My friend and former colleague Alex in Vancouver sent this picture of a Workcycles Cargobike buried under a tasteless display of kickballs in a Whole Foods organic grocery store. Wouldn’t it be better to just ride it, or maybe loan/rent it to customers?

Perhaps I’ll get flamed for my insensitivity toward the nation of Canadia but I think the last time I posted about my former neighbors to the north was this equally unconventional use of a Cargobike in 2007: New Military Cargobike Transporter from Canada.

And then there was this one, not in Canadia but in nearby Chicagoia, that got a couple readers’ panties in big, uncomfortable bunches thanks to my general lack of sensitivity. Me being a glutton for punishment will just remind the world of it. Enjoy. Unclear on the Concept: Cargobike Style.

Meanwhile we’re working on a really fantastic new Cargobike. But I can’t say so much about it yet. Except that it’s really awesome in lots of ways. Stay tuned.

One Day Without Shoes

Thanks to Odin Heyligen for the photo.

I’ve been in Japan with the family for the past couple weeks. We come here to visit family and friends, talk bikes, and help the kids practice their Japanese. Most of our time is spent around Hiroshima, Osaka and Kyoto and then during each trip we do some traveling to other regions. This is my fourth visit of three to four weeks each so I’ve now seen quite a bit of Japan. I enjoy my time here but don’t claim to understand much at all of what’s going on around me. It’s not just the language barrier; Japanese society is just enormously different from anything else I’m familiar with. It’s also quite private and discrete making it even harder to learn about why people do things the ways they do and why the country is put together the way it is.

Cyclists and pedestrians mix it up on the sidewalk in Osaka while at least eight lanes of cars drive by.

The cycling infrastructure here is a good example of this phenomenon. There are a lot of transportation cyclists in Japan, perhaps more than any other developed country with the obvious exceptions of the Netherlands and Denmark. But the epic terribleness of the cycling infrastructure here and resulting behavior of cyclists is staggering. Bicyclists are basically treated as and act like pedestrians here. In urban areas there will often be some bike signage… on the sidewalks. Bicyclists either paddle along with their seat in the lowest position and feet flat on the ground, or weave between the many pedestrians sharing the same space. Pedestrians and cyclists cross streets together in a great crisscrossing mayhem at (sometimes huge) crosswalks. Near misses and little bumps are a moment to moment occurrence.　A few daring, young urban warriors ditch the sidewalks and compete with the cars, taxis and trucks on the six or even eight lane wide per direction urban streets. No, lack of space for bike lanes isn’t always the issue here.

Cycling in Japan would probably be just as popular as in the Netherlands if they only built some safe and convenient bike lanes. I’ve asked dozens of Japanese about this and pretty much only get shrugged shoulders. It’s as if the most high-tech society in the world just wants to collectively ignore the fact that the humble bicycle is a practical answer to many transportation questions. I’ve written about this strange phenomenon in Japan earlier here:
Japan: A Land I Love but Just Don’t Understand

The runbike story is another example of just how different things are here than elsewhere. While searching for activities for the kids Kyoko’s mom read about a runbike competition at a park near her atelier. What a coincidence, we figured, that the race happens while we’re there, and so close by too. Three and a half year old P1 hasn’t ridden the runbike much in the last year since he’s fanatical about his pedal bike but the little runbike was handy to bring along. With the handlebar and stem removed it fits in our suitcase and P1 can then be endlessly entertained by riding through strange cities. We did the same in New York last year and then left that bike behind as a gift for his cousin.

P1 playing around in front of the Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima. Kyoko and I were married here five years ago.

Checking out the latest fashion in microfiber dusting and mopping slippers and other accessories. Only in Japan.

Sure enough it’s worked out great; he’s ridden his stickered up Micro G-Bike all over Osaka and Hiroshima, through malls, subways, parks, wherever possible. Only a couple times has anybody requested that he not ride, for example in a department store. During our first week and a half in Japan, mostly out and about in cities, we didn’t see a single other runbike. Everywhere we go people point and comment as if they’ve never seen such a a thing before. How can they have a race if people here don’t even know runbikes yet?

P1 at home in Amsterdam on his teeny BMX bike.

Those who follow this blog and my photos on Flickr know that P1 is a remarkably handy bike rider for his age. He rides his tiny BMX bike in the dirt, sliding it through slippery mud, races down steep hills, rides smoothly with one hand, one foot, standing etc etc. He rides with the poise and smoothness of an adult. We figured he’d surely be a total “ringer” in some little runbike race!

