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What Do You Lean Your Bike Against?

By Christopher Ashley

There are three reasons to take a photo of your bike. You’re about to sell it, you’ve achieved cycling nirvana during an epic ride, or you’ve remembered just how much you love your bike.

You don’t want a photo of someone else holding your bike. So, what do you lean your bike against?  Share your images in the comments.

A fence by a canal

No prizes for guessing where I took this picture. A world-famous site is a great backdrop to a bike, providing the bike is more handsome than the background. Of course, we all know that the main reason to visit Amsterdam is the lugs.

A gate

Bicycles leaning against gates is its own, very specific, sub-genre. By the time you’ve realised you want to take a picture of a bike leaning against a gate, you then have to keep cycling until you find a gate. And try not to forget you need to take a picture when you pass a gate. Does a Strava KOM count if you don’t celebrate with a gate picture?

Bear statues

Some people just make it look easy. Bear statue? Check. Perfectly framed photo? Check. Timer set correctly? Check. The triumphant pose sat atop the bear is stylishly offset by the Rapha strip matching the colour flash on the Specialized. This is @soma_ride from Instagram and she earns her poses. Join her on a ride if you dare.

A rock

The wilderness is a great back-drop and can you imagine a more humbling reward for a morning’s climb than the Granite Dells? Not that it matters – the commentators are more interested in how the DVO forks perform. I guess @mtb.247 should know by now.

Jauntily, against a car

We all know that carbon is incapable of scratching any other material, so why not lean it against a car? You could throw this bike at a car and it would probably do as much damage as a feather – it probably weighs as much. In the words of Sean Kelly, “the bike comes first”. I should add that we in no way condone bikes being thrown against cars.

Against another bike, that’s leaning against a wall

Remember being a kid and asking your dad to buy you the same bike as your BFF? I think that’s cool and I reckon us adults shouldn’t be ashamed to adopt this practice. Imagine riding the urban streets and parks with Jeb from accounting on matching whips before sitting down to drink matching warm tins of coconut La Croix. You glance up, see your matching gold frame BMX’s and *click*.  Job done.