More free and more flexible than with a Golf GTI

I am a qualified banker and business IT specialist. But employment is not for me. That’s why I work as a freelance fashion photographer and model – I’m also a passionate racing cyclist.

Hahaha, yes, you’re right, since the pandemic it feels like twice as many people are riding bikes – as the market shows. It’s still very difficult to get hold of bikes or parts that are in demand. I’ve been riding road bikes since I was a child. We often went to Alpes d’Huez for the Tour de France during the summer vacations and that’s when I got hooked. I rode in a club for many years, accompanied the Tour du Sénégal as a mechanic for Embrace The World and took part in races in Congo and Kenya.

That being a bike mechanic in professional sport is a tough job. But it was good to try it out. The NGO tours enable the riders in Eritrea or Kenya to enter a new world. With the equivalent of 3,000 euros in tour pay, they can really make a difference. For the Europeans traveling with them, it’s good training – and a real cultural exchange.

Maybe I could have become one. I was out for a few years, partying, modeling, enjoying life. If you leave the sport at 18, it’s hard to make up for it. I modeled in Australia for a while. I raced against pros like Caleb Ewan, Chris Sutton, and Cadel Evans. Today I train a lot on Mallorca – around 26,000 kilometers a year.

No, I ride an old Kettler aluminum from my father. I had so many bikes stolen in Hamburg that I ended up opting for a worthless everyday bike. When I take photos for clients in the city, I use the bike; for larger set-ups, I take my old VW-Vento. But I only fill it up every six to eight weeks.

The connection came through Tim Kaiser, I share a studio with him where I run my analog photo lab, among other things. Tim has been working with muli for a long time and has just taken the new photos for the website. The studio was full of mulis for weeks, I like the bikes and what’s behind them. When Tim approached me for a shoot, I was happy to accept.

I live directly on Stephansplatz - on one of Hamburg’s main thoroughfares. It’s unbearable in summer when the AMG drivers let their exhausts roar at night. It’s unbelievable how much space we give up in our society for cars that just stand around. But yes, things are changing. E-mobility and rising fuel prices are changing people’s minds. I myself wrote a bachelor’s thesis on mobility solutions using sharing. In cities like Helsinki, it has been possible to combine all transportation options in an app so that I can choose the fastest, most sustainable or cheapest route with just one click. That’s where we need to go.

Automatic. When I was little, it was important to the big boys to drive a Golf GTI, to have lots of horsepower under the hood. Now we’re big ourselves, some of us have good jobs and could buy big or comfortable cars. But we don’t. It is a much greater luxury to be able to move freely and flexibly. The car has had its day as a status symbol in Europe. Cities are becoming quieter and more liveable. I believe in that.

As a status symbol, yes, at least that’s how it feels here in the West. In China, where a large middle class is growing up, people are buying cars en masse. And in mud hut settlements in Kenya, I learned that if you have money, you buy a bicycle. If you have more money, you buy a moped - if you have even more money, you buy a car. That is also understandable. Fortunately, material possessions play an increasingly minor role in my environment.

Yes, I tried sharing services for a while - but the opportunity costs are high when you’re driving a lot of equipment around. It all depends on the mobility mix. I use my bikes almost exclusively. Driving the old Vento until it can’t go any more - that’s also sustainable.

1 euro commuter allowance for the bike. And someone has to take the keys away from the AMG bangers.