…was luckily also “papa day”. Thursday’s are dad’s weekday to hang out with Pascal. Since a 19 month old demands pretty much full-time attention it means a (nearly) no work day. We do all kind of things on papa day: ride to the zoo, walk around Amsterdam doing errands and checking out every park and playground along the way, visit friends… If it’s decent weather we often go for a bike ride.

Today was beautiful, at least by Dutch late winter standards. After breakfast we got on the bike and then we rode until early evening. We stopped at several playgrounds to test their slides (P’s favorite). The big, curvy one near the wind turbines was the winner. We sat on the terrace of a cafe and shared a chicken saté and frites. We checked out a running windmill where they still grind grains and the nice bakkers bakfiets out front. We even climbed “Het Kopje van Bloemendaal” the biggest hill in the area (43 meters!).

Of course our daily ride bikes are equipped with child seats but I also have a bike especially for longer, recreational rides with the family. It’s essentially a heavy-duty touring bike somewhat modified to make it comfortable and safe with a toddler in a front child seat and it works really well. It has full fenders and dynamo lights so rain and darkness aren’t real problems. With a triple crank and derailleur gearing I can climb hills. I usually bring one pannier with kid essentials: diaper/wipes, snacks, jacket, spare clothes etc. Speaking of panniers I absolutely hate the Vaude roll-tops I’ve got. Sure they’re waterproof and lightweight but having only one compartment is a total pain in the butt; all of the little stuff you need falls to the bottom, my camera bangs against the lock or keys and so on. Next panniers will have little compartments, will stand up when off the bike, and will be quick to open and close. I’m thinking Carradice canvas or something along those lines.

In any case we’ve racked up a lot of family kilometers both around Holland and on holiday in France. Pascal sits in front of me in a Bobike Mini seat. When he naps I drape an arm over his little handlebar cushion so that his head rests in my arm. I’ve climbed entire mountains like this since you can’t always predict when a little kid will fall asleep. Our heads are only a few centimeters apart so we can “talk” easily. Pascal points out the animals (wanwan, baaahh, moooo…) and vehicles (monono, kruk, batchi, pee pee…), and particularly gets a kick out of hearing his voice flutter when we ride over rough surfaces: “Waa-aa-a-aaa-aa-a-aaaaa!” Being a typical dad I thought this was unique but it turns out lots of kids do exactly the same thing. As long as the scenery/action is good, and we stop to play or eat each hour or so Pascal will happily ride and babble all day… and that makes me very happy.

A year or so ago Oscar Mulder of My Dutch Bike in San Francisco commented that he’d periodically heard from his family that his great grandfather had a bicycle shop in Amsterdam and was the “inventor of the bakfiets”. Perhaps this was never a particularly notable factoid until Oscar and his wife Soraya began a shop dedicated to supplying bakfietsen and other Dutch bikes last year.

Needless to say I’m always skeptical about anybody who’s supposedly the inventor of anything as straightforward as a bicycle with a box. But also being fascinated by the history of such things, and bikes in particular, I was also very curious to learn more. Was he known for developing a particular style of transport bike, or a special bakfiets for a particular purpose much as Maarten van Andel is much more recently the “spiritual godfather” of the 2-wheeled family bakfiets? Such stories often get twisted, misunderstood and mistranslated as they get passed through generations and languages so such an explanation seemed fairly plausible.

I forgot about the incident until Oscar sent me a note with a number of scans of photos he’d received from his mother (who still lives in Holland). None of the photos are dated but a little archive research as well as some technical features of the bikes seems to puts most of them in the 1910-1915 range. Making the task a little easier is the fact that the shop was in the Jordaan district just a few blocks from both my home and WorkCycles Lijnbaansgracht location where my office is. Much of the Jordaan looks much like it did 100 or actually even 250 years ago… aside from the cars (yes, even here there are some, though mostly just parked), some rather tasteless new buildings from the 1960’s and 70’s, and a few of the bigger canals that were filled in.

