1. We finished our UrbanMobility Exhibition in the center of Porto. We received a lot of guests, we did show (hopefully) to some of them, that “UrbanMobility” is more than just a slogan. And last but not least we sold some bicycles. I know it is an ugly, business orientated world, but someone has to face it. Or in the words of our good friend Bruce W.: “It’s a dirty job but someone’s gotta do it!”

2. We built up “The Transformer” Bullitt. The most outstanding music machine – made by KlaraGeist – that ever rolled on that part of the western hemisphere. This is not only a “superlative” – it is the truth, but please convince yourself. A 1.200 W stereo high-end mobile unit, that serves to entertain an area of a small football ground or up to 5.000 people. It is part of our mediabix.com advertising concept, that integrates bicycle based advertisement and spontaneous event sessions. As well mobile DJ´s or beach bars could be interested in such a tool. But independent from all this – it is just “cooooooooooooooooool” or in the words of a Portuguese bicycle magazine editor: “This is very beyond of everything I saw on a bicycle so far…” We leave these words without a comment..

3. We established our first retail bicycle brand, the Yuba Mundo. Why did we do this? Didn´t we have enough work with implementation of our own brands that we distribute? Yes we have a lot of work, but regarding that product there was no denying, we had to agree we with Dan + Bob from USED GmbH about the delivery of 3 test bikes. Meanwhile the first is sold and we realized that we were not wrong, when deciding to enlarge our range. The Yuba is an affordable way of using a transport bicycle in a not yet developed city area. It is stable, well designed and manufactured and it is a long tail cargo bike, a range that we so far didn´t recognized as a serious alternative. But we changed our mind and we must confess: Long tail bicycle transport is an option, even when you do not have the perfect structure regarding bicycle lanes etc. as f. ex in Copenhagen or Amsterdam.. and on top of all for a very interesting price. So here we ride our Yuba!

4. What else happened?

The world lost some great voices and characters, in the persons of Ronnie James Dio and Dennis Hopper. Both died of fu…ing cancer and too early for their families , their fans and their work. Let us remember Dennis and Ronnie with some samples of the greatest stuff that they left.

5. What´s new in bicycle biz?

A new city bike brand came up. Sports Nut went “nuts” and launched a new brand with interesting stuff, the CremeCycles. We were in touch with them already but now we will have a closer view on them, when we visit EuroBike in Friedrichshafen in September. Another great bicycle brand from Germany was seen on the horizon, Kalkhoff is entering business in Portugal seriously. We will come back to this after the summer.

6. Final news.

An American city prohibited bicycle circulation. What? Yes! Please read the whole story here.

Any questions so far? No! Nothing – concerning America – surprises me after that environment disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. A nation of professional liars,  gamblers and stupid managers and ahead of all a president who is not able to fight for his targets, that brought him into the position that he actually has. What remains, are the words of our good friend  Colville Andersen: Gas pumps are so last century!

Anyway, we thought what is good for Royals can not not even be good enough for us and so we ordered a Gazelle Miss Grace, the noble and stylish derivative of the Gazelle NL Heavy Duty. We brought the bike to our exhibition “Mobilidade Urbana” that is currently running in OPorto at Belomonte20 Gallery. When arriving, I left the bike outside the gallery to attract people and to make them curious to step inside. That was the best we could do, a lot of people stopped, saw the bike, came to see the exhibition and we had “Full-House”.

Even a Dutch couple came in to have a look on bicycles from the Netherlands - 2.800 km away from home. (Do they suffer, the Dutch people, when they don´t see any bicycles longer than one week..?

But they were very interested and they noticed our little project and appreciated much to learn about activities of Urban Mobility community that are actually happening in Portugal. When I told them, that we started our business inspired by a visit of Amsterdam in 2008, they were happy!

BTW: Our exhibition will continue until 15 of May, we are changing from week to week some pieces and we are planning different activities. On 25 of April I will meet the people from “Movimento Alternativo” and check out, if some of them are interested to visit our place on the day of their annual meeting. Next Friday (30. April) I will join “Massa Crítica” in OPorto, to invite them as well.

At least some actual picture od street-working “Miss Grace”:

[A small step into history]

In 1996 Bionicon founders Andi Fesl, Stefan Albrecht and Daniel Kohl bought their first full-suspension bike and only half a year later they started to think seriously about how to optimise their daily ride, as they were not satisfied with the uphill performance.

The rising front wheel on uphill sections and a hurting neck drove them insane. Lots of brainstorming, doubts over existing products and inspiration from nature showed the path towards suspension travel and geometry adjustment as a way to optimise the daily ride, apart from simply reducing weight.

Step by step theories were developed, the first basic model was created in 1998 and many versions followed. In 1999 the development was shifted to a pneumatic link system.

It was more logical to adjust the front and the rear of the chassis simultaneously as animals do. More then 20 different versions were created in their little work shop in Bavaria.

On May 1st 2000 this technology was presented for the first time to the world of Mountainbiking at the Lake Garda Bike Festival. This was the point of no return and they found themselves in the centre of attention with envious onlookers from within the bike industry.

Winning the ISPO DuPont Brand New Award 2000 for the most innovative sports product gavetons of PR and drove them to bring this system into the market.

In April 2002 this pioneering product was finally available for everybody and the company was created… [Source: www.bionicon.com]

Meanwhile Bionicon has an approx. turnover of 2 million Euros a year, 20 employees in Germany and another 10 abroad. The strategy diversifys for other areas as well. The frame adaption patents are used by renowned bicycle producers all over the world, the company invests in high quality bicycle wear and started recently to support MTB- Tourism projects…

Join a small tour through Bionicon headquarter:

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Special thanks to Marco Toniolo, who authorized me to use his perfect pictures from an earlier visit a year ago. But they were so much better than my poor “drive-by-shootings” that it would be an offence to anyone’s eyes to use them in this article…

Alternatives? Do it with BAMBOO !

Anyway:

In April 2010 the brand new Bionicon TESLA will come to Portugal!

I met two exhausted heroes, dropping just in after one week of organisation and participation at Greifmasters Bikepolo.

Recep and Holger started their biz in 2004 and they did it right from “zero”. In the beginning they were the “bad boys” – being chased away from the fairground when promoting their bikes in a ”guerrilla-way” Meanwhile they are the proud holders of a Eurobike award and several design awards around the world. They turned their company from a garage story to an established brand in the bicycle market. When I was visiting them last week they proudly presented their new warehouse which sets up another milestone in logistic capability. We agreed upon an individual strategy for the Portuguese market, to allow the brand to grow as well in Southern Europe. Meanwhile we´ve got 4 dealers in the Lisbon area and we are looking for more enthusiastic entrepreneurs who are visionary enough to invest in UrbanMobility with style.. [*Marketing mode "OFF"]

So it was for shure not the wrong transport that he had chosen, when he was kicked off the road by a bunch of civil agents of the state police.

His main problem was, that he carried a loaded gun and a mobile phone with him. Another problem was, that during one week the whole German police was searching him, after he left his home-jail – JVA Achen – using a key for the front door..

They tracked his mobile phone that was switched “on” while he was observated already during days. On a lonely, German country road they efficiency of Police-work lead to a stunt-look-a-like arrest scene. (There was not so much efficiency before and especially @ JVA Achen, where a prison guard did help him to escape… but this is another story)

So what do we learn from this?

1. Do not use a  28er Kettler, 6-gear bicycle on the wrong side of the Dutch border.

2. Use of mobile phones on a bicycle is dangerous

3. Never, ever a commuter bike had such a public attention:

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