Here’s a nice little video interview of Jan Rijkeboer, founder of Azor Bike where they make Bakfiets.nl, Onderwater and some WorkCycles bicycles. Jan proudly gives a tour of their factory in Hoogeveen… far from Amsterdam where their bikes are most popular. He describes how most of the parts come from the various factories in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe, and how people with various disabilities (or do I need to say challenges this year?) perform some of the functions in the assembly process. It’s in Dutch but you’ll still find it fun to watch even if you can’t understand this strange noise we call a language.

As part of the constant struggle to provide parking for the ever growing number of bicycles ridden to Amsterdam Centraal Station every day the city of Amsterdam is building a special parking area for bakfietsen. This will be directly across from the famous and much photographed fietsflat. There will only be 40 parking spaces but that’s better than the zero available now. Presently those who need to park a bakfiets at the station can either park it a couple blocks away or in the two indoor “fietsenstalling” run by MacBike.

Why ride a bakfiets to the station when it’s so much more difficult to park than a normal bike? Well, a parent might drop the kids off at school and continue on to the station during their morning commute. Or a family might go to the station with the kids in order to take the train to visit grandma, or for a weekend in Paris or…

The problem is that providing parking for all the bicycles is a hopeless battle. Each day 250,000 travelers pass though Amsterdam Centraal, a considerable number of whom arrive by bicycle. This is not surprising considering that it’s the most practical and cheapest way to reach the station for most of Amsterdam’s residents. But Amsterdam Central stands on a small artificial island so space is very limited. Current bicycle parking includes:

Fietsflat: Designed for 2500 bikes but generally crammed with 4000.

Fietspont: a decommissioned ferry with a couple hundred parking spots

Indoor parking: Mac Bike operates two guarded bike parking garages, each with capacity of about 500 bikes.

Fietsbarges: There are a couple floating bike parking lots.

Random parking: Bike parking is tolerated in some locations around the island.

Photo by Flickr user Ron Layters

In total I’d estimate there are about 6000 bike parking spots on the island. Locals know that it can be nearly impossible to find a place for your bike if you arrive at the station after rush hour so they take public transport instead. Cycling is also gaining in popularity in Amsterdam, recently accounting for more than 50% of trips made. Thus the need for bike storage always remains greater than the supply, despite constant additions. The city plans to reach 10,000 bike parking spots within a few years but it’s likely it will continue to remain at capacity.

Nonetheless the city recognizes that cycling is still the most efficient and least resource intensive way to more people around the city. Passenger capacity of the trams, buses and metro are also being expanded but this is far more difficult and expensive. Getting to Amsterdam Centraal by car has already been rather hopeless for a long time.

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 as follows (please forgive me for the semi-accurate description – I’m only after the basics idea here):

Sinterklaas is the Dutch equivalent of Santa Claus, and probably a much older, more original, less commercialized story. Sinterklaas comes from Turkey, though I cannot say whether that’s related to the fact that Americans often eat turkey for Christmas dinner. As a helper (or slaves, depending on who’s telling the story in what era) Sint has Zwarte Piet (“Black Pete”), or rather a whole army of Zwarte Pieten. Piet is black because he’s a Moor from Spain (like Othello).

Here’s where it gets tricky for those sensitive about such topics, specifically because the Dutch are not particularly sensitive: The role of Piet is traditionally played by white people made up in “blackface” as was normal in the US back when gangsters wore hats and pointed tommy guns out of black sedans in battles over gambling and bootleg liquor. There’s occasionally debate about whether this practice (the blackface, not the gangsters) is racist… but not much. That can be witnessed by the 350,000 happy fans lining the streets of Amsterdam cheering the arrival of Sinterklaas and 670 Zwarte Pieten. Just to note I spotted what appeared to be a handful of black Zwarte Pieten, also in blackface of course.

In any case 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. 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. Sinterklaas rides his white horse while the various Pieten show their preferences for bakfietsen, Land Rovers, rollerblades, unicycles, BMX bikes, stilts, fire engines etc etc.

