Two shots I took in Manhattan last year when I was in a taxi

And that's all I'm gonna say about it.

1)


2)


Draw your own conclusions. Add your own commentaries.

Pedal Power To The People!

What does Occupy Wall Street need to be successful? Ironically, money. But it's for a good cause. ;-)

Anyone else know a way to help them out with supplies?

blockbuster bikes

It was bound to happen - bikes are everywhere now, and have made it back to the big screen and Hollywood.

Enter Premium Rush - The Matrix meets The Messenger. Here's the synopsis:

“A New York bike messenger is given an envelope by a young woman at an uptown Manhattan college and is told he has 90 minutes to deliver it to an address in Chinatown. Complications ensue when an undercover police office appears and demands the envelope on special grounds. The truth, hidden motivations, and the life-and-death stakes on all sides are revealed through a series of flashbacks as the cop and the messenger engage in a length-of-Manhattan chase, racing against time after the messenger discovers the precious nature of the envelope’s slender contents."

Not my breed of cycling, and definitely not a film that will give cyclists a good name, nor inspire a non-cyclist to get back on a bike. But kinda badass nonetheless.

So when the "cycle chic" film comes out, will it be more like "Sex and the City?"

Tour de Fashion - NY Fashion Week

Another example of how art imitates life.


The Fashion Center is outfitting New York City with "Tour de Fashion," a fleet of thirty bicycles customized by the city's top designers just in time for Fashion Week, September 8 - 15.


The bikes, purchased by the Fashion Center from Bowery Lane Bicycles, are handmade in NYC and are being embellished by 30 of New York’s top designers, including Diane von Furstenberg, Betsey Johnson, Isaac Mizrahi, Nicole Miller, Patricia Underwood, Elie Tahari, Nanette Lepore, Rebecca Minkoff, Carlos Falchi, Doo.Ri Chung, Rebecca Taylor, Prabal Gurung and others, making these the most fashionable bikes in town.

senior style

Advanced Style: Age and Beauty from Ari Cohen on Nowness.com.

Some fashion tips from some ladies who've been around the block.

"Too many people are so afraid, and they just want to do what everybody else does."

Maybe this post is a little more fashion than bicycle, but the message is the same:

Don't be afraid, ladies! Go out onto the streets with confidence! Blaze some trails!

nigel sylvester by night

What's not to LOVE about Nigel Sylvester and his bmx crew? Check out the trix, the fashion, the nightlife, the Big Apple.

Yum!

Macaframa

Macaframa New York Trip from MACAFRAMA on Vimeo.

A stylish recap of some local boys and girls' trip to the Big Apple. Do yourself a big favor and check it.

Bike To Bar Photo Contest Winners Announced!

We have a winner! Chi-Town definitely takes the cake!

Thanks for all the fantastic submissions to our Bike To Bar Photo Contest from all you fabulous cyclists. We have a winner, and two runners-up! Winner will receive the Chrome giveaway package and runners-up will receive a pair of moreno wool Chrome socks! We will be contacting you for your mailing addresses.

Winner: Lorena Cupcake, Chicago

I'm drunkenly leaning on a pile of bikes! My Specialized Globe mixte, Rory's vintage fixed Raleigh, Archie's beater Bianchi

INSPIRATION: my bike helmet

OUTFIT: Nubby Twiglet Tshirt, Target skirt

ACCESSORIES: Outlaw motorcycle helmet with Bikers World aviator googles (usually velcro'd to the top, they didn't come together), H&M knockoff DMs, self silkscreened tote bag, Leg Avenue checkered thigh high, We Love Colors striped thigh high

Runner-Up: Patrick Augustin, New York

I am wearing a chrome zip down hoddie, chrome citizen black and red bad and chrome kursk shoes.

My bike is a 2010 Specialized Langster with red Oury grips and red B43's.

I am on the lower east side of Manhattan. I am headed to Fontana's Bar on 105 Elridge Street NY, NY.

Runner-Up: Fred(!), Chicago

Outfit- TACCONI Sport Cycling cap, Twin Anchor's T, Levi's 511's, Onitsuka Tiger in green/ blue

Bike- Swobo Sanchez, electric blue Velocity Deep V's laced to All-City hubs, SRAM S300 courier cranks, Crank Bros Headset, 3T Mutant stem, Bontrager carbon seatpost.

Bar- Kuma's corner. Best... Burgers... Period.

So there you have it! Keep riding to your every day joints and don't be afraid to send Vélo Vogue your fab shots while you're at it. THANKS AGAIN, AND RIDE ON!

Nigel Sylvester Seeks Amour

Mon ami Spud of the French Twins Brothers sent me this charming histoire d'amour à vélo.

If you don't remember, I met the Twins on my birthday in Paris a couple years ago on Rue de Grands Augustins. I was looking for a Colombian bar, instead I made two Parisian friends who share my amour du vélo.

Ride on et bisous!

VV Profile: .nobi

Name: .nobi

Occupation: filmmaker/photographer

Hometown: London

Current city/Neighborhood: NYC

Favorite city to ride a bike in in the world: Paris

Helmet or no helmet: ride it raw!

