Pilen Contest Winner and Other Updates

Thank you so much once again to everybody who took the time to create the wonderful images paying tribute to Swedish cinema and the bicycle! After much deliberation I am pleased to announce that there is a winner. Over the course of the past week, I wavered between eight finalists. In the end, I took into account not only the image itself (it was really impossible to choose on that account alone), but also how suitable I thought the Pilen would be for the person.

Without further ado: The winner of the contest is Amanda Hamilton, and this was her picture:

To create this striking image, Amanda cut out a paper silhouette of the bicycle, then shot footage of herself and played it on a loop while filming the cut-out in front of it.

This is the paper cut-out that served as the bicycle model. I was surprised and intrigued by this entry, both in terms of its creative interpretation of the guidelines and in terms of how labor intensive it must have been. It was only one of my favourite images, but when I contacted Amanda over email it became apparent that she and the Pilen would be a good match on many levels. Congratulations!

Over the course of the next two weeks I will be finished with my review, and then the bicycle will be shipped to the winner. I hope it is understandable that this is a demo model that I have been now riding for a month - so there will be some scuffs and other mild signs of use. Happily, the Pilen is very durable and my intense testing has left it none the worse for wear. Many thanks again to Pilen's North American distributor BoxCycles for donating the beautiful bicycle and making this give-away possible.

I would also like to update you on other contests, past and future:

The winner of the Po Campo Spare Pocket give-away, sponsored by Planet Gear, has been named, and will receive this enigmatic item shortly from Planet Gear directly.

The winner of the Bella Ciao Superba give-away is being a good sport and waiting patiently, as the bicycles are running fashionably late and have not arrived in the US yet! More on this soon, and they are on their way as I write this.

And finally, after some delay the Lovely Touring Bike contest is coming up next! I have some ideas for this one, but am not yet sure what the rules for it will be. Requests and suggestions welcome!



Many thanks to everybody once again for taking part in the give-aways and I will try my best to keep them going. And of course, thank you for reading Lovely Bicycle!

Oh, and can anyone tell what that camera is, resting on the Pilen's rear rack, and during what years it was produced? A roll of 35mm film for the first person to post the answer : )

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A Little Give-Away for the Long Weekend

[image via Po Campo & Planet Gear]

Longing for something lovely, US-made and free to go with your celebration of freedom from monarchy this week-end? How about a Po Campo Spare Pocket from PlanetGear? This curious item is a water-resistant mini-purse that attaches to your wrist, ankle, or bicycle handlebars. The fabric is a beautiful "contrast damask" with reflective bird detail. I am not one to carry a purse, let alone a tiny purse, so that whole genre of accessories rather mystifies me! I can see attaching this to the handlebars though.

PlanetGear is a women owned retail club offering discounts on gear, clothing and travel destinations, as well as referral programs and monthly specials. I am not a member and am not affiliated with the company, but it looks interesting and hey - if they want to give you free stuff, how can I stand in the way?

If you would like the Spare Pocket, simply post a comment describing your week-end cycling plans (if you don't have any, make some up!) and I will then pick a random entry. US entries only for this one, and please include your contact information in the comment. Recipient will be chosen on Friday July 8th, and you may enter any time up till then. Thank you to PlanetGear for the give-away, thank you everyone for reading, and enjoy the holiday!

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Bikes and Swedish Cinema: Choose Your Favourite Contest Submissions!

The deadline for the Pilen give-away contest was last night, and the entries are in! To recap, readers who fit the height criteria (this is a large bike) were invited to submit an image that depicts a person and a bicycle, and evokes some aspect of Swedish film. The winner will receive the beautiful Pilen Lyx that I am test riding for the distributor, BoxCycles. I received 30 eligible submissions, and most of the pictures were so thoughtfully done, that it seemed only fair to feature them all.

To select the winner, I will first choose five finalists based solely on the pictures. Then I will have a closer look at those entries, read their submissions carefully, and possibly contact them via email with some questions.

If you are up for it, I would love to have your input regarding which images belong among the finalists. I have some tentative favourites in mind, but if popular opinion differs from mine I will reconsider. There are too many entries here to turn this into a poll, but please feel free to let me know in the comments which images appeal to you. Here they all are, numbered 1 through 30:

1. entry from Jenny

2. entry from Marisa

3. entry from Amy

4. entry from Kitty 

5. entry from Amanda

6. entry from Lauren

7. entry from Julie

8. entry from David 

9. entry from Cris

10. entry from Maddie

11. entry from Stephanie

12. entry from Kara

13. entry from Mike White

14. entry from Louisa and Bojana

15. entry from Anders

16. entry from Janice

17. entry from David and Kate

18. entry from Marcella

19. entry from Paris

20. entry from Olivia

21. entry from Brooks and Marya

22. entry from Trevor and Melissa

23. entry from Traci

24. entry from Kate

25. entry from Kimon and Rhonda Haramis

26. entry from Gretchen

27. entry from Audra

28. entry from FieldofBluebells

29. entry from Cate Fitz

30. entry from Riding Pretty

Thank you again for taking the time to create and submit these pictures. Regardless of who wins, this is a visual treat and I hope they were fun to make. Thank you also to BoxCycles for donating the beautiful Pilen! I hope to announce the winner next week.

