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.

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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.

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)

I’ve come across a number of thorough and well-written reviews (and some not so good) of various child-transport and family bikes & trikes:

Bakfiets.nl Cargobike
Let’s Go Ride a Bike
BIKE2WORK2LIVE2BIKE
Velo Vision
Bicycle Fixation
Bike Utah Valley
EcoMetro

Bakfietsgigant, Bakfietsweb, Couleurs, DoubleDutchBikes (USA), Redy Kangaroo, Hollandia, PImmies, Trendonline, Tricycleweb (all seem to sell the same bikes)
“Karin” (Dutch language)

Christiania (Trike)
“Marga & Huub” (Dutch language)

Faya4you
Guest post from Haarlem in this blog

Fietsfabriek 995
Caliban’s experience with the FF 995 and notes on other bikes too

Gazelle Cabby
Bakfiets.co.uk

Winther Kangaroo
Musings from a Stonehead

TV consumer program Kassa tests 13 bakfietsen from Dutch and Danish producers Included are: Bakfiets.nl, Christiania, Fietsfabriek, Nihola, Winther, ‘t Mannetje, Bakfietsgigant, Halfords, Johnny Loco, Babboe and WorkCycles
My english language translation of the bakfiets test
The original bakfiets test report in Dutch language
My post with comments about the program and results.

Bakfiets.nl vs. Fietsfabriek 995 vs. Gazelle Cabby
Bakfiets.co.uk (again)

Bakfiets.nl Cargobike vs. Smart Car
Part one: Measurements
Part two: Features

Bakfiets.nl Cargobike & Cargotrike, Bakfietsweb, Christiania, Gazelle Cabby, New Viper, Triobike!… In French language.
Vélo Brouette

Now that I’ve been “collecting” these links for some time the reviews have become more balanced, covering a broader range of bikes than I first found.

Here’s one more review in Dutch though its already three years old and wasn’t very objective to begin with: Fietsersbond bakfiets test. Its in Dutch and no direct link is available.

Here on the “Groot Gezin” (big family) chat site there is a long thread with discussion about many of the child transport bikes and trikes. The focus is generally on the cheap bakfiets options and like any discussion the opinions are to be taken with a grain of salt. Dutch Language.

Does anybody have any suggestions, particularly about other well-known bikes such as Nihola and Christiania? Please keep the discussion to family transport bikes and not transport bikes in general.