Hi everyone. It's been two years since Nic and I started the Bicycle Portraits project and I'm glad to tell you that you'll be receiving your books in the new year! We are in the middle of design and layout of the project and we'll be printing the books this December. Thank you all so much for your support, and of course for your patience. But I'm sure you will not be dissapointed - the project has grown into much more than we ever expected. Thank you - you've all made it possible.

We've been keeping this quiet but we'll be publishing 3 'volumes' of the Bicycle Portraits book - each will feature a selection of the best portraits and stories. This means that :

- if you've pledged $50 towards the project you'll be receiving 2 of the 3 books.

- if you've pledged $100 or more you'll be receiving all 3 books. 

Each of the 3 books will contain a different 55 stories, and also two essays each by local South African and major international cycling figures. The books are designed by Gabrielle Guy and we have also collaborated with celebrated South African artist Gabrielle Raaff to create an individual hand-painted watercolor map, based on Google Maps, to indicate the location of each of our portraits. We hope you like it!

Please get in contact if you have any questions or concerns. 

We've launched the third and final round of fundraising on Kickstarter - Bicycle Portraits / Part III  - so please spread the word!

Everyone who has supported us in the first 2 rounds gets a saving on their pre-order - thank you very much. If you've pledged $50 you'll get 2 of the 3 books (the current $60 pledge), and you are of course welcome to order the third book as well, just visit Part III...

Thank you!

- Stan & Nic.

It's true - it's been almost two years since Nic and I have started on the Bicycle Portraits project. It's been an incredible experience so far and we couldn't have done it without you all. Thank you. I'm glad to report that we are in full swing with the design and layout of the project and we'll be going to print in December. This means that you will all be receiving your books in the new year. We are making the books very special (more on this a bit later, but we don't want to give too much away) so your patience will be rewarded! Over the last two years the scope of the project has grown immensely and we believe we've met and photographed a true representation of the small sub-culture of commuters out there in South Africa. And of course we have learned so much about who rides, why they ride, and in retrospect - South Africans in general; they're hopes, their fears, their dreams. We hope that the world might somehow see themselves reflected in all the brave characters who appear Bicycle Portraits.

Mario Wetman, Commissioner st., Boksburg, Gauteng, South Africa, 2011 / 06 / 28 12:47

Kleinbooi Kabinde, Kirschner rd., Boksburg, Gauteng, South Africa, 2011 / 06 / 28 15:12

Molefe & Ntsakani Fanose, Namune st., Scrapyard, Centurion, Pretoria, South Africa, 2011 / 06 / 25 16:23

Nkosilathi Mpofu, Helen st., Sandton, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa, 2011 / 06 / 26 14:49

Wilma Plaatjies & Rico Syster, R43, Jonkersrivier farm, Western Cape, South Africa, 2011 / 05 / 07 15:03

We hope that you've been enjoying meeting all there riders with us over the last two years and that you are looking forward to your very special copy of Bicycle Portraits. It's been a pleasure for us know that you all believe in the project and that you've been behind us all the way...

Thank you!