Concerning the photos and archive info we first see that great grandpa did indeed have a bike shop at Rozengracht 49 (and maybe also 40 though that’s disputable). It was called “Bergreijer” which is a play on words. Bergmeijer was the family name but “rij” is the first person form of “ride” or “drive” and “berg” also happens to mean “mountain” so in a punny sort of way it means “mountain rider”. The Dutch, incidentally, have a thing for funny names. Even when other countries were busy with dead-serious names and advertising the Dutch were naming companies with puns and other humorous approaches. It’s a history that goes back at least to when Napoleon became ruler of the region in 1810 and forced everybody to take on a family name which wasn’t at all universal at that time. Either out of spite for their ruler or figuring the names would disappear along with the ruler many people cose silly names. I actually know people who’s names directly translate to “Fountain pen”, “Short knees” and “Born naked”… seven generations later. Napoleon’s bones must be laughing in his grave.

This week Herbert Kuner of the excellent rijwiel.net website sent a couple emails to Oscar chock full of additional information. Kuner found a Bergreijer advertisement in a 1919 trade magazine listing also a separate factory at Laurierstraat 134-142. This is around the corner from the Rozengracht 49 and presumably the factory location was just for production since I don’t think the Laurierstraat was ever a street for retail shops. There are still a number of light industrial outfits there, for example our offset printing firm a few doors down from where Bergreijer stood. This location is also not listed in the 1915 phone book, which inexplicably we both found digitized on the Internet.

Another picture, though shows yet another bike shop called J. Cruiming right next to Bergreijer in the Rozengracht. Cruiming apparently also called themselves a bicycle factory and in fact a sign notes that their shop was not open to the public. This combination of retailer and fabricator is not so strange; many bike shops in this period made their own frames and other parts. I was able to find the same buildings in Google Street View. The two buildings in the right of the photo are essentially unchanged but the facades of numbers 49 (Bergreijer) and 51 (Cruimer) have unfortunately been changed.

The photos include a number of bikes, most of them fairly standard models for this period. Inside the shop are two rows of bikes, many of them with rod-operated rim brakes and none with lights fitted. A carbide lamp fitted to the bracket at the top of the headset was the standard nighttime solution then though none are visible here. Barely visible in the lower right corner seems to be a child sized bike.

There’s a gentleman in uniform, I’m guessing police though I suppose it could also be military or some other official function in which case he was very happy that the Netherlands remained neutral in WWI. His bike has a front fender that ends behind the fork crown as was the practice then. It’s a fixed gear since I see no sign of either hand brakes or even a reaction arm for a coaster brake. The chainring is a work of art and we can see it since none of the bikes in the photos have any kind of chain covers. Apparently the enclosed chain case became a defining feature of the Dutch bike later on.

Here’s a rather dashing fellow looking ready for the start of the next Portland Tweed Ride or other costume themed bicycle gathering. I’m guessing he’s physically challenged since his stylish tricycle is hand driven through a very simple pair of levers that also serve to steer the machine. It looks like it would ride fine in a fairly straight line but sharp turns could be difficult, especially for somebody who’s partially paralyzed… or maybe that’s not really the purpose of this trike. There aren’t many streets this wide bordering large rivers in Amsterdam so I’ll venture a guess that this photo was taken on the west side of the Amstel river.

***Correction: A sharp-eyed, bike loving friend of Herb Kuner in Amsterdam points out that the above and below pictures look like they were taken along the Nassaukade. Silly me! That’s right around the corner from my home and I didn’t recognize it. Of course it is about 100 years later, but still… This morning I looked more carefully while riding Pascal to his daycare center and sure enough I found a spot where the trees (aside from being much thicker) and buildings match the above photo.

This is our first bakfiets of the bunch, and it’s a remarkably ornate one. Check out that laquered box, the beautiful ironwork that seems to support both the loooong leaf springs and the handlebar, and the carbide lamps missing from the bikes in the shop above. The bike almost looks like more of a showpiece than a utility vehicle but who knows what its function was: selling cakes or household goods perhaps? Whatever it carried wasn’t heavy given the light-duty leaf springs. Though this is a very old bakfiets I’ve seen many pictures of similarly old bakfietsen from England and the Netherlands. Nope, this is not the bakfiets Mr. Bergmeijer invented.

Now, THESE last two are the bikes in question. They’re vaguely “Long John” type bikes from at least 20 years before anybody called them “Long John”. Actually they differ from Long Johns and all of the more modern variations in that the frame also runs above the load carrier along with the steering mechanism. On Long Johns, van Andel’s Bakfiets.nl Cargobike and the legions of bicycles these two have inspired the front wheel is steered via a rod linkage below the load carrier. The two photos show two different versions o the Bergreijer transportfiets. The photo with the delivery boy is probably an earlier model or prototype with no steering linkage; the handlebar has simply been extended back to reach the rider. The other bike with “G. Goes, Hemonystraat 18″ (an address in Amsterdam) has a longer box and is steered via a rather complex system of bevel gears on a shaft. They seem to have gone from the simplest system possible to the most complicated… or maybe the other way around. The bike is clearly marked “Bergreijer” and “Model D” along the top tube.