Inside our lovely bungalow at Mitsugi Green Park.

The race was at a lovely park and camping area called Mitsugi Green Park in Onomichi-chi, about a hour’s drive to the east from Hiroshima. We made a little holiday within a holiday of the visit, staying in the most beautiful camping bungalow I’ve ever seen… Japanese style of course, entirely in wood with with tatami mat seating/sleeping areas and shoji sliding screens. As gifts for our early reservation we were given a case of beer and a runbike!

As you might imagine the free runbike was not of great quality. It had, however, big wheels and was new and bright yellow thus P1 lost interest in his quite excellent and well tuned Micro G-bike. After dropping our bags at the bungalow we went down to check out the track before dinner. They’d prepared a pair of really nice mini BMX style tracks for the event. They were sandy dirt with bermed turns and bumps and rollers big enough to separate the big little kids from the little little kids. There were no other competitors there yet and P1 eagerly did practice laps until we dragged him away to eat. The race organizer was there and told us that the fastest three year olds rode with times in the low 30 second range. P1 was doing it in 39-43 seconds so he’d have to go a lot faster to be competitive. Where were these kids though? We hadn’t seen another runbike since we arrived.

Riding the model train at Mitsugi.

We stayed at Mitsugi for two nights so the following day we just relaxed. We rode the model choo-choo train that runs through the park, played in the playground, rode the silly bike contraptions and of course let P1 practice riding the race course in the afternoon. I suggested better lines through the corners, taught him to push against the starting gate and adjusted and repaired his “new” bike. He rode slightly faster but mostly just became more consistent at 41-42 seconds. He would have continued training until morning had we not pried him away after a heated negotiation.

I also had to screw that cheap bike together well enough to get him through race day. The bike looks like the popular Strider but it’s actually a Chinese made knock-off made to the lowest standards. The seat had been slipping, down the handlebars twisting in the fork and it seemed to ride like a crab walks. I flopped it upside down on the picnic table and got to work. It was much worse than I expected; the entire frame was hugely crooked, the rear wheel tracking both a couple cm off the front and the wheels, head tube and seat tube were all in their own planes. I checked out the rental bikes and they all seemed about as bad so asking for an exchange wasn’t an option. There was no way I could align the large diameter frame tubes without tools so a crooked bike it would remain. I just did my best to align the wheels in the fork ends to minimize the misalignment. While I was at it I loosened the wheel bearings until they spun freely. The wheels now wobbled a little but that’s better than not spinning. Then I cut up a beer can with our kitchen knife to make shims for the seat post and handlebar and lubricated the crudely threaded bolts with our sesame cooking oil to tighten them harder with the stamped “wrench” that came in the box. The last major issue was the wheels with almost a centimeter of vertical wobble, like one of those clown bikes with eccentrically spoked wheels. The tires were soft (and slippery) foam so I just cut the high spots off with our kitchen knife, took some more off the sides to make it round again and roughed up the tread surface with a rock. A crude solution but they were much better than before.

Dad fettles with a young racer’s bike while mom cleans the tires with a toothbrush. Obsessive or good preparation? This boy won the race.

The morning of the event the other 60 or so little competitors appeared and sure enough many were clearly experienced and very fast. There were even a couple teams in attendance, with matching outfits and all. Their bikes, all with Strider frames, were tricked out, their bike setup, starting and cornering techniques were honed. We were up and breakfasted nice and early so P1 had time fore more practice and play. P1 seemed a little intimidated but was relaxed and in the mood to learn anything he could to go faster. Of course the kids just wanted to race so around the course they “raced” again and again. Their faces alternated between intense grimaces and beaming smiles. P1 was riding on par with what we guessed to be the fastest three year olds so so I timed a random lap: 34 seconds, 8 sec faster than his average yesterday. Aha, maybe a three year old needs some external motivation to do his best!

A qualifying heat of the two year olds race.

Having ridden the course a few dozen times and seeing that he was one of the fast kids boosted P1′s confidence. He was ready to race. The event began with the two year olds’ races which were just ridiculously cute. The qualification and repechage heats were run on a straight course with smaller bumps. Then they did the semifinal and final rounds on the bigger, BMX style track. One little boy changed his mind at the starting line and refused to start, twice. In one semifinal heat the leader fell from the top of a bump back into the earlier part of the track. Then most of the other kids followed leading to mayhem on the course and the crowd doubling over in laughter. In fact the only bad parent behavior we saw the whole day was one dad who clearly showed his 2 year old daughter that he was disappointed in her “poor performance”. They left immediately after her last race while everybody else stuck around to watch, picnic and socialize. All in all the parents and kids were taking the competition seriously but having a lot of fun on and off the track.