- Stan & Nic

When we were in Johannesburg last we had an amazing offer to get a lift to a small north-eastern town called Hazyview by helicopter, and since there are no space for our bicycles to come along Nic and I realized that this would be the perfect opportunity to try something we wanted to experiment with - how easy would it be to arrive somewhere - anywhere - with no mode of transport and a small budget, and find your way back to where we came from, without using motorized transport. We loved the idea of visiting Maputo in Mozambique and cycling back to Johannesburg - similarly to when we visited Maseru in Lesotho earlier - to get a taste of what is happening beyond our borders with cycling culture. After consulting Google Maps we soon realized that Maputo was still very far form Hazyview, but no problem - we wanted to get to Maputo and we would get there somehow. And we did - first in the helicopter, then with a minibus taxi, a lift on the back of a bakkie, in a truck, another taxi and of course by foot (sometimes assisted by a shopping trolly or two!). We had this fantasy of beautiful old Italian racing bikes in various states of disrepair for sale at every second shop, but once we were in Maputo we saw hardly any bicycles, and only one or two bicycle shop selling the cheapest shit you can imagine. I went out that night walking (in my cycling shoes - not recommended) and I spotted a kid on a BMX - Paulo Almeida - and he told me about Betinho's Bikes and that there really was a bit of a cycling scene in Maputo. Thanks to Paulo's late night email directions and a scooter taxi ride the next morning was standing outside the old pink and grey garage in the back yard of an old house on Avenue Kwame Nkrumah - Betinho's Bikes. And there was Bethino too, along with Helio - the head mechanic. Bethino listened to our crazy idea - building up old bicycles into touring bikes and riding them back to Johannesburg, all the while shooting portraits for our Bicycle Portraits project. We had a look at what he had in terms of frames and parts - not much. No Italian racing frame trove as we had dreamed of. We found something in Nic's size - it was an 'Island Style'. It was repainted and rebranded. Island Style. Betinho assured me that they were the only shop where we would find anything in Maputo. Everyone else we met were of similar opinion. After asking for like the tenth time in he had anything - anything - else he remembered an old beat up frame on the roof of the garage. I convinced that to get it down. There it was - a beautiful bright red hand built Cannondale. In my size. I love Cannondales. Sure, it was pretty messed up. The fork was corroded into the frame and bent out of whack. The bottom bracket needed some serious attention and maybe needed re-threading. Pretty bad. But, five days later it was rolling. Mismatched parts and some serious hack jobs later our bikes were ready to tour - complete with racks. All Nic's Island Style needed was a bit of loving care and some adjustment here and there, but no - he had to go and find some old cycle cross tires in the trash next to the shop. And he insisted on fitting this wide tires on his narrow Island Style. We told him many times that it won't work - he would get them to just-just not rub against the frame but as soon as you got on it to ride it would start making that dreaded 'grrrr-grrr' sound as the raised knobs would graze the frame. But he was determined to have his tires and what he believed was going to be the most comfortable ride - so he proceeded to trim the offending tread down with a pair of scissors, block by block! And he got it working perfectly! Ha ha! In the 5 days we spent at Bethino's we met the local cycling scene… Betinho himself is a Mozambican champion, along with Gustavo. Then there was Momade and Mario, always racing. Paulo, who I mentioned before, representing the BMX scene and of course Helio and Isac 'Biopace' Cossa - who both work at the shop. While Helio work with Bethino full time Biopace is more like an apprentice to Betinho. He loves bikes and he has this beautiful Alpina racer, with those oval Shimano Biopace chainrings that were popular in the 1990's. This is where Biopace's nickname comes from. When he arrives, walks into a room - or just whenever - everyone would just go "Biopace!" for no real reason. I think we said "Biopace" about 1000 times while we were there. And he loves his nickname. Biopace was brought up as an orphan and really found a big brother in Betinho. They have a complex relationship and even though Biopace wants nothing more than to work on bicycles at the shop and race, Betinho gave him a long speech one night about the importance of getting an education and encouraged him to study rather than becoming a bicycle mechanic - an opportunity that Betinho missed out on. We made some good friends over the 5 days we spent with them. Good guys. Riders, like us. The time we spent there in Maputo was an incredible adventure. We spent every day working on our bikes, sometimes late into the night - with the most insane rave-remixes blasting on the shop's repeated playlist. When we got hungry we raced to one of the many incredible little restaurants and had fish and chicken and chili and beer, and then raced each other some more around the city. In the days we went tried to make the bikes reliable, and often had to go and search for parts we couldn't make up out of whatever Betinho had lying around. And we even had our seats and handlebars covered in fake leather by a local who normally does car seats and couches! But it was time to go. We were sad to leave Maputo but excited as to what the next part of the adventure might hold. And then of course we wondered if these bikes would take us where we needed to go! We decided to ride down towards Swaziland - to a border town called Namaacha. But we weren't even out of Maputo yet and I had a spectacular flat - a deep gash in my thin racing tyre - these things are not ideal for African conditions… but it got fixed of course - a patch on the tube and one inside the tire sorted that out. A few hours later we were in Namaacha. We stayed at a little place called Paluscha's Place and had our last Mozambican meal - fresh, fresh fish (like every single meal we had in Mozambique) and a prego roll, delicious, with chili. The next morning we crossed one the border. The contrast between Mozambique and Swaziland was incredible - where every stretch of road was lined with industrious folk selling everything from fruit to air conditioners - and every piece of land is farmed and irrigated by hand - in Mozambique, the second you crossed over the border into Swaziland there is nothing going on. You could cycle for 60 kilometers without seeing anyone or anything. Our first night in Swaziland we stayed in Manzini - other than finding a carbon ZIPP concept bike in a local bike shop and the police telling us that it's 'not see to be out after dark' it was a pretty uneventful town. The next day we made our way over the Maluti mountains to a little town called Amsterdam. From the 18 kilometer downhill from the Swaziland / South Africa border post into Amsterdam and further west it just got colder and colder. We froze in the late afternoons as we were shooting our lat portraits of the day in the dusk. I haven't experienced such cold in a long, long time. We were getting some good portraits and having a great time despite the cold but the closer we started getting to what is know as South Africa's 'energy belt' the more dangerous it was becoming for us to be on the road. The criss-cross network of narrow over-utelized roads used by overloaded coal trucks to feed the many power stations that dot the landscape was fast becoming a nightmare we weren't prepared for. So with about 90 kilometers to to go to Johannesburg (where we were aiming to ride to) and after passing through Ermelo, Bethal and Delmas, we decided to not risk our safety to prove a point - we got a ride back to Johannesburg. Initially we felt sad and defeated to some degree. But we soon realized that it was part of the journey, and exactly the kind of challenge that anybody trying to do the same thing might face. So, on any journey, by bicycle or not, you can be faced with dangers and pitfalls, and the right thing to do is of course to make the best possible choice available to you. 

