Every fan and promoter of urban cycling simply needs a copy of Shirley Agudo’s “Bicycle Mania”. You can regard it as a photo book, with probably the best collection of Dutch cycling photos ever assembled. Even as an Amsterdam resident and amateur(ish) photographer I marvel at the shots in these pages. Have a peek at a few examples here at the Eduard Planting gallery.

But “Bicycle Mania” goes much deeper. The photos are accompanied by well-informed and thoughtfully written text covering in sections covering the how and why the Dutch have achieved (and continue to build upon) the world’s best of nearly everything in transportation cycling: broad popularity, amazing infrastructure, safety, fun and pure variety on wheels. The text is in both English and Dutch, handy learning for those anglophiles who want to delve deeper into Dutch cycling culture than English can take you. Numerous authorities are interviewed, hyperbole and abuse of statistics is thankfully avoided and and it’s just a good read. In a nutshell: Recommended.

Read more about it at the Bicycle Mania website.

In related news a bike photo contest is being held in conjunction with the launch of “Bicycle Mania” by The XPat Journal magazine. First prize is (yep, you guessed it)… a custom built WorkCycles Secret Service bike.

Think you can take this one home? Well, you’d better act quickly since the deadline is 20 January. Photos must be emailed as jpeg’s of maximum 3Mb to: editor@xpat.nl. One photo entry per person and include your full name and phone number.

Wanna check out the bike first to see if it’s worth the trouble? It’s at the Eduard Planting Fine Art Photographs gallery where a number of Agudo’s photographs are on display. I also “borrowed” the above image from their site.

I usually flip through the “VogelVrije Fietser” (literal translation: “Birdfree Cyclist”) in about 30 seconds and then pass it to my toddler son for shredding but this issue (January 2010) had a few bits worth sharing… before Pascal gets his way with it. The first interesting piece is the latest salvo in the imaginary Copenhagen-Amsterdam war of cycling supremacy. The Copenhagen ambitions to achieve or already have achieved the coveted, self appointed title of World Cycling Capitol are already all over the Internet and the BirdFree Cyclist even made the trek up there to the great white north to see what all the fuss was about. In a nutshell they made the great revelation in the previous issue that the crafty Copenhageners were just as busy improving cycling facilities in their city as in most Dutch cities, and that they’re being more vocal about promoting this fact. Whoopee, the Danes also see value in a city where many people cycle!

Now after a flood of backlash from indignant and competitive Dutch cyclists the BirdFree Cyclist interviews a number of Dutch lawmakers about the Great Copenhagen Question. Amongst other things they ask about the Copenhagen ambition to have 50% of all commuters on bikes by 2015. Being an Amsterdammer (OK a transplanted New Amsterdammer…) I’ll focus on and translate some comments from Hans Gerson, Amsterdam city Alderman from PvdA (Labor Party):

Hans Gerson (who’s sitting on a bike while carrying a folding chair in one hand in he accompanying photo):

“I know Copenhagen a bit. I think there’s much less cycling there than with us. But fine, let’s assume they want to compete with us. Fifty percent is completely no task. In the center of Amsterdam more than 50% of all trips are already by bike. I would want to set the bar higher. For the entire city already more than 38% of all trips are done with the bike. I find fifty percent a nice challenge for 2015.”

Gerson’s emphasis here seemed to have beeen missed by the interviewer: The Copenhagen goal is to have 50% of commuters cycling. This is certainly a worthy goal but commuters represent a relatively narrow segment of the population: working adults in their prime years. Thus we’re comparing apples and oranges. Which translates to more cyclists: 50% of commuters or 38% of all trips within the city by all people. I’d guess the latter but…

a. I’d have to dig through the CBS statistics to prove it.
b. Who cares anyway? The Dutch and the Danes are hard at work improving what are already the best cycling facilities in the world by an enormous margin.

But just because it’s fun to poke our Copenhagen friends I’ll add some more of Gerson’ comments:

BirdFree Cyclist: You totally don’t see Copenhagen as the winner?

