Long Beach Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal. Photo: Melissa Balmer

Not too long ago we shared (in one of our most popular blogs) that the Italian fashion house Missoni had created a line of custom home goods for Target including the boldly patterned comfort bike for women. Today Jerry Hirsch reports in the Los Angeles Times in the article “Fashion Designers Put Their Marque on Bicycles” that the Missoni bike nearly sold out when it debuted in September. Other designers and design houses have also been inspired to create “fashion” bikes of late including Kate Spade, and a bevy of other top designers. For New York’s recent fashion week the “Fashion Center Business Improvement District” created the innovative idea of  “Tour de Fashion” borrow-a-bicycle program with thirty fashion designers putting their unique stamp on a customized bike. At the end of the fashion week the bikes were auctioned off.

So now that top creative minds like Ralph Lauren are being inspired by the popularity of Tweed rides to create not only a designer bike but an entire line of “bicycle inspired clothing” how do we harness this energy to help us actually increase the number of people riding bikes?

Can fashion help us out? We think so. We here at Bikeable Communities think we have a powerful new approach. That’s why we’re collaborating with Long Beach Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal, Andrea White-Kjoss CEO & President of Bikestation, as well as local and regional advocates, electeds, city staffs, business leaders and talented creatives for the “Women on Bikes SoCal” program that we’ll be launching in November. Our vision is to encourage, engage and empower women and girls of all ages, races and walks of life in the Southern California region in the beauty and benefits of bicycling, and to double the number of women and girls actively riding bikes.

Why are we focusing on Women? Women are the indicator species. If women feel safe and comfortable riding bikes the whole family will ride. But though we women absolutely have safety and comfort concerns that are paramount and need to be addressed, we are also moved and motivated greatly by beauty and style. Fashion has real power. Of course the Missoni bike almost selling out is one indicator, but so are the fast rise in popularity of the sleek new European inspired bikes by Public, Linus and Electra bikes – all California based companies. I have posted on one of my vision boards the “Last Look” page from Vogue Magazine in June 2009 featuring a designer bike by Fendi. The Cycle Chic world wide phenomenon from Denmark began in 2006.

We here at Bikeable Communities feel if we can engage the female focused lifestyle media in an active and ongoing conversation on the benefits of bike riding we can accomplish a one-two punch. By getting the story out in a variety of interesting, engaging female friendly ways we can not only invite a broad new audience to consider the bike as a perfect urban transit tool but then also invite them to the education that helps make it very safe too. Intrigued? Want to know more of what we have planned? Send me an email to bikeablecommunities@gmail.com.

I am in the market for a new bike. I’m so excited, but a little overwhelmed too because there are just so many wonderful choices out now. Why? Because the slow bike movement is picking up steam. Articles are popping up in places like Bicycling Magazine (which normally is focused on the athletic side of the bike world),  Tree Hugger and Reuters (which is taking note of the gospel Copenhagenize.com has been spreading for several years now). New companies like Linus and Public Bikes are taking the media by storm with eye catching designs that are perfect urban transport tools.

Everywhere I look in Long Beach I see people sitting up straight, looking very happy, cruising along at easy speeds on the most marvelous assortment of bikes.  Last month I tested the “townie” (shown above) from Electra Bicycle Co. at Jones Bicycle and loved it (and may I say that my salesperson Chris did an excellent job of sharing the pros and cons of the different comfort/town bikes they carry). Yesterday I road one of LB City’s bike share bikes, a Raleigh, and loved it too, but the townie is still high high on my list.

I am not exaggerating when I say these new comfort bikes are a personal revolution. I am not currently “athletic.” I have been enough of an athlete in the past t0 know that’s not where I am now; a middle aged woman (47).  A decade of dealing with some challenging health issues have taught me that it’s best if I increase my fitness levels in a slow and steady manner.  Maybe you can relate? My old 70′s cruiser was a real challenge at times. It was just so hard to pedal that I frequently walked or road the bus instead. I’d convinced myself I wasn’t usually up for the 8 mile loop of Charlie Gandy’s “Long Beach’s Bike Innovation & Infrastructure Tour.”  Yesterday on that Raleigh I rode the tour with relative ease. Wow. I’m still very proud of myself.

I don’t think enough can be said about the joy of a comfortable bike. I know the forward stance of most road bikes means more speed but my back just can’t take it for very long, neither can my wrists. I don’t need to ride very fast. I don’t feel safe when I do. And I feel safer when I’m sitting up straight on a bike too – here’s why, it’s much easier to turn my head and keep note of cars behind me, and all around me, when I’m sitting up rather than hunched over.

I am looking to buy my new bike by the beginning of September and still have many slow bikes to test drive. Yesterday while stopped at the beautiful new state-of-the-art  Bikestation in the downtown Long Beach transit Mall I saw a lovely girl riding a brand new Schwinn that was obviously a replica of an old Schwinn. Add one more to try out to my list!

Andrea White-Kjoss of Bikestation by Allan Crawford

Chances are if I asked you why you ride your bike, you’d answer something similar to what I would say,   “I love the sense of freedom,” or “I love being outside on a beautiful day feeling the wind on my face.”  Most likely you wouldn’t answer, “because I’m trying to save the planet” or “because I love my spandex” (though of course if you look good in your spandex, that might be a reason…)

Yes, you might admit you want to save some gas money, or you get bored easily at the gym (like me!) and wanted a more interesting way to exercise, but I doubt you would answer “because I should.” We humans are not good at should. We’re not good at should. That has a nice ring to it.

And yet, very often in advocacy (and bicycling advocacy is no different than any other kind) we often move forward in our outreach with “should” firmly entrenched in our sensibilities and vernacular. Then we wonder why friends and neighbors and other perfectly nice people avoid our phone calls, or don’t friend our cause on Facebook, or don’t follow our urgent pleas on Twitter (why yes, we do have both Facebook and Twitter accounts but we’re still working out the best way to share those links – on twitter we’re @BikeableCommuni & on FB you should search for Bikeable Communities)

As I began to prepare today to replace the irreplaceable and oh so charmingly gregarious Charlie Gandy at the Dwell on Design conference in LA on June 26 for the “Are Two Wheels Better Four” panel (Gandy has been called away to Wyoming to attend the 15th reunion of the “Thunderhead Alliance scheduled for the same date;  since he is the founder,  I guess he should be allowed to attend) I pondered just what the heck I’ve got to bring to this important and often heated discussion. And then I had a “no duh” moment and realized, “of course, my knowledge of fashion is power.”

The bike fashion writer/blogger/commentator, head and shoulders above the rest, is Danish filmmaker and creator of Copenhagenzine Mikael Colville-Andersen who originally started the whole “cycle chic” concept. Anderson is challenging advocates to “think differently” about bicycle advocacy and how to engage and recruit new bicyclists. Check out his recent blog on “the car industry goes to the next level” and the Nightlife.Ca post on Andersen as Montreal welcomed him for his conference “Four Goals for Promoting Urban Cycling.”

We have a very strong bike-fashion culture in Long Beach. As a marketing and PR person I would wager good money that it is the style and the fun, more than anything else,  that Long Beach riders portray that seduces others to dig out their bike from the garage or visit one of the new bikes shops popping up around town.  Watch Bernard Serrano of Cyclone Coasters float by on one of his many antique cruisers jauntily dressed in matching retro garb, or Andrea White-Kjoss of Bikestation zip by (who is always stylishly appropriate for every occasion no matter how far she had already ridden) and you too will long for the fun and freedom of two wheels over four. Yes, I do believe the seduction of style wins over should almost every time. Anderson has a very strong case.