Visitors and readers of Dutch cycling blogs might be getting the impression that the Netherlands is a sort of parallel, heavenly universe where every man, woman and child cycles around safely on perfect bike roads, blithefully tossing their rusty, black omafiets into a five story tall structure packed with thousands of other rusty, black omafietsen. And further that motor vehicle drivers are largely banished to inconvenient, circuitous routes around the cities and when actually allowed to drive near real, vulnerable humans they proceed cautiously and with the utmost courtesy.

That would be nice but alas the Dutch are human too. Like other members of this species they get impatient and angry, they sometimes have crazy opinions, they break rules, they can just be malicious asses for no apparent reason. Cycling really is usually quite fantastic here; The images you see on this blog and Amsterdamize really are representative of our daily travels. The extensive explanations of cycle infrastructure and cultural factors David Hembrow and Mark Wagenbuur write about in A view from the cycle path really are true. Nonetheless, a couple times a year I have an “incident” not entirely unlike the more frequent unpleasant or even dangerous encounters one has cycling in most other places. I’ll describe the most recent examples.


No, this isn’t the actual van but it is the same model, in the same neighborhood and it’s a nice picture so it will do nicely. Thanks “Roel”.

Incident 1: Mr. van Driver
Last summer I riding with my then 22 month old son between my arms after having picked him up from his daycare. Stopped at a red light behind other “commuting” cyclists on a narrow canal street (Singel for those who know A’dam) the driver of a small delivery van pulls up so closely that he’s actually touching my left calf with his bumper. Obviously somewhat perturbed I turn around to look at the driver and silently motion “back up a little”, though the expression on my face certainly said something more like “back the f__k up you psychotic asshole!” But silly me, that’s apparently just what he wanted me to think and I get nothing but pure aggression in return. There wasn’t much room but I made my way forward in the group of waiting cyclists to avoid a conflict. So I thought. The light turns green and ten or so cyclists push off across the intersection (Raadhuisstraat). As we’re funneling back into the Singel Mr. van Driver charges along to the left squeezing us off the road into the bollards and cafe tables there. I don’t know whether he was targeting me specifically but son and I ended up pressed between van and bollard. Acting instinctively I bang the side of his van with my fist or elbow. Mistake. Touching an Amsterdam car lover’s beloved vehicle is apparently the “wanna fight?!” signal. Don’t, for example, ever touch a taxi unless you want to take a ride in it or get into an argument with it’s driver.

So Mr. van Driver driver slams on the brakes trapping us, jumps out of his vehicle and begins the scene many friends have independently described. I’ll translate the obvious: “Don’t you ever (insert expletives) touch my car! I’ll (more expletives) kill you!” Of course I’m equally livid and tunnel visoned now and screaming at him that he already has tried to kill us, that I hit his van only after it hit us. Etc etc but it’s all pointless. Son is screaming his head off at the scene. Other cyclists and bystanders are disappearing as fast as possible to avoid having to help or be a witness (the Dutch are amazing at this). We’re at a standoff: He’s blocking our way and with a toddler laden bike I’m hardly maneuverable anyway. Finally after a couple minutes of this the driver of one of the waiting cars behind comes over to talk some sense and get things moving again. Fortunately he’s gigantic, commanding some respect from Mr. van Driver. He begrudgingly gets back into his van and drives away.

Why on earth, you ask, didn’t I call the police? Because I don’t think they would have helped. They might even have given me trouble for touching his vehicle, regardless of the circumstances that led to it. Well mayyybe it could have fallen in my favor just out of prejudice; Mr. van Driver was of a non-native ethnicity. The cycling conditions might be amazing here but the Amsterdam police often suck.

The following day I took a photo at the same place, from the same perspective, minus VW Golf and man getting harassed.