From the other parents at the event we learned that runbike racing has recently become popular here in Japan. There are events all over the country, sometimes attracting huge fields. In the fall 600 little racers showed up for an event in Yokohama! Yet, more than three weeks in Japan now and we still haven’t seen another child on a runbike in the wild. It’s the same as with the “avid cyclists” here who don’t generally ride on roads. Instead they go to special cycling parks where they ride in groups or events. In my four or so total months all over Japan I have only twice ever seen a roadie riding on a road. But last week we visited a special cycling park near Hiroshima with a hilly and carless 12km course around the airport. We have such things in the Netherlands as well, but our courses are just used for club racing. It appears that in Japan this is where they actually drive to ride their bikes much like many mountain bikers now drive to the trails.

P1 gives an enthusiastic “Hai!” when his name is announced at the start of the final race.

Back at the races P1 was having the time of his short life and doing really well too. He was third in his qualifying heat, great but only the first two went directly to the semifinal. The rest went into a series of repechage heats from which only the winners would advance. We explained that he really needed to win this one in order to race more today and that was all the motivation he needed. He rode that bike like he stole it and won the repechage by a good margin. He then took second in the semifinal putting him into the finale. P1 couldn’t start as fast as the more experienced riders and got outmaneuvered in the scramble through the first corner. Gaining a place back after that was hard in any race and even more so against these speedy kids so he cruised home a couple bike lengths behind in fourth place and beamed with pride.

It wasn’t so much our son’s race results that impressed us as his composure, maturity and just how much fun he had with the whole experience. We really weren’t sure what to expect. There was no doubt about his physical abilities; He’s always one of the fastest running, highest climbing etc of his peers. But P1 is also shy so maybe he’d be afraid to perform in front of a crowd or just sense tension and be difficult as a three year old so often is. To the contrary he rose to the occasion; He practiced and listened, tried different techniques, got a good night’s sleep and woke up happy and ready. At the starting line of each race he gave a big, proud “Hai!” (“Yes”) when his name was called and then mixed it up elbow to elbow with the other racers on the course. We were obviously incredibly proud of him and are now thinking about how to offer him more opportunities of this sort. There are no runbike races in the Netherlands yet so for bicycle racing he’ll have to wait until he’s five and can join the local BMX development program. Two years is a long ways off for a three year old so maybe another sport to have fun with first? Gymnastics, judo, swimming…? To be investigated when we return.

I’ve got many more of my Japan photos on Flickr:
Japan, March 2012
Japan, 11-2009, Bikes and Stuff

I find all sorts of things in my Workcycles mailbox. Most is just work, a bunch is just spam to be marked and deleted and then there are mails like this one. It’s not really spam like the Nigerian money scams, the fake UPS delivery messages or the sex pill ads since somewhere I’m probably on a list of people of companies who do international business. But clearly it’s aimed for a different public, a different kind of business, a different kind of person; one who apparently knows quite well what it’s like at their “Asian supplier” and would prefer, thank you very much, to not have to experience it “again”.

Type “inspection partner” into Google and their site comes up on top: http://www.inspectionpartner.nl/ So they’re apparently real. It’s a Dutch firm and they do both product inspections and social audits. I suppose then they offer valuable services, but the means of communication leaves something to be desired. Or is it supposed to be confrontational? Or is it just a bad match of image and text?

It caught my attention in any case. Any thoughts from the audience?

To be straightforward marketing just isn’t our specialty here at Workcycles. We’re great at developing lovely, handy, durable bikes, adapting them to your needs and keeping them running nicely for as long as possible. Marketing campaigns? Well, we tend to be full of great ideas that never get off the ground because we’re too busy building and selling bikes. Thus, with that as background… we introduce our winter special in the second week of February.

Actually it’s almost just in time considering that the temperature here in Amsterdam hardly dipped below freezing until last week. Then winter appeared with a vengeance bringing record low temperatures and a little snow that’s stuck around for a while already. Saturday morning we got up early with the kids to be amongst the first to enjoy sledding the fresh powder on the steep slopes of the Westerpark and try out some skating on the frozen canals! Yayyy!