I have seen a few other bikes that looked like these. One of them I almost purchased a few years ago but the owner decided not to sell it after all. This bike with its much more robust construction and dynamo lighting is much more recent, possibly from the 1930’s. The owner told me it was a Maxwell, a very well regarded Amsterdam builder of transport bikes, quite a few of whose big trikes still can still be on the streets. Another very similar (but still different) bike is displayed at a bike repair shop near Amsterdam Central Station.

Looking more recent than the Bergreijer bikes but older than these two are these slick-looking Veeno’s shown on rijwiel.net. It is worth noting that ALL of the bikes described here are older than the 1938 I’ve seen proposed as the beginning of the Danish Long Johns, though I imagine somebody, somewhere in Denmark was also experimenting with long wheelbase transport bikes before then. This repeating of history and reinventing of wheels I discussed earlier in “What’s really new in the bicycle world?”.

So did the Bergmeijer brothers invent this type of bike? It’s possible and their “Long Johns” are the oldest I’ve seen yet. However I’m only a dabbler in antique bikes and this was a time of incredible innovation and experimentation with bicycles (and cars, motorcycles and trucks too). There were several thousand little bike companies throughout the country so quite likely somebody else was also working on such bikes as well. Some day somebody else’s grandmother might pull a few worn photos of even older examples from a shoe box. For now though, I think it’s safe to say we’re at least approaching the beginnings of the Long John type bike.

Does anybody have any more good clues to help fill in the puzzle?

You’re the Hasidic Jew who tried to kill me. I’m the girl on the bike. – w4m
Date: 2009-07-29, 7:01PM EDT

Dear Sir.

We had our encounter on Bedford Avenue this afternoon, just south of Division. I was the petite brunette in a white sundress, riding a red road bike in the rain; you were the Hasidic gentleman (and I use the term loosely) in a blue SUV who came up on my back wheel, honking, and attempted to run me out of the bike lane before swerving directly in front of me and pulling up to the curb ahead.

You refused to roll down your window and talk to me after this incident, leaving me to shout, “That’s against the law” at the rain-streaked glass and then continue home. And while it *is* against the law — both the laws that govern New York City drivers, and also those that govern general human decency — what I really wanted to say to you was simultaneously less accusatory and more important. This is it.

I know that the bike lanes aren’t great. You may not believe it, but cyclists don’t like riding next to you anymore than you like sharing the road with us. Given the choice between inhaling your exhaust and pedaling blithely down a forested greenway, I’d always take the latter.

I also know that presence of cyclists on busy streets can make driving in the city even more nerve-wracking than usual, and that some of us antagonize the shit out of drivers by disobeying traffic laws, failing to signal, and generally acting like we own the road (I am not one of these, but that is beside the point). And I completely understand if, at this point, you start hyperventilating at the mere sight of a bike with which you have to share the road. I empathize; I have a car, too. It sucks. I know.

Nevertheless, we can’t all live in Amsterdam, and the frustrations of sharing the road with me do not change the facts: You are in a car, and I am not. You are protected from collisions by airbags, fenders, and a steel cage; I’m not. You are piloting a one-ton pile of steel; I am piloting something that weighs as much as a dog. (Not even a big dog — we’re talking Welsh Corgi, here.)

And if your frustrations at sharing the road get the better of you, and you want to get in a fight with me, sir, there is no doubt whatsoever that you will win.

You’ll win… and, in all likelihood, I’ll be dead.

This is what I wanted to say to you: You may not like cyclists, and that’s fine. But you have a responsibility to the human race, and I don’t cease to exist the second I step off my bike. I am someone’s wife. I am someone’s sister. I am someone’s daughter.

And if you have any of those things — a spouse, a sibling, a child — do me this favor.

Picture them.

Imagine yourself on your way to meet your wife for lunch; imagine yourself waiting for your daughter to come home from school.

Now, imagine getting a phone call, hearing the voice on the other end telling you that that person — the person you love — is dead, because some asshole in an Audi thought her life was less important than waiting another five seconds to park his car.

