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First things first. I made a promise that I will continue writing in English. It took a while (just around 900 days), but now I’m ready to continue!
It hit me on my way home from work the other day, that it’s been already more than 2 years since I live and cycle happily in Copenhagen on a daily basis. Within this period, I have already found myself in so many (sometimes pleasant, the other times rather hostile) situations, trying to learn as much as possible from rather others’ than my own mistakes, so I might as well just collect as many of these observations as possible and share them with my friends, so they might also benefit from those. Whether this benefit is simply just the state of being entertained, some recognition of some similar patterns of their daily bike rides or even being able to take some useful tips away, it doesn’t matter, as long as I can practice my writing skills & preserve my memories. With some corporate bullshit phrase, I would say, let me make this a win-win.
So, Copenhagen is all about cycling. The infrastructure is simply great, the air quality is good, there are bike lanes almost everywhere, the distances are manageable, you can bring your bike on the S-trains (rural trains) for free of charge, you have the freedom to come and go whenever you feel like etc… just to mention a few benefits of being a cycle-head in the capital of Denmark. Many people choose this mean of transportation due to the health benefits of exercise, flexibility, time saving (S-train plus cycle combination is indisputably the fastest way to get around in town), money saving (more on this one later), or just simply want to be part of this vibrant bike-culture.
Although, newcomers to Copenhagen cycling, beware! It is not only about fun, unicorns, rainbows and lollipop candies everywhere (OK, there are actually shitloads of candy stores all around in town so the last part is actually true), as you will face the dreadful weather conditions more often than not, eventually found yourself in the morning/afternoon traffic rush and realise how the others are also struggling in this double-edged paradise. Oh, you have been to Copenhagen in May last year and you don’t understand what I’m talking about? Yeah, try a different month. Any of them. You will see. Pick January if you like challenges.
Alright, jokes aside, I do bike in town all year around and I do like it with all of its pros and cons. It’s a fine balance. Like when you are on your bike and hold against the rain & wind with your whole body weight, carry your meter by meter Amazoon package in your left hand, desperately grab the handlebar & ring your bell (which is barely audible when wet) with your right hand to make some room as the narrow lane is completely blocked by the slowest couple cycling right next to each other, when you just leave the cover of a building block and the gust speed doubles out of nowhere. Have been there…
Starting with The Basics.
Choose your destiny… I mean… bike!
Copenhagen is fairly flat so unless you are lodged up in the North-western part of the city and you need to do the 50m altitude difference every day and/or you also like smooth riding, I recommend a single speeder. These are lightweight (makes the difference when you carry your bike up on the stairs e.g. at the S-train station), all the pedalling is 100% transformed to acceleration (smooth ride), you have less spare parts to worry about (save money strategy later), it requires less maintenance (less time or less money if you are too lazy to clean your own bike). Of course, if you need to cycle above 20 km a day and through the rural area, then you might as well go with a multi-gear race bike. In which case it is not really about biking in lovely Copenhagen any more, but rather about a sport activity or a more extreme type of commuting which is a different topic i.e. not covered in this article.
A single speeder is of course a trade-off as you cannot switch gears and you are pretty much stuck in the pre-set gear. Which can be a heavy gear: it is harder to pedal so it will be difficult to start, but have a high max speed and easier to maintain the pace. Or low-medium gear: you start easier but reach your mediocre max speed soon. You can always get your front or rear sprocket changed if you are not satisfied with your max speed vs start difficulty, try to find the one you feel convenient biking with all the way. I prefer a medium-heavy setup when it is rather difficult to start, yet the top speed is quite nice.
The more altitude you need to cover the more charming the idea becomes to pick a bike with gears. If this is the case and you cannot settle with a single speeder, I recommend using a cycle with external gears over the ones with internal. Although, keep in mind, the gear (and additional sprockets) means more parts which can wear out faster (and they will, thanks to the weather conditions), plus the energy transmission from the pedals to the bike will be lower vs single speed. I used to have a nice lightweight multi speed bike, and most of its parts needed to be replaced after a year usage (including the gear itself -> save money strategy failed). I don’t recommend the convenient looking inner gear bikes (the ones where you don’t see the gear & the rear sprockets), as even though these bikes look stylish (as per Danish standards), yet, they are almost always heavy i.e. need more pedalling to go, and the energy transmission is the worst which means even more pedalling… It is all about your preferred style of course.
So, pick your style!
