Pilen Contest Winner and Other Updates

Thank you so much once again to everybody who took the time to create the wonderful images paying tribute to Swedish cinema and the bicycle! After much deliberation I am pleased to announce that there is a winner. Over the course of the past week, I wavered between eight finalists. In the end, I took into account not only the image itself (it was really impossible to choose on that account alone), but also how suitable I thought the Pilen would be for the person.

Without further ado: The winner of the contest is Amanda Hamilton, and this was her picture:

To create this striking image, Amanda cut out a paper silhouette of the bicycle, then shot footage of herself and played it on a loop while filming the cut-out in front of it.

This is the paper cut-out that served as the bicycle model. I was surprised and intrigued by this entry, both in terms of its creative interpretation of the guidelines and in terms of how labor intensive it must have been. It was only one of my favourite images, but when I contacted Amanda over email it became apparent that she and the Pilen would be a good match on many levels. Congratulations!

Over the course of the next two weeks I will be finished with my review, and then the bicycle will be shipped to the winner. I hope it is understandable that this is a demo model that I have been now riding for a month - so there will be some scuffs and other mild signs of use. Happily, the Pilen is very durable and my intense testing has left it none the worse for wear. Many thanks again to Pilen's North American distributor BoxCycles for donating the beautiful bicycle and making this give-away possible.

I would also like to update you on other contests, past and future:

The winner of the Po Campo Spare Pocket give-away, sponsored by Planet Gear, has been named, and will receive this enigmatic item shortly from Planet Gear directly.

The winner of the Bella Ciao Superba give-away is being a good sport and waiting patiently, as the bicycles are running fashionably late and have not arrived in the US yet! More on this soon, and they are on their way as I write this.

And finally, after some delay the Lovely Touring Bike contest is coming up next! I have some ideas for this one, but am not yet sure what the rules for it will be. Requests and suggestions welcome!



Many thanks to everybody once again for taking part in the give-aways and I will try my best to keep them going. And of course, thank you for reading Lovely Bicycle!

Oh, and can anyone tell what that camera is, resting on the Pilen's rear rack, and during what years it was produced? A roll of 35mm film for the first person to post the answer : )