The Experience

The Latest News - From the horses mouth.

# See/check "Tours Today - Calendar" for overview & latest updates
 

Welcome to Bike Mike Tours in Copenhagen.

Cruising around a beautiful city on bicycle - does life get any better than that?
My aim is to show you Copenhagen from the bicycle perspective on informative, fun and adventurous urban bike tours. Please read the following and you won't have many questions left regarding how/what to do concerning the bike tours. Thank you and hope to see you on my bike tours in cool Copenhagen. Ride on...

Address:

Bike Mike's Copenhagen tours all depart and return to:

Bike Mike Tours
47 Sankt Peders Stræde

which is situated conveniently in Copenhagen central's vibrant Latin Quarter. Sankt Peders Stræde is one of Copenhagen's historically most beautiful streets with a unique feel of the medieval town of Copenhagen - and its here you find the biking ugly duckling..

How to get to Bike Mike Tours base in Sankt Peders Stræde:

If you stay in the city, time to walk to Bike Mike base is - from:

• Town Hall Square: less than five minutes
• Tivoli Garden: five minutes
• Tourist Information Office: five minutes
• Main Hotel District next to Main Train Station: ten minutes
• Nyhavn: twentyfive minutes

Bike Tours & Guidance Philosophy

Politics, economics, faith/religion, liveability for people, I believe, is what people fight for everywhere. To improve their conditions. I have myself been priviliged to travel the world extensively throughout my life. Travelling stimulates my curiosity and make me interested in how life is lived, whereever I go. And further sharpen my senses and awareness on home turf. My home soil is here: Copenhagen, where I was born and grew up. So my own experience and interest for living conditions is very much included in my guidance.
My bike tours are designed to cycle you into the action of life in Copenhagen. The tours focus on urban lifestyle in Denmark's capital city. Tours takes priority to show you Copenhagen from the angle of "raw, authentic, street soul", to show Copenhagen life as it unfolds with no distortion.
That goes too for the verbal guidance style. It's too: raw, authentic, street soul - the place in life I come from.  
Snobs might get a culture shock with Bike Mike as guide - a biking ugly duckling. Now you are warned in time to hop off the bike, before we set out into Copenhagen, which is Bike Mike's hometown. Key to survival with Bike Mike as your guide is to prepare for the unexpected.
All bike tours follow without compromising the Bike Mike philosophy: "When we bike, Copenhagen does all the talking, when we stop, we do the talking". It means that your guide only do verbal guidance when off the bike, please notice, appreciate and respect this. Guests are welcome to talk away or sing along when we cycle. However, experience tells me that the passing urban landscape and street theater is best enjoyed with an internal serene environment which also highlights the meditative experience a cycle tour can be.

Bike Mike - Copenhagen's biking ugly duckling, here squeezed gently by two biking medical researchers: Jean Ha of South Korea doing aging and Saioa from Spain's Basque region researching cancer. Bike Mike Favorites - Country: Denmark, California & United States of America. Cities: Singapore, San Francisco, Paris, Kyoto, Jerusalem, Kathmandu & Copenhagen. Place: Bali, Tongariro Ntl. Park, New Zealand & Tisvildeleje, Denmark. Food: Danish open sandwiches, Japanese & Singapore street kitchen. Fruit: Watermelon, strawberries. Music: Bruce Springsteen. Film: One Flew over the Coockoes' Nest & Brokeback Mountain. Person: Nelson Mandela. Like: Love & light, food, travel, spirituality, history, politics & time together with my girlfriend's. Dislike: Danish creamy brown gravy & the western gravy train...

Booking

Its advisable to book your tour in advance. Please use the booking system on website for your booking(s).
Remember to leave a correct email address on the booking form, otherwise your booking can't be confirmed.
Certain bike tours require booking, check your tour(s) for details. Phone booking / sms textmessage is an option too, contact Bike Mike on +45 26395688, using phone if no answer, please leave your details on answering facility. Majority of booking requests will be confirmed within 24 hours. Be aware that Bike Mike is a one man band company, strength is on the bike, weakness is customer service.