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Cinematic: The Pilen Give-Away Contest!

As mentioned earlier, I will be giving away the beautiful Pilen Lyx bicycle from Sweden after I finish test riding it for review. One of my strongest associations with Sweden has to do with film. I love Swedish cinema and have seen most films by Ingmar Bergman at least twice. Moody, ethereal, and with an almost fetishistic degree of attention to movement through landscape, Swedish films are aesthetically and emotionally distinct. When I received the Pilen, ahhed over its looks, experienced its nuanced ride quality, and learned that it was built for forest trails, my overactive imagination immediately cast it in such a film.

And so, a contest to win the Pilen's hand in companionship:
Please create and share with us a photo (or digital image capture, if you will) that (1) depicts a person and a bicycle, and (2) evokes some aspect of Swedish film. If you don't know anything about Swedish film, you'll just have to watch some! The deadline for picture submissions is Sunday, June 26th, so there is time.

Details: You can interpret this task as you like. The photo can be serious, or it can be complete parody. The person in the photo does not have to be you, but I think it's more interesting if it is. There can be more than one person and bicycle in the photo. Use your imagination!

Entry Criteria: Due to shipping restrictions, this contest is limited to participants in the USA only. The Pilen Lyx is suitable for persons over 5'7" and/or with an inseam of 32" or longer. I cannot stress enough that this is a large bicycle. I would say that it is ideal for someone 5'9"-5'11". Though men are not prohibited from entering the contest, I would prefer to give the Pilen to a woman. Taller women in the US have very few options for step-through bicycles.

Deadline: Picture must be submitted by Sunday June 26th.

Submission Guidelines: If at all possible, please upload submission pictures to flickr or another image sharing site, rather than emailing me file attachments. Then post a comment here with some sort of identifier (does not have to be your actual name), a functional email address, and a link to your photo. Please only email me (filigreevelo-at-yahoo) if for some reason you are unable to do this. Entries for this contest will be public, and I will post emailed entries in the comments myself. Any questions, please ask in the comments.

Thank you for taking part and thank you to BoxCycles for donating this bicycle!

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A Swedish Guest

Last week I received a new bicycle for an extended test ride and review: a Pilen Lyx. The distributor (BoxCycles) gave me a choice of colours and I took a gamble once again instead of just asking for black. This time the gamble paid off: The unusual shade of blue looks as stunning in person as it did in pictures. It is an ethereal "northern skies after an afternoon storm" sort of blue that I just want to keep staring at.

A small Swedish manufacturer, Pilen has been producing bicycles since 1998. The worksmanship looks outstanding.

The finishing on the TIG-welded frame with lugged fork crown, seat collar, and capped seat stays is up there with the quality of high-end custom frames.

I will cover the frame details in the review after I've had more time with the bike, but so far I am pleasantly surprised.

Nice headbadge, too. Pilen means "arrow" in Swedish.

The lady's frame is available in one size only and it is huge: 56cm or 58cm (22"+), depending on how you measure it. At 5'7" I had to slam the saddle down, but I'm used to that: my Gazelle and Raleigh DL-1 are the same size.

Here are the Gazelle and the Pilen together. The Pilen will be kept outdoors for the duration of its visit, which will allow me to test its resistance to the elements. The distributor assumed this as a matter of course, since that is how he keeps his own bike and that is how Pilens were designed to be stored.

I've been riding the bike since Friday, but am not ready to describe the ride quality yet. It is not like a Dutch bike, and neither is it like an English roadster, so I am trying to "understand" it. I am also still messing with the handlebar and saddle positions and will hold off on my impressions until I get those just right.

But wait, there's more...

In their generosity, the distributor has given me the green light to give this bicycle away once I am finished reviewing it. There are no strings attached: I can just give it to one of my readers in any way I see fit. This is exciting, and I already have an idea for a contest that is kind of kooky, but hopefully fun. So if you are a taller lady, the Pilen could be yours! The final review will probably be ready in 3 weeks' time, and that is also when the bicycle will be given away. Stay tuned and I will post more about the contest next week!