Below you will find some images from our trip and also some portraits of Betinho and some of the people we became friends with on our journey...

-Stan & Nic.

Hi everyone. Nic and I spent the last week or so exploring the Johannesburg / Pretoria area and surrounds. It has been really incredible to rediscover and area that we are both familiar with (Nic more than I) - we visited the the suburb of Laudium south-west of Pretoria and didn't meet many cyclists. They did have great tandoori chicken at Al-Mustafaa though. We spent time in inner-city Pretoria, searching for cyclists in Salvokop while the sun was setting and treated ourselves to whiskeys at the famous Café Riche on Church Square at the end of the day. The fantastic Melck family from Brooklyn set us up for what was to be one of the coldest nights in recent history. In the morning we enjoyed a heathy selection of nuts and fruits and coffee and yogurts and honeys - just what we needed for the ride through Atteridgeville and along a dirt track that took us up and over to a settlement called Scrapyard. It used to be a scrapyard. By the time we left there it was already late and once again - and almost every night of the last week - we had to make our way to where we were staying in the dark along hostile, busy roads. On Saturday we ventured into Tembisa and Alexandra - two township areas considered to be dangerous. People there were welcoming and friendly and, except for the high-speed car chase involving a possible stolen car and multiple police vehicles with officers aiming automatic rifles out the windows flying past us, we wished we could have spent more time there. That night we stayed in Randburg at our friend Olivier's place and set off for Johannesburg city centre in the morning. We spent the entire day in the city and were very kindly invited to stay at the Main Street Life hotel / restaurant / cinema complex free of charge by our friend and permanent resident, Shruti. This morning we left for the Brakpan and Benoni area to photograph some Johannesburg-east cyclist and commuters and planned to jump on the new Johannesburg high-speed rail system, the Gautrain, just outside the O.R. Tambo airport only to be informed that under no circumstances are bicycles that are not packaged in carrying cases allowed on the train. We cycled the 25 or so kilometers back to Midrand (where Nic's parents live) in the dark again, along some crazy, smoggy roads...

The last week has been very good for us. We've spent a lot of time shooting in very rural areas over the last months and it's put us back in touch with the city commuter. We photographed almost 30 portraits, from all walks of life, in this time. There have been inspiring stories and of course heart wrenching ones too. It's not always easy doing these portraits - meeting people who have really hard lives and have to really fight for survival. But it is inspiring to see them triumph, sometimes in the smallest of ways, over circumstance - and I am proud that we can tell their stories.

