Comments on: The “Inventor” of the Bakfiets

By: Feddo

Feddo — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 15:15:29 +0000

We joke about the weight savings, but try telling Rasmussen that. I heard he does a thread/turn count on the bolts in his bikes and trims down the excess length. That should save about 30g a bike! Which seems stupid, when the UCI has a minimum bike weight rule…..

Nitrogen is better than Helium then and better than air! And easier to come by, as 78% of air is nitrogen is anyway. It’s that 28& other gases that really make the tire filling heavy.

I agree though, a full fender looks better.

Henry, how would grit that flies from the top of your tire land on your bike? If you are thinking the grit that flies up and whilst moving forward just happens to land exactly on your bike again, then I would dispute the 30gr and say it’s far less….

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:38:10 +0000

You could also use *really* thin tires, which would reduce the weight of the bike, and you’d lose weight from having to walk the bike after all the flats you get. You could also ride without pedals, and just tie your feet to the cranks

I think the piece of the fender that protrudes past the fork looks kind of nice, besides keeping the 30g of grit off the head tube

By: henry

henry — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:33:32 +0000

Just looked at the “beick” Interesting bike chooser web app for an otherwise uninteresting bike.

I’ve often wondered why the fenders have to extend so far forward and I have run them to the crown or just forward on some of my recreational bikes. Some water and grit does fly off onto the head tube and headset but not so much. It’s probably mostly just the way it’s done now. That piece of fender probably weighs almost 30g!… about the same as the grime that flies off the top of your tire and lands on the bike.

If you’re trying to reduce weight I’d recommend helium in the tires. It’s much lighter than Nitrogen and you have refill it frequently causing you to lose a little weight too.

By: Feddo

Feddo — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:08:10 +0000

Henry,

While reading this highly interesting piece, the radio (BNR) mentioned beick.nl in a column by some IT/web guy. I just can’t be bothered to open up my e-mail program and send you an e-mail direct. Sorry for the topic drift.

Anyway, just my effort to keep you up to speed. No pun intended.

I really like the military/cop fixie. Why do we/you not trim down front fenders to stop at the front frok/crown? At that point, any water or spray from the front wheel will not \get\ to the rider anyway. And what a weight saving is to be had by trimming down the fender!!! That and filling up my tires with nitrogen to save weight.

By: ubrayj02

ubrayj02 — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 04:24:43 +0000

I’m sorry not to add much to this discussion, but this post is one of the most meaningful additions to my sales pitch here in Los Angeles. People get very distracted with “high tech” bike components on sporting bicycles – forgetting that so much refining and re-working of the bicycle has already been done.

By: henry

henry — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:46:25 +0000

Erik,
I’ve written about the proliferation of bike ideas and inventions before, most notably here: http://www.bakfiets-en-meer.nl/2009/10/01/whats-really-new-in-bicycle-world/

But it doesn’t necessarily matter that you’re not the first or even the thousandth to think of something and possibly document it. You can still be the first to do something useful with it, or the first to see its importance for a new application. In such cases it might be much more difficult to patent the idea but there are actually quite few things that are worth patenting… especially in a field where practically technical permutatation has been tried or published once.

By: erik

erik — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:28:18 +0000

What is indeed new in the bicycle world? Up until sometime last week I believed I had come up with something if not entirely new at least new enough to be patentable and useful enough so be sellable. Alas, on yet another round of patent database searching I find a german patent of a close to identical idea. So at the moment I am trying to find ways to further develop my idea to such a height that it will fly over the previous patent (and if anyone is intrigued, do contact me)
Point is, in those early days, many may have come up with similar ideas. It is not a lesser feat to reach Mt Everest as the second person.

By: henry

henry — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:54:13 +0000

Todd,
Aside from the occasional wife of the bakfiets builder women began carrying kids in three-wheeled bakfietsen when Christiania began making little, family oriented bakfietsen in Denmark, probably in the early 1980’s. These were always three wheelers. Van Andel’s two wheeled Cargobike was an improvement on these, and everything needed or family transport was present right from the first models: seats, harnesses, canopy, low step-through frame, stable parking stand etc. This was no accidental discovery; It was the whole point of the bike from its conception. That’s why I’ve steadfastly referred to van Andel as the spiritual godfather of this type of bike.

By: Todd Edelman

Todd Edelman — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:47:42 +0000

Sure, the HIStory of cycling — written by men.

No, just kidding. Curious to know when women there started carrying kids in cargo bikes. I suppose it would have been when someone put a seat inside the van Andel bike, indeed was this part of the original design OR more of a Reese’s peanut butter cup kind of moment?

By: henry

henry — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:59:16 +0000

Todd,
Back then these bikes were really only used by businesses, generally ridden by the son of the baker, butcher etc to do the deliveries. The trike has a low instep frame just for technical reasons: the box has to swing over the frame.

A few of the old transportfietsen were built with step-through frames, but that was just to make them more convenient to ride and step over when heavily loaded… by men.