Winter does make getting around by bike a little harder, thus our Winter Service Special. In particular water (even just a tiny bit) in the brake and gear cables tends to freeze, locking it in whatever position it was in while parked. You can read all about freezing cables and how to fix them here. Both our Fr8 and Cargobike have been fixed in one gear for a week and the Fr8′s rear brake is frozen solid as well. I’ve no time to fuss with my own bikes but fortunately you needn’t suffer the same inconvenience. Call us to make an appointment and we’ll give your bike a thorough winterizing.

Veemarkt: 020-689-7879
Lijnbaansgracht: 020-522-6001

While we’re at it we realized that we’ve accumulated a rather absurd inventory of tires, so they’re all 50% off (as long as we’re installing them). We’ve got possibly the best selection of city bike, transport bike and bakfiets tires on the planet so it’s a killer opportunity to put fresh rubber on your bike too.

In the same spirit we’ve been building nonstandard frames and parts into a collection of cool but somewhat quirky special bikes. Ride home with a great new bike for a great price and help us make space for other stuff. We’ll take photos and put more information online but here are a few examples below:


Monark Vario Kombi with industrial carrier, 3sp. This is a super tough and stable transport bike from Sweden. The big, industrial type front carrier has an integrated parking stand like a Fr8, though not quite as smooth working. Normally €1200, now €900.

Tweelingfiets (longtail bike for carrying two kids of about the same age) with Azor aluminium frame, 26″ wheels, Shimano 8sp and two Bobike Maxi child seats behind. Normal price €1350, now €999.

Azor Fabrieksfiets, nicely improved with a big red crate, cool pedals and a transport handlebar. A sweet, simple, single speed urban workhorse. Normally €750, now €550.

Aluminium light city bikes with prototype hydroformed aluminium frames. We’ve got two men’s versions with 2sp and two ladies’ versions with 8sp, all coaster brake. Two speed is normally €900, now €700. Eight speed is normally €1100, now €800.

van Andel Biporteur Workbike. This is about as rare as it gets in transport bike world. There are apparently about ten of these and this is the only yellow one. We use one of these super handy and sweet riding bikes as a shop donkey. The yellow one’s not built yet so the specs are up to you.

I had to read this article several times to understand exactly what was going on and what was confusing me. Namely a piece in the Belgian newspaper “Nieuwsblad” (means… “Newspaper) proclaims the bakfiets as the safest type of bike for carrying kids, safer thus than bike trailers or child seats on conventional bikes. Now that’s no great surprise for me and not a finding I have any reason to argue. I carry my own two precious ones in a bakfiets and further earn my salary making and selling them. Workcycles has thousands of bakfietsen on the roads and thus far, knock wood, we’re not aware of any notable injuries. Then again we’ve also sold thousands of conventional type bikes, many of them equipped to carry kids and ridden daily, and I’m not aware of any notable injuries there either. So that’s not a terribly conclusive comparison; It just suggests that carrying kids on bikes is a very safe thing to do.

The Nieuwsblad article refers to a recent test by the German Automobile Club (ADAC). So I searched the ADAC site (geez it’s handy to be able to understand a few languages!) as source but nowhere could I find any mention of a bakfiets, never mind a test comparing the safety of kids carried by bakfiets with anything. I did however find an ADAC test comparing child carrier trailers with child seats on conventional bikes. In this study ADAC compared one top-tested trailer (Burley Cub) against one top-tested rear child seat (Römer, model not specified). Nieuwsblad reported that they simply rammed each rig into a stationary object at 25km/hr but on the ADAC site they show each rig being rammed from the side by a VW Golf and report that the head-on collision was also tested. That covers a broader range of high-danger crash scenarios than Nieuwsblad 25km/hr head-on bike T-bone. Not surprisingly, the trailer tended to remain on two wheels while the much higher mounted child seat on regular bike was consistently knocked over.

Just for background info our German neighbors LOVE testing products and they relish putting a big “Zeer Gut” or “Gut” in red letters on advertisements and products. They’re also renowned for their rigorous testing methods. The bike tests run by German cycling magazines absolutely put to shame the fluff published by the US bikey press. The Dutch bike rags fall somewhere in between but they still bore me to death.