Tomorrow morning early we are off to a town called Hazyview. We were fortunate enough to have been offered a lift there by helicopter, and we decided to make our way to Mozambique's capital, Maputo - without our bicycles. Nic and I decided to do something we've been talking about for a while. We will arrive in Maputo and search for second hand bicycles to buy, fix them up and ride them back to Johannesburg. We will have only a modest budget to buy bikes and parts and we are interested to learn the challenges that someone who might have to do something like this out of necessity might face.

Remember to follow us on Twitter for constant updates from the road...

Ride safe.

- Stan.

Hi everyone. Sometimes when we interview people for Bicycle Portraits we explain to them that they can reply to our questions in their mother tongue. So often we ride away without being sure what exactly was said, only to discover amazing and sad facts about a person when we finally lay eyes on the translation. One morning in Phuthaditjhaba, Free State, Nic and I split up for a few hours, and in that time riding around I came across Malefetsane Qabalatsane pushing his beaten-up Nishiki very slowly up a small hill. He explained to me in broken English that he was involved in a car accident some time before and he found it difficult to ride up hills with his injuries. It was only when I received the translation of his complete interview yesterday that I read what he had told me in Sotho. Malefetsane was a marathon runner. After his accident he will probably never run again. And his bicycle is the only thing he has left after losing his job on the mines up north. He now lives back at home in Phuthaditjhaba with his children, and only survives by collecting scrap metal and transporting it on his bicycle to a local scrap dealer for a few cents per kilogram. Malefetsane is not bitter, like so many he is very thankful for the little he has...

Malefetsane Qabalatsane 'Before I used this bicycle, I was a marathon runner.'

On the border of Lesotho we found a few industrious guys like Tanki Mohapeloa selling their cross-border transport services to people who don't see the need to go through border control just to deliver goods to family or friends on the other side. Tanki and his colleagues can cross the border on their modified bicycles many times a day without problems - everyone there knows them well...

Tanki Mohapeloa 'I can carry a bed with this wagon... from Lesotho to South Africa. When I work hard, of course I sweat a lot, it is hard work.'

The South African government is in the process of rolling out 1 million bicycles to young learners, who daily have to travel long distances to school, around the country. While to program  hasn't been without problems and controversies, it has given Dubiseng Janki her very own Shova Kalula bicycle and her independence...

Dibuseng Janki with her mother, Majanki Janki 'I love my bicycle because it helps me on the road. I ride it to school and the government has made it possible for me to have a bicycle.’

Don't even think of stealing Teboho Nyama bicycle - he will find you...

Teboho Nyama 'The person who takes it - unless they destroy it, or do something to it - I am going to find it...'

Some people just know a thing or two about stylish bicycling...

Elias Nkeleku 'This bicycle is not mine, it belongs to my friend. I need to fix my own bicycle again so it can be fine.’

Ride safe.

- Stan.

Hello everyone. Here are some new updates. The first image is of Bontle Moeng. She was the lucky winner of the Design Indaba competition for which you had to tweet ideas on how to improve and encourage bicycle use in South Africa. Her ideas won her this amazing belt driven bicycle by Biomega, produced in conjunction with KiBiSi - now she just needs to learn how to ride! 

Bontle Moeng 'I think I have to teach myself how to cycle, it is my first experience - I've never owned a bicycle, even in my childhood days.'

Rob Tidman 'I was nice and sloshed out of my mind. And ja, balancing was fine on the bicycle but I don’t know, I think I saw a woman or something… you know when men see nice girls, you get like, very… you know, you wanna show off and all that...'

Bernd Brandt 'I'm going to take this gravel road and ride it up to there by that mountain, then I'm going over that mountain and then I'm walking over that mountain and bringing the animals to the water.'

Ashston May 'Represent AKA Ashston! Word is playa! I hit slang. Over-stand this, call stout Ashtos because I wised up. I know my game style so I got to wise up. Jy kan dit nie doen nie, because I will tell you; shut up. Speculating maybe before you blow up. Ek is warm soos enige setup now you wanna check up ‘cause suddenly my money went up, east up, what’s up, east Sunnyside is where I'm at. Son op jy is son af. Love en weer op met 'n twist like twister but never rest, the disaster of the Ashstonishter. There is only one chance, if I don't make this one I don't know. This one is for my baby.'

