ABC Wednesday - Velocipede

What every velocipede requires is an ingeniously placed velopomp. The word velocipede was coined by Nicéphore Niépce to mean any human powered vehicle, the name never advanced out of the Victorian era in English and we embraced the name bicycle.  The French however shortened it into a word that seems to embody speed - the Vélo.  I think this sign may be a combination of French and Flemish  but it leaves no doubt what it is to be used for. All the velocipede racks in Belgium have a pump and we sat in a café in Sint-Niklass  watching this pump being lifted up and down to fill tires.  No need to carry a pump on your bike when when is always close to hand.   Belgium is definitely a place of velocipede lovers

 and I have never seen so many bikes in one place as outside the station in Ghent, they were stacked as far as the eye could see,  this is only a fraction.. They cluster outside the station

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and then spread out into the surrounding streets.  I wonder what the collective noun for bicycles or vélos is, perhaps a pride, for the Belgians seem mighty fond of them.  But with so many perhaps it can be difficult sometimes to find where you've parked it so perhaps the best way is to vamp it up

with flowers.

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a ride through the alphabet  from A to Z