View through a bike wheel

I was interested by the view of the canal through the the wheel of a bike and took a couple of photographs. In one photo the bike is in focus and the canal is blurry. In the other photo the bike is out of focus and the canal is in focus. I converted these images to black and white to focus on the angles in the photos. I also tweaked the levels to add more contrast than what was in the original photographs.  Which version do you prefer? Please let me know.