But how then did Nieuwsblad conclude from a test comparing trailer and rear child seat that a bakfiets is the safest?Good question! Well it seems that Roel De Cleen of the Belgian Fietsersbond (Cyclists’ Union) just made that part up. I don’t mean to imply that it’s an unreasonable conclusion. It is actually a very logical extrapolation… but it’s just not supported by the data cited in the article. Moral of the story: Be critical when reading test results, especially when not reading the original source.

Happy New Year everybody!

I hope I’ll have more time to write in 2012 since 2011 was rather sparse.

Last Saturday morning two masked men ran into our Veemarkt shop, put a gun to my head, waved a knife in my face, and moments later ran off with a few hundred euro in cash. I was alone since Wesley had just ridden a bakfiets full of trash off to the recycling center down the road. There wasn’t much I could do aside from stand still and subtly try to stay away from the knife the punk repeatedly threatened to slash me with without provoking him to actually do so. Several times he screamed at me “Where’s the cash?! Where’s the register?!” but it was obvious that his pistol wielding buddy had already cased the joint. He ran right upstairs to the correct drawer in the correct desk before I said a word.

It took me a moment to even realize what was going on. Is this a joke? Is a guy in a ski mask really pointing a pistol at my forehead? After a few seconds the neurons connected. Yes, that gun looks real enough. The big kitchen knife is certainly real. No I don’t have any prankster buddies with Moroccan-Amsterdam accents. And they’re yelling at me that it’s a robbery.

I’ve never been threatened so directly and dangerously before but I can easily imagine that different people could react in many ways. One might just be paralyzed from the fear. Or spurred into risky hero-action by the rush of adrenaline. I managed to keep it together. I just stood there quietly and tried to catalog as many characteristics of the two men as I could remember. I have a very good visual memory. I don’t mean to imply it’s easy under such stressful circumstances but I managed to get the following down:

Robber 1

Robber 2

Since customers don’t normally go upstairs Tom immediately recalled a suspicious incident a month or two ago: A young guy came in asking for change. Despite firmly telling him to stay downstairs he followed the employee upstairs, apparently to see where the cash is kept. When you run a couple retail shops all sorts of strange things happen but this one caught Tom’s attention for several reasons:

After last week’s robbery our descriptions of this character matched well, obviously given the limitations of what one can identify on a man wearing a woolen ski mask, a heavy sweatshirt with the hood over his head and baggy jeans.

When the men ran out (pistol guy falling and bumping down the stairs on his ass) I scrambled to find a phone and dial 1-1-2 as quickly as possible. I was running as soon as their backs were turned. Of course I later realized that one of the phones was actually sitting on the workbench within arm’s reach of where I’d been cornered. Oops, a ten second delay in calling the police. Phone in hand I ran outside hoping to see which direction they went. They were no longer visible but that in itself is an answer since there’s only one direction one could run and be out of sight within about 15 seconds. I assume they had a vehicle waiting around the corner and my vehicle prejudice says it was probably a scooter, but I didn’t actually hear or see anything to confirm that.

Reaching the police through the emergency line was frustrating though in retrospect it probably took less than a minute. The dispatcher couldn’t seem to understand why I wanted the police to come to the Veemarkt while another address (the billing address for the phone) was shown on her screen. But once they had the right address the police were there within a couple minutes. A better part of the day was then spent talking to the police, waiting for the forensics team to collect fingerprints and other samples, and then viewing a suspect through a one-way mirror. It was all pretty much like we see in movies and on TV except the criminals weren’t so polished and there was no dramatic music to make it more exciting.

This isn’t Workcycles’ first criminal incident this year. In fact it’s at least our third in just the last few months and it’s getting rather annoying to say the least:

A couple months ago and actually the last time I spent a Saturday at our Veemarkt shop a rather normal looking, well-dressed woman talked to an employee about Cargobikes, rode off on a test ride and never came back. Upon inspection we discovered that the wallet she’d left behind was filled with nothing but fake cards and small change.

We’ve also recently had two incidents at the Lijnbaansgracht shop that we can only guess were botched or failed robbery attempts. One unfortunately resulted in a fight between an employee and one of the perps, apparently instigated as a diversion.

So it’s clearly time for some changes to make it safer for everybody except the criminals. In the grand scheme the material losses are annoying but minimal. The risk of an employee, customer, family member (my kids are often in the shops) or bystander getting hurt has to be minimized.

