No, the original NYT article was NOT cited.

We’re just back from Japan here and there’s still so much to show and tell. First I’ll get past the jetlag and clear the pile on my desk. In the meanwhile you can check out the 550 or so photos of Japan I posted on Flickr. I’m patting myself on the back here for making them pretty entertaining and informative.

Meanwhile I came across a nice bit of bike and fashion parody out of Shanghai, China. Most of you probably saw the slightly silly but timely articles on Dutch bikes such as “Riding the It Factor” in The New York Times. Yours truly was interviewed for said article, WorkCycles bikes were mentioned and used as props and the super photos of my friend Marc (a.k.a. Amsterdamize) were used for an accompanying slideshow about Dutch cycling.

Well shortly afterward some “economic refugee” Shanghai expats showed up with “It’s the S**t!” Factor parodying the NYT article above.

A couple days later “5000 Years of Civilized Riding” appeared… their take on the NYT fashion shoot with some worthy quotes such as:

…in China, bicycles have been part of the culture for 5,000 years. Fashionable Qin riders first unified China’s sense of style in 221 BC…

Oh, and I learned an excellent new (for me at least) acronym: BINO (Brand in Name Only).

Thanks to Fred Shasta, writer of these pieces.

…while hauling about a million styrofoam boxes on a cargo trike. All in a day’s work in China. Photo by Elyse Sewell, a fashion model living in China (I think). Her copious posts are sarcastic and insightful, filled with photos of the absurdities of her daily life as a “ladyposer” and all the weird things she comes across. Such as a guy talking on the phone while cycling with about 40 cubic meters of styrofoam. We don’t even see that in Amsterdam.

Thanks to Sally Applin for the tip.

WorkCycles mechanic Tom Resink has been traveling through China and Tibet and snapped this photo of a family on their cargo trike in Chengdu.

I recently spotted some bullshit about the difference between “hand-built” and “hand-made” on some site or blog promoting somebody’s bikes, or maybe it was just a blog comment. Huh? I’ve been designing and making (often pretty nice) things with my own hands for many years and have always used “hand-built” and “hand-made” interchangeably. Furthermore when it comes to bicycles, they’re mostly built with quite human labor intensive processes: Steel and aluminium frames are generally soldered, brazed or welded at least partially by hand, finish work is manual, and assembly is mostly performed manually on an production line of some sort. This is true for the bikes of small and large producers.

Certainly all of our (WorkCycles) bikes are made this way. Most of our city bike frames are hand built/made in Belgium. Some are hand built/made in Holland and China. Ironically enough the frames made in China are the most consistently straight and best finished. So much for China bashing.

The notable exception to our “hand-made” (or was it “built”) rule is the Bakfiets Cargobike frame which is built/made by a (very sophisticated) robot in a factory in South Holland province. The robot bends and miters the tubes and then welds them together. All of our bikes are assembled and finished by hand… though the mechanics do utilize machines such as a headset press and seat tube reamer to work more efficiently. Will the manual labor police disqualify them from being called “hand-made” for this?

Anyhow this is all just a long introduction for a fantastic film from 1925 somebody put up on You Tube (in two parts). Its called “De Avonturen van Piet” (The Adventures of Piet) referring to Piet Pelle, a promotional cartoon character of Gazelle. Between Piet’s adventures of taking his Gazelle bike to the North Pole we see a proud overview of the workings of the Gazelle Bicycle Factory. Amongst other processes:

The commentary is all in Dutch but you’ll get the idea of what’s going on: they’re hand making bicycles… or are they “building” them. Who cares! Its fun to watch.

1925: Gazelle frames being hand aligned

There’s a more complete version of the Gazelle factory video here but it doesn’t seem to have any sound.

Oh yeah, here’s Piet Pelle of Gazelle:

Regardless its called the TrioBike and I’d almost forgotten it until Todd’s mail. The TrioBike is a Danish designed product and its something of a joke amongst my colleagues here in Holland. Some laugh about it but how such a horrible product has won design awards, gotten mountains of (internet) press and glowing reviews from around the globe is both puzzling and troubling. One more lousy bike on the market doesn’t concern me, but the power of armchair internet reviewers does. Then again there are hardly any TrioBikes on the road so maybe its only a matter of perception and annoyance.