Incident 2: Four kids in a VW Golf against the older man
This Spring I was again riding home with son on bike and just a block before home we come across somebody else’s “incident”. A man of 60ish years old on a bike is being hassled by four twenty somethings in VW Golf. We’re behind the car watching the scene unfold. They’re honking and yelling at him to get out of the way, but really our neighborhood street isn’t wide enough for a car to pass a moving cyclist. Besides it has big speed bumps so cars don’t go much faster than cyclists anyway. Two blocks away on either side are wider through roads for car traffic. This is well engineered traffic calming but these guys are unclear on the concept. They’re just on the wrong road.

So after they lay on the horn a few times and yell several expletives the man on the bike stops, thus blocking the guys in the car. The yelling and threatening from within the car escalates while the man (at least outwardly) remains calm. Four on one doesn’t seem fair and given our location this is likely a neighbor. I ride next to the car and ask the guys through the open windows what the problem is. Obviously I already know what’s going on but you have to start somewhere. They bitch loudly that the man is taking up the whole road, that he should ride closer to the right. I reply that it might seem so from inside a car but it just doesn’t work that way. One cannot safely cycle centimeters from the parked cars. Sure it’s annoying that they have to drive slowly but that’s just what happens when you try to bypass car traffic on a neighborhood street. While they gradually calm down both the older man and I repeat this several times in various ways. They relax after a while and drive off with no apparent hard feelings.

A different day, a friend instead of my daughter… but the same idea. This is how we roll.

Incident 3: The four scooter guys
Thursday is my papa day. Kyoko teaches art classes while I take the kids. After picking P1 up from his Montessori class we ride the Cargobike across town to a play date with friends. Riding down the bike path on the Spuistraat in the city center I get elbowed from behind by two young guys on a scooter. They shove me and bump the bakfiets, kids arms hanging out the sides. Two buddies on another scooter were just ahead. I guess they figured they’d be gone before I could possibly do anything. But 30m further they got stuck while a tram crossed. I rode up behind them, jammed my elbow into the guy’s back to get him to turn around… and then punched him as hard as I possibly could in his face. I was aiming for the nose but connected well with a cheek. I was so angry and confused that I would have kept hitting him had I not been straddling a Cargobike with two tots in it.

I can accept youthful stupidity; driving vehicles too fast, risking people’s lives. I did it too as did most of my friends. But now as a dad and with responsibility for more than a dozen employees I’m far more conscious of such risks. But deliberately trying to knock over a family with little kids on a bike? That’s pure evil, way beyond being young and dumb. I’m sure some will comment that punching the guy was the wrong approach for various reasons and perhaps they’re right. But it is what I did, right or wrong. It probably wasn’t the most practical thing to do but it sure was satisfying.

But before you go off talking, blogging and tweeting how bad cycling in the Netherlands is keep in mind that the above are the total of noteworthy incidents I’ve had or seen in the last few years of cycling every day in a major city. As much might happen within a couple weeks or even days riding in the US or UK.

Workcycles rider Matt Ransford sent this photo from Hong Kong. He added that there aren’t many bikes to be seen in Hong Kong but those you see look like they’ve been around for a long time and they all have rod operated brakes. Thanks for passing that along Matt!

I seem to recall Hong Kong being David Byrne’s pick for World’s Worst Cycling City.

This delivery bike, with its big basket type front carrier affixed to the frame is just like old English delivery bikes. This, of course, was way back when it was still commonplace for tradespeople and delivery boys in the UK to move their goods about by bicycle. This connection is no great surprise given that Hong Kong was a British colony until recently.

An English Gundle Model U trade bike. Photo by Sprocket316 on Flickr.

This colonial (work)bike connection is actually rather consistent, if limited to the colonizing countries that exported bikes and cycling: England and the Netherlands. Perhaps there are other examples (Italian style bikes in Libya? French “porteur” bikes in Tunisia?) but I’m not familiar with them.

