That looks cool, doesn't it?

Reading time approx. 4 min

Man is a visual creature. That's how I feel, and that's how you feel. So you look: Bicycles in the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich. Entrance fee 10 euros. Closed on Mondays. Cheaper on Sundays.

Do you always have to learn something in a museum? No, you don't. You can just go there and take in the things. And that works quite well in this exhibition, which is primarily about the design of the bikes and not a historical outline of technological knickknacks. We had enough of that for the Drais anniversary. And unfortunately, to see new things, we have to go to Munich instead of to the Bicycle Museum in Neckarsulm. But that's another story.

Road racing bike, 1989, design: Togashi Engineering, photo: Die Neue Sammlung [Kai Mewes]

What we see in Munich is: awesome riding machines that trigger a "want-to-have" reflex. Just because of their partly futuristic appearance. First and foremost the red racer from Togashi, whose undeniable aesthetic lines have hoisted it onto the cover of the exhibition catalogue. Yes, it was expensive, yes, it's a carbon bike, yes, you don't have to have it, but: we stand in front of it and gawk at it. The layout of the frame is surprising and even without a rider it seems to strive forward.

A strange thing, the recumbent bicycle by Paul Jaray, called the J-Bike (see cover picture). Let's take a look at the drive. There is no crank that you pedal. Instead, there are two pedal levers. Groundbreaking innovation or strange tinkering? We don't know. At least with reference to "The Länd", manufactured in the Hesperus works in Stuttgart in 1919.

The Moulton folding bike from 1983. It's hard to believe that it can be folded up. It doesn't look much like a bicycle, more like a bridge construction. Designed by Alex Moulton. Still available today, for 7,000 euros, new. Expensive, yes, we know. But we came to look. So you look.

Folding bike AM 7, 1983, design: Alex Moulton, photo: Die Neue Sammlung [Kai Mewes]

The exhibition runs until September 24th. Title of the exhibition: The bicycle, cult object, design object. In the Pinakothek der Moderne Munich. There are 70 bicycles on display from yesterday to today. The catalog with impressive illustrations costs 35 euros. You can buy it.

(Christoph Preussler)