Why am I explaining all of this? Because of the bakfietsen of course! WorkCycles had the honor this year of loaning a dozen bakfietsen and transportfietsen to Sinterklaas and his team. The bakfietsen were used to carry pepernoten for the kids, hay and carrots for the horses, and yet more Pieten.

A few of the photos are my own. The others found on the following sites:
Sint in Amsterdam
Photos by Sandra Machielsen
MichaËl also has some nice photos, though I didn’t use them here

Yesterday “Kassa” (cash register) the popular, prime-time, Dutch consumer program broadcast their test of family bakfietsen. Like some other consumer-rights organizations Kassa reports are widely regarded as quite reliable and honestly conducted. Despite my usual cynicism I felt the testing procedure they showed was quite rigorous utilizing two professional experts and a panel of experience experts, namely parents with children. A retailer specializing in child transport bikes and trikes provided lessons to get the parent testers proficient on the bikes as quickly as possible.

It was not a long-term test though, and it would be expected that some conclusions would change with further use of the bicycles. Our experience has been that the two wheelers gradually become more favored as parents get comfortable with them, while riding a trike tends to get “old” after the novelty wears off. This is apparently a particularly Dutch sentiment as our colleagues in Denmark, England and Germany swear by the trikes. Different strokes for different folks.

The testing appeared to have been conducted over a few days and many interesting moments and comments were captured on video. Amongst the most notable:

A woman overturning a Christiania trike, complete with two kids in the box

One expert noting that some bikes ride well empty but poorly with a loaded box, others ride well loaded but poorly empty and a couple ride well regardless of the load.

Moms trying to push loaded bakfietsen up a tall curb

(more…)

Despite absolutely horrible weather WorkCycles Oktoberfietsfeest 2008 was a huge success! Thankfully we were able to stay warm and dry in our giant, new shop on the Lijnbaansgracht in the cozy Jordaan historic district. Friends, colleagues, family and neighbors braved the elements to heartily showed their support and hunger. Please forgive me if I can’t remember half your names – its tough being a host!

Childhood friend, photographer and cyclist Jonathan Barkey of Brooklyn, New York took all of gorgeous photos you see here. Thanks Jon!

I’ll comment on most of the photos, beginning from above left:

My parents, Leonard & Betsey Cutler show off a couple new WorkCycles Fr8 bikes… so new they’re not even on our website yet. Henry shows off the latest WorkCycles “H.C. Clothing” to Sean Valerio of Museum Tickets fame. Mmmm, WorkCycles bikes! A cool English dude with accent straight out of “Snatch” checkin’ out the bikes and girls. A last minute rain shelter for the BBQ with Anne Kirchenmann, vegetarian grill virtuoso at work. Wieger from De Redding bakfietsen with Eric Loques of WorkCycles in front of the Great Wall of Panniers. Checkin’ out some (no longer) top secret WorkCycles prototypes. Willem & Dominik of Gitaarduo belting out the tunes. They’ve expanded well beyond bicycle themed songs and brought friends along to do original pieces. MacBike’s new amphibious, submersible bakfiets. They’ll be using a fleet of these to lead underwater canal tours of Amsterdam. Its a little known fact that much of the most interesting history of Amsterdam is to be found under the murky canal water! Frank of BuroFrank and Stella brought their new prototype mini-bakfiets.

Here are some of the most notable personalities, at least those whose names I can remember:

Henry of WorkCycles compliments Rick of Segijn en van Wees on their beautiful bikes with attitude. Stella checkin’ out 8 week old Pascal who’s checkin’ her out too. Wesley Hemelrijk with artist Simsa Cho. More about him later. Marc of Amsterdamize fame, Bruno of Museum Tickets and Chopperdome Rhalf. Chris and Richard, a couple of the brains behind WorkCycles. Anne, veggie meat griller supreme with Milou and Natasja. Ronald Onderwater of the other famous submersible bike with Johan of Azor Bike. David Lee of De Woordensmederij. Eric Loques of WorkCycles with another sketchy English character. Me showing off Pascal Yo. Heng Sie and Aki, Ingeborg & Martijn Samsom, Marlies & friend. Eric Schuijt, world famous bicycle traveler and owner of nearby Vakantiefietser with photographer Martin van Welzen who makes the lovely photos for our site (the good ones that is – I take the amateurish ones). Henry and dad Leonard with Jan Rijkeboer, owner of Azor Bike.