Change number one: Eliminate cash from Workcycles’ stores.
In the Netherlands this is not so difficult. The locals already pay for most things with debit cards instead of cash. Tourists almost always have credit cards. The only significant challenge is the rentals, for which we’ve always taken a cash deposit. That’s always been an annoyance but neither the debit card nor the Dutch credit card system allow reserving deposits or making refunds. We now have an alternative credit card system that we can employ for deposits but many Dutch simply don’t have credit cards. Whatever. We’ll figure it out and then make sure that even semi-literate cretins can see that there’s no cash to take here. It’ll make our bookkeeping a good deal simpler too.

Change number two: Surveillance cameras in our shops.
I’ve always been opposed to such things but it’s both a good deterrent and would have helped the police in each of the cases above. Of course I mean REAL cameras and recording systems, not the ubiquitous fake cameras with red LED light one buys for a few euro on the Internet. Then we’ll somehow make it very clear that there are cameras. Yuck, but we need it.

Change number three: Silent alarms.
After last Saturday’s robbery I thought through the incident about 75,000 times finally coming to the conclusion that, under the circumstances, I couldn’t have done anything much differently or significantly better. I wish I could have remembered even more, noted the perp’s shoes for example but that doesn’t make much difference anyway. What I really missed was a way to silently alert the police that I was in danger, and in most of the incidents we’ve had the criminals were around longer than it took the police to reach us. I tinkered unsuccessfully with my iPhone to find a way to make an emergency call from my back pocket. That would be handy but does such an app exist? Even if it does we can’t count on every employee always having a certain type of mobile phone in their pocket. No, much better would be “panic buttons” discretely located in various places. Considering that one push of the button brings the police some care would have to be taken to ensure that they don’t get touched accidentally.

Meanwhile the police are apparently working on the case and have two potential suspects. I’ve complained about the Amsterdam police in these pages before but it’s clear that they do take the matter very seriously when weapons are involved. I’m OK and relieved not only of several hundred euro, but also that nobody was hurt.

Yes, we are asked constantly whether we’ll build a Fr8 or other Workcycles bike with electric assist. The answer is basically yes and no. By no means are we philosophically opposed to the idea of adding a motor to our bikes. We are however very much aware of the many downsides so we generally advise against it unless the need is clear.

For handyman firm Buurtklusser in hilly Nijmegen the need for some help was very obvious. This particular Fr8 will have its Massive Rack frequently loaded up with 100+ kg of cargo and the giant newspaper panniers filled with packages. How would you like to pedal uphill with a total weight of 250kg? In case you’re curious check out their blog at Trapkracht.nl (“Pedal Power”)

Further these bikes will be operated by professionals so we’ve a pretty good chance they’ll be used appropriately and maintained properly. That’s very different from sending special bikes out into the wild with customers who may not have the skills for (or interest in) maintaining them, nor a suitable workshop in the area to turn to when necessary.

Advantages of electric assist:

Economic disadvantages of electric assist:

Subjective disadvantages of electric assist:

A similar bike was built for landscaping firm Gaia Hoveniers, also in Nijmegen. This bike will tow a huge and heavily loaded Surly trailer.

The assist system in these bikes uses a heavy-duty, torque oriented, Crystalite motor in the front wheel fed by a hefty set of 36 volt Lithium Ion batteries. The motor’s operation characteristics can be tuned via a computer which is necessary for such a specialized application. A mini transformer allows the bike’s standard B&M LED lighting system to run from the motor’s battery and the battery and wiring harness have been neatly tucked away. Aside from the giant front hub the system is essentially invisible. Our electric systems are powerful, as robust as can be and no, not at all cheap. Just for reference these systems added about €1800 (including VAT) to the cost of these bikes and each few years a fresh battery pack of at least several hundred euro will be required.

Our usual favorite Shimano rollerbrakes have been replaced on these bikes by the very powerful and reliable Magura HS33 hydraulic rim brakes. Why no disks? A rim is essentially a very, very big disk.

The gearing is via a NuVinci infinitely variable hub which are proving to be very tough and pleasant to ride. It’s great in combination with the electric assist. I’ve had one in my own Fr8 for about half a year and really like it. In fact gear hubs just feel kind of weird to me now.

All of Workcycles electric assist systems are custom installations. Because regular, specialized maintenance is necessary as well as the not infrequent tuning or warranty issue we only offer these systems to customers within the Netherlands.

It’s our seventh annual, world-famous WorkCycles Oktoberfietsfeest* (“october bike, beer and BBQ party”). As usual we’ll have live music, yummy food, plentiful drink, balloon animal making, absurdly generous lottery/raffle, child friendliness, and a general relaxed atmosphere. Yep, we missed last year but we promise to make up for it this time!