This has been a public service announcement from the U.S. Department of Please Don’t Kill Other Human Beings.

Location: south williamsburg

it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 1295924472

See the original ad here on Craigslist.

Thanks to Caroline S. at Transportation Alternatives in New York for spotting this on Craigslist.

Thanks to Steve Pinkus for the above photo.

All sorts of people ride WorkCycles bikes: Moms, dads, steelworkers, delivery girls, photographers, teachers, IT guys, cops, punk rockers and even royalty. A few weeks ago we received a call from a distinguished sounding gentleman with a +44 country code telephone number. Thank god for caller ID. The conversation went something like this:

Us: “Goedemiddag, WorkCycles. Je spreekt met (insert WorkCycles employee name).”

Caller: “Please excuse me but do you speak English?”

Us: “Ya. Dat can. How can I be of service?”

Caller: “Pardon me. Would you happen to have any Grey Poupon? Ha ha just a little English humour… No, actually I am interested in your WorkCycles F-R-8 bicycle. It looks like a most dignified bicycle yet refreshingly modern and versatile. Would you recommend it for an individual for whom it is important to look, well, dignified?”

Us: “What’s Grey Poupon?”

Caller: “It’s mustard but never mind that. I’m intereste…”

Us: “Mosterd? We have not mosterd here. We make only de bicycles.”

Caller: “Yes, sorry for the confusion. I’m interested in the F-R-8 bicycle.”

Us: “Oh, you mean de WorkCycles Freight bicycle? You speak it out not as F-R-8 but freight. It is a great bike and it can carry very much freight, such as 3 children and groceries or 150kg of tools. What must you carry and where will you ride de bicycle?”

Caller: “Well I’m not really at liberty to discuss the situation in detail but suffice it to say that it must be possible to carry a five year old child in a dignified manner and ummm… a crown.”

Us: “A crown? How do you mean?”

Caller: “Yes, a crown; like with velvet and silver and jewels and well, you know… a crown. I’m sorry but I’m just not at liberty to explain.”

Us: “Dat is OK. English clients have always strange requests. What is de diameter of de crown?”

Caller: “Almost 8 inches”

Us: “Dat is not a problem. We have a strong plastic crate in order to carry de crown. Dere is enough room to put the groceries next de crown. Do you need an elastic to prevent de crown from bouncing out?”

Caller: No I don’t think that will be necessary. The bicycle will only be ridden slowly.”

So to make a long story short the gentleman purchased the Fr8 and requested that it be personally delivered to Buckingham Palace, insisting that no further address info was necessary. The guards would be expecting the delivery but kindly do not disturb them during the changing of the guard. That would be most inconvenient.

Anyhow, being an American I don’t know much about these English things but I googled Buckingham Palace and found that at least part of the Royal Family lives there. By golly; that’s what the guy meant by the crown! But I couldn’t find any information about a five year old child in the English Royal Family. Do I smell a scandal brewing here?

It only seemed fitting to send Alexis, our only English employee to deliver the Royal Fr8. Along the way he stopped in to visit his buddies at London’s uber hip fixie workshop 14 Bike Co.

Even in the midst of so much colorful hipster fixie beauty all eyes were on the Fr8. Customers pointed and exclaimed “I want one like that! Except in bright pink with purple deep V rims and with the brake lever placed where I can’t reach it, and maybe with a top tube welded in so I can put my top tube pad on it.”

It takes some cojones to give your brand new €2000 family triplet tandem a spray can paint job and then cover it in cheesy plastic flora… but the results are certainly unique and effective.

Why does the Amsterdammer do such a thing? Simple: Making it crazy and unique wards off thieves. Your bike is critical to getting around but at the same time not an object of obsession. The same family has ridden a similarly decorated Bakfiets Cargobike for years, probably appearing in thousands of holiday photos and blogs as a result. Now the kids are older and it’s time for them to contribute some locomotive force.

Thanks to the kind WorkCycles customer for stopping by with the bike.

In case you want a more subtle way to make your bike undesirable to thieves you can also check out WorkCycles High-Tech Antitheft Bicycle Spray.

A customer just passed a link to this video along: Riding his WorkCycles Fr8 with his two daughters in GMG seats on the rear carrier, and son on the saddle behind the handlebar… plus a big milk crate on the front carrier. Everybody looks pretty happy with the situation. So sweet, thanks very much Ben!

