Cycle Chic is a movement started by such sites as Copenhagen Cycle Chic and Amsterdamize to show fashionably dressed people on bikes in order to, as Copenhagenize’s Mikael Colville-Andersen says, “show the bicycle as part of the Good Life.” Spandex, helmets, and logo bestrewed bikes are out. High heels, suits, and simple, upright Dutch bikes or English roadsters are in. The idea here is that taking the racing/performance approach and adapting it to commuting (the cycling industry’s only approach for over a decade) will not work to create cycling mass appeal. Skinny athletes in helmets and reflective vests are not an image people want to emulate. Instead, the tried and true advertising approach of putting attractive, well dressed models on your product is the way forward if you want to get beyond the niche of people who care more about the equipment than how they’ll look.

In bicycle advertising, who will win out: the carbon fiber frame or the pretty girl?

Today’s films are two recent examples. The first is actually from the bike industry, albeit the small Dutch style contingent that the rest of the industry has written off because the bikes are too heavy and you can’t race them. Vancouver shop Flying Pigeon Bicycle produced this lovely film showing the beginning of a new romance on the back of the bicycles that took a billion Chinese to work every day.

The Flying Pigeon Bicycle from yulu canada on Vimeo.

The second is from New York City fashion house 3.1 Phillip Lim which is using the theme “Girls On Bikes” to launch their Fall 2011 women’s line.

3.1 Phillip Lim “Girls On Bikes” Women’s FW11 Collection from 3.1PhillipLim on Vimeo.

The bike industry is dominated by men, engineers, and tech lovers. If you look at industry ads in magazines like Bicycling, more often than not you will see a picture of the product, not people or how it is used. And how has that worked for us? The U.S. bicycle industry has been in decline for over a decade.

Humans are animals driven by stories, not objects. We need to image ourselves how we wish to be. Most Americans do not wish to image themselves kitted out on a carbon racing bike, but allow them to envision themselves looking really good with the hint of a new romance and you’ll have them. It’s time cycle chic was the norm, not the exception.