In India all of the city bikes and delivery bikes follow the styles of English bikes from about the 1950′s. There are apparently many classic Dutch bikes in Indonesia that can hardly even be found in the Netherlands anymore. I wrote about beautiful, old Dutch bikes in Indonesia here. In Indonesian rickshaws the driver sits in back and passengers sit up front over the two wheeled axle, just like a traditional Dutch bakfiets.

Indonesian rickshaws by Elrentaplats on Flickr.

Current production Workcycles heavy-duty bakfiets. Photo by me.

How Indian and Chinese rickshaws and cargo tricycles ended up with the passengers or load in the rear is unclear to me, since English carrier tricycles usually also had their loads up front and riders behind.. Perhaps they began by modifying standard bicycles, in which case it’s somewhat easier to add a two wheeled rear end than front end. Alternatively maybe these places already had a tradition of foot powered rickshaws so the obvious progression was to put a bicycle in front. Does anybody have some insights here?

Rickshaw loaded up with lots of some sort of container, I assume empty. Photo by Luren J. on Flickr.

Chinese cargo trike, today as family vehicle. Photo by Tom Resink of Workcycles.

Kids Lodge golf cart kiddy bus train. Photo from Algemene Dagblad.

All is not perfect in the land of bicycles, tulips, cheese and more bicycles. In the middle of hyper bicycle friendly Netherlands sits Houten which was actually planned and built as the ideal bicycling town. Amongst probably many other honors Houten was as recently as 2008 awarded the prize of Best Bicycling City. In Houten auto traffic is directed all the way around the city on a ring road with limited access to the interior city. Bicyclists, on the other hand, enjoy a network of wide bike paths throughout the town.

Meanwhile “Kids Lodge” after school daycare center in Houten has introduced a novel concept: They bought ten old golf carts to ferry the kids from their elementary schools to the daycare. Behind the golf carts they’re towing trailers, also loaded with kids. Their explanation: It takes too long to drive the kids all the way around the city in buses so instead they ride directly through the city on the bike paths with their golf cart trains. Why not use special bikes such as the KDV Workcycles sells to dozens of other daycare centers in the Netherlands? “We’d rather cycle but that’s not possible with so many kids. Too dangerous.” Dangerous? We’ve hundreds of KDV’s in daily service throughout the country and have yet to hear of even a blister or pinched finger. Too many kids? The KDV carries eight kids, about as many as each golf cart plus trailer rig. Maybe “We got a great deal on the decommissioned golf carts. ” and “We’re too lazy to pedal.” are more likely explanations?


Kids being silly in a KDV in Delft, NL. Photo by me.

Now, in all fairness, I suppose the golf cart trains are at least more eco friendly than driving the kids around in buses but c’mon folks… you’re in Houten of all places! Houten is a whopping 4km from edge to edge and Kids Lodge is approximately in the middle of it. You can’t ride a flat loop of a couple kilometers to pick up the kids?

What’s ruffling some feathers though is that they’re driving these golf cart kiddy trains on the bike paths. Not surprisingly the Fietsersbond (Dutch cyclists’ union) isn’t happy with Kids Lodge’s creativity. See this article in the Algemene Dagblad for the story in Dutch. Perhaps you’re thinking that it’s strange that these motorized vehicles much bigger than bikes would even be allowed on the bike paths. But actually Dutch “fietspaden” (bike paths and lanes) are not exclusively for the use of bicyclists. Also allowed are vehicles legally classified as “snorfietsen” (in principle slow, motor-assisted bicycles limited to 25km/hr), as well as several types of small vehicles for disabled and elderly people. At least that was the original intention when the laws were created. It seems that nobody could imagine that anybody but an old lady would wan to ride a moped without a helmet and be able to ride and park it anywhere.