I periodically see fellow bloggers denigrating the “lycra crowd” with the basic idea that recreational cycling (at least if it involves wearing special clothes) is the antithesis of utilitarian cycling and just plain old bad. But why? Cycling is just plain wonderful, whether riding the bakfiets across town to bring the kids to school, or riding up a mountain with friends. All work and no play makes a dull boy! There has to be a place in the world for objects and activities without productive function. Otherwise there would be no art, sports, play, hobbies or fun… and that world would suck.

And many activities (productive or otherwise) are enhanced by donning specific gear. The doctor pulls on scrubs for surgery, the construction worker wears tough trousers with gear loops, knee pads and steel toed boots, and the fireman stays warm but not crispy in his Nomex coat and helmet. If you’re going to spend the day in the saddle you’ll probably be most comfortable in cycling clothes. Whether you’ll look good in them or not is another story.

I’m also perplexed by why people believe it’s impossible to be both a cyclist for transportation AND and cyclist for fun. I ride a no-nonsense utility bike every day to get around the city, and then (weather, work and family permitting) I get on one of my lovely sporty bikes and ride for a few hours. For much of my life that meant riding fast: training and competing in races. With the addition of Pascal our recreational cycling has generally become a family activity. Today we took maximal advantage of a Sunday with perfect cycling weather: We were out for 6 hours, though one doesn’t ride very fast while holding a sleeping baby in one arm, nor cover much distance with multiple cafe stops.

Anyhow, just ride your bike. Certainly do it for transportation, but don’t let the hair-shirt idealists stop you from going nowhere useful on your bike… in the tightest lycra sausage suit if you wish.

The topic of the horrible, Chinese made family bakfiets copies has come up here intermittently but I’ve never written anything in depth about them. For those unfamiliar I’m talking about bakfietsen sold under various and constantly changing names, some of which are listed in this post on bakfiets.co.uk. Regular readers already know my conviction that these crude constructions of randomly “designed”, stamped and welded pot metal in the shapes of “bikes” and “trikes” are actually of negative value to their unfortunate purchasers and the world in general. The various fly-by-night firms selling them without warranty promote them as less expensive though somewhat simplified alternatives to similar looking, quality bicycles made by Bakfiets.nl, Christiania, Gazelle, Fietsfabriek and WorkCycles. If this were really the case I’d respect their activities, helpful or detrimental to those of my own.

However they’re just pandering to wishful thinking; Sure, it’d be great to have some inexpensive bakfiets options for families but the laws of physics and economics even apply to bicycles. The quality models simply cost what they have to, given the heavy duty demands, the need for safety and relatively small quantity production. Depending on the format and how deluxe it’s equipped they cost (in the Netherlands) between €1300 and about €2300. Anybody who can come up with a better price-quality-feature ratio will succeed in this competitive market.

The “bak-fakes”, on the other hand, are sold solely to earn a quick profit. They’re designed and made to such low standards that they’re really not useful machines. The customer is not getting a less pretty version of a €1500 bicycle for €600, she’s getting stuck with a flatpack full of ill-fitting, fast rusting steel pieces, paperboard panels and inappropriately chosen bicycle parts sourced from the very lowest level of department store bikes. Even if one pays a professional mechanic to do the assembly and replace the completely unusable pieces a decent riding, safe, semi-acceptably durable family transporter will never emerge. Even if no physical harm results from riding the thing, it’ll deteriorate with amazing rapidity. Oh, and there’s NO warranty. When your bike breaks in half (yes, they do that) you’re just outta luck.

The Dutch seem to have lost patience with the bak-fakes so we’re seeing fewer and fewer of them. Dutch people might be famous for loving a good deal but they do actually ride their bikes, so really crappy bikes tend not to stay on the market very long. Look how Kronan’s success here was so short lived. I guess that explains why the Chinese bak-fake manufacturers are seeking out new markets. Now they’ve just shown up on American shores through a firm called DoubleDutchBikes.

Ian at Bakfiets.co.uk has been following my discussion with Daniel Kok, who’s written a few comments on this blog about the bicycles he’s importing from China to the USA. Judging one’s character just by the comments they leave on blogs and by their website isn’t exactly a reliable science but the picture Ian’s post paints is indeed pretty sketchy looking. Blog comments pretending to be a customer of your own business and roundabout non-answers to questions aren’t good signs.

