Some Danish guy on a WorkCycles rental bike in Amsterdam, originally uploaded by Amsterdamize.

I usually flip through the “VogelVrije Fietser” (literal translation: “Birdfree Cyclist”) in about 30 seconds and then pass it to my toddler son for shredding but this issue (January 2010) had a few bits worth sharing… before Pascal gets his way with it. The first interesting piece is the latest salvo in the imaginary Copenhagen-Amsterdam war of cycling supremacy. The Copenhagen ambitions to achieve or already have achieved the coveted, self appointed title of World Cycling Capitol are already all over the Internet and the BirdFree Cyclist even made the trek up there to the great white north to see what all the fuss was about. In a nutshell they made the great revelation in the previous issue that the crafty Copenhageners were just as busy improving cycling facilities in their city as in most Dutch cities, and that they’re being more vocal about promoting this fact. Whoopee, the Danes also see value in a city where many people cycle!
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Several years ago while I was doing a project with design students at Technical University Eindhoven I met Jelle Zijlstra of Zijlstra Industrial Design. He’d designed the “Fietshangar“, a protective bicycle parking unit that replaces half a car parking spot. The concept is brilliant and philosophically I just love the idea that a single car parking space will be replaced by ten bike parking places. There are already a few hundred Fietshangars in use in various Dutch and Belgian cities and several hundred more are scheduled to be installed.
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Our web developer Doede sent me a despairing note the other day telling me that the rear wheel of his new, old bakfiets got ripped off. The poor beast looks so sad, like a horse with a broken leg.

In case you’re confused thinking that a bakfiets is a modern, two-wheeler that mom carries her kids in, you’re half correct. That’s a Bakfiets Cargobike, with Bakfiets being the very generic trade name for Maarten van Andel’s brilliant bike. But to Dutch folks “bakfiets” still generally means a giant, heavy duty three-wheeler with a wooden box on the front, a brake lever between your legs and a fixed gear to keep those legs busy. Just to be sure: “bakfiets” is singular and “bakfietsen” is plural. Please remember that as it’s quite painful to read “bakfiet”. Check here for a more detailed description of the etymology of bakfietsen, bakkersfietsen, bakkers, bakken, gebak…

Anyhow the theft raised the question of who would bother stealing an old bakfiets wheel. They’re nearly impossible to find but then again such a wheel has no significant market value. Thus Doede’s wheel was probably stolen by another bakfiets owner whose hub, drum brake or rim finally died after 40 or 50 years of faithful service. And who rides old bakfietsen like these? Well, Doede reasoned, not the sorts of people you’d expect to be stealing their fellow bakfiets riders wheels: hippies, squatters, socialists and others well to the “left” of the socio-political spectrum. Just goes to show you that you can’t judge a book by its cover… or that such demographic stereotypes don’t actually work for crap.

[UPDATE 26-08-09: On Sunday while cycling out of the city with Kyoko and Pascal for a day trip we came across a scene I'd never witnessed before: A building getting broken into and squatted. A raucous mob of perhaps 50 men and women with creative hair and almost entirely black clothing was smashing their way through the door of a pretty, 17th century building in the Weteringschans. Upon breaking the door open the crowd cheered and stormed inside with the contents of a delivery van and no less than two big, old bakfietsen. I also recognized a couple of Amsterdam bakfiets/transportfiets "colleagues" of the old skool variety. Just goes to show you that some stereotypes have a basis in reality.

I pulled my camera out to get a couple pics of the bakfietsen playing a key role in the squatter's life, but I was immediately apprehended by somebody apparently appointed the "no fucking pictures" man of the event.]

In case you’re wondering what sort of rear wheel would be supporting the rear frame of that bakfiets had some scumbag not stolen it, here’s a quick description:

It would look like this one on a brand new WorkCycles Bakfiets, meaning thus that such wheels are actually still available… just not at a price many old-fashioned bakfiets riders are prepared to pay for:

And here’s a picture of a whole, brand-new classic bakfiets, just because I’m so thrilled that such gorgeous, durable, early 20th century vehicles can still be in production. In the background is the Nijland factory where these bikes are made for WorkCycles:

“Fietsen worden verwijderd” = “Bicycles will be removed” and is a common sign in Amsterdam since bicycles cover every usable wall, sign pole, lamp post, fence, gate, bridge railing, fence, window (and bike rack). Putting a Fietsen worden verwijderd sign on your window or door is no guarantee that the spot will remain bike free but it’ll at least keep the most conscientious people away.

Ahh, but why is it also written in Chinese characters? I’ll just leave that as a mystery for the locals to answer.