Before I go further here, let me clarify my position:
I have ridden and looked very carefully at the TrioBike. In fact, considering the miniscule number that have been sold I am probably one of the few people who have actually seen, touched and ridden it. My fellow colleagues at Workcycles have also ridden the TrioBike and share my opinion.

At Workcycles we sell workbikes and load-carrying bikes of all kinds, the largest number of which are used for child transport. That means that we talk with and share the experiences of thousands of families who transport their kids and groceries by bicycle. We don’t build the bikes ourselves but we do assemble them, modify them for kids of various age combinations, repair them and rent them. Our most popular and family-pleasing child-transport bicycle is the Bakfiets.nl Cargobike. We’ve sold around 1000 Cargobikes already.

Workcycles does not make any bicycle that competes with the TrioBike, and we do business with Amazing Wheels, the Dutch TrioBike importer. We could sell TrioBikes if we chose to, though probably not after anybody associated with the company reads the following assessment. Realistically though, my one personal blog post will only be lost in the flood of positive reviews and awards.

More importantly, I’m writing this post not to denigrate the well-intentioned but poorly executed TrioBike, but to lambast all the lame-asses (lame-assessers?) who evaluate products they’ve never seen, never mind tried or owned. Most of these “internet reviewers” and design award panelists clearly have no involvement in and know nothing about the field they judge. I happen to know this and other egregious examples in the bicycle world, but I assume its also the case in other fields as well. It frustrates me so I’m writing about it.

The Trio Bike case is one of absurd optimism and lack of realistic criticism, but absurd and inaccurate internet reviewing often works in the negative sense as well. I’d be a rich man if I had 5 cents for every know-it-all who comments about the dangers of each and every format of child carrying bicycle on the market. “If the kids sit in front they’ll get run over”. “If the kids sit in back they’ll get run over”. If the kids sit in the middle they’ll get run over”. “If the kids don’t wear helmets the parents are reckless murderers”. “If the parents don’t wear helmets the kids will be left to starve as orphans”. Front child seats behind the handlebar have been referred to as “suicide seats”. “Wooden boxes will make deadly splinters”. “Kids will freeze their tongues on aluminium boxes”. “Two-wheelers are unstable”. “Three-wheelers are unstable”. Its all BS, folks. The fact is that these comments are almost entirely just opinions with no basis in facts or experience. The reality simply suggests that cycling is quite safe, especially when compared to the statistically evidenced mess of carnage known as automobile driving.

On to the TrioBike itself…
For those still reading yet not familiar with the TrioBike its a simple concept: A very attractive, modern-designer bakfiets made so that the front child carrier section can be decoupled from the bicycle frame behind. The bike can be ridden without the child carrier, and the child carrier can be pushed without the bicycle. Thus its referred to as “Trio” for the three modes. Its a worthy idea though multifunctional products always come with compromises. Unfortunately bicycles have little room for design error so that seemingly small compromises can have enormous influence on the function of the bicycle.

I do not know exactly who is behind the TrioBike but I can add much more information than is to be found in the many internet reviews:

- TrioBike is an actual firm in Copenhagen, Denmark

- The TrioBike was designed by ID firm designAgenda in Hellerup, Denmark. Just to note: All bicycles developed by ID firms seem to be miserable failures. I can name numerous other examples so please write if you know an example to the contrary.

- My industry sources tell me that the TrioBike is made (extremely cheaply) by a huge firm in China, shipped to Poland where they’re assembled and then forwarded to regional distributors.

The Trio Bike does look very stylish and was introduced with lots of fanfare and publicity. Since then its received many a glowing internet review by those who’ve never ridden it, and probably never even carried children on a bicycle for that matter. That’s partially because it is effectively “vapor-ware”: There are a few out there, but very few and most are still sitting in the shop of the poor sucker who listened to the distributor salesman without trying it for himself. Note how difficult it is to find a picture of a Trio-Bike actually in use, as opposed to in an advertising photo supplied by the manufacturer.