*”Oktoberfietsfeest” translates approximately to “Traditional, Bavarian inspired, beer and wine soaked, sausage devouring, autumnal bicycle party”. We take full credit for inventing it and imitators will be mercilessly ridiculed for their lack of creativity.

The important questions:

Speaking of winning bikes… Sign up for another chance to win a (different) Workcycles bike by voting for Workcycles as “Best Bike Shop in Amsterdam” for the 2nd year in a row. Maybe it seems arrogant but we really believe that we’re the best of the 250 choices in Amsterdam and do our best every day to keep improving. VOTE HERE (question #48) and just skip the other 49 if you don’t care which is the best canine friendly, organic coffeeshop in A’dam.

Check out some previous Oktoberfietsfeesten:
WorkCycles Oktoberfietsfeest 2008: Photo journal
A shiny day for Workcycles Oktoberfietsfeest

Looking forward to seeing you soon!

- Henry and the Workcycles crew

[Show as slideshow]

Wow, I see it’s been almost three months since my last post here at BEM. I guess time just flies when you’ve two little kids running around, not to mention 15 employees, a few dozen suppliers, several thousand customers and a fleet of your own bikes begging for regular exercise. Somehow my blogging hobby just gets pushed to the back burner. I can’t even blame good weather and fun outdoor activities for my lack of writing activity, since the sun has mostly hidden behind a cold shield of clouds and rain since May. Heck, we had to go to the south of France for three weeks to find some decent weather!

But yes, we did make the annual pilgrimage to Eurobike in the famous Zeppelin City of Friedrichshafen, Germany again. And being approximately my gazillionth trade show visit I wasn’t surprised by much. Finding some cool stuff in the first few trade shows one visits is no great trick. That is, of course, assuming you’re actually at an expo for a topic you care about rather than, say, me going to the Office Furniture Expo. But that would be silly because I’m a bike nerd and not an office furniture geek, and though I have ideas for other businesses none of them have anything to do with office furniture aside from needing a place to sit and put my stuff.

But I digress. We went to Eurobike and despite searching quite thoroughly we didn’t find much that seemed “newsworthy”. In all fairness making headlines isn’t the primary goal of our visit. We go there because suppliers, dealers and other industry insiders from all over the world are also there. You get a better understanding of the people you do business with when you talk face to face. We explained to the owner of the Italian centerstand company that all of their new stands broke and he showed us improvements and asked to get some examples back. We exchanged business cards and then he ignored my emails. Over at Sun Race / Sturmey Archer we politely told them how a certain new shifter they’re selling is absolutely horrible, which we’ve since been in regular contact about and exchanging samples and vintage parts for inspiration. And sometimes your friend at A-Bikes connects you to somebody he knows at B-Bikes who knows a guy at C-Bikes who might be good to make the left-hand threaded, eleven speed spokes you need.

Actually we still haven’t found those special spokes but we did find these new Michelin Protek Max inner tubes:

They even won one of the prestigious but apparently affordable Eurobike Awards. As evident from the name this is one of those ingenious multifunction products you wish you’d thought up yourself. On the one hand it’s a perfectly good, if somewhat heavy, inner tube to keep compressed air inside your bike’s tires. But cut it open and tie off one end and it’s also a condom long enough for the best endowed men on earth. Ribbed for his and her pleasure! So if you’re riding along and just happen to meet Miss or Mr. Right Now you’ll be prepared.

I’m sure our astute readers can think up some other handy, dual purpose bike parts: Seat post pumps, rear dropout beer bottle openers, tire lever quick release levers, handlebar U locks…?

We did of course see a few things we weren’t really expecting, though their contribution to society might be questionable. Below a few examples spearheaded by the carbon fiber Italian city bike. The combination of crabon fiber and cast iron fork crown and componentry might well have been the most novel idea in the 17 halls of bike goodness. By the way you can click each photo to see it in higher resolution and often to see more examples not shown here. Just a hint.

Actually the Italians had their fancy, quasi-traditional city bikes out in force. This one only had carbon fiber in the many leather accessories but at least it was also gold plated. I guess there’s no crime in Italy since such a bling-bling “City” bike would get ripped off within milliseconds in Amsterdam, Paris, New York or any other city I’ve spent bike time in. Or maybe these bikes are intended for those Italian men whom mere thieves steer a wide berth around, lest they find themselves part of the Meadowlands stadium foundation.