IMG_1916, originally uploaded by henry in a’dam.

OK, so perhaps somebody disagrees with the sticker: “Tijd voor een goeie fiets” (time for a good bike)… but at least they had the decency to leave the workcycles logo intact.

unsolicited sticker found on doede's bakfiets

Our website dude Doede van der Linden sent me this pic today. Somebody stuck this sticker on his Bakfiets Cargobike today.

“Rot op met deze &*%$#@! fiets” roughly translates to “Fuck off with this fucking bike” .

In other words somebody is displeased with Doede’s choice of bicycle. Below, the same in better detail.

The sticker in all it's glory

Here we can read the smaller text below.

Dit is een asociale fiets hij is echt te groot en waarschijnlijk kan ook jij er niet normaal mee fietsen

And in English: “This is an antisocial bike it is really too big and you probably also can’t cycle normally”

Now let’s consider this more carefully.

Now if anything is antisocial it’s telling people, unsolicited, by sticking things on their bikes, that they have too many kids, that they ride a bike that’s “too big”, and that they probably can’t ride a bike normally. So fuck off, you righteous asshole! Put stickers on your own bike and don’t tell people how they should live. Be happy that Doede rides a bakfiets (no wider than the handlebars of a normal bike in case it matters) instead of driving a Cadillac Escalade. And be happy that you live in Amsterdam, cycling capital of the world.

Not visible in photo: the bikes were a men’s and ladies’ pair. From my neighborhood free newspaper “De Echo”.

Coincidence? I don’t think so!

“bicycle tree parking” (second photo) via swissmiss where you’ll find lots of interesting design stuff, some of which is bike related… others just thought provoking or beautiful.

A friend sent me a link to a new robotic bike parking system in Tokyo, reminding me of one of my favorite topics: where to put all the bikes when everybody cycles. The Tokyo system is very cool and executed on quite a large scale. It apparently has space for 9400 bikes. Just for reference a parking garage for 9400 cars would be enormous – a quick calculation suggests that it’d be at least 150,000 m2 in surface area or perhaps much more considering all the entrance and exit paths necessary to keep it flowing.

The video of the parking garage in action here can be found on a gazillion sites already so here’s a French language blog with a thorough description with photos and videos of the Tokyo system at Kasai (train) Station. The photo above is from this site and the author is apparently busy with an English translation. There are also many nice pictures and descriptions of the 2008 Sakura, the cherry blossoms the Japanese are crazy about.Cleanliness and technical perfection aside I’m skeptical about whether such an elaborate, high-tech bike parking system is really necessary. For example, the humble fietsflat in Amsterdam holds about 4000 bikes on any given day and its nothing more than a three level metal structure with a lot of bike racks. Of course the fietsflat and its users are not so kind to your bicycle.

There are also other automated bike parking systems. This Dutch system called “Fietsmolen” (Bicycle Mill) is simpler and seems to offer much higher density. A couple examples have been built in Holland. The fietsmolen is basically just a carousel with one or multiple concentric rings of bikes. Each ring rotates independently of the others and gets its own entrance. A two ring system holds 100 bikes and according to the creator rings can be placed inside and outside the basic module. That would offer space for about 200 bikes per unit, comparable to the 180 bikes per unit in the Tokyo Kasai system.

The Fietsmolen system can be placed underground or above ground, as needed. Of course multiple Fietsmolens could be installed together as has been done in the Tokyo Kasai system. When installed back to back the Fietsmolens pack together very densely.

The Fietsmolen site is in Dutch and not especially handy either. Keep clicking and you’ll find photos and examples.

Just like we predicted a few years ago, bakfietsen, Cargobikes and transport bikes are now an unavoidable part of the Amsterdam street scene. They’re especially popular in some neighborhoods with many young families. But all changes bring complaints and this one is no exception; Childless residents are complaining that the sidewalks are covered with big bikes.

My opinion: Its true, the bikes shouldn’t be crowding pedestrians on the sidewalks. They should be crowding cars off the streets! I vote for gradually converting automobile parking spots to bicycle parking spots. Problem solved.

Of course such a plan is great for the livability of the city, but will obviously find many opponents since the city derives considerable revenues from the parking permits and meters. Parking a car in Amsterdam is very expensive, but I’d expect any plans to charge for on-street bicycle parking to go over like a lead balloon. Besides, bicycles aren’t even registered here (anymore) making it nearly impossible to manage anyway.

Photo by Lukas Göbel from the Volkskrant (newspaper) 10.11.2007. In this photo you can spot the following: