BLACKBOOK Jan-Willem
BLACKBOOK Jan-Willem Sintnicolaas – founder of Dutch bicyclemakers J Guillem – hits the road Mostly, Chinese food is the cuisine THAT DARE NOT SPEAK ITS NAME. Somewhere along the way, it chic. how integrated cycle culture is becoming to urban living. The clothes and clubs, rallies and road races, style and saddle sores all point to how what was once considered a thirdclass, vaguely antiquated mode of movement has been reappraised at some unexpected confluence of fashion and environmental awareness. Derailleurs have become de rigueur. But, thinking big, it’s in the very remodelling of our cityscapes that the bicycle is most boldly making an impression: barely a city doesn’t now have a bike-share scheme and/or project to install some form of cycle-path network, and not least because, in a time-pressured and health-obsessed world, bicycles are also seen as a key way of cracking growing congestion, keeping economies moving and hearts pumping. It’s in the very remodelling OF OUR CITYSCAPES that the bicycle is most boldly making an impression Such projects are not without controversy: London’s pioneering “cycle motorways” have infuriated devoted drivers and some cyclists alike, the latter because the cycleways so often seem to just tail off in the face of traffic. Mexico City’s no-nonsense approach to tackling killer air pollution – making all major roads cycling- only lanes every Sunday – has not pleased everyone either. But dividing opinion has not stopped an onslaught of impressive and widespread cycling-friendly town planning, often with adventurous solutions that help separate car and cycle altogether. Xiamen, in southeast China, recently launched the world’s longest aerial cycleway, whose 7.6 kilometres run in part underneath the city’s transit bus line, so cyclists don’t even have to get wet when it rains, and operates a sensor system that prevents too many bicycles from crowding onto it. China is also pioneering what is being described as Uber for bikes, app-based systems that allow anyone to hire a bike and then leave it wherever their journey ends, rather than a docking station; Mobike, the market leader, which operates over a million bikes across 33 cities in China, launched in Singapore this year. J Guillem’s Major road bike CRAFTING PERFECTION Such is the uptake in cycling that the world is certainly no longer short of hand-built makers; in Bespoked, the UK even has an annual show dedicated to 150-plus of them, each offering their own take on ride and style. But for sheer classicism, there are the bikes made to measure from Minnesota’s Dave Anderson of Anderson Custom Bicycles (andersoncustombicycles.com) – his ACB 4 Season Stainless is straight out of the 1950s in looks and will look just as good in another 70 years too. More hi-tech-minded is Jamie White, the builder behind Utah’s Métier Vélo (métier-vélo.com), its bikes being all carbon-fibre tubes and 3D-printed titanium lugs. And somewhere in between is J Guillem (jguillem.com). That’s the new venture from Jan-Willem Sintnicolaas, founder and then seller of the Van Nicholas bike brand. All-Dutch modernist in styling, it’s in the build that the £4,000-plus price tag is justified: unusually, Guillem prefers the durability of hand-welded cold steel over trendy, mould-poured carbon fibre. That, no doubt, is why each of his bikes confidently comes with a 100-year warranty. © J. GUILLEM BICYCLES 26 DEPARTURES-INTERNATIONAL.COM CONTACT PLATINUM CARD SERVICE FOR BOOKINGS
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: © ACE HOTEL PORTLAND, TETSUYA ITO/ONOMICHI U2 , JESSE DAVID HARRIS In New York planners are hoping for the Citi Bike scheme to be extended to the Bronx and Staten Island and for the High Line to be further regenerated not just for pedestrians but to the benefit of cyclists. Repurposing old and elevated infrastructure for cyclists is an idea that is catching on in St Louis and Philadelphia; London’s Braithwaite Viaduct may get a cycle overhaul, while Wuppertal aims to turn an old railway into a 16km cyclepath, part of a grander scheme that on completion will see Germany have the biggest bicycle highway in the world, a fully lit 100 kilometres connecting ten cities. For sheer imagination, the Dutch, naturally, remain ahead of the pack: the Netherlands has 30-plus cycleway projects on the go. When a traffic junction near Eindhoven got too risky for cyclists, the local authority built the Hovenring over the top of it. It’s a 72m-diameter ring suspended by wires from single pylon and remains what many consider the most striking example of cycle architecture to date. That crown could be taken though: Chicago is pondering a continuous cycle route along the Chicago River. Or, rather, on it. The RiverRide, if it happens, will be created by using more than ten kilometres of floating pontoons. It’s not the only project to think in terms other than elevation, either. Phase one of Miami’s 16km-long, 30m-wide Underline pedestrian and cycle space kicks off this year. Remarkably, the whole project, due for completion in 2023, is already 60 per cent funded. “Politically it’s getting hard to argue against people cycling or walking as opposed to driving – it’s the most efficient use of space,” says Meg Daly, CEO of Friends of the Underline. “But there’s also a Millennial movement toward cycling, and to not owning a car. Cities want to attract that generation’s talent and so have to have the right kind of amenities to draw them.” There were, of course, past times when most people didn’t own a car. Indeed, for all that the recent uptake in bicyclefriendly schemes in big cities around the world is heartening – unless you’re a taxi driver – it’s actually just coming full circle. What goes around comes around: one Horace Dobbins planned to create a 14km elevated bike route from Los Angeles to Pasadena, building two kilometres of it, complete with bicycle storage and renting stations, before events took over. Chief among these was the rise of the automobile. His California Cycleway opened in 1900. ♦ B&B (BED & BIKE) It would take an enthusiastic cyclist to request use of one of the shaky-looking wooden bicycles suspended from the ceiling of Casa Camper (casacamper.com) in Barcelona – as they can do – but the hotel is far from being the only one now to see bicycle provision as essential a service as laundry. You don’t even have to be in a city of indie cycling cool – the likes of Portland, where its Ace Hotel (acehotel.com) has teamed up with Hufnagel Cycles on a hire scheme – as even more well-to-do establishments now see bike-on-tap as an essential amenity. Appropriately enough for a hotel situated by a rail system repurposed for walking and cycling, New York’s High Line Hotel (thehighlinehotel.com) offers guests a complimentary Shinola bicycle (not to mention monthly group rides to a cocktail bar). That’s good, but the dedicated pedal pushers may want more: they may opt for Hiroshima’s Hotel Cycle (onomichi-u2.com), where you can ride right up to the front desk, and where each room comes with a cycle rack. Clockwise from top left: the buzzy coffeehouse at Portland’s Ace Hotel; the bike-centric Hotel Cycle in Hiroshima; the red-bricked façade of The High Line Hotel in Manhattan DEPARTURES-INTERNATIONAL.COM 27
