Your last paragraph sums it up nicely; Modern transport bikes will certainly be produced and some of them will be good, but they won’t be such lovely infinitely durable objects hand worked from 50kg of steel, rubber and leather. That’s just part of a lost era.

If I’m not being clear enough, I am referring to the global recession and the likely Depression in the United States and possibly other countries. I look at the new street vendors at the intersections and I see the old transportfiets here and I cannot help but see that there is a demand building in that direction, and there is likely someone who is going to have to meet that demand with something.

As far as barriers to the physical ability of builders to renew production of these bikes, I’m not referring to authentic restoration and continuation verbatim of the old forms, rather similar analogous forms, kludged together from equal parts from inspiration of the old transportfiets, newer hardware from “sporting cycling” such as BMX and Mountain bicycles which demand physical robustness, and local needs and wants.

“The classic transportfiets hails from a time when normal people expected to pay quite large sums of money for tools that would last a lifetime.”

“…where people expect to pay nearly nothing for products designed, marketed and manufactured with cheap labor for a short lifespan.”

I think you’re absolutely right. One of the reasons I ride a FR8, a bike that’s there for the long run. In 1930’s terms, a relatively long run .

It would cost an absolute fortune to make such machines again but they could never compete in a market where people expect to pay nearly nothing for products designed, marketed and manufactured with cheap labor for a short lifespan. Small business owners will not pay several thousand euros for such a simple bicycle, but that is what they would have to cost. Being the founder of a company that develops and sells utility bikes I’m quite sure of this.

Even just for the fun of it, making these bikes again would be beyond the capabilities of small-scale framebuilders. The only parts that are still available are the frames, spokes and tires. Only the frames and perhaps handlebars could be readily copied in a reasonably original form. This is why such a cult has formed around finding, restoring and maintaining old transportfietsen.

With the declining availability of petroleum, I very much doubt that, however by keeping these samples alive and well, framebuilders have templates from which to satisfy renewed demand.

I’ve also seen photos of French triporteur races and no doubt its been done in Scandinavia, Asia, South America and anywhere else more than two transport bikes have been simultaneously ridden by delivery boys.