Recently this loophole in the law has been exploited, primarily by the scooter manufacturers who make supposed reduced speed models that are registered as “snorfietsen” and may be ridden without helmets on the bike paths. They’re called “snorscooters” Unlike the snorfietsen the laws are based on these are much bigger and have no (even vestigial) pedals. In fact, aside from a little, blue registration plate they’re indistinguishable from the normal, fast scooters that are driven on the roads. Once in the hands of their new (mostly young) owner the speed limiter is quickly removed and the motor often hot-rodded to increase the maximum speed to several times the legal limit. The police, apparently preoccupied with evicting squatters and harassing various ethnic groups, don’t enforce either the speed limits on the bike paths or the specifications of scooters. As a result snorscooters have exploded in popularity and generic, franchise-looking scooter stores are popping up throughout the city.

Yet another speeding scooter. Image by Flickr user “Aardewerk”.

At least in Amsterdam these “snorscooters” have come to be almost unanimously hated by bicyclists… so much so that it’s drowned out the occasional badmouthing of bohemian/yuppie/self-righteous/name your stereotype bakfiets moms. Not only are scooters noisy and polluting (most still have two-stroke engines), many of their riders behave amazingly badly. Practically every cyclist will complain about the incessant horn tooting and close calls of scooter riders weaving their way through bicycle traffic. Many, including myself, have numerous stories of actually getting cut off, screamed at or bumped off the road by scooter riders. I’ve actually had this happen while riding my baby and toddler to the daycare center.

Women who ride bicycles are cooler anyway. Photo by Flickr user “Mishari Alreshaid”.

Recent research by the Fietsersbond demonstrated that 94% of the snorfietsen on Amsterdam bike paths are exceeding the 25km/hr speed limit. Amazingly the AVERAGE speed of snorfietsen on the bike paths was 37km/hr, 50% higher than the legal speed limit. Snorscooters with their little, blue plates were measured at almost 60km/hr. Now that’s a little strange for a vehicle governed to 25km/hr in a city with no hills. My own seat of the pants feeling is that it doesn’t seem far from what I see daily.

There are so many complaints that a debate is currently raging about what vehicles should be allowed to ride on the bike paths here. The cyclist’s collective perspective is clear: Kill the “snorfiets” category or at least redefine it so that it’s really only for motorized vehicles that can’t go faster than 25km/hr. I heartily agree. I doubt many cyclists have an issue with elderly folks in their electric scootmobiles or the few tiny “Canta” cars that putt-putt and park wherever their owners wish to point them. Scooter riders, though, must put helmets on and go back to the road where they belong!

And if Kids Lodge insists upon transporting kids with their ridiculous golf car trains, please have them at least do so on the roads so that they slow some motorists down instead of making a farce of the bicycle lanes.

Somehow it just warms my heart to see thousands of city bikes lined up in endless rows. That requires about as much space as a supermarket or a small office building. Sometimes I wonder how big a parking facility for that many cars would be. I suppose the answer is that it would look rather like the vast sea of asphalt and cars that surrounds a big shopping mall: Occasionally full but usually mostly empty blackness… what a waste of space.

A Dutch bike parking facility, on the other hand, tends to remain remarkably full. Only after business hours does it thin out considerably. When I used to park my bike daily at the Amsterdam Fietsflat I almost always ended up walking all the way up to the upper level since I came in toward the end of the “rush hour”. The lowest level was perpetually crammed with crappy student bikes, often two or three per “official” space.

Of course there’s bike parking all over the city but most of the really big units are at train stations since lots of people ride their bikes to take a train to another town. That might be to “commute” to a job in another town, but it’s often also students who move back and forth between the university in one town and “home-home” in another. They might even keep an old bike at each end. I suppose one could say that this is a misuse of public space, but it could be easily argued that it’s really very, very little space. Any other means of transport also requires some use of public space and resources as well.


I couldn’t find any pictures of the brand new Haarlem station fietsenstalling so this artist’s rendering will have to do for now.

