I’ve had about 6 bikes stolen over the years in the city,  and then later when my ugly little Ukrainian throwback got stolen, possibly “removed” from my street, it got me thinking about the best strategies for keeping my bike safe and sound.

Writes Rick Polito, author of a bike guide writes: “Nature is a master of disguise. The tiger swallowtail caterpillar starts out as a bird dropping to discourage hungry birds…having an ugly bike doesn’t mean having a junky bike. A bike thief may see the gem under the Krylon, but he also knows he can’t sell it as quickly as the tricked out speedster at the other end of the bike rack.”

When I buy shiny new bikes, I take care of them. I bring them in my house, I buy them a good lock, they feel safe and secure to drive… but after my last new metallic purple street bike got stolen, I imagined it was time to buy the ugliest bike I could get my hands on. Certainly no thief wants an ugly bike. It turns out they do, but it takes longer for the ultimate act to take place.

Some tips to “ugly” your bike:

1. Remove any flashy stickers or brand name labels from your bike.

2. Buy second hand so the bike already looks worn.

3. Repaint it with a cheap matte black or army green spray paint. Don’t be modest with the paint. Over-spraying is a good thing. Not on the gears, chain, or brakes though. 

4. Decorate it with ugly stickers, possibly a car air freshener, or fake animal fur.

5. Attach a milk crate or a rusty rack for carrying stuff.

6. Fake rust your bike with modern spray paint from the hardware store.

7. Tear a hole in your saddle (when it’s raining cover with plastic bag).

8. Add some duct tape to the frame.

9. Consider adding some streamers or spokey dokeys.

10. Visit U-G-L-Y Your Bike, a great how-to guide that offers step-by-step tips to keep your “first class ride” from the hands of thieves.

Tip: buy it ugly new. Here are some fugly e-bikes you might want to try.

The post Make your bike ugly and theft-proof appeared first on Green Prophet.

In Afghan, as example, the sport is taboo for women. Here in modern and moderate Jordan, a handful of early-morning cycling clubs hit the highways to the airport and Dead Sea to avoid car traffic.

Rarer still, intrepid city cyclists can be spotted threading through the capital, Amman. But is the beauty of bike riding worth risking life and limb?

A pair of Swedish designers have devised a remarkable solution to help us keep our heads: an “invisible” bike helmet!  Weary of uncomfortable and clunky foam-filled plastic helmets, Anna Haupt and Terese Alstin (pictured above) devised a revolutionary solution that offers total head protection without being on your head. Invented in 2005, their Hövding Invisible Bike Helmet was launched in 2011 and are now sold on their website – link here.

It looks like a simple puffy cowl, covered in a variety of fabric designs.  Inside is a fully-engineered airbag that is released by a sensor that detects cyclist movement.  The unit deploys in the first 1/10th of a second of an accident, and an internal “black box” also records the last 10 seconds – allowing for follow-on analysis that may provide info to make future biking safer. This short video shows the device in action:

The developers see many other long-term applications ranging from skiing to motorsports.  It could also be worn by equestrians: horseback riding is extremely popular throughout this region.

Maybe the Speed Sisters, the Palestinian women’s racing team, could take them for a spin. But priced at $450 bucks each, the helmets are beyond the reach of most. And once inflated, can’t be reused.

See still of crash test dummy test in action:

If costs could drop, the Hövding helmet could ensure that those who dare ride a bike on Middle Eastern roads don’t end up as crash test dummies.

All images from the Hövding Helmet website

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Bike riding is taboo for Afghan women, considered a marker of promiscuity and ranking on the cultural offenses index somewhere between driving and being spotted with an unrelated man. That belief eliminates a sustainable means of travel and undermines women’s mobility, creating another obstacle to accessing education. Watch a new generation of cyclists race away from the ban.

In 2006, Shannon Galpin founded Mountain2Mountain, a nonprofit that connects American mountain communities with their geographic cousins abroad. The organization focuses particularly on women and children in conflict zones. She made her first trip to Afghanistan in 2008.

Galpin claims to be the first woman to ride a mountain bike through the Afghan countryside.  Bending norms as a foreigner, she’s used her bike as an icebreaker with tribal elders in remote villages, and in bold fundraisers (she pedaled 140 miles across the Panjshir Valley, rough terrain with a 4,000 vertical foot drop).

Last year, on her 11^th visit, Galpin met another cyclist who told her that an Afghan women’s national cycling team had been created.  They practiced before dawn with the men’s cycling team coach, helmets atop headscarves and limbs fully covered.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Galpin, a former Pilates instructor from Colorado, told The New York Times. “I’d been in the most liberal areas of the country, and I’d never seen a little girl on a bike, let alone a grown woman.”

