Rims with Olive Oil: Carsten Behler Meets a Cycling Savant for BIKE BILD

There is probably no continent more in love with biking than Europe. While Germany might not be the first country one thinks of when it comes to cycling — France is obviously the leader in the clubhouse there — it is nonetheless a place that’s obsessed with bikes and their history. Carsten Behler worked his first assignment with BIKE BILD, an offshoot magazine of the German newspaper that shares half the name. His charge was to meet and photograph Stephan Klasen, whose historical knowledge of bikes would put many to shame.

BIKE BILD is one of several BILD magazines, while BILD itself is a big German newspaper. This was the first time I worked for them. It was my favorite writer, Cornelia Höchstetter, who wrote the story and promoted me to them as a photographer.

The title is “Rims with Olive Oil” — this relates to the fact that one of Stephan Klasen’s historic bikes has wooden rims which he regularly treats with olive oil. In his store “Bergetappe,” he sells bikes, offers bike-fitting, and does a whole lot more.

Yep, you read that right. Wooden rims and olive oil. Stephan — “Stepp” to friends — isn’t just a bike merchant. He’s a true cycling connoisseur. For two decades, Stepp has dedicated his life to collecting and repairing old bikes. He was inspired by a fisherman in Malta, which sounds like the beginning of dream but is very much reality.

Around 2000, he himself was actively riding mountain bikes and took part in street races. During a Malta holiday, he watched a fisherman pull an old, rusty bike out of the water and repair it. Being fascinated, Stephan took this bike home with him and from that day since he collects, repairs, and sells historic bikes. He has got the biggest collection of historic OPEL bikes — Opel built more than two million bikes from 1886 to 1936.

Stephan has a profound knowledge of each detail and material — which coating or leather has been used, things like that. We had a very relaxing time together, and it was obvious that he has a real deep passion for these bikes.

The shoot, which took place in Carsten’s hometown of Essen, lasted about four hours. Carsten had quite a bit of creative freedom and was only asked to shoot one bike in particular — a yellow one with two bottles attached to the handlebars (a prototype of today’s gravelbike, according to BIKE BILD’s editor).

Stephan, who regularly rides on his seemingly antiquated bikes in races and other events, is an encyclopedia when it comes to the subject of cycling. A true historian of his discipline, Stephan enjoys riding older bikes much more than modern models. I asked Carsten to share some of his favorite quotes of Stephan, and it’s clear from reading them that he takes great pleasure in going against the grain as it relates to his biking philosophies.

I love biking, but rather as an everyday means of transportation and some weekend trips. My biking knowledge is almost zero. But Stephan was explaining a lot of details to me so it helped me gain some understanding.

One of my favorite quotes from Stephan was ‘Bicycling is continuously getting easier for everybody, but I perceive this as more and more boring.’ And regarding an OPEL racing-bike from 1911: ‘Difficult to ride, but a whole lot of fun!’

Credits:
Writer: Cornelia Höchstetter 
Subject: Stephan Klasen 

See more of Carsten’s work at carstenbehler.de.

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