This morning I read in the Fietsberaad Newsbrief that a new that the city of Haarlem has just opened a new fietsenstalling (“fietsen” = “bikes”, “stalling” = “parking”, as in stalls for horses). With spaces for 5050 bikes they claim it to be the biggest in Europe. Certainly it is bigger than the famous and constantly photographed “Fietsflat” by Amsterdam Central Station, which somehow typically holds about 4000 bikes in 2500 spaces. But the “biggest in Europe” might be a bit of hyperbole since there’s already at least one other fietsenstalling with about 5000 spaces: the Stadsbalkon in Groningen. But I’d be surprised to hear about any other facilities in the western world (but outside Holland) that even approach these numbers.

Groningen – Stadsbalkon (Stationsplein) by Geert Schotanus, on Flickr

Stadsbalkon/Fietsenstalling by stormblast1953, on Flickr

Ironically, both of these new facilities will probably operate at capacity within a couple years since, like auto traffic, the demand seems to follow the supply.

Speaking of getting more bikes on the street, Workcycles has just begun a historic clearance sale on a bunch of bikes and gear. After eight years in business it’s just time to simultaneously make some space and make some customers happy with some great deals. At the top of the list are no less than four ex-rental/demo Cargobikes (all Long versions) in great shape. Also on offer are Monark Trucks and Long Johns and a whole bunch of parts and accessories. The bikes can be seen here:
Workcycles Clearance Sale

And the parts and accessories will be added in the coming days and weeks. Expect to see: lights, panniers, tires, saddles, locks, child seats and plenty of random but perfectly usable components.

The coastal climate keeps it from snowing in Amsterdam as much as you’d figure for a place quite far north and with a reputation for considerable rainfall. Some winters it hardly snows at all while some winters it begins in November and snows regularly until spring. Still it almost never snows more than perhaps ten centimeters and then it usually warms up a couple days later, making a slushy, dirty mess and gradually disappearing.

This winter, however, it’s already snowed more in November and the first half of December than we usually see all year. No matter; we have our bikes to get around and today’s snowfall was just what I needed to remember that. This morning I had a plan to train at the Velodrome with my friend Toon. Yes, I still do that sort of thing and no, there is no conflict between being a cyclist for both transportation and fun/fitness. The Amsterdam Velodrome is great way to stay fit when it’s like this outside. It’s just warm enough to wear shorts and even in a snowstorm there are 30 or 40 riders in a training session paceline.


Here’s a picture I coincidentally found of Toon at the Velodrome. See? Nice and warm and dry and fast; sure beats sitting on a stationary trainer at home.

The only challenge today was that I had my track bike at home, not in the storage at the velodrome. Carrying a bike while riding a bike is no big deal; usually I do it with the bakfiets. The front wheel comes off and I strap the handlebar against the back of the box. The rear wheel stands on the front edge of the box and a pair of straps hold the whole rig upright. Looks a little funny but it works like a charm. You might be thinking “Why doesn’t he just ride with the track bike rolling alongside like most normal folks would do?” Or alternatively “Why doesn’t he just ride that darn track bike like the entire world population of skinny-jeans with U-lock wearing, butt-crack showing hipsters. And there is a reason: At a wooden velodrome it’s not allowed to ride on tires that have ever been ridden outside. They can pick up debris that would damage the track surface.

Anyhow Kyoko needed the bakfiets to bring the kids to the daycare this morning and for reasons to mundane to explain our Fr8 city bike was at the shop. That left me with my Brompton folding bike, which actually sucks in snow much less than you’d expect. It is sketchy handling on the slippery, squishy stuff but it’s also very low to the ground making it really easy to do the one foot “outrigger” or tripod thing. So for lack of a better option I set the saddle a few cm lower than usual, tossed the track bike on my right shoulder and set off through about 10cm of unplowed snow holding the Brompton’s handlebar with my left hand. Comfortable it was not but neither was it dangerous; I just had a few kilometers to ride, almost entirely on separated bike paths. I didn’t fall until I tried to dismount at Toon’s house. Then I discovered that the neighborhood road I’d been cycling on was as slippery as a greased pig and fell immediately on my butt with two bikes on top of me. So much for grace.