Gerson:

I was there recently. It’s a really pretty city OK, but the number of cyclists there could be counted on one hand. Thus I can’t imagine that it even comes in the neighborhood of being a our competitor. And wherever I go in the world we’re always prized for our bike policy. But we’re not resting on our laurels. Lots must still be done.

Ooh, ouch Copenhagen! That hurt, and then to think that Amsterdam is only one of dozens of Dutch cities that take cycling so seriously. Darn, now I’m getting all into this competition thing too. Sorry folks.

But for those not so into this international intrigue there was also something fun for the tech weenies. The BirdFree Cyclist used an SRM power output meter to test the effects of various maintenance and component choices on the effort required to cycle. I’m assuming the test wasn’t executed to nano-precision standards but a few of the results are nonetheless interesting:

What can we learn from this?

Well, fixing flats in cold rain sucks so racing tires aren’t practical for urban use but pumping your regular tires up is worth the effort. Also the considerable difference between the tires suggests that smooth running tires such as Schwalbe Marathons are worth the small additional cost.

Ride a bike with a full chain case because not only does it not cause drag, your chain stays clean, lubricated and happy inside. But don’t pull that chain too tight. Still, I suspect that the chain test would have shown a much greater difference had he compared the new chain to a real Amsterdam chain.

Our feeling that Shimano’s Nexus 7 speed hubs are factory filled with crunchy peanut butter seems to have more scientific basis now. Early Shimano 8 speeds suffer from this problem in the 4th gear too but that’s a number of years ago now.

This past week Richard and I made our annual mandatory pilgrimage to zeppelin land Friedrichshafen, Germany for the gargantuan European bicycle industry orgy known as Eurobike. It’s probably the thousandth such bike expo I’ve attended thus my lack of enthusiasm and low expectations. I’ve simply come to learn that it’s pretty much all been done before and for the most part all that changes are the fashion materials (titanium is out, boron is nowhere to be found and carbon nanotubes are in) and attempts to cash in on current trends and themes. More about these later. In any case 99.9999999% of the displays focus on racing bikes, mountain bikes BMX bikes and other sporting goods which, while fun to look at, are irrelevant to this blog and to WorkCycles. As expected I’ll show you some stuff you won’t find in the glossy rags.

Upon arriving at the fairground shuttle bus stop we were greeted by a motley pack of WOOF bikes from Amsterdam via China. These one-trick dogs were introduced with massive press attention a few months ago and have already become the scourge of Amsterdam. You can hardly throw a rock with hitting a fashion victim riding one. Sorry but I just fail to see the attraction to this cheaply made bike missing most of what makes a Dutch bike great, and the feeble output of the built-in LED lights doesn’t do much to sweeten the deal.

Cheaply made you say? How’s this for attention to detail?… Coaster brake only combined with forward entry fork ends, no axle/chain tensioners and not even hard serrated washers to hold the axle in place: Good luck keeping that rear wheel in place and better luck stopping when your wheel slips forward dropping the chain. At least you won’t break the headlamp when you crash.

But that wasn’t the last we saw of WOOF. Again and again they reared their ugly headlamps.

And just when we thought it was safe sailing we found that the WOOF had won (or perhaps purchased) a Eurobike award. The nature of the award I didn’t see nor care. We did note though that the bike displayed on the award stand was completely different from the nasty production models.

If you’re going to make something pointless, please at least do it with a sense of humor such as these grips from OGK in Japan. For those unfamiliar with (or too young to remember) OGK, they’ve been around forever. Back in the day when yours truly rode a BMX bike, OGK made lots of BMX grips as well as helmets and other molded plastic goods.

We’ve got Sumo wrestlers, geisha girls, bacteria and German flags.

Of course OGK didn’t only bring grips to Eurobike. They also displayed the basket type child seats found on Japanese “Mama Chari” bikes. These fully enveloping seats for kids up to about three years old sit within a special handlebar, above a small front wheel. The mass of the child is thus low and roughly centered over the steering axis, making these bikes very easy to handle.

