If the rather unglamorous background of a Ford Econoline box van with Washington state license plate didn’t give her location away you’d think Jill Keto was in Amsterdam or Copenhagen. WorkCycles Omafiets: check. Personalized with red fenders, basket and flowers: check. Stylishly dressed in heels, skirt and scarf: check. Mobile phone glued to ear: check. Child seat on the rear carrier: check. See Working Girl’s tips for Saving Money.

Her blog Practical Chic (“chic” rhymes with “geek”) and book “Don’t Get Caught With Your Skirt Down” aren’t about Dutch bikes; It’s about living well on a budget, something a lot of people, especially Americans are thinking about right now.

And Jill has a (funny) video about her visit to Dutch Bike Seattle.

Jill and those who think along these lines will get more people on bikes than all the “hairshirt green” martyrs in the world.

Thanks to the tip from Stephan from Dutch Bike Chicago.

The question of how many people die each year as a result of bicycle accidents in Amsterdam and Holland in general comes up periodically. I’ve usually thrown out the figure of “a handful per year” that I’d once heard. It turns out that this is about right. Toby Sterling, fellow Amsterdam resident and blogger whom I’ve never met did the research and compares it nicely with other countries and the statistics for murders in Holland as well.

Here’s Toby Sterling’s blog and discussion of bicycle accident deaths.

And Toby’s earlier post here.

Here are some quick excerpts though Toby’s original text is more fun to read. Basically the message is simple: despite extremely high rates of cycling and negligible helmet use the odds of being killed while cycling in the Netherlands are extremely low.

Nationally the total of bicycle accident deaths hovers around 200.

In Amsterdam about 6 people die in bike-related accidents yearly.

16 million Dutch own 18 million bikes.

About half the population of the NL rides a bike once a day.

The average distance traveled by bike per person per day was 2.5km in 2006.

The bicycle is used for almost a quarter of all journeys, and 35% of journeys below 7.5km.

Overall traffic safety in NL is the best in Europe with 45 deaths per million inhabitants per year.

The US has 147 deaths per million inhabitants per year.

You’re more likely to die of murder in the US than by cycling in the Netherlands.

You’re more likely to die by drowning in the Netherlands than by cycling.

Curious about what cycling is like in the Netherlands? Here’s a beautiful and informative series of reports by a Canadian couple who are presently doing a relaxed two week cycle tour in the Netherlands… in normal clothes, on WorkCycles city bikes. Honestly I’m a quite jealous as I sit here taking a a break from the quarterly bookkeeping.

You can follow the progress of Les and Helen’s Dutch cycle tour here.

Enjoy your trip guys!

Last week we took the night train down to Friedrichshafen, near the Swiss border and famous for just one thing: Zeppelins. Though zeppelins are cool WorkCycles doesn’t have much to do with them. No, we went for the Eurobike 2008 expo, some 17 or so zeppelin hangers full of bike industry geeks and bike porn… or at least its bike porn if you get excited by millions of molded carbon fiber racing bikes, full suspension mountain bikes in more shades of use categories that I can shake a stick at (freeslide, 49′er, XTC, downhell, northwhore, mud…), and dozens of bike brands with cookie cutter bikes at every €50 “price point”. I guess after 30 years in and out of the bike industry it has ceased to knock my socks off.

Now we go to the bike expos looking for very specific, mundane things such as:

a quality leather saddle without pretentiousness and a price to match

hub brakes that can stop a bakfiets, live outdoors and fit a good gear hub

an electric assist system suitable for heavy-duty utility bikes

to see whether anybody else cares about city/utility bikes

And to shake some familiar hands, meet a few new people, and see what the ridiculous new products of of the year are. More about that later.

Every other cycling site and magazine will show you the same competition bred, carbon fiber, disk-brake, metal matrix unobtanium, chinese made but european labelled bling-bling so I’ll focus here on some off the beaten path gems and non-gems. Enjoy and flame away if I’ve trashed your baby and gotten your panties in a bunch!

The most memorable thing I saw at Eurobike 2008 was the flatland freestyle BMX show – or whatever they call it. This was an informal affair with a DJ and a handful of riders in the outdoor area between the expo halls. I don’t think these guys were “pros” or anything or at least there wasn’t much obvious sponsorship going on. But they were awesome. What a demonstration of balance and creativity! Thanks, you made my day in an otherwise boring event!

We arrived a little bit too early so we had to mill about before being allowed to view all the bike goodness inside. Near the entrance was a display of award winning “designs” or something like that. I confess to not reading the signs.

At least three of the bikes displayed here featured a new toothed belt drive system by Gates called “Carbon Drive”. See? Even the belts have carbon in them, though its probably just carbon black in the rubber… which was incidentally a big selling point over at the Continental Tires stand last year, even though its as ordinary as dirt in the woods. Its like advertising “iron enhanced steel” or “new, water with Hydrogen atoms!”. I guess when there’s nothing new under the sun you just have to make something up.

In any case the toothed belt drive is back for another try on bikes as it ought to be. In contrast to previous belt drive systems for bikes this one looks very robust and is adaptable to various types of bikes. The main challenges are:

price – retail for a belt and front and rear sprockets is around €200

special frame required

availability in only limited combinations and lengths

questions about bearing life with tightly tensioned belt installed

In larger scale production the price and availability should be improved so we’ll keep our eyes open for these.

Nick Lobnitz of Carry Freedom trailer fame was showing off prototypes of his new “Paper Bike”. No its not actually made of paper, or even bamboo though Nick has done that before. There is however carbon black in the tires.

The Paper Bike is a clean looking and practical utility bike aimed primarily at bike rental and share systems. The frame loops around the drivetrain effectively protecting it from damage and weather. Simultaneously the resulting surface(s) offer copious space for branding and/or personalization.

Pathetically enough the images above show every new load carrying bike I could find amongst the 17 halls at Eurobike. At least there’s one cool piece among them. Clockwise beginning in the upper left:

Upper left and middle:
Larry vs. Harry (a.k.a. Hans and Lars) of Copenhagen showed off their new Bullitt transport bicycle. Its sort of a Long John on high tech steriods, half aluminium urban racing bike and half I don’t know what. The Bullitt is kitted out with high-zoot parts such as a Shimano Alfine drivetrain and hydraulic disk brakes. The rider’s position is aggressively sporty, there’s no chain guard or lights and the concessions to daily use are minimal. It’s dangerously, uncompromisingly cool. I’ve no idea who’ll buy them but I do want one for myself! We’re curious enough to put a couple in the showrooms at WorkCycles.

Richard and I each rode the Bullitt a couple times with and without loads. It’s as stiff as a log and the seating position wasn’t as extreme as it looked ( at least not for this ape-armed ex-racer who already has his city bike handlebars lower than the saddle). What wasn’t so convincing was the steering geometry. We both ride long-wheelbase transport bikes regularly and we each noted that the Bullitt is notably less stable and secure handling than the Bakfiets Cargobike or Fietsfabriek 995. The bike still needs some front end geometry tweaking and we hope that Harry and Larry are listening.

Upper right:
Bernds in Germany showed a couple prototypes of this Bakfiets Cargobike like child transporter. We weren’t sure whether to take it seriously as the box was just hastily made from plywood and the steering linkage wasn’t even functional; the front wheel could only be turned a few degrees in one direction.

Lower left:
A Dutch-Israeli firm called Taga displayed this multifunctional child carrier that can be converted between tricycle and stroller. Unlike the similar sounding TrioBike (which I’ve previously maligned for various reasons – see here and here) and Zigo, the Taga approaches its tasks very differently: “Continuity” is the operative word for the Taga, meaning that no parts of the bike/stroller need to be left behind. The entire machine converts (rather ambitiously I’ll add) between the two basic modes. The stroller mode was particularly slick.

Richard and I rode the Taga (in trike mode obviously) and at least at slow speeds around the exhibit halls it felt unfamiliar but handled well. It remains to be seen how it’ll feel at higher speeds and under the more varied conditions of the real world roads. The conversion mechanism appeared straightforward and solid. The people I talked to mentioned a number of other issues that are being worked on and all in all it appears a very professional outfit.

Lower middle:
Oh, gimme a break people!

Lower right:
The most serious recent entry into the transport bicycle market is the Accell Group with their Accell Pro division. Accell is the owner of such brands as Batavus, Sparta, Winora, Hercules, Koga Miyata, Redline and Lapierre. They sell approximately 950,000 bicycles per year with a turnover of just under €500 million. Accell will focus on Postal Delivery (taking over where the recently imploded Biria left off), Cargo, Rental and Corporate bicycles. I guess Accell must have been jealous of WorkCycles’ success in this area.

And the winner of the “I can’t believe anybody would be so stupid as to invest so much R&D and promotion into such a worthless concept as this” award goes to the Body Buddy. Not only did these people have huge stand with dozens of these things, they had also an entire team of pretty girls merrily stepping their way around the expo halls in impossibly short bodybuddytm yellow miniskirts.

From the bodybuddy website the following prose:

“The greatest ideas, the ideas that rewrite history, almost always come from people who originate from rural areas…”

“nevertheless, the “bodybuddy” will change today’s streetscape quite a bit”

“Why work out on the spot when it is possible to convert this energy into movement?”