TrioBikes are mostly to be found in webshops that specialize in design furniture and the likes. The performance demands of a bicycle, especially one that will carry your precious little ones, are simply higher than most furniture.

Here’s my best attempt at an unbiased review of the TrioBike, approximately in reverse order of importance:

- The construction quality and finish work is excellent – chinese bent, machined and welded aluminium, smoothly formed plastic box in a sandwich construction and so forth. Its pretty, looks high quality and in this regard it is light years ahead of many of its competitors.

- The TrioBike is quite sporty and made with parts suitable for recreational single bikes… but this trike is big and would generally have to be stored outdoors. The aluminium frame and special plastic box will probably be fine but the rest is certainly not up to that task – all those chromed nuts and bolts, steel brake disks, exposed chain, and connection system will rust, making your lovely modern design bike very unattractive.

- The trike to stroller conversion mechanism is too technical for most people to use. At the extreme risk of sounding sexist, few women will be able or willing to deal with it. (family bikes are mostly ridden by women, as evidenced by the images in their site and literature) Add a little wear and tear and corrosion and it’ll be convertible only when absolutely necessary. In the real world the TrioBike will simply become a three-wheeled child carrier bicycle (bakfiets).

- It has a men’s style frame, available in a single frame size. This is simply inconvenient for a city vehicle and few women are willing to ride a bike with a men’s style frame. Perhaps its different in other countries. Regardless of the stand-over height, this bike has the bent-over sitting position of a racing bike – unsuitable for city riding. The stem is an “Ahead” type, thus not adjustable in height. The saddle so narrow and hard that it’d be suitable on a racing bike.

- There are no mudguards, no chain covering, jacket guards, lock, or lights. OK, I exaggerate: there are some little LED lights in the handlebar and recent examples seem to have short, aftermarket plastic fenders.

- There are no steps or other means for kids to climb into the box. Its just a slippery looking, round plastic form. Are mom and dad supposed to heft the kids into the bin or is this a sort of athletic challenge for the kids? How will the sleek plastic box look with the resulting foot streaks and prints?

- The front wheels of the TrioBike are set far back in the front child carrier section and the side walls are high, sloping toward the front. This means that kids will climb in from the front. However the bike behind is very light, meaning that the trike tips under the weight of the kids, lifting the rear wheel into the air and consequently letting it swing around the steering axis and then fall with considerable momentum to wherever gravity takes it. That could be… onto mom’s white trousers (remember: no chain cover), into traffic, off the edge of the canal, or into a parked Mercedes. Just to note the Nihola and Winther Kangaroo also have this tipping problem, though at least the Nihola remains straight with its tail in the air since it is linkage steered.

- Now here’s the best part: The TrioBike rides terribly. The steering is so stiff that it can barely be maneuvered while not moving. At even moderate speeds the steering is so awkward and twitchy that its a truly scary experience. There’s always the feeling that a bump or quick maneuver could toss the whole rig over. Even if one could master it it would never be even remotely pleasant. Riding a bicycle should be a wonderful, natural feeling experience, not one to “get used to”.

How one could design such a thing and bring it to market is absolutely baffling to me. The basic concept is excellent but then the product development process went completely wrong. Many basic design factors reduce the suitability of the Trio-Bike to hardly anybody. It was supposed to be a convenient mommy bike but who is it for now? Even if it were just a lovely and cool bike for just a niche market that’d be OK too. After all that’s the case with most of the highly specialized bikes the recreational bicycle industry offers. But the killer is that the TrioBike is just unpleasant riding and inconvenient to use in practically every way.

So why does it nonetheless garner so much praise? Do people simply WANT it to be true? Do some regard all new things as good things? Are people so gullible as to believe the far-fetched claims of manufacturers without a critical eye? Why not a healthy mix of optimism and criticism?

At the same time the TrioBike doesn’t sell, and great working child carrying bikes such as the Bakfiets Cargobike sell very well. Apparently and thankfully there’s a considerable gulf between the internet know-it-all reviewers and the actual buyer/user. It still annoys me though. Flame away…

I recently wrote about the 50,000 rental bicycles the Beijing city government is putting into service for the 2008 Olympics. Details were sketchy in the previous article but here’s another article with more information about the Chinese bike rental project from Bike Radar.com.