Usually we see a clear theme or two at each expo. Just two or three years ago you couldn’t throw a free water bottle without hitting an outrageous chopper at Eurobike. The longer, lower, fatter and more contorted the better. Scantily clad and heavily made up females paraded them all through the halls. Choppers might still be popular on the street (though not here in Amsterdam) but have disappeared from the bike industry’s consciousness. Only the undisputed king of the fat bikes stuck around for another showing:

The King of Choppers from reknowned German firm Bitte Nicht Beruhren!

And I suppose if I went to the trouble and expense of building something like that I’d do my own best to get as much mileage out of it as possible… and that isn’t going to happen by racking up the kilometers at a wobbly, walking pace.

So without further ado, here are some “themes” (or is it “memes” now?) we detect, in the form of a picture show and tell.

Lightweight
For whatever reason the bike industry has been obsessed with light weight for decades but in the last years it’s been reaching a frenzy. Friends in the US tell me how no self respecting, middle-aged, spare tire equipped weekend warrior would even bother showing up for the evening group ride without a 7kg Cervelo. My friend Gary, a long-time cyclist and regular on Palo Alto’s twice weekly morning ride told me a funny story recently. While cooling off after the rolling 30km loop on his trusty 80′s era Merckx (with modern parts) another rider congratulated him for being able to “keep up” on such a dinosaur of a bike. Now don’t get me wrong; I like equipment as much as the next guy and have spent many an hour designing and building my own fast bikes. But I also understand that it doesn’t actually make that much of a difference until the margin of winning or losing races is measured in seconds or even fractions of a second. Toward the end of my competition career I missed getting a bronze medal in the US national pursuit championships by 0.09 seconds. In fact the silver medal was only about 2 seconds faster. It’s a fair bet that some time in a wind tunnel to improve my position and choice of gear would have netted me at least the bronze. Probably even the “blind” purchase of whatever was reported to be the latest, greatest pursuit frame could have done the same.

This bike weighed less than Tom’s eyeglasses but it also had squishy, creaky brakes (and probably lots more). Yuck! Who wants to ride a bike that feels like that?

But to ride with the group around “the loop”? I’d even go so far as to venture that for this type of recreational cycling the advantages of modern road racing bikes (stiffness, lighter weight, more gears) are to a great extent offset by several disadvantages (giant frames and parts with the aerodynamics of a cinder block, higher bearing friction and cranks as wide as a horse). In any case it’s hard to comprehend that another cyclist could be so deluded by the marketing hype that he’d actually believe that Gary would be meaningfully handicapped by riding a bike similar to those ridden to victory in most professional races as late as the early 90′s.

This isn’t Gary’s Merckx. It’s my own, similar 1980ish DeRosa. Just for the record: I don’t feel hamstrung by this 30 year old bike.

Getting back to Eurobike the only really obvious trend was for Lightweight. I don’t mean just “light weight” but actually the company called Lightweight and the very light weight wheels they make. I’ve been told they’re “good” wheels and they damn well ought to be for about €3000 and up. It is a little bit of a bummer though that a broken spoke thanks to the airline or somebody’s pedal poking means the death of the wheel. Ping. Oops there goes €1500.

Whatever. Though I object to the concept I don’t really care much about disposable €3000 wheels. That is, I wouldn’t care if they were just an exotic piece of sports equipment used by serious athletes to win events. What’s strange though is that Lightweight wheels were absolutely everywhere at Eurobike. They had a big, fancy stand stocked with earnest men explaining the wheels’ benefits and their spoke insurance program. We saw an entire group ride shod with Lightweights. Dozens of stands featured them in most of their bikes. Even “city bikes” wore Lightweight wheels:

Please name something more stupid than this €10,000 “city bike”. Then consider that it won a Eurobike award.

Meanwhile one had to search far and wide to find a quality, comfortable, stylish bike for a regular guy to ride his kid to school on. I suppose this observation says all we really need to know about the bike industry or at least where Eurobike is going: Cycling is a sport and the more extreme the better. End of story.

Well I’m running out of writing steam and time here so you’ll just have to wait a few days (or more) for the next Eurobike meme: Inventors’ Stupid Drivetrains. Other bike industry themes also coming soon: Co-branding, Protection and Utilitarian Bikes? Lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalal I can’t hear you!.

Sneak preview of the next post, just to get your nerdy minds salivating with anticipation: