http://www.facebook.com/lisbonize

There is a good reason for that. In September, I was being asked, if I wish to rent a small shop at Oporto seaside. A shop, where I left my vCard some weeks ago and forgot about it, because I was not really expecting any feedback. But then – all over sudden – the owner contacted me. The rest is already part of history, we agreed upon the renting and I took a closer look on the surrounding of my new place…

I wasn´t aware of the ideal position, it has. It is located at the main cycle lane, directly at the seaside in a recreation and nightlife area at Foz do Douro. Thousands of people (and potential customers) are passing there every day, and on the weekend it will be even more. Not to forget about the thousands of car drivers, who are stacked in the traffic jam, every Saturday and Sunday afternoon, like an always repeating procession throughout the year.

We were discussing in the company the need for a showroom already for a long time, but we always ended up with the conclusion that we might need it, but we will not have the time to promote it. After this new opportunity came up, we had to realize:

That place is the solution we were looking for, without knowing that it already exists.

The area itself was until August 2010 one of the ugliest short links to pass the old centre of Foz do Douro the fast way. No parking area, no cycle lane, a two lane inner-city road without any beauty (beside the sea view). You can still see it on the old Google Street View recording. Meanwhile it was transformed into a ONE WAY lane with parking areas, cycle lane and a pedestrian crossing directly in front of the shop. Take a look on the actual situation here.

Conclusion: There came up a lot of unexpected work on top of the schedule we already had: To start our distribution for Germany´s top cycle brand Kalkhoff and some other accessory brands, that we contacted on Eurobike, like Busch und Müller and Speedlifter for. ex. That made me stop any social network activity, I was just glad to continue some postings on Facebook. But don´t worry, I will not continue where I ended in September and bore you with Eurobike re-views.

There are others, who made this work for me in a very professional and extended way, so please take o look at the article in the famous blog of our good friend Henry Cutler from Workcycles, Amsterdam. What his professional eye registererd on the fair represents exactly the subjects, I would have mentioned. Even when I do not always share his opinion (especially concerning the weight and the handling of modern cargobikes.. I recommend his blog-post and his pictures on Flickr) Well done Henry, I should consider sending him again next year…

Another subject, concerning our blog:

Many people asked me about the future and the target of Lisbonize.com. I initially started this blog to keep people from abroad in touch with Portuguese UrbanMobility. I was asked to do this in Portuguese language, but I refused. There are meanwhile a lot of other quality blogs in Portuguese language, as for ex. LisbonCycleChic so that I will continue my target, to keep the non-Portuguese speaking community in touch with our developing country on the edge of Europe in English language.

People from Portugal are always invited to follow us, the information we are spreading is mainly orientated on national subjects – with the small,  little difference, that our main language will be English. Any guest authors, who wish to publish on our blog in Portuguese are welcome to join us. Just register as a user and I will give you publisher rights to start over!

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!

Toni Aematteis (Italian) e Sabine Knoll (German) started with 2 bicycles and three dogs in Italy to pedal through Europe.

They started on 22 of August 2008 in Ostuni (BR) and are are now in Portugal (near Aveiro).

This is what “Journal de Notícias” wrote today:

Pedalada para salvar animais

And this is their Blog to follow:

http://www.tonisabine.blogspot.com/

They are now on their way to Porto. I will try to contact and meet them somewhere on the way. This seems to be a real adventure. A stolen bike. A lot of help from strangers. Lack of money. Discovering the roads. The need of taking care of the animals during the journey.. and so on!

But so far they are having a lot of feedback, as well from Portuguese TV and other media. This helps not only the animals. This makes people think about a bicycle as a serious vehicle. So it will help our idea as well alittle bit! we should support them in any way when we meet them! How will join mee to look out for them?

This is a story about an idealist

Paulo Guerra do Santos, born 1973 decided to use his bicycle.

Nothing spectacular so far?

Of course, if we would talk about Munich, Amsterdam or Berlin.

But we talk about Lisbon. Portugal.

A city and a country still made for car drivers. The natural enemy of a cyclist. And city planners. The fulfilling helpers of these car drivers. Where are these bicycle lanes, that we are used to from other countries? Where is this legislation, that gives us – at least – theoretical protection?

No my friends, nothing so far in Portugal. We have to step back in time to the early 80ies, where everything started to become a peaceful revolution in traffic spaces. OK, Portugal in the early 80ies still had to suffer from another peaceful revolution, that lead the country from dark and decent dictatorship to a democratic and progress orientated place in Europe.

But meanwhile we changed the century. Bicycles and their daily use could be the solution for collapsing cities. And therefore it is an anachronism, that we are talking about something special, when someone uses his bicycle in a European city. This should be natural nowadays. But it isn´t. Take a look of what happened to Paulo. I will visit him in Lisbon and talk about his story and his experience. Maybe we can find some points together, where we can work on a CHANGE!

BTW: he overtook the 100 days. We are counting day Nr. 225..

What hell of an idealist!