Off the Beaten Track: Andorra's Quirky Bicycle Museum

2024-10-28

On a recent Sunday afternoon a friend and I visited Bici Lab Andorra, a quirky bicycle museum located in the centre of Andorra la Vella. Despite its central location, it’s a hidden gem: for most of our hour long visit we had the museum for ourselves (the only other visitors were a family of four with young children).

The only thing I had checked before going were the opening times and entrance fee (€5 for the permanent exhibition, the temporary exhibition can be visited for free). Other then that, I had no idea what to expect.

The friendly lady behind the desk welcomed us warmly and explained the set up of the museum. We started with the temporary exhibition about the history of mountain biking in general and specifically in Andorra (still on until January 2025) before going down the stairs to the permanent exhibition.

Even though I didn’t know what to expect, I can say with certainty it exceeded my expectations. The main exhibition was excellent, with a wide variety of bikes spanning the history of the bicycle, some VR and other interactive experiences, and enough information panels to learn new things, but not so many that it was overwhelming.

I loved how the exhibition was set up, it felt spacious and modern, which was a nice contrast with the old bicycles.

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And speaking of old bikes, I was positively surprised by the number and quality of historical vehicles that were on display. The people who started inventing them back then sure had a lot of creativity, imagination, and courage!

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I would have liked to meet the inventor of a bicycle with a turbine at the back and have a chat – anyone who comes up with an idea like that must have an interesting way of seeing the world!

I loved the unusual design of some bikes, like the graceful lines of the Hirondelle bicycle that was used in the 1890s by the cycling brigade of the French police.

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Some of those first contraptions looked like actual death traps though. When we saw a giant unicycle with a saddle on each side of the wheel, my friend and I gaped at each other with disbelief - who would even try to ride this? You’d have to find two people of similar weight and height to be able to ride this or the wheel would be off balance, and I’m not sure how well the steering and braking worked.

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Andorra is well known amongst road cycling and MTB enthusiasts and professionals. Having ridden my road bike in Andorra, I’m familiar with the sports side of biking in Andorra, but as a Dutch person who is used to cycling everywhere for any reason (social visits, doing groceries, etc.), I would have liked it if there had been a section about bicycling as a mode of mobility in Andorra: the challenges as well as the (im)possibilities.

Bici Lab Andorra turned out to be a delightful surprise, something both cycling enthusiasts and simply curious people would enjoy.