Arrival for the bike tour

Meeting time for the bike tours is respectively 10:30, 14:30 or 19:00. No need to arrive earlier. If you arrive early why not take a stroll up and down Sankt Peders Stræde, one of Copenhagen's most beautiful historic streets. Interesting shops to in the street i.e. right across from Bike Mike you find the legenday *Sogreni" bicycle shop, have a look at his own designed bells, they are unique in design and make up for a special, long lasting gift from Copenhagen. Further up the road you find the temptations of the "Dessertdragon" and her many tasty cakes. I love the "rasperry slice" for just 20 dkk. Or keep walking the few meters further and you find the oldest bakery in the city, their pastries has fine reputation, the smell of sweet pastries or freshly baked rolls is wonderful inside Sankt Peders bakery. Right next door Sankt Peders Cafe offer good coffee or tea.

Touring bicycles

Bicycles are strong, classic three gear City bikes. Very reliable, bikeable for all and easy to handle. Options available for bike with a basket attached to handle bar if you carry bags etc. Bicycles always comes with hard pumped tires, fitted with hand brake and pedal brake, adjustable saddle height with quick release handle. Saddle position and handle bar position is not adjustable. If it doesn't fit 100% you'll have to do with the fit available, nearly always close to 100%. The bicycles are strictly only suitable for people up to max. 110 kgs. Please treat your bike as if it was your own property.

The Bike Mike tour bicycles

Kids

Kids are welcome to join the tours but only in the company an adult(s). Only few kid size bikes available. Children have to wear helmet according to Danish Law. Booking is always required for kids joining the bike tours. When kid(s) on tour accompanying adult(s) to the cycling kid(s) are responsible for their safety.

Safety

Copenhagen is a great bicycle city. If you follow the old saying: "When in Rome, do as the Romans", you can't leave Copenhagen before you have been on a bike tour. If you don't know why already, you'll know a few minutes after your arrival to the city. Plenty of bike lanes and plenty of fellow cyclists. It is from fellow cyclist potential greatest risks to your safety comes. However, Copenhagen has one of the top safety records in the world on the roads and on the bike lanes. Stats tells us, that you'll need to cycle well over four million kilometers in Copenhagen before you get involved in a serious accident!!!
You will be informed about basic rules to follow prior to departure. Stick to those and then follow Bike Mike and stay aware and no need to worry further. Bike Mike qualifies as a potential urban champion cyclist with more than fifty years of cycling record accumulated through gutters, on roads and through all sorts of courtyards and dark alleys in his hometown of Copenhagen and on all the worlds continents. When safety rules are introduced to guests before the bike tour, Bike Mike puts on a tough attitude which includes zero tolerance to any cycling mis-behaving while on tour. This is for the good of your safety. Bike Mike is proud of his company's safety record: over the years never an accident, a few incidents but never involving medical assistance. Let's do our best to keep it that way.
Helmets are not compulsory to wear for adults according to Danish Law. Helmets are available on your request.

On Tour

Cycle speed is leisurely paced on tours. All tours have specific details about cruising speed, check your tour, but in general most people can keep up without any problems. The bike tours include a number of talk-stops. This is where we stop, hop off the bike and stories related to Copenhagen's past, present and future are told. When the stories are told, then time for questions. See the specific tour you join for number of talk-stops. During talk-stops time too for taking good pictures. An effort has been made to make sure the stops are in special places of interest. When cycling you are always welcome to stop for a few pictures, however the group carry on so you will have to do the extra effort to catch up to the group again. Restroom facilities are available on tour, please give advice allowing time to locate "the next one".

Weather

No secret, Danish skies can be a challenge, however spring and summer period is often with no or little rain in the form of light, short showers. The morning City Tour goes out independent of weather. All other tours too go out except if hard, full day rain. Check the Calendar bottom left on website for tour updates if in doubt.

Payment

Payment is after arriving home to Bike Mike base and always cash only. DKK, Euro and USD currency accepted. ATM machine nearby. For groups payment can be arranged via bank transfer, if so always in advance. Group cash payment is prior to departure on day of touring.

Carbon Neutral

Do you like fresh air? Do you appreciate a clean environment? Do you believe in looking after mother Earth? I do. Choosing to discover Copenhagen by bike is also your contribution to the environment. One of my favorite features about my hometown Copenhagen is the relatively fresh air I can breathe without leaving the city. I always notice this when I return from overseas. The many, many thousands of Copenhageners choosing to commute daily by bike also contribute to better the environment. If you choose to commute around town in a car your lifestyle leave behind 12 t of carbon dioxide per year. But if you replace the car with a bicycle your lifestyle only leave 2 t carbon dioxide footprints. The bike is the way to go - also when looking after our beautiful world.

