For The Love Of Bikes posts many many great tidbits of velo-goodness, and this one is too good not to share. Check out the magical whimsy of these 1963 fashion photos by Melvin Sokolsky, shot for Harper’s Bazaar.

Gurldoggie pointed out this great series of images of bicycles in Isfahan, Iran, by the Iranian photographer Alieh Sâdatpur, which were originally posted by MehrNews and the Poemas del Rio Wang blog.

Not surprisingly given Iran’s political alliances, it looks like most of these bikes are classic Chinese roadsters. The head badge in this photo reveal this cycle to be a Phoenix.

Six months ago, Port-au-Price Haiti was rocked by a massive earthquake, causing one of the worst urban disasters ever. Today, a guest post from Port-au-Prince resident Ben Depp.
July 12 – Port-au-Prince. Weaving my way through traffic, I pass pancaked buildings and camps swollen with people displaced by the earthquake. Small groups of men and women with sledge hammers break apart rubble. I have to pay extra attention to the road to avoid the large piles of rubble edging their way into my lane.

In six months, a lot of rubble has been moved. Just after the quake, roads were blocked with rubble, landslides and wrecked cars. With a limited number of dump trucks and other heavy equipment, it will take years to clear the city. A lot of rubble will stay where it is until it breaks down on its own. Camps have grown since the earthquake with people coming into the city from the countryside in hopes of free food or a tent or a job.

My ride takes me through a market where thousands of people sell in the blazing sun all day with painfully thin profit margins. I was surprised when less than a week after the earthquake, the markets started filling back up with local food from the countryside. It was a reminder to me that the rest of the country was still functioning. The farmers and market women took a huge hit when their already struggling economy was flooded with free imported rice during planting season but they are still here scraping along.

The crappy part of riding in Port-au-Prince is traffic and diesel exhaust, both of which have gotten worse since the quake. A lot of cars were crushed in the earthquake, but to make up for that the relief organizations have imported thousands of diesel SUVs that are now choking up the city’s already congested streets. (I can’t complain too much because I work for these same organizations on a regular basis).

My commute home would force me to climb three miles back to my house. Instead, I break up the climb skitching on the back of tap-taps (pickup taxis) which never fails to entertain the driver and passengers. I haven’t tried skitching on any of those new diesel blowing SUVs yet.

Despite the U.S. embassy’s new travel warning asking U.S. citizens to avoid travel to Haiti, I feel safe riding my shiny Salsa 29er with $3,500 worth of camera dangling from my neck . There are a lot of poor people in Haiti, but contrary to sensational media reports only a few of those people are uncool.

Ben and his wife Alexis (who fixed the punctuation on this story) live in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. They blog at www.blexi.blogspot.com. Ben is a freelance photographer available for assignments. He’s also the author of this instructable on building your own cargo bike.

Axum, Ethiopia as darkness fell. November, 2009.

A great discovery: Velowala.org! This site is an art project documenting the “velowalas” of Delhi, India, who sell a variety of items off of bicycles (and trikes, and carts with bike wheels).

I just spent an extraordinarily pleasant half hour perusing the site’s images, sounds, and thoughts. (It was not immediately intuitive to me–the See! Hear! headers on the home page are links to the best Velowala.org site content).

I miss India! It’s almost four years since I was there last, and I’m ready to go back! These images take me right back into the immersive sight-sound-smell-taste-sweat-exhaust-grime-spice-traffic-jetlag experience of that rich and vibrant subcontinent.

I’m off for the weekend, no connectivity, no work, no bike, just a cabin in the woods with family. No freak bike post this Friday. Have a wonder-filled weekend.

Velowala.org found via the always awesome Street Use.
Related post: Trash-hauling tricycles of Beijing.

I’m looking through images from my last trip, as I prep to head out to Africa again in the next few weeks.

Phenomenal bicycle photographer Matt Lingo has posted a black and white photo story called “Alex’s Cuevas.” In fourteen images it conveys the story of his friend Alex while rebuilding a new Cuevas bike after a hit-and-run totaled his previous hand-built Cuevas frame.

I also love this image Matt posted earlier in January.

Beautiful, evocative work, Matt! Keep it coming!

We have photo contest winners!

First, thanks to all the amazing photographers who submitted bicycle-themed nighttime images, and thanks again to the great sponsors Planet Bike and Bikeglow who provided prizes. Ryan from GoMeansGo and I finally managed to settle on winners, after looking long and hard at all the entries.

The winner of the Planet Bike winter commuter package, which was selected by the staff at Planet Bike, is Mark Magnussun.  For his photo Düsseldorf Winter Landscape Mark wins a set of Cascadia fenders, a mini pump, a Blaze 2W or Blaze Dynamo headlight, a SuperFlash rear light, and a saddle bag with tire levers and patch kit. (Let that be a lesson to you: next year submit a photo with an umlaut in the title!)

Ryan and I chose Tim Kainu as having submitted the best overall images – we disagreed slightly on which was our favorite, but heartily agreed that he was tops overall. Tim wins a nice prize package worth over $100 – a Bikeglow unit, a Planet Bike Blaze 2 watt LED headlight, and a Planet Bike Superflash Stealth rear blinkie light.

For the best Northwest image, the prize goes to Robin, aka Ray Tracing who submitted some great shots from two Seattle nighttime photo shoots done for the contest. Robin wins a full prize package – a Bikeglow unit, a Planet Bike Blaze 2 watt LED headlight, and a Planet Bike Superflash Stealth rear blinkie light.

And for most creative image, the prize goes to this awesome long exposure that was submitted by Twin Cities Brightest very early in the contest. Twin Cities Brightest also wins a Bikeglow unit, a Planet Bike Blaze 2 watt LED headlight, and a Planet Bike Superflash Stealth rear blinkie light. If anyone will put lights to good use, it’s him!

But that’s not all! Planet Bike was kind enough to throw even more lights in the box they sent me, so Ryan and I chose a few more winners.

There were lots of “in motion on the street” shots submitted, of those we chose this ghostly commuter image from Ken Kraft as the winner of a Planet Bike Spok micro blinkie.

Sweendo gets a Planet Bike Superflash Stealth for his creative Northwest submissions that were close runners up in several categories.

DPJ gets a Planet Bike Spok micro blinkie for the great images submitted.

If Flickr user Carol Torres in Sao Paolo can come up with a USA address for me to mail it to, she can get a Planet Bike Spok micro blinkie for her photo from Amsterdam.

And finally, because we ran out of prizes long before we ran out of great photos, Flickr user Cosmicmotionstudios gets our last Planet Bike Spok micro blinkie.

Thanks again to everyone who participated! Your photos are all amazing.

Winners: I am trying to reach you, but if you see this first, email juju@bikejuju.com with your mailing address (US or Canada only), and if you are Tim, Ray or TCB, state your order of preference for a blue, red or white Bikeglow unit, and for a black or white Planet Bike Blaze. First folks to express a preference will get priority, and I’ll give up on contacting all winners by late January and give any leftover prizes away in future contests.

The Dark Days are ending and the days are getting longer! Happy holidays! Bikejuju will be on hiatus till 2010. (But meanwhile you can also see my photos of a pretty blue Chinese Phoenix bike in Ethiopia).

I stumbled across this Flickr set called “China: Goods By Bicycle” posted by Flickr user Brickoleurbanism, who shot them in Shanghai.

Actually most of the images are good by tricycle, and most of the tricycles seem to be this single speed model with a curvaceous frame design. Anybody know what it is?

I love this mobile bike repair shop, with the water bowl out for checking leaking inner tubes.

Many of the images have multiple cyclists in the frame–I count at least six bikes in this image. In China there is still a critical mass of cyclists even as cars grow more accessible. Nary a helmet in sight, and no lycra, yet somehow they still manage to get around!

Check out the full set here. A wonderful typology of Chinese utilitarian cycling. And while you’re at it, the Bricoleurbanism blog these were shot for has a number of interesting posts on urban bike infrastructure.

I’ve posted the details for the Bikejuju and Go Means Go Dark Days photo contest on a separate contest page. Please help get the word out about this contest, which has some awesome prizes including a full commuter package from Planet Bike, and Bikeglow safety lights from Bikeglow.

I’m looking forward to seeing what a little photo creativity, some lights, and some slow shutter speeds can bring to these long dark evenings!