Fashion Bikes

Although possibly not the key audience that we manage to attract, there are, in fact, girls on the internet. Like in life, a lot of these girls are far cooler, fashionable and influential than we will ever manage to be.

This was brought into sharp focus when my attention was brought (by another far cooler person than me) to the blog of just such a lady. Apparently Gala Darling influences the fashion choices of a lot of women out in the world and it turns out that she has managed to find an attractive folding bike to buy. This can only mean that cycling is not only fashionable and chic, but also, apparently that sales of the Dahon bike she found will now rocket.

I don’t love folding bikes, but I guess I see the point of them if you need to carry the bike around. Also if she really wanted a city bike, but lives anywhere that isn’t on the ground floor the folding option might be a good idea, and she seems happy that she’s found the compromise. It ticks all those boxes that some girls seem to like in a bike; marketing targeted at dresses and skirts, looking solid and planted, a “vintage” look, and an upright riding position that evokes a leisurely potter along, even if you’re trying to do that in hectic London or New York. Pashley-style city bikes are, as anyone can see, the fashion-fixie for the fashion conscious girl in town. Expect to see lots more Dahon Brizas on the roads soon.

You can probably expect even more than usual in Cambridge as people resort to folding bikes to circumvent the new ban on bikes on one peak-time commuter train to London.

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