Technicolour Dreambike

Not this one...

Temperatures are running between -7 and -10°c. I realise that for some people that’s practically barbecue weather, but for south Germany it’s considered a bit nippy. I’m almost the only cyclist to be seen in Ostfildern (but not elsewhere, more on that later) and even the local bike shop is only open half the time. Brr…

So I was much cheered by these pictures by Nico, whose blog is about cycling and local cycle culture in his corner of North Germany. The first is this elegant green and yellow ladies city bike which if it was in the second-hand adverts in our bike shop, could tempt me as a steed for my wife, except that she’ doesn’t like the yellow on the mudguards, and it’d never manage the local hills anyway.

…This one.

That bike, however, fades into the background compared this rolling piece of art. I really admire the style of  someone who paints a bike like this, and the hours of work that went into making it so unique. It wouldn’t look out of place on a plinth. It probably has the added advantage of rendering the bike virtually unstealable, as it would be recognised by anyone locally. I’m not about to take a brush to the Xtracycle though.

On top of all this good cheer, Google dropped me a line to say that Urban Simplicity and The Hungry Cyclist linked to my tiny corner of blogdom, so thank you both. I’ll get a reciprocal sidebar  link up when I have time…