What a novel idea, converting human energy into movement! Yes, let’s invent a crazy machine that does this and then introduce it at the world’s biggest bicycle expo! Brilliant.

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.

I guess I’m kinda out of the “bike culture” loop here in Amsterdam where most people just ride bikes without thinking or caring about them. My WorkCycles coworkers and I are definitely exceptions in this regard, even amongst our bicycle industry colleagues who too often just aren’t crazy about cycling. I suppose this explains how I’d missed the Yehuda Moon comic, now even with a story about a Bakfiets Cargobike riding mom. Nice stuff with some good inside digs interspersed. Rick Smith, the artist “gets it”.

Thanks to the Dutch Bike Co. Seattle Blog for the tip!

WorkCycles has just completed the first 130 bikes for family doctors in Rotterdam to ride to their appointments. Instead of driving cars the doctors will set a fine example for the city residents. Rotterdam, you see, is much less of a cycling mecca than Amsterdam or most any other Dutch city for that matter Perhaps this is a result of the more open, auto friendly streetscape created after Rotterdam was totally destroyed and rebuilt at the end of WWII. Of course by most of the world’s standards there are a lot of bikes in Rotterdam… just not compared to most other cities in the Netherlands.

In any case we built special utility bikes for the doctors (though not so unusual for WorkCycles really): Frame-mounted front carrier for their bag, 8 speed Shimano Nexus internal hub gearing, Shimano rollerbrakes front and rear, zinc carbonate primed to fend off rust even after considerable abuse, all powder-coated ivory white with the graphics for FAW Rotterdam who conceived and manage the project.

FAW (“Stichting Fonds Achterstandswijken Rotterdam” – Foundation Funds for Deprived Areas of Rotterdam) is an organization focused on supporting the practices of family doctors in Rotterdam’s poorer neighborhoods. Supplying the doctors with good bicycles has a number of obvious advantages:

The doctors set a good example amongst a clientele that statistically cycle less than the average Dutch and have poorer than average health.

The bicycles and maintenance cost far less than using automobiles would.

The organization looks consistent and professional in the eyes of the public.

FAW and the doctors get press and increase their chances of securing more subsidies and support.

The doctors are (mostly) enthusiastic about cycling instead of sitting in and parking cars.

Preparing and delivering 130 bikes to 130 eager doctors in one Saturday was somewhat of a test for little WorkCycles. It was definitely a logistical challenge (and very hard work) but in the end almost every bike found its new owner and was adjusted to fit them. We wrote each doctor’s name on their bike with a permanent marker to make sure that mass confusion didn’t erupt before they rode off to their own neighborhoods.

The project has also not been problem free; It seems that the wheel tensioning machine was incorrectly adjusted for some of the wheels, meaning we’ll be making a few extra trips to Rotterdam to do the necessary repairs. With the doctors spread out over a large city this is going to be tricky.

Could your company or organization use a couple hundred bikes?

(Newspaper clipping above from NRC Handelsblad – article not online)

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

This tip was passed on by my friend Sally, who was such an early Internet adopter that she actually has www.sally.com as her personal domain name. Think about that.

Yesterday the New York Times ran an article about a gang of teenagers in Richmond Hill, Queens (NY) who build outrageous two-wheeled sound systems to cruise the streets . They “engineer” up to a couple hundred kilos of speakers, batteries and electronics and a few thousand watts of amplification onto BMX bikes and then DJ from iPods at deafening volume. Cool. 

The kids are from Guyanese and Trinidadian backgrounds and apparently this is a popular hobby in various areas around the Caribbean.

Below are a few photos but you can read the full article in the Times. 

Who says kids are lazy and don’t get out of the house these days?

(all photos: Tyler Hicks/The New York Times)

Cycle Chic: Copenhagen Girls on Bikes is a nice site in the bakfiets-en-meer spirit.

The authors desccribe their site as “Social documentary in high heels”. Like I write about the beauty and everyday-ness of cycling in Amsterdam, Mikael & Aaron do the same about Copenhagen, DK… through the medium of showing beautiful women on bikes in their city.

Before you start lambasting us all as sexist, misogynist, backward pigs I’ll explain a little further. Everybody, male or female, looks their best on a bicycle; They’re in motion, muscles tensed. They ride by slowly enough to catch a shape, a smile and a flutter of hair but too fast to see less endearing details. Cyclists in the city are enjoying themselves and a smile or relaxed concentration does everybody good. Women are generally not afraid to do it with more flair and style.

There are exceptions to the “everybody looks good on a bike” rule: Unathletic people dressed like bicycle racers, for example. The racer’s snug-fitting uniform is perfect on the body its intended for. It varies from unflattering to ridiculous on anything less.