OK, they’re not especially sexy but such child seats offer a lot of advantages:

This concept of “moment of inertia” is one that the designers of the latest crop of fashion “townie” and “porteur” bikes with long, fork mounted front carriers would do well to learn; A load that steers with the handlebar and front wheel influences the steering quite seriously and the further the mass gets from the steering axis the worse the effect. With that simple fact of physics in mind let’s have a look at some bikes I saw at Eurobike:

Nice colors. Bad carriers.

Yes, you faithfully copied what you saw at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show last year. Too bad it’ll ride like crap and won’t stand upright with even a moderate load in there. Bike will fall over many times, damaging pretty paint.

I guess this one doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s sort of a mongrel BMX / folding / delivery bike and it’s been said a million times that mongrels make the best dogs. The handlebar integrated basket appeared at numerous stands but this iteration certainly deserves some style points.

Here’s another handlebar / carrier, smaller than granny’s little wicker basket. Even this fake little houseplant feels claustrophobic in there.

In any case carrying stuff on bicycles was generally a 2009 Eurobike theme, even if it was often executed in a somewhat clumsy or clueless manner. Note that actually riding bicycles for transportation and knowing other people who also do so is very helpful for conceiving and designing utility bicycles and accessories. I realize it sounds crazy but it’s true.

This teeeny, one-rollerblade-wheeled trailer actually folded out of a rear carrier with no less than three hinges. I suppose it probably does what it’s supposed to but that still begs the question: Why bother? Isn’t it simpler to just carry that occasional load, as demonstrated in Holland every day:

This great photo by Flickr user “Kraskland” Thanks!

But wait, there’s more… Such as this special mountain bike specifically developed to haul half pies of frozen pizza:

At least the pizza box is carbon fiber to make it easy to clean if the pizza defrosts before it’s delivered. It wasn’t specified whether there were any carbon nanotube molecules used in the construction.

Considerably less conceptual and more stylish were these lovely matched sets of leather saddles, grips and bags from Selle Monte Grappa in Italy.

Only in Italy.

Not your color theme? How about this chromed Italian city bike outfitted with white everything including tires and probably the most adorable panniers I’ve ever seen. Check out the handlebar stem mounted newspaper holder. Rumor has it that the guy who put the grey kiddie seat on there has already been excommunicated from the Roman Cathocyclic Church.

Only in Italy can one ride such a bike without looking like a pretentious wanker.

Speaking of bicycle child seats, there were lots of new ones to be seen at Eurobike. Those familiar with the exciting world of bike child seats knows that the current options can basically be divided into four categories:

But now Dutch child seat giant Bobike is going where no man has gone before with specially themed seats. This first series is apparently the Star Wars series, featuring the Imperial Storm Trooper and the Darth Vader.

The Storm Trooper model has a particularly ingenious built in ash-tray, perhaps in keeping with the recent Dutch obsession with smoking and the “Asbakfiets”

Just outside was the perfect vehicle for Darth Vader, whom I really can’t picture on any regular bike:

This beast has LED lighting in the handlebar ends, a hubless front wheel to avoid catching long robes (fenders are still in the works), and electric drive to avoid undignified pedaling motions. A perfect way to glide around the Death Star.

It even folds compactly to fit into Lord Vader’s X-Wing fighter.

This is apparently the Storm Trooper version which also offers a pedal mode. Speaking of Vader I hope you’ve seen this Lego animation.

I’ll be back with more great Eurobike finds ASAP.

OK, so perhaps somebody disagrees with the sticker: “Tijd voor een goeie fiets” (time for a good bike)… but at least they had the decency to leave the workcycles logo intact.

My buddy Chomi and I have been taking photos of the WorkCycles stickers that keep appearing on abandoned bikes around Amsterdam. We’ve spotted them on bikes all over the city, but particularly in several neighborhoods such as the Jordaan and the Oostelijke Eilanden. It’s fun to browse through the slideshow to see the sights or identify the broken bicycles left to rot. Or if you know Amsterdam well you can try to figure out where the bikes are located. Perhaps we should have a contest. Suggestions?