Nope, I’m not even going to try remembering the names of the kids. Its clear they had a fine time though. A pair of De Redding bakfietsen (also to rent for parties!) made handy jungle-gyms. We grilled up lots of “pannekoeken” (dutch pancakes). Balloons were inflated, exploded, folded, tied, drawn on and fought with. A Xootr made a handy time-trial vehicle as the kids challenged each other to do the fastest lap through the crowd of tipsy adults. Two boxes of street chalk were reduced to mere powder – Note Jonah’s foot “drawing” technique. The kids won prizes in the lottery, here a big box that promises “300 games”.

And without further ado, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: The Oktoberfietsfeest Lottery (Raffle). The inside joke is of course that everybody wins, but you do have to put a ballot in the box (teaching good voting habits to the youngsters) and you do have to be here for the drawing. Take off for the next party or to visit your dying mother in the hospital… your loss, sucker!

We gave away tons of WorkCycles hoodie sweatshirts, T-shirts (new) and work/cook aprons (also new). These are all in stock and available to purchase as well. Lots of other schwag including Vredestein baseball caps to Schwalbe courier bags, LED blinking pedals and Axa SL7 locks (don’t actually try to USE these!) was also given away.

But the grand prize everybody was gunning for was the custom WorkCycles bike, complete with orange tires and matching graphics. Artist Simsa Cho was the lucky man of the day and I can’t think of a more suitable owner for such an extroverted bike.

Thanks everybody for your support and patronage! It was a pleasure being your hosts and we look forward to seeing you soon.

Missed the party? You’re still welcome to visit our new shop any time. You can find directions to WorkCycles Lijnbaansgracht here. We’re open for business both at the new location and at the original WorkCycles in the Veemarkt in Zeeburg.

Here you can see what the WorkCycles Lijnbaansgracht space looked like when we began construction this March.

We actually built these classic “bakfietsen” for “drop” (licorice) maker Oldtimers this past winter but didn’t have a chance to get pictures of them in action until recently. I saw one being loaded up near Dam Square in Amsterdam last week and it reminded me to put them on the blog.

The concept is pretty straightforward: Old fashioned costume and bakfietsen to promote old fashioned candy. Each weekend they bring one or more of the trikes to a Dutch city, load it up full of free samples and wander around the city center and shopping streets.

The bakfietsen themselves can be quickly set up in a number of ways to suit different purposes:

as an open container

with a closed box where the hinged lid also functions as a signboard

with a tall canopy

More info about these and other special purpose utility bikes and trikes can be found here on the WorkCycles site.

After delivering the bikes we received a huge box of the various flavors of Oldtimers drop. Its really yummy stuff but I have to admit that we got a bit “dropped out” after consuming about half the contents. One can only eat so much licorice.

Action photos from Face the Public, the field marketing firm behind the project.

Cycling in Amsterdam, that is on Sunday morning along empty streets to the city center, falling on a slippery bridge, €30 fine for cycling on the sidewalk, moms with bakfietsen, regardless bakfietsen, and childless neighbors complaining about bakfietsen.

Cycling in Amsterdam is a citation from the Fodor’s Amsterdam travel guide: “If you weave on the bike or regularly stop to take photos, care stay out of the way of the locals who use these paths to get to work on time.”

Cycling in Amsterdam is 11,500 engraved bikes en 33,905 bikes checked on the street, of which 255 are known to be stolen by the police.

Is designer bicycle stores, and a toothless junkie who, for €10, “sells” an old wreck.