Solly Ntengu 'So my bike, it helps me. It’s quick. But now my tires are tired.’

Benjamin Ryk 'The amount of deliveries depends on how much post I get in. After hours I leave the bike at the post office.' 

Have a great week!

- Stan & Nic.

Good morning. Here are a few new Bicycle Portraits from Nic. Below you'll meet Claudette from Adelaide who was lucky enough to have had a bicycle built especially for her after a car accident that left her with a brain injury that made it difficult for her to walk. She gets around on Vinnige Fanie (Fast Frank) running errands, visiting friends and raising hell in the streets of Adelaide. You'll also meet hat aficionado and bicycle activist Lynette Peers and her bicycle of Port Elizabeth, who have become an institution on the local roads - except when she's cruising around in a Ford Mustang (seldom, and against her will)...

Claudette van der Walt 'I'm good friends with the bicycle - he is used to me. The wheels need a bit of pumping, as soon as possible - it is not a pleasure to ride when the wheels are flat.'

Lynette Peers 'My husband used to say “nice legs Mrs. Peers” and I told him 67 years of hard work pushing pedals!'

Inoch Namatele  'I cycle to work at Roy Hayes Taxidermy. It is like a zoo in there.'

Deon Hattingh 'I've been hit by a car before - a woman turned & hit me. She took me to hospital, got my bicycle fixed.'

James Ngobeni ' 'This bicycle was brand new when I bought it, but now it is breaking - it is just wearing out.'

- Stan & Nic.

Hi all. Lots of good things have been happening here in Cape Town. Our cycle lanes are looking a little fuller and better utilized now that our MyCiti busses are all up and running again, which make the abandoned bus and bicycle lane area safer from potential opportunistic criminals. Plus, we can now officially take bicycles onto our busses. We're still working on the train system... lots of mixed messages there. Last Saturday I was glad to meet field-recording jazz experimentalist and amateur assisted bicycle designer Monty Bezuidenhout out using a new local cycle lane...

Monty Bezuidenhout '...the rear shock would pump up the frame and it will assist me uphill when my old bones can’t get me up there anymore.'

Also meet some other new adventurers, brave commuters and bicycle lovers... 

Neil Maling 'I was the first one who could get out of the valley because I could just take my bike and simply walk across the place where you could walk across the flooding river, and cycle further.'

Jean-jack Hetu 'I cycle to work every day. I work in a shop that you call more precisely here in English-speaking countries - an “adult shop”.'

Mahomed Saleem Ayob with Sadika 'I get a catch up as to what’s happening at school and what her exams are about and what she’s about at school. And she asks me all these wonderful questions which I find very very interesting. And it keeps you in contact with life itself.’

Sam Chiota 'Dreadlocks mean something special to me - some they are doing it as a fashion but it means something special to Rasta people, because Rasta people, they believe that you mustn’t cut your hair. Me, I am a Rasta.’

Dave 'Ticki' Ross and Liz 'Bun' Bird 'Liz : "And he’s got the cup for… the special prize for having the most falls too. Every year, they give a thing for the worst tumbles and he gets it regularly." Dave : "No, man, that’s not true. That’ll be the day!"’

Enjoy!

- Stan & Nic.

As some of you might know, about four months ago my beautiful single-speed Cannondale F700  that I lovingly built up myself was stolen from Nic's house - while he was there working! The creative thief managed to fish a set of keys out through the security gate and made off with my bike and an electric guitar. Three months later Nils Hansen of the newly opened local bicycle shop Woodstock Cycleworks was out in Goodwood running errands and he spotted the potential thief on my Cannondale! After a nerve-racking confrontation it turns out that the rider - Shane Engelbrecht - had bought the bicycle from a local pawn shop chain and was very happy to give it back to me. It turns out Shane is a really nice guy and loves riding - and now he's totally into single-speed mountain biking! Meet...

Shane Engelbrecht 'I’ll definitely get myself a single-cog bike, definitely. Definitely I will. Very soon. Even if I have to convert my old one. It’s a most enjoyable ride. But I’m just glad I could get the bike back to it’s original owner... it’s like one in a million.’

I'm really glad it's back... and I made a friend! 

- Stan.