The stickers are available at WorkCycles: €0.50 each. They’re mostly sold out so we’re going to invent some new ones and print more soon.

No bicycles have been harmed in this project.

De Axa SL7 en SL9 serie zijn zeker de allerpopulairste ringsloten van allertijden. Er rijden vast wel miloenen op fietsen, voornamelijk in Nederland maar ook in het buitenland. De Axa SL7 werd tot recentelijk gemonteerd op fietsen van alle bekende (en onbekende) merken in Nederland: o.a. Gazelle, Batavus, Sparta en Union hadden SL7’s gemonteerd op vrijwel iedere stadsfiets voor vele jaren. Zelfs heeft kleine WorkCycles in Amsterdam Axa SL7 sloten ook op meer dan een duizend fietsen gemonteerd tussen 2003 en 2006.

Productie Axa SL7 en SL9 sloten einde in 2005 maar nieuwe fietsen met deze wielsloten staan nog in vele winkels en iedere dealer heeft nog enkele liggen voor reparatie.

En nu is een groot probleem onstaan. Handige jongens hebben een manier ontdekt om een Axa SL7 of SL9 slot te kraken in SECONDEN, zonder speciale gereedschap or kennis. Af en toe zagen we bij WorkCycles gekraakte Axa SL7’s maar niet vaak en we wisten niet hoe het gedaan werd. Dan recentelijk begon het toe te nemen en het werd openbaar dat een groot deel van deze ringsloten zeer kwetsbaar zijn.

Hier in de Geen Stijl blog is een kort artikel over de problemen met de Axa SL7: Axa sloten zijn waardeloos

Hier is een engelstalige artikel met wat meer informatie over Axa’s benadering:
AXA: A new phase in security

Hier is een video waarin iemand je laat zien hoe een dief de SL7 wielslot kan kraken.

Ik heb Axa zelf gebeld om te vragen of het over ALLE SL7 en SL9 sloten gaat, en wat ze voor hun klanten gaan doen om het op te lossen. Antwoorden:

Het is wel begrijpbaar dat Axa wilt vermijden dat ze miloenen ringsloten moeten vervangen. Maar dan als dit echt een groot probleem blijkt te zijn, gaan ze ook enorm veel relatie- en imagoschade lijden.

Bij WorkCycles vinden dat we we toch een fatsoenlijk maar betaalbare oplossing moeten vinden. We hebben in de laatste paar jaar ongeveer een duizend fietsen verkocht met SL7’s. Het is al vrijwel zeker dat Axa geen vervanger sloten aan ons gaat geven en om een ringslot te vervangen kost tijd. Laat maar de tijd en kosten om o.a. klanten te vinden en afspraken te maken.

We kunnen dus (helaas) niet iedere SL7 gratis vervangen. Maar we zijn nu bezig om door Axa een aardig deal op een partij Defender sloten te regelen zodat we de bestaande SL7 sloten kunnen testen en als nodig vervangen voor een minimaal bedrag. Als het echt over vele sloten gaat zal het ons enorm veel tijd kosten. In de tussentijd hopen we dat Axa oren heeft voor de schade dat hun dealers gaat lijden en beslist om ons te helpen. Zo niet zal het heel duidelijk zijn welke fietsslot en verlichting fabrikant geen bestellingen meer van ons gaat krijgen.

Dus als je een WorkCycles fiets hebt die een eerste montage Axa SL7 slot heeft, bel ons om een afspraak te maken. Als nodig kunnen we tegelijk ook een servicebeurt doen.

Mocht je iemand met een WorkCycles fiets kennen stuur AUB deze informatie en link door. Alvast bedankt!

Met vriendelijke groeten,
Henry

WorkCycles
+31 (0)20 689 7879
+31 (0)20 463 4010

Opmerking:
Dit bericht gaat alleen maar over de Axa SL7 en SL9 ringsloten. Zo ver als we weten zijn er geen bekende problemen met andere Axa sloten, zoals de Defender en Solid.

9 December 2007: Nog wat informatie van Axa over de problemen met SL7 en SL9 sloten.