Daniel initially commented as “dkok” here in this post, though referred to Doubledutchbikes as “they”. Clicking the link he left behind I found on his site that the proprieter seemed to be a certain Daniel Kok. Given the Dutch name and similarity to “dkok” it didn’t seem too great a leap to guess that Daniel was our poster. Returning to the site today I cannot find his name there anymore. Whatever. I understand that the small business owner just needs to get the word out there and who expects the etiquette police to be following like hawks.

So anyhow Daniel and I discussed whether his bikes are or are not the cheapo bikes in question. Ian of bakfiets.co.uk picked up on our discussion and apparently did some further research. If such things concern you go ahead and read about more of Daniel’s blog commenting activities on Ian’s site.

On Bakfiets.co.uk Ian shows a bunch of pictures of these bikes with commentary about certain features. Some of the images actually originate from my own Flickr photo set you can see in the slideshow below.

Daniel claims to have made extensive changes to the bike so I suppose the crux of the matter is whether DoubleDutchBikes has really made so many improvements to justify:
A. Selling them at all.
B. A price increase from about $650 (€500 in NL) to $1900.

That would seem a tall order but I’ll reserve judgement until I’ve seen more. Until then CAVEAT EMPTOR, folks… and happy cycling, whatever you choose to ride!

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

[Show as slideshow]

Hello,
I was browsing your blog, and found it most interesting indeed. I thought based on what I have read there that I should share my recent experiences with you.

I purchased a brand new bakfiets 1 1/2 years ago and have been through so much hell with it and the company who sold it to me that the Rijdende Rechter even wanted to cover it on the show, but the vendors wouldn’t participate so that came to nothing. I am not looking for help or advice; I just thought this story might interest you.

I am a 39-year-old ex-American student with a 4-year-old. 1 1/2 years ago I realized that a bakfiets would be the solution to many of my transport problems, not having a car. I was able to use some of the money my family set aside after my great-aunt’s death for my education. That meant, however, that I needed to get an inexpensive bakfiets. Naively I thought that I should get a cheaper new one so that it would come with a guarantee. I bought a Faya4you.

The Faya4you bakfiets is ostensibly delivered “rijklaar”. When it arrived, the delivery folks left without waiting for me to test ride it. I took it for a spin, and one of the first things I discovered was that the brakes did not work– at all. Luckily this came to light outside the home of my then neighbor, who is a bicycle repairman and sells used cycles. He put the brakes in order for me, saying they had not been installed correctly.

The next thing that happened was that the wood, particle board, swelled up after a couple of rains and fell off! So I installed new wood.

Thereafter, the left pedal and crank suddenly fell off. I took the trike to the Wolkenfietser, Haarlem’s excellent repair facility. They found that the axle had been twisted into a spiral, after only a couple of months of riding. I sent several e-mails to Faya4you (they normally do not answer the phone), and when I eventually mentioned legal action an axle suddenly arrived in the mail, with no other contact. I took it to the Wolkenfietser, where I was told that it was too short but that they would put it in and see how long that worked out. The answer was, about a week. So I bothered Faya4you again for a few weeks, this time with no response. By then I had come to depend on the bakfiets and was seriously inconvenienced by not being able to use it. So I gave up and bought a good axle, which was duly installed.

A couple of months after that the gears stopped working. If I left it in 2 all was well, but if I ever switched it to 1, which happened frequently accidentally because of the placement of the release lever, it would freewheel for a while until I moved the lever back to 2, then make a horrendous “thunk” noise, then be in something VERY heavy for several revolutions, “thunk” again, and go back to 2. This was never repaired.

Shortly after that the bakfiets started pulling to the right. It also started periodically making a sort of low-grade screaming noise from somewhere under the bak.

Shortly after that, I was riding through traffic with my son in the bakfiets and it started feeling very weird: the back end seemed to sort of slide right out from under me every few seconds. I got off and looked, and part of the frame had snapped right in two. I took it to the Wolkenfietser and they said it was dead. I really, really needed the bakfiets and had less than no money so I took it to a smith, who welded a metal plate into that part of the frame.

