The Viscount is head of the badges.

So after an epic break in posting, here's a little something to keep the gears spinning, the pedals turning and all moving parts well greased. I only keep this blog for fun and to share the cool stuff, so when my work load goes crazy, I don't want it to become another chore.

But here's a Viscount head badge!

Neat neat neat! Normal posting will resume soon, with the usual mix of retro, vintage and weird bikes, as well as three new bike builds and details of an exciting pan-European bike trip!

Ride old bikes forever!

The Bicycle Safari is back and brings you a snow bike

Ok, so I took a massive break over the 'holidays' without a post here at The Bicycle Safari, but now I'm back, hopefully with the usual blend of vintage, interesting and destroyed bicycles I find sitting around.

So in my usual Scandinavia hopping way, I was back in Stockholm, Sweden for the last week and thought I'd hunt down a few of the rad steel framed vintage beaters that I documented so extensively back in the early days of this Safari. But what I actually found was this...

... and when bicycles look like that, there's not much more to say really. Perhaps only that this is perhaps one of the most effective ways to lock up your bike, because I don't think anyone is going to bother to dig your bike out for you. Rust and crushed-by-snow-plough risks be damned!

Some where in this drift is a steel framed Mustang, gently crying.

Bicycle Safari Navigates to Nottingham

So after a couple of weeks taking in the sun, the sights and the bikes of Barcelona, The Bicycle Safari has once again packed its trunks and headed back up to cold old Nottingham England.

And what better way to celebrate being back in what used to be the centre of bicycle production in Britain than a classic Raleigh racing bike.

Nice vintage bicycle graphics on the seat tube.

Vintage lettering and the usual bicycle logos.

And a nice welcome back to blogging the old, interesting and rad bikes sitting around rusting up the streets!

Missouri makes a bicycle

A short one today. This lettering was on an un-remarkable 90's mountain bike, and was even missing its front wheel.

Despite these shortcomings, what a nice bit of lettering for the strangely titles Missouri bicycle!

Bicycle Safari is Bound for Barcelona

In the spirit of the Bicycle Safari, it's no good sitting around waiting for bicycles to come to you. So for the last week the Bicycle Safari equipment has been packed into steamer trunks, we've donned our pith helmets and jetted off to Barcelona to bring you a slice of bicycle culture from a another fruit of the world.

It's a great place!

What's more is the prevalence of cycling as a form of transport means there's plenty of interesting and destroyed bicycles sitting around on the street corners. It's interesting the motorcycles are also very popular though, so I do wonder if there's a upward scale people go through in life from their bicycle, to a scooter towards their goal of a litre class motorbike.

But's lets start this Barcelona special the way we will continue. Here's an awesome bicycle side car being used to ferry a presumably blind dog around! Never heard of the Amadeu brand before, but then I've never actually seen a bicycle side car before either. Massive problems in terms of cornering, rolling resistance and being as wide as a small car, I presume. But offset nicely by just how cool this colour coordinated outfit looks. Great stuff

Locking bicycle fork

I've seen one or two of these around before, but not taken a picture of them. I presume there's some kind of flaw to their design that makes them massively dangerous.

But if there isn't, they do seem a smart way to lock a front wheel. Perhaps eliminating the need to carry two locks with you.
Quite a neat bicycle overall.

Bikes reflectors good, three reflectors better!

On a simple numerical basis, this rider has upped their game with the addition of two extra front reflectors.

Can't really fault that.
Off to find some reflectors!

The Bicycle Safari travels north to Nottingham

I've been moving around quite a bit recently, from Lund, to Stockholm and then to London, and where I go, The Bicycle Safari comes with me! But now once again, I announce that bicycle hunting duties are being shifted on to their next somewhat more permanent home!

The Safari is off to Nottingham, England. Now this might not seem the most exciting place to take a Bicycle Safari, but the initial impressions of Robin Hood and a forest are a bit misleading. Nottingham was recently declared the least car dependent city in England, and part of this (as well as plentiful buses and trams) is because of the amount of people cycling around. Coming from Lund, Sweden where 45% of the inhabitants commute every day by bicycle it's hardly going to set the world on fire, but it's a good start.

The second reason why Nottingham is going to be interesting is it's historic role as a bicycle producing town. For nearly 100 years the Raleigh bicycle company produced bikes here, and quite a lot of them are still sitting around the streets! Even when The Safari was in Denmark, this Raleigh popped up with the 'Made in Nottingham' badge on it...

So this is what there is to be found in Nottingham by the bucket load. It should be good!

The Bicycle Safari is on the move again

When the Bicycle Safari first set up camp and started hunting old, interesting or gross bicycles found on the streets, the action was focused on the southern Swedish town of Lund. This was great, because it was full of rusting old heaps of bicycles.

Next up was a little trip to the Danish capital of Köpenhamn (Copenhagen) where we spotted an old English bicycle and that was pretty rad too. There were also a lot of super interesting modern urban bicycles, but I didn't take any pictures of those, so you'll just have to follow the link in the Copenhagen post if you want to look at those.

After a quick stop back in Lund again, The Safari ventured north to the Swedish capital of Stockholm, where this Bianchi was a nice spot, and this Husqvarna proved popular.

But now... now, we take to the sky and to a whole new island. The Bicycle Safari is setting up it's tents, unpacking it's rifles cameras and taking a look around the city of London.