I did consider the other transport options this morning:

Car: Well, we don’t have one of our own. I could probably have borrowed a friend’s car but it’s parked about half as far away as I had to ride anyway. In any case auto traffic around the city was a mess. The few snowplows they have here were running way behind the heavy snowfall and cars were stuck everywhere.

Tram: There’s a tram that runs between our two houses, with just another few minutes walk on his end. Problem is that the trams and buses were all getting stuck behind the floundering cars and trucks. One of my Workcycles colleagues spent half the afternoon trying to cross the city by tram and finally ended up walking most of it out of frustration. The trams that are running smoothly are jam packed so I also wouldn’t have made any friends carrying a bike frame and a pair of wheels.

Taxi:That would be convenient aside from sitting in traffic while watching the meter tick away at the alarmingly fast Amsterdam taxi rate. Oh, yes, I’d still have to disassemble and reassemble the bike to fit it in the trunk. Basically we only take taxis in Amsterdam when headed to deliver a baby or return home with that baby. Four times thus.

Walking: The distance was just too far for a reasonable walk. It would have taken well over an hour.

This evening after work I rode the Cargobike (bakfiets) to the daycare to pick the kids up. By then quite a bit more snow had fallen and it was either packed down into ice on the car roads or half packed and half sliced up into zig-zag tracks on the bike paths. The bakfiets is actually quite good in such crappy cycling conditions. Though the front wheel is lightly loaded and slides fairly easily the low center of gravity and long wheelbase make for very forgiving handling. Kyoko and I both prefer it to our city bikes when it’s slippery. When it’s as slippery as it was this evening falling is more an inevitability than a bad scenario. Falling with the children under a tough canopy in the wooden box of the bakfiets is annoying for you but probably just funny for your kids. Falling with kid(s) on child seats on a regular bike will result in at least one snowy, screaming kid.

I did drop the bakfiets once this evening; After successfully navigating the paths, roads and sidewalks (hey, whatever works when it looks like this out) to our home I once again today fell on my butt after dismounting at my destination. Two year old Pascal’s response while on his side under the canopy? “Bakfiets Boom! Bakfiets Boom!”

The Sinterklaas “Intocht” (arrival parade) needs no introduction for the locals who began chasing Sinterklaas and his many “Zwarte Pieten”along the Amstel river and through the streets of Amsterdam as toddlers. It goes approximately as follows:

Sinterklaas is the Dutch equivalent of Santa Claus. While they’re both apparently Saint Nicholas only Sint’s white beard bears any resemblance to the fat “Ho Ho Ho!” fellow in the red snowsuit who flies his reindeer driven sleigh from the North Pole. Sinterklaas is tall, skinny, serious and righteous. He comes not from the north, but by ship from Spain. Sint himself is not actually Spanish; he’s Turkish. I suppose it’s all really a lot less weird than flying a reindeer powered sleigh from the North Pole.


Sinterklaas on his white horse


Santa Claus in his reindeer-powered flying sleigh

While Santa Claus has some elves to help him out Sint has an entire army of Zwarte Pieten (Black Petes). The Pieten do the heavy lifting as well as the “naughty or nice” judging of the children. Naughty children get their gifts replaced by coal and truly heinous kids are stuffed into a sack and brought back to Spain. I’ve never been clear on just what despicable crimes a child must commit to be sentenced to a holiday in Spain but I assume it must be worse than struggling to avoid having their teeth brushed or head-butting their baby sister.

Pascal didn’t get stuffed into a sack and brought to Spain but he did get a bunch of pepernoten dumped on his head by a mischievous Piet.

Depending on who’s telling the story in what era Zwarte Piet has variously been depicted as a shackled devil, a chimney sweep, a Moor colorfully dressed as a renaissance era page, or a Moor colorfully dressed as a renaissance era page whose face is blacked from descending many chimneys. The first explanation has been abandoned since it doesn’t sound nice to modern children and the rest each have their modern adherents. In the modern tradition Zwarte Piet, or rather an entire battalion of Zwarte Pieten, have been played by men and women in blackface which provokes a surprisingly little bit of controversy for it’s being potentially racist (depending on which version of the story you want to believe).