Cycling in Amsterdam is a white matter, and therefore reason for the Amsterdam Office Traffic & Transport Service to ask itself: “Is cycling for cheese-heads?” And: “Do highly educated foreigners, in fact, cycle?”

Is 50,000 bicycle thefts per year, and 27% bothering to report the crime.

Cycling in Amsterdam is the Multiple Year Bicycle Plan 2007-2010 for which a budget of €69.3 million is estimated.

It is also: 550,000 bicycles, on average 5 accident deaths and between 325 and 600 wounded cyclists per year, a bike network with a length of 400 kilometers, 8 manned bike parking garages and one multilevel bike parking structure by Central Station.

Excuses for the repetition but I’m just translating here: These are titles from a recent photo series in the Volkskrant magazine.

All in all it paints a pretty accurate picture of my world of bikes from the locals perspective. My first thoughts:

Those junkies approach us regularly with whispers of “fiets te koop” (bike for sale).

Educated foreigners definitely cycle, probably as much as “cheese-heads”.
Lower income/education level foreigners mostly don’t cycle and what can be done to change that is a constant discussion in the press.

Its not clear whether only 27% of the 50,000 bike thefts are reported to the police or the the 27% that are reported total 50,000. In any case a lot of bicycles get stolen and its widely regarded as just a fact of of like taxes and death.

The major cross-street near my house is a giant construction site. The street and tram line were in fine condition by most standards but had wide car lanes and no separated bicycle path. As a result auto traffic traveled quite fast here. It was decided to rebuild about 2km of this street to incorporate separated bike paths and tram tracks. Auto traffic will run through narrow, single-lane chicanes on either side. This street project alone will probably cost more than the entire cycling infrastructure budgets of most big cities. It sucks to drive here and that makes me happy except for the rare occasion I get stuck in a car myself.

Of course that five deaths per year should be zero but five is still a remarkably small number for a city where about 500,000 people ride (or passenger) on a bicycle daily, almost none of whom ever wear a helmet and most of whom largely ignore traffic signals.

Veel meer bakfietsen te zien bij Atelier Mara Berkhout.

We zijn nu al een paar weken bezig mee met de verbouwing van het nieuwe WorkCycles (transport-) fietsenwinkel en werkplaats op de hoek van de Lijnbaansgracht en de Goudbloemstraat in de Jordaan buurt van Amsterdam. Er is nog veel te doen maar het ziet er ten minst nu wel belovend uit. Alleen maar enkele weken geleden was het zeer grof, donker en depremerend. Niemand kond geloven dat we van plan waren om een speciale fietswinkel hier te zetten.

Nu zijn de houten planken vervangen door ramen en mooie nieuwe dubbeldeuren met grote ruiten: veel breder dan grote ouderwetse bakfietsen. We hebben ook tonnen slechte gips verwijderd (en enorme wolken stof gemaakt) om de warme rode bakstenen te zien. Wat een verbetering! Een WC met ruimte voor een babytafel staat klaar – heel handig als je moederfietsen en bakfietsen voor kindervervoer verkoopt. Veel van de slechtste muren en de plafond zijn nu bekleed. Het basis werk aan het pand schiet dus op. Nog een paar weken totdat alles mooi geschilderd staat.

Daarna hebben we nog en heleboel werk met electra, licht en IT bekabeling en daarna onze werkplaats, kantoor, loods en verkoop showroom inrichten. Onze plan is om genoeg klaar te hebben om WorkCycles Jordaan begin Juli te openen. Dan kunnen we doorgaan met inrichting en aanpassingen terwijl de winkel al open is. We verwachten niet dat klanten onmiddelijk naar binnen gaan stormen.

Het is heel leuk dat bewoners uit de buurt regelmatig langskomen om te leren wat het grote pand gaat worden. Ze zijn bijzonder nieuwsgierig omdat het leeg stond en steeds lelijker werd voor enkele jaar nadat de Dirck III drankwinkel vertrok. Totnutoe is iedereen wel enthousiast dat WorkCycles hier gaat zitten, of tenminst blij dat iets hier gaat zitten.