I list down a few archetypes available in Copenhagen, you can pick any of these or invent your own style. It is also possible to mix them. Nevertheless, these are the clearly distinguishable ones I recognized so far:
The fast guys - around 20-25% of the total:
They bike fast and (most often) safe. As usually they are the ones overtaking the others, they (should) pay more attention and be more aware of the environment. They always keep right as they know how frustrating it can be when the others are just biking wherever they feel like Mumbai style. I do my best to be a member of the fast guys. The cool gang :)
The typical city bikers - about 50-55% of the cycling community:
Normally they all ride the multi inner gear bikes. They drive average/low speed (remember what I wrote about the speed a few paragraphs before?) and most often pay attention to their environments. But not always. Even the fact that there is a baby seat on the bike is not a guarantee for alertness. If you see them in front of you keeping clearly to the right, then it is safe to bypass them without giving any signal. If you see that they are not 100% sure whether they are keeping right or a bit middle-ish (even worse, to the left) always ring your bell when overtaking them. Some of these guys also tend to turn left (e.g. cross the zebra) by simply keeping left in the bike lane then stop in the middle of the freaking inner lane where the fast guys travel… Wrong! They should first stop in the outer lane in the right (of course with signalling it by raising their hand) then turn/pass left when there is no traffic. The typical city bikers are way more dangerous in pairs, even worse, in bigger groups. In this case, they usually go slow, right next to each other, focusing their attention to chit chatting with each other. If this is the case, you better ring your bell early enough as their reaction time is more often slow than fast.
Also, some of the city bikers think they are fast when they are in a rush and pedal heavier than usual, but they are wrong again. Often when they start overtaking others they forget to check whether there is a fast guy coming from behind. Or even worse, they look behind, acknowledge someone is coming, and they start their maneuver anyway. This obviously results in the fast guy need to slow down, or even hit the emergency break. The best way to imagine this situation is when a truck starts to overtake another truck in the highway when you are clearly coming already in the inner lane with your comfy Octavia – or any sedan type.
The "should not be cycling" ones - around 5% of the total:
These guys are either drunk (very common Friday/Saturday nights) or cannot ride the bike properly, so they often and quite randomly change directions from keeping right to left, or cross the street out of nowhere, therefore it is extremely dangerous to overtake them. Always ring the shit out them! Usually works for me, especially if seconded with loud shouting. Sometimes these guys also fall into the category of:
The touristy tourists - season and locations dependent, between 2-10%:
The enthusiastic foreigners who are riding the easily recognizable white, electric city bikes (Bycyklen). To avoid confusion these bikes are electric in terms of having a small, tablet size display on the handle bar which tells you all the relevant and irrelevant touristy bullcrap, and have a GPS too. They can be picked up and dropped off at around 50 various locations in the city. Many tourists choose this type of bike renting over a regular bike as they are really cheap. Well, they are cheap for a reason. Yes, you get the GPS function and the extra information blablabla, but c’mon we are in 2017, every cell phone has the same (and many more) functions anyway, so you definitely don’t need the display, and man, these cycles are extremely sluggish. By the way, don’t even think about using the display while riding, as you will most certainly end up causing an accident. The only thing I learnt about people using these cycles is that they should be avoided at all costs. If you need to overtake them, take extra care, as they will not. Typical behaviour of them is that they are never alone, usually bike right next to each other (blocking the whole bike lane again…), pay attention to the sights instead of the traffic and change directions randomly & unexpectedly.
The Christiania bikers - around 10% of the cycling population:
The name is referring to the bike type (which is indeed being developed in Christiania) and not to the area the cyclists are coming from. These are the 3-wheeler bikes, with a big wide cargo bay mounted to their fronts. This load area is most often used to transport small children (or drunk adult friends), but ideal for shopping or grabbing your Christmas tree too. The concept is kind of nice, yet I argue that they should be banned from certain parts of the town. Maybe from the whole downtown area. The reason is that they are way too wide, they almost completely take the whole bike lane, which makes them very difficult to be overtaken (sometime you have about 30 cms only…), and they are very, very slow i.e. you will need to overtake them.
The cheaters - less than 5%:
The ones using proper electric bikes. Special feats: disguise (they look like city bikers), yet, they are quite fast, thanks to their device. Some of the lazy ones just let the engine do the work, although there are some hardcore ones who also pedal like crazy on top. Latter ones are superfast, they easily overtake the small motorcycles too. Ah yes, that reminds me of:
The motorcyclists(?!) - less than 5%:
If your motorcycle is below 50 cm3 then by law you are allowed to drive in the bike lanes… These guys are medium fast (with cycle measurements), you can usually keep up with them easily with a fast, single speeder bike. I rather let them go a bit, otherwise your cycling experience (including the air quality) will remind you of biking in a polluted Asian metropolis.
I’ll cover the Outfit, Smooth riding tips & tricks, Money saving strategy in my next article. Stay tuned! Promise it will not take another 3 years…
