FLIRTing with the Crowds

Summer is slowly creeping to northern hemisphere, although the weather during Vappu was still quite freezing. As a result, bikers are again beginning to fill the streets of Helsinki, a great biking city by the way, although not quite at Amsterdam’s level.

Because of this, I wanted to bring forth some of this year’s cool bike models for the urban warrior. Biking is an environmentally friendly, healthy, fast as well as social way of transport, which I at least prefer to any other mode of moving about the town. Here’s my personal top five machines for the spring 2007:

Trek just launched its Lime model, which is probably the most interesting of the pack, thanks to Shimano’s shifting mechanism that adjusts gear ratio to pedaling speed - automatically. The trunk is also useful to stash your stuff while cruising the marina topless in swimming shorts.

Monocle, my favorite mag at the moment has also launched its own bike model, developed together with Skeppshult of Sweden. As the magazine itself, the bike oozes cosmopolitan attitude, prestige and intellect. Like a work of art, but still very street-credible.

Altabike is designed by the creative minds at Frost Produkt, Bleed, and Norway Says of, you guessed it, Norway. Definitely the sleekest of the five and a perfect match to the Nintendo Wii and MacBook already inhabiting your studio apartment.

For the most demanding cyclo-spirits, there’s of course Cannondale’s Bad Boy Ultra, which I had the joy of owning a couple of years back (had to sell it to raise money for my exchange period in Costa Rica). Been toying with the idea of buying it anew, but the €1700 price tag at present raises some issues between me and BB.

Finally, there’s my ultimate favorite, which I at present use to commute within Helsinki: The Finnish Jopo (Short for Jokaisen Polkupyörä, Finnish for Everybody’s Bicycle). No gears, no hi-tech bells and whistles, no frills whatsoever. Just pure enjoyment of biking (while looking boheme and cool while doing it). Perfect for city and beachwalks, but I wouldn’t do rough terrain or longer routes. Mine is naturally colored matte black all the way down to the hubs, spokes and wheels. Wonder if I’m still longing for that Bad Boy anyway…