Cycling, in Barcelona? Are you mad?

[Paul]

Well, despite this (which I had not noticed before today), I would have said "yes, probably", before I was there last week.

I used to live there, 23 years ago. There were bikes but they were few. Very few.

A lot has changed. Over the course of 4 days barely a minute went by without my seeing a bike being ridden. There were mountain bikes, sit up and beg-ers, road bikes, fixies and folders. But not just folders, Brommies. And not just Brommies, but Brommies with Brooks saddles. And not just Brooks saddles, but sprung Brooks saddles. And more than one of them.

In 4 days.

In Barcelona.

It all makes some sense: the motor traffic on the larger roads aside, the smaller streets are okay for cycling. You just have to watch out for the people everywhere. I noticed dedicated (and separated) cycle lanes on some of the major roads too, which were new to me.

And a folder makes sense in a place where few people have on-street parking and off-street is presumably expensive.

They also have a bike hire thing going on, called 'Viu Bicing'. It doesn't translate because while Viu is Catalan for 'Live' (rhyming with 'give'), 'Bicing' (sounds like 'bee-sing') isn't a word in any language I know. But I don't care, they can call it what they like as long as they keep those bikes out there and working, because they are being used in numbers I would never have believed.

I was always going to enjoy a few days with my brother in Barcelona, but I didn't expect to spend the whole time bike ogling and grinning like a fool. And this was me unable to ride. Next time, when my foot's better, I'll be able to join in! I can't wait!

[marcusjb]

From tours of the factory, I am led to believe that Barcelona has been very successful for brompton. A very enthusiastic distributor really worked hard building the brand up over there and they sell significant quantities via that channel now.

It was Barcelona where the brompton world championships started - which is now held back in blighty and has 6-700 riders taking part.

[Pickled Onion]

Eldest Shallot lives there and cycles to work every day, which is not considered at all unusual. He has not had much luck convincing anyone to ride with him out of the city though, because of the heat.

In contrast to cities in the UK, there's a lot of tolerance of people cycling either way on the one-way grid system, and on pavements, but similarly the cyclists don't hare around expecting everyone to get out of their way.

Bici is the short word for bike in both Catalan and Castillian Spanish, though pronounced differently, but the -ing is not a Spanish suffix which is why the word looks odd.

[tiermat]

Having visited Barcelona several times in the last 14 years I have seen the steady change from a gridlocked car-centric city to one where cycling and walking is the preferred mode of transport (and the trams actually work and actually go to places you want to go to!).

I was most impressed by the bike path that runs along the Diagonal, it is about a foot below the road surface, but has a 6" kerb between it and the road (so a total of 18" between top of kerb on bike path surface).  This might sound suicidal to ride on, but it actually makes a lot of sense as only the most foolhardy driver would attempt to drive on that!

I NEED to go back, I love Barcelona, love the people and always have a great time there.

The one bad thing about the bike hire scheme is that you need to have a Barcelona address to be able to get a card to use it.

[Snakehips]

'Bicing' (sounds like 'bee-sing') isn't a word in any language I know.

That's funny, if you type bicing in to Google Translate it immediately says 'Catalan detected'

[Paul]

'Bicing' (sounds like 'bee-sing') isn't a word in any language I know.

That's funny, if you type bicing in to Google Translate it immediately says 'Catalan detected'

Doesn't make it a Catalan word. It's a name they've made up but, as PO says, the 'ing' is not Spanish, nor is it Catalan.

[Bledlow]

So? My OED has kindergarten in it, & papier mache, & . . .  I could go onanonanon. Are they not English words? What about television? Or (wait for it . . . . ) bicycle? Damn foreign word! Someone made it up!

[Jaded]

So? My OED has kindergarten in it, & papier mache, & . . .  I could go onanonanon. Are they not English words? What about television? Or (wait for it . . . . ) bicycle? Damn foreign word! Someone made it up!

Is that splashed all over the dictionary now too   

[Paul]

So? My OED has kindergarten in it, & papier mache, & . . .  I could go onanonanon. Are they not English words? What about television? Or (wait for it . . . . ) bicycle? Damn foreign word! Someone made it up!

I don't understand your point. I didn't say that 'Bicing' wasn't an English word (I assume that's why you refer to the OED). Or German. Or French. I said:

'Bicing' (sounds like 'bee-sing') isn't a word in any language I know.

I only take issue with it because there's no need to invent a Catalinglish word when there is a perfectly good Catalan word for cycling.

But I repeat:

But I don't care, they can call it what they like as long as they keep those bikes out there and working, because they are being used in numbers I would never have believed.

[Paul]

From tours of the factory, I am led to believe that Barcelona has been very successful for brompton. A very enthusiastic distributor really worked hard building the brand up over there and they sell significant quantities via that channel now.

It sounds odd, but it all makes sense: in addition to the lack/cost of parking, most people live in smallish flats (some without lifts and even those with having only small 2-4 person ones).

Add, in my view, a good public transport system and the Brompton is a really clever transport solution there.