Type of bike: Dahon Eco

Describe what you like best about your bike: Ease to fold and get on train

Describe your urban cycling experience: The big difference between Paris and NYC is that in Paris pedestrians and cars (somewhat) respect the cyclist...in NYC they sometimes go out of their way to knock you over and pedestrians use the bike path as an extension of the sidewalk and give you the stink eye (and don't move) if you dare ring your bell

Favorite time and/or place to ride: Paris - Alongside the Seine at any time . NYC - 8th ave

Artist most commonly played on iPod at the moment: Mixed Arabic artists compilation gotten on Egypt trip

Tell us a mysterious and intriguing story that happened to you on your bike: Well just like in the movies...was biking down 8th and this woman flings open her car door, if not for my good brakes i almost went over the hood... weirdest part is that she just stared at me like i inconvenienced her by daring to be on the same road without any horsepower under my butt! (which could segway to another story but i digress)

Describe your personal style: Urban Cowboy meets Nerd Jock

Vélo Vogue tip of the day: Your brakes are your friend. Love them.

without your wheels, fuggedaboutit!

Check out this charming video from Bill Cunningham of NYT's On the Street, in which he cannot stop gushing about the Cycle Chic Movement!

Here are a couple winning quotes & pics - but nothing compares to hearing it in his voice, so please give a look and a listen!

"Something is happening in cities, and the idea is to be part of it."



"The sense of freedom to get on that bike and go to work, you can't imagine what it's like."



I doubt this woman in the crinoline is going to work, nor the guy on the funky souped-up trike, but you get the drift... Bill and I want you to catch the drift and get your wheels on!

Thanks to my sis-in-law, Laureen, for forwarding!
Photos by Bill Cunningham

Book Review from David Byrne

From the May 29, 2009 issue of the NYT:
Full disclosure: I’ve ridden a bike around New York as my principal means of transport for 30 years, so I’m inclined to sympathize with the idea that a cycling revolution is upon us, and that it’s a good thing. Like Jeff Mapes, the author of “Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists Are Changing American Cities,” I’ve watched the streets fill over the years with more and varied bike riders. It’s no longer just me, some food delivery guys and a posse of reckless messengers. Far from it...


Read the rest of the review here.

PEDALING REVOLUTION
How Cyclists Are Changing American Cities
By Jeff Mapes
228 pp. Oregon State University Press. Paper, $19.95

Visiting NYC this summer?

Have we got an idea for you!

Governors Island is a carfree Oasis.

Free bikes on Fridays

Art Break

Fernand Léger (1881-1955)
1943-48
Huile sur toile
H. 129 ; L. 161,5 cm
Musée national Fernand Léger, Biot.

Aux cours de plusieurs voyages aux Etats-Unis entre 1931 et 1939, Fernand Léger avait été impressionné, par New York, qu'il qualifiait "de plus formidable spectacle du monde". Exilé aux Etats-Unis pendant la seconde guerre mondiale, il enseigne à l'université de Yale, puis à Mills Collège, il croise les jeunes étudiantes qui s'habillent sans conformisme. La jeunesse adopte alors une mode osée aux couleurs criardes. Le mauvais goût est une caractéristique de ce pays, le mauvais goût, la couleur forte peut donner ici le plein usage de son pouvoir. Les filles en short, habillées comme des acrobates de cirque. Si je n'avais vu ici que des filles habillées avec goût, je n'aurais peint ma série des cyclistes... Les Cyclistes font partie de la série de peintures, appelées La Belle équipe qui se termine par La Grande Julie (MOMA, New York). Léger nous restitue plus exactement le choc des couleurs que la provocation de la jeunesse, il impose un style brutal, incisif qu'il préfère au "goût" sophistiqué français. Les Quatre cyclistes posent au cours d' une fête sportive. Le balayage des projecteurs, lui donne l'idée de séparer la couleur du dessin figuratif. Dans les rues de New York, il avait déjà été impressionné par le jeu des projecteurs publicitaires "je parlais à quelqu'un, il avait la figure bleue, puis vingt secondes après, il devient jaune.... cette couleur-là... elle était libre, elle était dans l'espace. J'ai voulu faire la même chose dans mes toiles

Google/T: In the course of several trips to the United States between 1931 and 1939, Fernand Léger was impressed by New York, called it "the greatest show on earth". Exiled to the United States during World War II, he taught at Yale University, then at Mills College, he crossed the young students who dress without conformism. The youth then adopt a fashion bold colors garish. The bad taste is a characteristic of this country, bad taste, color can give strong here full use of his power. Girls in shorts, dressed as circus acrobats. If I had seen here as girls dressed tastefully, I had painted my series of cyclists ... The cyclists are part of the series of paintings called La Belle team that ends in La Grande Julie (MOMA, New York). Light returns us more accurately the clash of colors that the provocation of youth, it imposes a style sharp, incisive he prefers to "taste" sophisticated French. Four cyclists pose during a sports festival. The sweeping headlamps, gives him the idea to separate the color of figurative drawing. In the streets of New York, he had been impressed by the play of advertising projectors "I was talking to someone, he was found blue, then Twenty seconds after he became the color yellow .... then .. . It was free, she was in space. I wanted to do the same thing in my paintings. "

Thanks to Didier Couval

David Byrne's Bike Racks