Bike Mike Copenhagen to-do Recommendations

Seeking info for where to have lunch or dinner after the bike tour, try to check Bike Mike's Copenhagen to do here on the website for recommendations. From the 2013 season a free of charge brochure with Bike Mike's favorite places to dine and see and do will be available upon concluding the bike tour.

A simple philosophy - making the experience unique

Fifty years ago there was one version of Denmark's history. Today there are as many versions as people living in Denmark: 5.6 million. I tell my stories based upon my readings, understandings, perspective and personal life experience. The following is how I see my country:

About Denmark, the tiny country where Copenhagen is capital

- as seen by Bike Mike - Copenhagen's biking ugly duckling

"We never see reality, we only see what our own mind wants us to see"
- buddhist belief.

When I see my country from faraway, I can't stop thinking of what Denmark has done for me. Back in the 1970s I travelled the world for two years backpacking, hitchhiking and sleeping in parks, on train stations and in peoples homes who picked me up along the byways of the world. I always wondered back then why none of the many fellow travelers I was crossing path with never came from the same low socioeconomic background as myself. They all seemed to have comfortable, steady backgrounds. Today I learnt why. And this is Denmark in a nutshell to me. A place which is truly home to all her citizens and take well care of all basics for good living, despite where we come from in life, through universal healthcare, education and retirement policies. The more I travel, the more I love and respect my country.

I am proud of Denmark's humanitarian record in todays world, we are one of the top most generous people towards others than ourselves on the planet. Its brave and courageous for such a small country to challenge the big, strong boys with our striving for green technology. Today 33% of Denmark's economy is classified as green. 40% of our electricity comes from wind turbines. Copenhagen has fresh air to breathe despite the metropolitan area is home to nearly two million people, hundreds of thousands of cars and industries in plenty. The environmental issues are taken serious in Denmark. Our history saw us as a large Nordic empire hundreds of years ago however we have shrunk 15 times in size to what makes up our tiny island nation today. Today our old foe's the Germans and the Swedes are our main export partners taking about 50% of Danish produced goods going across our borders. Water, water everywhere in Denmark, no wonder shipping and water technology is major contributors to our economy together with pharmaceuticals, bio-tech, sustainable energy including wind turbines production, design and the old trotting agriculture. We are 5.6 million Danes and around 40 million pigs. Despite lacking natural resources we still have a top of the order standard of living. Our educational sector is the nations engine room. We are good at generating wealth through our innovative approach and better than almost anyone to share it between us all through our re-distribution policies which also gives us a safe place to call home. Our strength is our force of togetherness we learn. Our politicians are champions in the skill of compromising: in more than 100 years our country has been governed by minority governments. In Denmark you can't govern unless you are capable of working together with your political opposition. Our politicians can be trusted though as we rate as one of the worlds least corrupt nations which might answer why many, not all, but a majority of Danes pay their high taxes without too much moaning. Denmark taste good either through our new Nordic cuisine gourmet kitchens or the delicate good old fashioned open faced Danish sandwiches served on home baked dark rye bread. HC Andersen, Kierkegaard and Grundtvig who said: "humanity first, christanity second" - all three Danish legends from our golden cultural age in first part of nineteenth century - can still inspire. Attention to detail and functionality and aesthetics is summed beautifully up in our design. Our weather qualifies for being the most inhospitable for human life on planet earth, nevertheless Danes often rates very high on happiness if you trust international surveys. Happy or not happy, I believe its fair to say many Danes feel very content with their lives. Maybe those feelings are influenced from our high alcohol consumption and we rate high too on the western wheel of never is enough enough and sinking plenty anti-depressants and viagra. Despite all, too myself Denmark is the place I call home. I only have to think of the fantastic journey through life I have been so privileged to enjoy and my heart spills over with gratitude to old mother Denmark and Danes who made it all happen long time before I was born. Thank you.

Bike Mike - the biking ugly duckling
written October 2012 at Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu, Nepal