Only confusing an already convoluted story: A Moorish Piet probably wouldn’t even be black since what the Europeans referred to as “Moors” were mostly Berbers and Arabs from northern Africa. As a resident of a city with a considerable population with roots in this region I can assure you that they’re usually not particularly dark skinned. But heck, Shakespeare also portrayed Othello as black in so who am I to argue? Not that any of this is terribly relevant aside from showing how confused traditions can get.

Racist or controversial or not this is an enormously popular celebration, as witnessed by some half million happy fans lining the streets of Amsterdam in the rain (remember: We’re not made of sugar.) cheering the arrival of Sinterklaas and 670 Zwarte Pieten. Interestingly I spotted what seemed to be a handful of black Zwarte Pieten, also in blackface of course.

Each year Sint and the Pieten load up a ship full of “pepernoten” (little cookies like ginger snaps) and stuff in Spain and sail for Holland. Their exact route is unclear but they do end up sailing up the Amstel, which is odd considering that this is inland from Amsterdam. Perhaps they’ve chosen another inland route to pick up carrots for the horses or something.

Zwarte Piet with a nice big carrot for the horses.

Once they reach the Amstel thousands of families with kids on bikes and in bakfietsen ride along the banks cheering Sint and the Pieten onward. The ship lands by the Scheepvaartsmuseum (the shipping museum) in the center of Amsterdam and Zwarte Pieten and Sint parade through the streets in all manner of Dutch vehicles and conveyances.

Inline skate Piet with balance bike Pascal.

Sinterklaas rides his white horse while the various Pieten show their preferences for Workcycles transport bikes, but also inline skates, unicycles, fire engines and in an unfortunate development this year: scooters. Yuck, we don’t like scooters, but we’ll discuss the problem of scooters on the bike paths another day.

Degenerate Pieten on scooters

Meanwhile we’re doing our best to keep our own kids from going down the gateway drug, slippery slope of scooterdom, beginning of course by cycling daily with them from about a month old.

A couple young bakfiets passengers

It could eventually backfire but thus far it seems to be working; Pascal is absolutely crazy about his teeny bike, insisting on riding it everywhere we go. He calls it his “Beanits bicycle” (BMX bicycle). Not only are we getting a kick out of watching him ride we’re also not complaining about no longer having to carry him around, nor about him coming home exhausted from a day of “cycling” all over the city, ready for a nap.

At such a young age (two) kids learn such motor skills amazingly quickly. After just a couple weeks on the bike Pascal figured out he could push off and ride with his feet in the air. Two weeks later he’s maneuvering along busy sidewalks, up and down Amsterdam’s cobblestoned bridges and “jumping” off steps and curbs. Obviously we don’t let him get too far since a two year old’s judgement must be pretty close to nil but he’s been very well behaved so far… which partially explains why he didn’t get shipped to Spain last week.

His first Halloween costume? The great Eddy Merckx of course!

A family in our neighborhood sent this photo to me today nicely illustrating something most people in the Netherlands take for granted: A bike is simply an amazingly convenient way to move stuff around the city. A bakfiets makes it safer and easier, and increases the load capacity but isn’t really necessary. Watch the cyclists ride by for a couple minutes (especially on a Saturday) and you’ll see somebody ride by carrying something unusual. it might be secured into a “bak” but then it might also just be balanced on their rear carrier and steadied by a hand, propped onto the handlebars or in one hand. Below some more examples, mostly from Marc at Amsterdamize

Last night I loaded our freshly refinished (in RAL 2004 “pure orange”) dinner table into one of our big, classic rental bakfietsen in order to bring it home. This morning I was then faced with the dilemma of how to both return the bakfiets to the shop AND bring Pascal to his “creche” (daycare center), both about a kilometer or two from home. Do I dare let an almost two year old sit in the 190 x 85cm box untethered, unhelmeted, unpadded, unrollcaged…? After some deliberation with Mama-en-meer we decided that it should be OK, particularly since Pascal has logged enough thousands of cycling kilometers to not have much urge to do anything stupid and terrible-twos-toddler-like. Besides, we figured, the bakfiets has a top speed of about 10km/hr and everybody (even taxis!) gives it a nice, wiiiiiiide berth.