Over the next couple of months the bakfiets seemed to get heavier gradually. After a couple of months there started to be a swish, swish noise coming from the back. I could not get this noise to reproduce itself when I was in a position to be looking at the back end. Eventually though it started suddenly feeling like it was going through deep sand (it was still screaming, by the way, although that went away temporarily right after the weld). I was able finally to see that the back wheel was tilted sometimes. By the time I made it back to the Wolkenfietser the wheel was VERY tilted all the time. The fellow there started to check the spoke tension, and the spokes just started falling out. The upshot was that I needed a new wheel, due, they said, to the poor quality of the original wheel. This I got. They advised me that the whole machine is of such poor quality and was so traumatized by the frame break and weld that they felt I should not try to get it repaired again if something else went wrong.

It made it another few weeks. My son had started public school and in order to get him there without a bakfiets I need to walk 20 minutes and then get a bus, which runs at inconvenient times. I also have a serious back issue that made it difficult to do that. Anyway, during the last several weeks (about 12 weeks, I think) of its life, three things happened. First, the screaming increased and became accompanied by a numer of groans and squeaks and murmers. The front end developed a downright weird oscillation: when I started riding it would very slightly bounce up and down in front. This gradually increased until it was bouncing along joyously, then would stop when I stopped, and gradually build up again as I went forward. The third thing that happened was the pedals started rocking. If I was pedaling on the right the whole pedal assembly would rock over to the right, same thing on the left.

Then last Monday the bakfiets just ground to a halt. I got off and looked, and part of the brake had come free and jammed itself between the wheel and the tire, shredding the inner tube. I managed to push it for half an hour, then my back gave out.

And that is the end of it. I was in a panic but my father decided to buy me a second hand bakfiets, and it should arrive tomorrow. It is a Christiania Light, 5 years old, so I hope it will last for me.
After the frame break I started sending e-mails and faxes to Faya4you without response. I sent two registered letters which were not picked up from the post office. I phoned continually from a variety of phones without answer. I sent the story to the Rijdende Rechter. After calling them twice the publicity lady for the show finally got a call back, and was told that Faya4you had done everything possible to help me and wanted nothing further to do with me. That same day a man called me and told me that he had received a lot of faxes that were not for him. I asked him what his number was and he did not want to tell me. I read him the Faya4you fax number and asked if it was his and he said that he did not know, then hesitated and then said no, it wasn’t. He would not provide an alternate number.

And that is the end of that. I will have to sue them but right now I have 6 weeks left at school to get my degree and I have no money, so it will have to wait at least a little while. It seems to me I may have left an event or two out of this narrative, but you get the idea. The key events are here.
Anyway, as I said I just thought you might be interested to hear about this incident and this company.
Sincerely,
(name removed for privacy)
Haarlem

The question of inexpensive family bikes comes up frequently and I often have venomous words about some of them, specifically because we hate hearing stories like the one above. Its an awful feeling to have to so sorely disappoint a customer by informing them that their nearly new bike is essentially irreparable. Five hundred euro might seem like a great deal in comparison to €1500 for a quality model and one might even accept shortcomings such as poor finish, lame lights, too few gears and somewhat higher maintenance as a reasonable tradeoff for the affordable purchase price. But the story below paints a very different picture: that of €500 initial cost plus probably much more in repair costs and time wasted on a bike that was nevertheless pronounced “dead” and worthless after 1.5 years. That doesn’t represent good value in my book nor was it an efficient use of world resources. Whether it’s responsible to sell such products from a safety perspective (specifically to carry children!) is an area I won’t even touch here.

Just to note I’m just publishing this report for her and have no commercial interest in the matter whatsoever. I just find it a story worth telling because it effectively illustrates my conviction that quality products from a trusted source are worth paying for from every perspective: economics, safety, sustainability, enjoyment of life… Conversely, nasty, fly-by-night junk like this bike is of nothing but negative value for the world. If the people at Faya4You wish to respond (perhaps with a different version of the story) they are welcome to do so.

The choice of a second-hand Christiania as replacement is excellent. If the bike looks OK after having been ridden five years it seems a safe bet that it’ll go another five or ten without any great problem. If fact, whenever possible with many purchases, second hand is the best bet for the budget, and for sustainability. The big challenge can be finding the right bike secondhand. The demand for bakfietsen is growing so quickly in the Netherlands that it can be very difficult to find a decent one with appropriate specifications for a price that justifies buying second-hand. Bakfiets.nl Cargobikes, especially Long models, often sell for well over €1000 used. Same for bikes from Christiania, Fietsfabriek, ‘t Mannetje and Nihola. Its understandable then that most people will stretch for a new one with the latest upgrades, no hidden problems, in the color they want for a few hundred more.