Bullied Bikes

While spending some weeks in Paris two summers ago, I had the thrill of my life jetting through traffic on a petit Velib bike amidst imposing architecture, crepe stands and marble sculptures. Today, the New York Times contained an article about the battered bikes which are facing a wave of vandalism and theft:

Many of the custom-made bikes, which cost $3,500 each, are showing up on black markets in eastern Europe and northern Africa. Many others are being spirited away for urban joy rides, then ditched by roadsides, their wheels bent and tires stripped.
With 80 percent of the initial 20,600 bicycles stolen or damaged, the program’s organizers have had to hire several hundred people just to fix them.

...

“We miscalculated the damage and the theft,” said Albert Asséraf, director of strategy, research and marketing at JCDecaux, the outdoor-advertising company that is a major funder and organizer of the project. “But we had no reference point in the world for this kind of initiative.”
At least 8,000 bikes have been stolen and 8,000 damaged so badly that they had to be replaced — nearly 80 percent of the initial stock, Mr. Asséraf said.
JCDecaux must repair some 1,500 bicycles a day, which absorbs the efforts of 400 fulltime staff members. The company maintains 10 repair shops and a workshop on a boat that moves up and down the Seine.

...

It is commonplace now to see the bikes at docking stations in Paris with flat tires, punctured wheels, or missing baskets. Some Velib’s have been found hanging from lamp posts, dumped in the Seine, hidden in basements, on the streets of Bucharest or in shipping containers in Marseille on their way to North Africa. Some are simply appropriated and repainted.

...

Still, with more than 63 million rentals since the program was launched in the summer of 2007, the Vélib’ has established itself as part of Parisian life, and has been extended to provide 4,000 Velib’s in 29 smaller towns on the city’s edges.
So, despite the increasing costs, the city and JCDecaux are pressing on. The company invested about $140 million to set up the Vélib’ system and provides a yearly fee of about $5.5 million to Paris, which also receives rental fees for the bikes. In return, its 10-year contract allows it to put up 1,628 billboards that it can rent.

...

JCDecaux will not discuss money figures, but the expected date for profitability has been set back. But the City of Paris has agreed to pay JCDecaux about $600 for each stolen or irreparably damaged bike if the number exceeds 4 percent of the fleet, which it clearly does.
In an unsuccessful effort to stop vandalism, Paris launched an ad campaign this summer. Posters showed a cartoon Vélib’ being roughed up by a thug. The caption read: “It’s easy to beat up a Vélib’, it can’t defend itself. Vélib’ belongs to you, protect it!”


Joe Dassin - Les Champs-Elysees

The Bittersweet Comedown

The novelist Paul Fournel wrote, "With the end of the Tour de France, the summer reaches its moment of sadness: long, hot afternoons and no longer anything to get your teeth into."

From the green fields that engulfed the pelaton in the initial stages, to the moon surface of Mont Ventoux; the battle for the green jersey to the dominance of the yellow; and from the veteran Lance to the spring chick Schleck's - the rest of my summer will not be quite the same. And they say this tour wasn't even a very exciting one!

Word on the street is next year Armstrong will battle it out against Contador to show that cheeky little llama who's boss. They'll likely be the captains of different teams giving us viewers an awesome spectacle of one on one rivalry and team on team tactics.

For now, then we are left to revel in the excitement of the past three weeks, watch Les Triplettes de Belleville and bid on the Livestrong bikes (...yeah right!).

Les Triplettes de Belleville - Rendezvous

Lance Armstrong's Bikes + Art: What could be better?

Oh Happy Day! Artistic road bikes are this woman's new froyo (not just any froyo - good fraiche shit). And I cannot deny my love for Lance...I follow his twitter updates at work. Tweet Tweet!

According to the Trek Bikes Website, all of these things are now rolled into one:

Trek, The Lance Armstrong Foundation, Nike, and the most influential artists of a generation have teamed up to produce a unique collection of bicycles and art without peer.
The Exhibition opens at the Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris before traveling to the United States this fall. All work is available for purchase with proceeds directly benefiting the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

Anyone want to buy me a new bicycle? Here are some photos:

This bike with a "stroboscopic" rear wheel design (apparently meaning that the wheel looks like it's pulsing as it spins) was used for Lance's opening time trial this year. The bike was designed by Australian-born, London-based Marc Newson, "a revolutionary designer whose work in the fields of aerospace, furniture, product, jewelry, interior, and vehicle design have earned him countless accolades from the design community."

"Deceptively simple. Naive. Childlike. All words that might be used to describe the first look at Yoshitomo Nara's work. Inspection reveals a deeper truth — saws, knives, and sharp implements often grace the hands of his young subjects, who often possess a look of anger, cynicism, or concern. "

Pretty dramatic for a bike, eh? Athletes love drama (at the very least, American sports announcers do. SportsCenter is absurd.) Anyway, this design was created by a Japanese contemporary artist - Yoshitomo Nara - who, from what I can tell, likes to use seemingly cute images (pastel skinned children, bubbly cloud fonts) as a misleading front for his true darker intentions (the kids on this bike have boxing gloves and are swarmed with UFOs). Apparently he is a big music fan and attributes much of the energy seen in his work to his love of punk music. In a touching personal gesture, Nara also included a moving inspirational message handwritten across the top tube of the bike's frame, visible only when Armstrong's head is deep in an aerodynamic tuck: "Never Forget Your Beginner's Spirit."