A somewhat edited synopsis follows…

Fifty thousand bikes will be available for hire in Beijing in time for the Olympics in 2008.

After the overwhelming success of Paris’ Velib bike rental scheme China is jumping on the bandwagon with a project five times the size of the one in the French capital. In the recent months the Beijing Government has been trialling a bike rental scheme at 31 hire stations around the capital. This week it announced its expansion, with 200 outlets planned in time for the 2008 Summer Games.

The project is being run by city firm Beijing Bicycle Rental Services on behalf of the city authorities. It has already put 5,000 bikes into circulation at key points including the Beijing Workers Stadium, the Drum Tower, and the Forbidden City. More outlets, at bus stops, rail stations and other key points, will be opened during the next 12 months, and a further 45,000 bikes will hit the streets.

By the start of the games in August 2008 there should be some 50,000 bikes available to Beijing residents and visitors to the Olympics. People can dial a hotline to rent a bike and if they get a puncture, can exchange it at any rental station.

As well as tackling pollution, the scheme is aimed at reducing bike theft in Beijing. Unlike in Europe, where advertising agencies have been given premium space in exchange for running rental schemes, Beijing’s bike programme is being sponsored by the anti-theft arm of the municipal public security bureau and the Beijing Environment Protection Bureau. Police officer Wang Xiaobing told China Daily: “This is like a centralized management of bicycles so that citizens won’t have to worry about thefts.”

The Beijing bike rental scheme will work as on a franchise basis, allowing the option for continuing growth. Beijing Bicycle Rental Services is providing the bikes, while companies who want to join the scheme as a franchise will get 1 yuan a day per vehicle to cover running costs, plus profit sharing. However, because people can hire and drop off bikes at different locations not every outlet is guaranteed to make a profit.

Following the success of Paris’ bike rental scheme, which saw more than one million hires in its first month from 10,600 bikes, London mayor Ken Livingstone is considering introducing a similar service in the UK capital.

Elsewhere in Europe, bike hire programmes have been growing in popularity, expanding rapidly in Lyon, Barcelona, Copenhagen, and other major cities. There have also been calls for a rental service following a trial this summer in New York.

© BikeRadar 2007

But lately the tide seems to have turned. I read some months ago (in an article I can’t remember) that China’s national minister of transportation had sharp words about Beijing’s anti-bicycle policies. He made statements to the effect that their bicycle use was not only practical and envivonmentally friendly, but also that its an important part of China’s identity and culture. Perhaps he also pointed out how the bicycle so strongly represents the Communist Party’s egalitarian philosophy… though I didn’t actually read that part.

The evidence for today is that Beijing is busy completing a system of 50,000 rental bikes for the upcoming Olympic Games. From Bike Europe, a website for the trade:

50,000 rental bikes for Chinese capital

BEIJING, China – The first 31 in a series of 200 bicycle rental stations have been opened in Beijing. The remaining will be open by next year’s Olympics, and there will be more than 50,000 bikes for rent. These bike rental stations are a parts of the government’s program to ensure clean air for next year’s Olympics.

The system works very easily. People can dial a hotline number to reserve a bike. And, if the bike you rent breaks down, you can go to the nearest station to swop it for another. The rental stations are located at subway stations, bus stops, commercial areas and the Olympics venues.

Following the success of the car reduction test event, which ended yesterday and recorded four consecutive days of Grade II air quality, the government unveiled a new bike rental scheme to maintain the momentum.

The city council hopes a new bike promotion campaign will meet equal popularity and reinforce Beijing’s status as the capital of the “Kingdom of the Bicycle”.

Published @ 22-08-2007

Fifty thousand bikes sounds like an awful lot, though this is Beijing so some might regard it as mostly symbolic, or for show, or basically for the Olympic visitors. Time will tell.

Original article can be found here though unfortunately with no cool pictures of 50,000 red bikes lined up ready for use.