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After 15 years in Denmark I’m still trying to figure the Danes’ strange relationship to the bicycle. If you consider the fact that they cover more kilometres on two wheels than any other nation except the Dutch – Copenhageners alone clock up 1.2 million km a day – you’d think that the bicycle was a revered and respected machine.
The opposite is true it seems. For the average citizen the bicycle is regarded in the same way as a bodily organ like… the small intestines. It’s an integral part of life, it serves many important functions and without it your life would be shortened rather abruptly but it’s certainly not something you think about every day. Or at all.
Danes are pleased to show off their new kitchen, hi-tech mobile phone or designer watch. But if you find yourself saying, ”Nice bike!” to one of them, a quizzical look will cross their face. They’ll look down as though they are just noticing the contraption between their legs for the first time. They may even be inwardly miffed that you didn’t notice their new shoes. The bicycle just is.
I’ve learned that there are few cyclists in Denmark, just a lot of Danes who happen to get around by bike. When polled, they say that they ride because it’s easy and quick, not because it’s environmentally-friendly.
The Bicycle in Culture
The modern Dane has an ambiguous relationship to the form of transport they insist on calling ”rusty garden gate” or ”steel horse”. That’s ironic considering the fact that there are more songs, poems and literature about the bicycle in Danish than in any other language. The Danish language even has many subliminal references to it. If things are generally going well for you, you have a tailwind. Up against some hindrances in life? You definitely have a headwind. If your company just beat the competition, the losers were ’shown the back wheel’, meaning you flew past them in a sprint. If you’re having a horrible day with nothing going right, your chain has fallen off. Quite possibly the worst thing that could happen.
I’ve realized that the Danes have spent the better part of a century demystifying the bicycle. In a recent letter to the Editor of a women’s magazine, a reader shared an idea for better traction on the pedals when riding in the rain. It didn’t involve buying futuristic pedals or cycling shoes. The reader gleefully suggested putting thick elastic bands around the pedal. The Danes’ love and respect for their design tradition seemingly, and charmingly, doesn’t extend to the bicycle.
The Perfect Design?
Perhaps the bicycle already fulfils the prerequisites for the time-honoured Danish design tradition: simplicity, functionality, informal elegance and sustainability and maybe it’s been around so long that it’s no longer regarded as something special. A bicycle should just work, getting you from A to B without any fuss. The only time you notice your small intestines is when you have gas and the Danes will only notice their bike when the tyre is flat or something breaks. Then there is little sympathy for their faithful friend, and it’s unceremoniously chucked into a bike repair shop.
I sense that there seems to be some unwritten rule that the collective worth of your clothing should always cost more than your bike, or that some part of your bike must squeak or that rust is an aesthetic addition to any frame or fender. In short, it’s not about the bike. It’s about you ON the bike.
So while Danes will continue their love affair with modern design as they sit in their flash new kitchen watching their massive flatscreen while they send text messages on their state-of-the-art 3G mobile, their bike is relegated to leaning up against the building outside in the rain. Waiting faithfully to carry them wherever they may wish to go.
Written by Mikael Colville-Andersen
Curation & Design by Etikstudio - 50 Elgin Crescent, W11 2JJ London UK, tel. +44 (0)20 7460 3509, [email protected]
For more information, please visit www.denmark.dk