Comments on: The stickers begin appearing

By: henry

henry — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:04:28 +0000

Doede, There’s a very simple explanation for that: A bunch of customers had a “sticker party” on August 12, 2009 and apparently it got totally out of hand. They rampaged around the city putting those stickers on every trashed bike they could find, taking pictures with that one camera as they went along.

Yeah, that’s the ticket… that’s how it went!

By: Doede

Doede — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:39:28 +0000

HA Henry! I just viewed all the new wrakken with stickers, wonderful! But eh… you wrote: Friends and customers keep on sending in their photos of WORKCYCLES stickers on wrecked bikes around Amsterdam.

I think you’re pulling a leg here, or you don’t have any friends nor customers, which I doubt very much… (facebook 386 and many WorkCycles-dealers around the globe!)

Oh.. why I think you joking around? Eh… why are all pictures # Taken with a Canon PowerShot S3 IS on August 12, 2009…? Or do you just have 1 one friend/customer?

Enjoy your weekend Henry!

By: Todd Edelman

Todd Edelman — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:57:28 +0000

Oh, the GPS thing was a joke.

By: henry

henry — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:19:33 +0000

Todd,
I think it’s the common attitude about bike wrecks. Bikes in general are not seen as terribly private or special here; they’re left all over the place, parked against each other, moved haphazardly by construction crews, frequently damaged by the cleaning crews etc etc.

What would be the purpose of installing micro-GPS transmitters into stationary bikes? To follow them through their future lives after they’ve been picked up, discarded, recycled…?

By: Todd Edelman

Todd Edelman — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:11:57 +0000

I like “… no man’s land nuisance…” referring to them being neither public nor private… is that the common analysis?

Also, would you take advertising from a car company in order to pay for installing the new micro-GPS transmitters into the stickers themselves?

By: henry

henry — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 08:26:23 +0000

Haha. No, we were working on our stickers long before the pink bakfiets stickers showed up on the scene. There are also a couple major differences:

1. The bakfiets stickers are obnoxious and mean spirited. The workcycles stickers are just ironic and non-confrontational.

2. The bakfiets stickers are placed on somebody else’s property. The workcycles stickers are placed by the owner of the bike itself or on abandoned bikes. Abandoned bikes are, by definition, ownerless… a sort of no man’s land nuisance to the residents of the city. They’re neither private nor public property at this stage and they’ll be cleared away in due time anyway.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:13:43 +0000

Is this a response to the people putting stickers on the bakfiets? Seems like there is a lot of stickering of other peoples property in Amsterdam.

By: henry

henry — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 06:34:12 +0000

Debora, The city cuts away "Fietswrakken" as bike wrecks are called here and takes them to the AFAC bike depot. Normally a sticker with a date of removal is stuck on the bikes to be removed, giving the owner (if there is one) some time to remove/repair/move the bike. However sometimes, in obvious cases they just take them away. The city got rather zealous here for a while but heard too many complaints so they've become more careful. The problem is that the checking is rather random and the fietswrakken accumulate quickly. Sometimes a bike rack will be 25% wrecks if nobody's cleared it out in a few years. If residents call the AFAC they'll often send a crew within days but in a neighborhood where people don't care they'll come very seldomly.

By: Debora Gallo

Debora Gallo — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 06:07:34 +0000

I was wondering about these ! So they take the bikes away after a while right? Are the bikes then offered for sale somewhere?
cheers,
Deb

By: henry

henry — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 07:28:05 +0000

BlueMingo,
We’ve got them at the Lijnbaansgracht shop and will shortly bring some over to the Veemarkt as well. They’re €0.50 each (just to cover costs).

Jenn,
So far there are four versions:
“Oud ijzer boer gezocht” = Scrap metal man sought.
“Tijd voor een goeie fiets” = Time for a good bike.
“Wrak This” = Wreck this! (but sounds almost like “fuck this”)
My other bike is a WorkCycles… no translation needed.