Inspired, she spent the past winter fundraising and returned to Afghanistan last month to distribute 40 duffel bags stuffed with tools, bike seats and jerseys. Liv/Giant, a brand focused on female cyclists, joined the effort, supplying new bicycles and another company, Giro, donated helmets and shoes.

Afghanistan has 45 licensed female cyclists, according to the International Cycling Union (ICU).  Some participated in the Asian Cycling Championships last March, although four of them failed to finish. The riders hope to compete in the 2016 Olympics, but need to start earning points in the ICU nations ranking through bigger events like the Continental Championships and Women’s Road World Cup.

The women are also eligible for scholarships through the Olympic Solidarity Commission, which helps countries in need to develop their sports programs.

Galpin said, “They’re no different than women in Afghanistan who risk their lives to attend school or run for Parliament.”  (Or who use paint and graffiti to express themselves.) “They know the only way to break the taboo is for other women to see them riding bikes.”

This goes beyond sending cyclists to the Olympics.  It’s a way to shatter a standard that curtails women’s mobility.  Bikes are affordable, sustainable, healthy.  They allow riders to travel independently, without guardians and absent a mass transit structure.

Galpin is creating a documentary about the team titled “Afghan Cycles“, and the cyclists remain eager to speak publicly about their team, despite having received death threats.

The women need money to train, to travel to races, and to hire coaches. Sound like a project you’d like to support? Donations can be made at the Mountain2Mountain website.

Said Galpin, “Once they’ve all finished a race, they can start trying to win one.’”

Images from Afghan Cycles Facebook page

The post Afghan Women’s Cycling Team Is Working All Gears appeared first on Green Prophet.

Consulting the experts

In a city notorious for terrible commutes and congested traffic, encouraging more people to bicycle isn’t just good for the environment — it could relieve vehicle congestion and substantially improve everyone’s mood.

Because bicycling is rare on major streets in Istanbul, drivers are unused to seeing cyclists sharing the road with them, leading to dangerous driving maneuvers and even violent confrontations.

To discuss how best to ensure bicyclists’ safety and integrate bicycle infrastructure into the city, BikeLab brought representatives from the Istanbul municipal government, Turkish transportation stakeholders, and NGOs together with Dutch and Turkish experts in urban transit planning.

Leaders from two major cycling associations in Istanbul were in attendance, as were members from the Dutch Cycling Embassy. Turkey could learn much about urban bicycle infrastructure from the Netherlands, one of the world’s most bike-friendly countries.

How to build a bike culture from scratch?

BikeLab spawned more than mere discussion about the issue, however. The work begun at the workshop will continue through a series of events in 2013.

Bicycle lanes must be part of the solution. Designing and implementing those lanes will begin over the next year, as will a series of activities to encourage more Istanbul residents to ride bikes.

Not all cities in Turkey are as unfriendly toward bicyclists as Istanbul. In 2011, EMBARQ TÜRKİYE started developing pilot bicycling corridors in the Turkish cities of Antalya, Sakarya, and Eskişehir. But Istanbul, the country’s most populous and bustling metropolis by far, is where bike-friendly infrastructure is most urgently needed.

:: EMBARQ

Read more about green bicycling news from the Middle East:

‘Wadjda’ – A Saudi Girl & Her Green Bicycle
Is Bicycle Sharing Coming to Beirut?
Bicycle Activists Stop in Istanbul En Route to Palestine

Image via Royston Rascals

The post With Some Advice From the Dutch, Istanbul Tries To Be More Bike-Friendly appeared first on Green Prophet.

There may have been a public battle to allow Saudi women to drive but an award-winning film explores the sensitive issue of women’s rights through a young girl and her green bike

The battle for Saudi women to drive (and also take part in the Olympics) may have hit the headlines in 2012 but there are a million little battles fought by Saudi women everyday. The new and award-winning film ‘Wadjda’ by Saudi filmmaker Haifaa Al Mansour charts a young girl’s wish to ride a green bicycle and race with a boy in her neighbourhood. Al Mansour says the film aims to put a human face on the issues in Saudi Arabia and charts the struggles of ordinary people who have to manoeuvre through the conservative society of the Kingdom.

“The Saudi culture can be especially brutal and unforgiving to people who fall out of step with the society, so there is a real fear of being labeled an outcast,” explains Al Mansour, who is the first female filmmaker in Saudi Arabia. “So in some ways, the story is part of my life and the things I encountered in my life. A lot of my experiences, along with those of my friends and family, are reflected in the film in some way – they didn’t just come from a concept in my mind.”

‘Wadjda’, which won the best Arabic feature film at the Dubai Film Festival, is the first full-length feature ever filmed entirely inside the Kingdom. The film lead, Wadjda, is desperate to buy a green bike at her local shop but her mother won’t allow it, fearing repercussion from a society that sees bicycles as dangerous to a girl’s virtue. So Wadjda decides to try and raise the money herself.

