st Sydney. A modest world first,  perhaps

I chose this  gallery in part because it’s just  a block from one of our beautiful new separated bikeway on  Bourke st.

This bikeway is under attack. I think it’s magnificent. Pleasure and practicality blended

I’m also feeling lucky because I’ve found an inspirational image.

When we lived in Canada,  we had a print of a nude on a bike on our walls,  a truly hypnotic painting . Somehow,  the print  got lost in the  move back to Australia  in  the late nineties.

When I started dong  bike art, it was in part  due to thinking about painting. I tried to sketch it from  memory .

Well I’ve  found our lost image.  Its by Moesman, who’s a sort of Dutch Maigritte.

My memory was a bit faulty .  It’s  not set at night and the violin,  which so impressed me,  is much smaller than memory made it.

This has prompted some nudes in lino, also riding away.

I regard finding this image a good omen. I’m also discovering that  it’s exceptional, that there is not that much bike art done known or lesser know artists,  which  very strange.

Here’s a bike    drawn by Toulouse-Lautrec . He loved bikes

This fits the theory behind  the show.  The nude has it’s iconic place in art. I think the human figure on the bike  should have a  revered place as well

The last good thing that’s happened in these lead up days,  is the article in the Australian.

I was very nervous about that because I’d spoken about helmets to the journalist , and how I see the compulsory  helmet law as holding us back.

Very often when you voice such thoughts here , you come out sounding silly .

But this article gave me the fairest of goes. That,  and the fact that they pictured me riding without a lid , was great.

So,onwards to the show. The party will be at 3 pm on Sunday July 10th at the gallery of course.

Try and come on a bike. The city of Sydney has installed new bike tie-ups in from of the gallery on 45 Burton st and also onPpalmer st, Darlinghurst.

For gallery details, go here

For more of what you’ll see go to flickr

Photo. Alan Pryke Source: The Australian

Many thanks  to James Schwartz The Urban Country for giving the show a mention. Also to David Hembrow, A view from the cycle path, for doing the same