The old table I just painted orange.

So upon arriving at street level instead of Pascal climbing into mama’s cargobike or being lifted onto papa’s Workcycles Fr8 he was propped into the back of the bak, tucked between the moving blankets and my courier bag. I released the parking brake between my legs and rolled off the curb, still curious whether child would just stay where I put him or insist upon “exploring” the nearly two meters of mahogany playground in front of him. I’m happy to report that we figured correctly; Pascal was perfectly happy to sit back near me, feet out front, calling out the “autos”, “cheeps”, “big ships”, “monononos”, “bicipas” and “tjams” as we rode. We got a few approving smiles and no disapproving looks that I could see. Isn’t it unfortunate few kids outside of the Netherlands can have such experiences?

We always go on this bike now?

OK, the fairy tale didn’t work out perfectly but 2nd place in the 2010 World Cup isn’t bad for little Netherlands. As an American I was only a little disappointed while the rest of the country takes matters of football much more seriously.

Why football (“soccer” for my countrymen) on bakfiets en meer? Because practically everything here has something to do with bikes. I snapped these photos an hour or so before the final match with Spain. Bicycle traffic jams, folks, all over the city! Everybody was cycling or walking somewhere to watch the game with friends and party; at somebody’s house, on one of the squares with giant TV’s, at a cafe… Central Amsterdam was one wound up, vuvuzela tooting, orange wearing, Dutch flag waving, case of beer on the rear carrier near riot.

Why do most people ride bikes? The usual answers: It’s the most convenient, fun, social, cheapest way to get around. And on such an evening half the city would be riding home considerably less sober. Regardless of what the laws say (drunk cycling is technically not legal of course) I’d much rather be amongst lots of drunk cyclists than drunk motorists. Besides, what’s the fun of wearing silly clothes and wrapping yourself in a flag if you’re just going to sit inside a car?

Long time customer Eddy sent this pic of himself and his kids along. Shall we count the “That’s gotta be Amsterdam” elements?…

1. Workcycles Fr8 Crossframe with Massive Rack front carrier (150kg load capacity). The bike is one of two hot-dip galvanized examples in existence. It was such a pain in the ass to make that it’ll probably also be the last.

2. Child on saddle behind the handlebar with footrests on the downtube. Kids absolutely LOVE sitting here and parents enjoy being able to talk while cycling. The kids just have to be mature enough to stay put, awake and keep their feet on the pegs.

3. Giant lock: 10mm hardened steel chain with disk-type Abus lock (hanging from cross point of the top tubes). Virtually impenetrable unless the thief is bold enough to make a lot of noise and sparks.

4. Baby on the belly. Is it safe? That’s debatable but cycling is, in any case, very safe and one cycles very carefully with a baby like this. This setup is certainly better than carrying the baby with any bike other than a Bakfiets Cargobike with a Maxi-Cosi installed (Eddy’s wife’s bike). See my research on the topic: Carrying a Newborn on a Bike

5. Rider making a Fr8 Crossframe look small. It’s a big truck of a bike meaning that Eddy is a Dutch sized guy.

6. Teddy bear on the best seat in the house.

Perhaps most noteworthy is that this image will hardly turn heads here. Watch parents picking their kids up from an elementary school and you’ll see 20 variations on this theme within five minutes, and not a car in sight.

Thanks for passing the photo along Eddy!