“I come from a small town in Saudi Arabia where there are many girls like Wadjda who have big dreams, strong characters and so much potential. These girls can, and will, reshape and redefine our nation,” insists Al Mansour. The filmmaker also explained that it was important for her to work with all-Saudi cast of actors and to tell the story with local, authentic voices. “I hope the film offers a unique insight into my own country and speaks of universal themes of hope and perseverance that people of all cultures can relate to,” she added.

For more on “greening” Saudi Arabia see:
Saudi Spring for Women Drivers Begins Now!
Are Saudi’s Female Olympians Harlots or Heroes?
Saudi Women Give Right to Vote (& Save Planet)

The post ‘Wadjda’ – A Saudi Girl & Her Green Bicycle appeared first on Green Prophet.

Could it be a world-changer? A cheap solution to help African kids get to schools and clinics? Israel’s Izhar Gafni (who we interviewed here) had an outlandish idea to create a durable cardboard bike from scratch with raw materials sum totalling about $9. Add in some labor costs and you can get a pretty cheap ride, one worth buying in a world where bike theft is rampant.

News reports are circling around the world that Gafni’s cardboard bike (see photos here) is headed to market. No doubt after articles and videos about his project infected the world’s media. Reuters is reporting:

“When we started, a year and a half or two years ago, people laughed at us, but now we are getting at least a dozen emails every day asking where they can buy such a bicycle, so this really makes me hopeful that we will succeed,” he said.

Hus business partner Nimrod Elmish, Gafni’s business partner says that by using cardboard and other recycled materials there can be a huge change in production norms. Companies could get grants and rebates for local production, offering no real reason to make them in poor and cheap labor markets.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txSboSNQINs[/youtube]

At a cost of about $20, and made on automated production lines, the workforce could employ pensioners and the disabled, while the business model he has penned could work a lot like Tom’s shoes, which gives away a free pair of shoes for every pair sold to a western buyer.

Estimated to last 10 years, the cardboard bike will also weigh two-thirds the weight of a regular bike. If it breaks or melts you can recycle it and buy a new one.

Millions of people are emailing us for Izhar Gafni’s cardboard bike contacts. Please reach out to him via his Facebook page. Ride on Gafni! We are rooting for you.

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Gafni experimented with several prototypes before coming up with the winning design.

Made out of corrugated cardboard sheets, the bicycle can withstand up to 140kg.

In some cases, the cardboard is rolled up to give it strength.

Engineers told Gafni it would be impossible to build a bicycle out of cardboard, but he persevered (at his wife’s behest.)

In Israel, bicycles are regularly stolen. Gafni’s design is so cheap that it’s not worth stealing, he told local media.

Early prototypes looked like delivery boxes on wheels, he said. But the final design, for cardboard, is pretty darn sleek. At least we think so.

This is definitely not a winner!

But this one is.

Although it costs only 9-12 USD in materials, Gafni sells his cardboard bike for USD 60; still, that’s a steal for a simple whip around.

Izhar Gafni: the man who defied the naysayers and followed his dream.

Photography: Uri Ackerman

The post The $9 Cardboard Bike From Israel (PHOTOS) appeared first on Green Prophet.

Jerusalem’s light rail may have been up and running for months already, but some residents believe that cycling is still the best way to get around.

In the fall of 2011, Jerusalem finally got its much anticipated light rail (after years of construction).  The light rail was intended to offer a comfortable and eco-friendly means of transportation to Jerusalem’s residents, but some of them – especially those who ride bikes – think cycling is better (and protest the fact that bikes are banned aboard the light rail).  In order to remind Jerusalem that cycling is still a great way to get around, Cycle Jerusalem has organized a Bike to Work Day to take place next week.

Participants can join Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, companies, and institutions that will be biking to work on Sunday, March 25th.

Bike to Work Day will be held just a few days before Festigalgal – a Jerusalem Bicycle Festival also organized by Cycle Jerusalem. 

Festigalgal will include a bike ride that begins in the morning, a bike circus, musical performances, and activities for the whole family.  (Bike rentals will be available on location.)

Bike to Work Day and Festigalgal are only two of the cycling events organized recently by Cycle Jerusalem.  The organization has also put together a Critical Mass ride and a cycling protest of the bike ban aboard the Jerusalem light rail in recent months.

To read more about these events visit the Cycle Jerusalem website (in Hebrew).

Read more about cycling activism in Jerusalem:
Critical Mass of Cyclists to Test Jerusalem’s Bike Paths
Cyclists Protest Ban on Bikes Aboard Jerusalem’s Light Rail
The Cycling Nightlife in Jerusalem

The post Jerusalem Mayor to Join “Bike to Work Day” Next Week appeared first on Green Prophet.

Is bike-sharing gaining momentum in the Middle East?

Paris got many cities to start thinking seriously about bike-sharing systems when it launched Vélib in 2007 – a municipal bike-sharing network that has been widely successful and grown to include over 20,000 bicycles at 1,200 stations.  Cities worldwide have begun adopting the idea, but it is perhaps most suited to an area like the Middle East, where weather is relatively mild year-round and cycling is a viable option most of the time.  2011 was a big cycling year for the region and a few Middle Eastern cities have already adopted bike-sharing systems, with others contemplating implementing them soon.

Is bike-sharing gaining speed in the Middle East?  Could it be the region’s new mode of transportation?

Doha

Doha was the first Middle Eastern city to launch a local bike-sharing system in February 2011.  Bikes are rented free for the first 30 minutes (which encourages commuter cycling).  President of the Qatar Cycling Federation, Sheikh Khalid bin Ali al-Thani, said at the launch of the system that “the idea is to eventually make the country bicycle-friendly with separate cycling lanes.”

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv announced that it would be initiating a bike-sharing system at around the same time that Doha did, but it took until late May 2011 to really get it going.  The city’s system – Tel-O-Fun – includes 150 stations and 1500 bikes that can be used by annual, monthly, weekly or daily subscribers.  It has gained popularity since it was launched in the spring, and may Tel Aviv residents can now be seen rocking a Tel-O-Fun bike.

Cyprus

Despite the recent proposal of a law that would punish cyclists for riding on pavements (despite Cyprus’s lack of allocated bike lanes), Nicosia launched a bike-sharing system in November 2011.  Cypriot Environment Commissioner Theopepmtou has his doubts, claiming that the system is geared solely towards connecting the city’s universities and promoting leisurely cycling (instead of commuter cycling), but hopefully the system will expand and gain popularity.

Beirut

In early November Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati tweeted that “the example of Vélib’ rental bikes in Paris is interesting for Beirut to be more ecologically/pedestrian friendly and reduce traffic. Agree?!”  Obviously he’s for it, and he would be supported by many activists advocating for sustainable transportation in Beirut.  The city may not have the infrastructure yet to support a bike-sharing system, but the desire for one is there.

Cairo

Cairo has not yet formally discussed a bike-sharing system, but fellow Green Prophet Inji El Abd feels that it is time for a cycling revolution in the city.  Cairo revolutionaries on bikes were the first to get to Tahrir Square and demand a better future for their country, so maybe the benefits of cycling will soon catch on.  As an activist with Cycling for Change, she hopes that Cairo will become the next “Critical Mass” city.

Read more about bicycle sharing:
Bike Sharing Down to a Science
Israel Becomes a Nation of Pedalers (Cycling Freaks)

Images via: Horia Varlan, Petteri Sulonen

The post Will Bike Sharing Become the New Mode of Transportation for the Middle East? appeared first on Green Prophet.

Made by artisans who receive fair wages while upcycling metal products, this bike chain menorah is sustainable for people and the environment.

In our recent survey of sustainably designed Hannukah menorahs, we featured menorahs (and other light fixtures) made locally in Israel.  Not all Jews have the luxury of being in an area where Judaica is locally designed and produced, though, and therefore purchase products that are imported.  These products are not always created with the most environmental and socially ethical values in mind, however, and the Judaica market is often  flooded with products made by exploited workers in third world countries.  And so in addition to our sustainably designed Israeli Hannukah menorahs from last week, we now present a sustainable and fair trade upcycled bike chain menorah made in India and available to Jews worldwide.

Sold through various online shops, the bicycle chain menorah is made by artisans at Noah’s Ark International in Moradabad, India.  Since metal costs have skyrocketed in recent years, Noah’s Ark trains craftspeople to upcycle instead and use alternative metals and materials (learn more about Noah’s Ark International in the video clip below).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_DONLRhQJw[/youtube]

As bicycles are still a primary form of transportation in India, bicycle chains are a readily available material.  Their flexibility enables them to be used in multiple ways.

One of the online trade shops that sells the bicycle chain menorah is Fair Trade Judaica, a website launched in 2007 by Ilana Schatz and which both promotes fair trade products and provides assistance in designing new products.

Schatz considers the support of fair trade products to be a concept close to the message of Hannukah itself, and said that “if Hannukah is a story of liberation, then products made for a fair wage represent a different kind of liberation…  When you buy a fair trade product, it can lift that family out of poverty.”

:: JTA
:: Fair Trade Judaica

Read more about fair trade organizations in the Middle East:
Middle Eastern Grassrooters That Keep It Environmentally and Socially Responsible
SAHA’s Fairly Local Trade
Guy Lougashi Weaves Together Baskets and People with Recycled Paper

Image via: Fair Trade Judaica

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