Vélomobile Formations-in-Action: Biking and Talking Together

Cycling is not just a skilled accomplishment by individual cyclists, it can also be social. Cycling to work with other commuters or learning to ride a bike with a caregiver, for example, both involve a keen attention to negotiating and maintaining being together in and through cycling and being seen to be together in a “mobile with”. This article reports on an investigation of some of the different vélomobile formations-in-action that involve specific arrangements of bodies on bikes and configurations of a “vélomobile with”. Video recordings of commuter and family bike rides using consumer and micro video cameras from multiangles were made to capture aural and visual features of the local organization of the ride from the participants’ perspective(s).
Several phenomena are presented and discussed, including starting, stopping, and maintaining a vélomobile formation; singling up and tucking in; and stretchy mobile formations. The analysis starts by analyzing side-by-side arrangements, which are then temporarily disrupted, and finishes with formations that are more extensively stretched, but which still afford opportunities for social interaction.