Maar wat we een klein beetje vervelend vinden is dat iemand blijkbaar had gehoord over een fietsenwinkel die bakfietsen verkoopt en dat in “Fietsfabriek” vertaald. Nou even voor de duidelijkheid: Beide WorkCycles en Fietsfabriek ontwikkelen en verkopen bakfietsen, transportfietsen en stevige stadsfietsen, maar ze zijn twee verschillende, helemaal onafhankelijke bedrijven. Er is, trouwens, ook geen ruzie tussen deze twee bakfiets leverancier collega’s.

Typical WorkCycles als de nieuwe winkel klaar staat gaan we een feest vieren voor alle onze klanten, vrienden en collega’s. Nog geen datum – midden Juli als we ongelofelijk geluk hebben… anders laat September/begin Oktober voor onze jaarlijks Oktoberfietsfeest.

Na vier jaar in onze originele vestiging in de Veemarkt (Zeeburg, Amsterdam Oostelijke Eilanden) heeft WorkCycles echt meer ruimte nodig. Toen ik hier in mijn eentje begon vier jaar geleden had ik nooit kunnen geloven dat we zo snel uit dit pand gingen groeien. We hebben hier bijna iedere centimeter gebruikt: fietsen staan buiten, hangen van de muren en plafond, staan bij de buren en nog meer fietsen wachten bij onze fabrikanten want anders kunnen we ’s avonds de deuren niet dicht krijgen.

Na een jaar zoektocht hebben we eindelijk een geschikt pand gevonden voor een tweede fietswinkel, werkplaats en kantoor. Het moest veel groter zijn en in een andere buurt want we gaan de 1e WorkCycles fietsenwinkel open houden. We wilden het liefst in de gezellige Jordaan waar we al vele klanten hebben en geen andere fietswinkels zijn die specialiseren in transportfietsen, bakfietsen en stevige stadsfietsen. Het is ook handig dat ik in de buurt woon.

Het nieuwe WorkCycles vestiging zal meer dan vier keer zo groot zijn als de winkel/werkplaats in Zeeburg. Yay! Meer ruimte voor een grotere stadsfiets, transportfiets, bakfiets assortiment, een flink werkplaats met meer machines en ook meer huurbakfietsen. In Amsterdam Centrum gaan we zeker veel meer bakfietsverhuur doen. Ook zullen we eindelijk ruimte hebben voor sommige fietsen die gewoon niet pasten onze originele winkeltje: o.a. bakfietsen voor de kinderopvang, grote oudewetse bakfietsen en industriele transportfietsen.

Waar: Lijnbaansgracht 32 B-C-D-E-F-G en H, hoek van Goedbloemstraat… om de hoek van de Lindengracht en Westerstraat.

Wanneer: We zijn nu bezig met het pand mee en met geluk kunnen we het in Juli openen.

Wat: WorkCycles ‘tuurlijk! Dezelfde als onze winkel in de Veemarkt maar dan met meer fietsmodellen. Wel mogelijk dat we ook gaan uitbreiden met andere dingen die we vroeger geen ruimte voor hadden: regenkleding, kinderfietsen, transportfietsmuseum…

Wat meer: We hebben meer medewerkers nodig! Ben jij een een fietsenmaker (-makster) of verkoper (-ster) en geïnteresseerd in een baan met nieuwe uitdagingen en een prettige, rustige werksfeer neem dan contact op.

.

Links: Yep, het is groot… en nog een beetje grof. Een beetje verf en dan zal hij een stuk beter eruitzien.

Rechts: Tweede entree bij de Goudbloemstraat voor de werkplaats en bakfietsverhuur.

Links: Achter hebben we een leuke ruimte waar de kinderen kunnen spelen.

Rechts: Het pand wordt toch wel met een toilet afgeleverd! Aardig hé?