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Superba Give-Away Recipient! ...and On Give-Aways in General

I would like to announce that the special edition Bella Ciao "Superba" bicycle that has been kindly donated for me to give away, will go to Julia D. - a reader from State College, PA. The picture above is one that I took earlier, and which she then marked up with "anatomical labels" and posted on her blog. Julia, congratulations and I hope you enjoy this bicycle! I will email you details regarding its arrival and everything else you need to know.

There was a total of 45 entries for the Superba give-away. Some were eliminated, because it was clear that the applicant could afford a new bicycle. Quite a few other entries were eliminated based on the applicant's height. This still left me with many applicants to choose from, and at this point it became quite difficult to read the emails. There are so many people out there who are in financial need, and I am just not in a position to help them. It would be wonderful if someone - like a large bike manufacturer looking to promote their product - would host a give-away on a grand scale. But this give-away was for someone who specifically wanted the Superba... which eliminated all but a few applicants. Most of the emails I received were fairly general, some even asking questions about the bicycle that made it plain they did not know much about it, other than it being free. Again, I am very sorry to have to choose, but as described in the original give-away post, this bicycle was intended for someone who wanted it and not just a free bike. With the remaining applicants I chose at random, and Julia was it. I hope that this explains my selection process satisfactorily and I thank everyone who took part in the give-away. For me, this was very difficult.

As a general note on give-aways... I've been getting all sorts of emails about them since I began doing them, and so I would like to address a few points. Some readers - including industry members - have suggested to me that "I'm not doing it right," in the sense that the way I go about it does not generate publicity. I am supposed to say that you have to "follow me" in order to be eligible, to write about the give-away on your own blog, to post it on facebook, and so on. So I wanted to clarify that my not doing these things is intentional. It's not that I don't want publicity for my blog. Of course I do. Just not like that. I want my give-aways to be friendly, low key and without stipulations.

The other thing, is that I've also received emails from manufacturers offering various products for me to give away on their behalf, most of which I have politely declined. Though I am willing to do this in theory, I have two criteria: First, the product has to be of interest to me. And second, I am not comfortable with stipulations of the nature I described in the above paragraph: namely, telling readers that they have to "follow" the manufacturer in order to have a chance at getting the product. I am all for collaborating with manufacturers in giving away stuff, but I am not a free-for-all marketing vehicle. There is a line between those two things, and every blog author must decide for themselves where to draw it.

To end on a positive note, I hope to have more give-aways for you soon. The lovely touring bike project got somewhat derailed by the unexpectedly long winter (which made it impossible to test the bike in between stages), but it has now come out of hybernation and I will post about it soon. The give-away should take place some time in June. Stay tuned, and thank you for reading Lovely Bicycle!

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Free 'Superba' to a Woman in Need

Talk about the kindness of strangers... Even as I announce this I find it hard to believe, but here goes: A reader of Lovely Bicycle wishes to donate a Bella Ciao "Superba" to a woman who cannot afford a nice bike. The bicycle has already been pre-ordered and paid for, and it will be available as soon as the Superba bicycles arrive in May. The idea was the donor's, not mine, and I was as surprised as you probably are by the offer! Please read on for the details:

Criteria
The recipient will be a woman, who is actively interested in owning this particular bike, and is in a situation of financial hardship. The recipient must be located in the USA or Canada. To learn more about the bicycle, please see here and here. This bicycle will fit persons 5'5"- 5'10" and note that it has a coasterbrake.

Entry Instructions
If you would like to be considered, please email me privately to "filigreevelo-at-yahoo" with the subject line "Free Superba" and tell me why you are the appropriate recipient. Please also include your height. The emails I receive must be from the women who want this bicycle for themselves and not from their spouses, relatives or friends. Deadline for submitting an entry is May 1, 2011.

Additional Information
I want to make it clear that this give-away is not sponsored by the manufacturer. The donor is an individual with no bike industry connection who is simply a reader of Lovely Bicycle. The donor wishes to remain anonymous and does not wish to take part in the selection process; that has been delegated to me. Entry emails will be read only by me and your information will be kept strictly confidential. The recipient's full name and mailing address will be disclosed to Harris Cyclery (in order to ship the bike), but not to the donor. One thing I ask, is that the recipient emails me a picture of themselves with the bike after receiving it, along with some feedback.

I will be collecting entries from now until May 1st. It will then probably take me a week or so to choose the recipient, and the bicycles will hopefully arrive shortly thereafter. If you have any questions about this give-away, please feel free to ask in the comments. And thank you to the person whose kind gesture makes this possible. It's hard to know what to say and I will do my best to select the recipient fairly.

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