Quick reports, sensations, signals and trends from the planet IBF, Italian Bike Festival, in its fourth edition.
The location, on the most beautiful seafront in Italy, no asphalt, only bikes, bipeds and scooters, Rimini's Fellini park already says sweet mobility + sweet life.
A poster of an old icon exhibition entitled “L'oro di Giovanni” seems to be placed there on purpose to indicate the Rosti space, a shop-gazebo and two very tactical open igloo showrooms, at the center of the flows. They also attract the Vodafone hostess with her corner and her Curves, which is a new generation tracking-anti-theft system, with a slogan that says “it's time to pedal intelligently”. Help!
The theme “Bicycle Thieves”, with satellite anti-theft devices, “ZeroSbatty” insurance and bike registry is one of the drivers of this edition. Bike theft is the real brake on the spread of daily urban use. We will see if GPS technology will change the scenario.
Staying with the Italian cinema metaphor, the other mega trend could be called “Roman Holiday”, to indicate the boom in cycle tourism in Italy. Many stands of regions or provinces, which promote the territory as a cycling environment, cycle paths, itineraries in historic villages, in nature, in history, every corner of Italy has its lost paradise, minor roads, depopulated valleys, ancient roads that are useful today. Parallel to the “recycling” of tourist destinations, motorcycle brands are also “recycled”, in many stands it seems like entering a time machine, a true Fellini amarcord, we find rejuvenated brands that made us dream in the Motor Shows of the 80s, Fantic, Husquarna, Ktm, Aprilia. It was the enduro era. Models of legendary “engines” such as Ducati Scrambler and Garelli Ciclone, today “recycled” into e.bikes and scooters. Bikes cost more than mopeds, they are cooler, you can do things that you can no longer do with a motor, go around the city, in pedestrian areas, on paths, in the mountains. Free time, weekends, have fun exploring the territory. You can go to the beach, on vacation. Trips and rides that yesterday were done on a Vespa, today are done on a Gravel.
La dolce vita is the name of the cycle-tourism ride attached to the Festival, it suggests an increasingly smart access to the planet bike. After decades, not only shops but also workshops where you can repair, adjust and modify your bike are back on the streets and in the cities, even small DIY charging stations.
Feel the flow, feel the flow, is the Bosch slogan on the inflatable portals for access to the bike test tracks. Let yourself be carried away, it is the philosophy of the dolce vita. Relax, you can do everything on a bike. Even carry around things, flowers, pizzas, books: it is the “cargo revolution”, a new form of delivery in urban centers, tricycles, trailers, cargo bikes. With new solutions, new mobility synergies bike-wheelchairs for the disabled. The dolce vita is for everyone, or it is not the dolce vita. Even children, the bike as an educational tool, and pumptracks increasingly widespread.
And here we are at the film that indicates the perspective, the overtaking: the bike sector in Italy is the new locomotive of made in Italy, it has surpassed food & wine. This is what the numbers, the experts, the export, the projections say.
Let's talk about the target, which is transversal, global, young, less young, women. But the most substantial target in every sense is that of people aged 40-60 with good economic availability and a few kilos to lose: a target to "recycle", people who stopped riding a bike after the age of 14 in the fantastic 80s and now, after the 40s, in times of new ecology, are attracted and "attentioned" by the soft mobility industry, which includes bikes of all types and costs, MTBs, Gravel, electric, folding, scooters.
The scene in “Il sorpasso” comes to mind, when the protagonist (Gassman) says “first rule of Italian driving”, and tears off the rearview mirror, so as not to look back. Of course. Forgetting the past, the roots, the history, the values, the origins.
The world of cycling is changing skin and soul, driven by the green revolution, towards new mythologies. We talk less and less about sweat and effort, more and more about well-being, sustainability and electric propulsion. In reality, cycling is the bearer of priceless values. Therefore, overtaking is fine, euphoria is fine, but tearing off the rearview mirror is not fine, throwing away the values of cycling from which we come.
The real question is this: the bike represents a fantastic opportunity to live better, on every level, physical, psychological, community. Possibility of personal, social, cultural and spiritual, human evolution. The bike is being in reality, moving in the dimension of reality, seeing places and people live, in the wind of the race.
On a bike you are still a human being, with a soul and five senses turned on, which are the real app for cycling, and it records the most important things you bring home from a bike ride, which are not the data of kilometers and calories, but thoughts, ideas, emotions and desires.
Same thing when you come back from a fair. What emotions, what desires do we bring home?
Seeing more bikes and fewer cars on the streets, in cities, and also more women.