Comments on: Guest post: Experiences with Faya4you bakfiets

By: henry

henry — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 09:27:51 +0000

Yes, what Joe refers to as the Flying Pigeon (though I’m not actually sure there’s any connection to Flying Pigeon) is the same bike as the “New Viper”. This is actually a different (though similar) bike than the Bakfietsweb / King / Bakfietsgigant / Pimmies / Tricycleweb et al bike. The Faya4you is also different, though that’s obvious since it has three wheels. Halford’s also sells the “Boxbike” which is a copy of the Bakfiets.nl Cargotrike.

By: DrMekon

DrMekon — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 08:06:51 +0000

Hi Henry

I see that Portland now has another bakfiets to choose from

http://bikeportland.org/2008/12/11/bike-importer-opens-retail-shop-on-hawthorne/#comments

Are these Flying Pigeon manufactured bikes the same ones that were being sold as New Viper? I am guessing that there’s not multiple clones out there.. perhaps I am naive. Do you get these back in your shop too?

By: henry

henry — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 10:54:24 +0000

I completely agree about the generic-ness of the name “bakfiets.nl”… not helped much by the model name “Cargobike”. These stem from a much more naive time in bakfiets-world and now its inevitable that others will either capitalize on it by deliberately sowing confusion, or simply feel a need to use the word “bakfiets” or perhaps “cargo bike” to describe their products.

That Azor manufactures Bakfiets.nl bikes isn’t a secret but also not something that needs to be advertised. Maarten van Andel is the designer and owner of Bakfiets.nl and Azor the contractor who handles the materials. It is, for example, possible that other Bakfiets.nl products could be made by another firm. No, in case you’re wondering, I’m not suggesting there are actually plans to do so.

Selling that Chinese copy bakfiets (the one that goes under dozens of ever changing names here in Holland) for 782 GBP adn implying that its a quality piece of equipment is essentially criminal. But its legal and caveat emptor!

We had another one of those bikes in the shop the other day. It was a few months old and again, almost every part on the bike was broken. The box had already rotted away and was gone. The customer’s main complaint was the “wobbly feeling” and that “scraping sound”… the broken frame was dragging on the ground.

By: DrMekon

DrMekon — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 10:26:38 +0000

As you know, I came really close to getting one of these cheap bikes.

One thing that strikes me is that by using the relatively generic “bakfiets.nl”, it make it less obvious that the brand represents something special. I had no idea that Azor manufactured the bikes, and what the implications of that were. Also, it means that cheap bikes can sound like they are made by the same people. For instance, in the you can buy a Bakfiets Cargobike Long for £782 from Cyclesense:

http://www.cyclesense.co.uk/products.php?plid=m55b271s503p6044

or for £1410 from Dutchbike.

http://dutchbike.co.uk/Family1.htm

Only one of them is a Bakfiets.nl bike, but neither site mentions Bakfiets.nl or Azor. I suspect an unwary potential purchaser would think that £782 represented a bargain.