Last Saturday morning two masked men ran into our Veemarkt shop, put a gun to my head, waved a knife in my face, and moments later ran off with a few hundred euro in cash. I was alone since Wesley had just ridden a bakfiets full of trash off to the recycling center down the road. There wasn’t much I could do aside from stand still and subtly try to stay away from the knife the punk repeatedly threatened to slash me with without provoking him to actually do so. Several times he screamed at me “Where’s the cash?! Where’s the register?!” but it was obvious that his pistol wielding buddy had already cased the joint. He ran right upstairs to the correct drawer in the correct desk before I said a word.
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It’s our seventh annual, world-famous WorkCycles Oktoberfietsfeest* (“october bike, beer and BBQ party”). As usual we’ll have live music, yummy food, plentiful drink, balloon animal making, absurdly generous lottery/raffle, child friendliness, and a general relaxed atmosphere. Yep, we missed last year but we promise to make up for it this time!

*”Oktoberfietsfeest” translates approximately to “Traditional, Bavarian inspired, beer and wine soaked, sausage devouring, autumnal bicycle party”. We take full credit for inventing it and imitators will be mercilessly ridiculed for their lack of creativity.
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It’s our sixth annual, world-famous WorkCycles Oktoberfietsfeest (“october bike, beer and BBQ party”). As usual we’ll have live music, tasty food, plentiful drink, balloon animal making, generous lottery/raffle, child friendliness, and a general relaxed atmosphere.

The important questions:

What? Party with BBQ, food and drinks

When? Sunday 25 October, from 15.00 until we kick you out

Where? WorkCycles Jordaan, Lijnbaansgracht 32B, at Goudbloemstraat (near Westerstraat)

Who? You, friends, customers, colleagues, neighbors, family, kids, neighbors…

Why? Celebrating another successful year of business and growing (up). Thanking our customers and colleagues for their support. Because we enjoy throwing a good party!

How much does it cost? Nothing! It’s FREE, GRATIS!

What can you win? A custom WorkCycles bike, sweatshirts, T-shirts, shop/kitchen aprons, parts, accessories…

Check out the previous two Oktoberfietsfeesten:
WorkCycles Oktoberfietsfeest 2008: Photo journal
A shiny day for Workcycles Oktoberfietsfeest

- Henry, Chris, Richard, Tom, Eric, Thomas, Heimo & Alexis

The WorkCycles Fr8′s “Massive Rack” front carrier easily has room for a second child with their own “loopfiets”.

Trivia: This is one of two galvanized Fr8′s. What seemed a cool idea turned out to be a nightmare to manufacture. The “twin” of this bike is on display at WorkCycles Lijnbaansgracht shop, and not for sale… unless somebody really wants to lay down some serious cash for it.

Thanks for the photo Eddy!

The strangest thing happened the other day: I arrive at WorkCycles Lijnbaansgracht to open the shop and I find that our front doors have been graffitied, or rather artfully painted actually… with a skeletons and bikes theme. It’s kinda strange and creepy but heck, it’s funny, bicycle related, eye-catching and far better than the stupid tagging we were getting every week!

It says “Posada” in big letters, I assume a reference to the Mexican artist famous for murals in a similar style. It seems unlikely Posada did this one considering that he died in 1913.

In small letters in the lower right it says “Abner” and “Slacker” which I assume to be this guy: www.abnerpreis.com/

Strange.

Na enkele maanden van verbouwing is onze prachtige 2e vestiging in de gezellige Jordaan (Lijnbaansgracht 32-B) nu open. De originele WorkCycles winkel in de Veemarkt (Oostelijke Eilanden) blift ook open.

In beide winkels kun je fietsen (stadsfietsen, transportfietsen en bakfietsen) bekijken, uitproberen, aanschaffen of huren. Beide locaties zijn tevens volledig uitgerust om u te voorzien van service, en voor het doen van reparaties en aanpassingen aan uw fiets. Weet wel dat Workcycles fietsen bij ons voorrang hebben, echter ook transportfietsen van andere kwaliteitsmerken zijn we bereid te onderhouden. Voor service en verhuur is het verstandig van tevoren even te bellen voor een afspraak.

Bij de nieuwe Lijnbaansgracht vestiging hebben we ongeveer 5 keer zoveel ruimte als in de Veemarkt dus kunnen we een grotere assortiment bakfietsen en transportfietsen in de showroom houden. Meer verhuurbakfietsen zijn ook beschikbaar.

Op de WorkCycles contact pagina kun je een kaart vinden. Let op: De Lijnbaansgracht is een lange straat en we zitten bijna in de noordelijke hoek, vlakbij de Westerstraat en Lindengracht.

De verbouwing van dit oude pand nam heel veel werk, voornamelijk dooor ons uitgevoerd. Ben je nieuwsgierig over hoe beroerd het pand aanvankelijk eruitzag. Kij hier.

Despite absolutely horrible weather WorkCycles Oktoberfietsfeest 2008 was a huge success! Thankfully we were able to stay warm and dry in our giant, new shop on the Lijnbaansgracht in the cozy Jordaan historic district. Friends, colleagues, family and neighbors braved the elements to heartily showed their support and hunger. Please forgive me if I can’t remember half your names – its tough being a host!

Childhood friend, photographer and cyclist Jonathan Barkey of Brooklyn, New York took all of gorgeous photos you see here. Thanks Jon!

I’ll comment on most of the photos, beginning from above left:

My parents, Leonard & Betsey Cutler show off a couple new WorkCycles Fr8 bikes… so new they’re not even on our website yet. Henry shows off the latest WorkCycles “H.C. Clothing” to Sean Valerio of Museum Tickets fame. Mmmm, WorkCycles bikes! A cool English dude with accent straight out of “Snatch” checkin’ out the bikes and girls. A last minute rain shelter for the BBQ with Anne Kirchenmann, vegetarian grill virtuoso at work. Wieger from De Redding bakfietsen with Eric Loques of WorkCycles in front of the Great Wall of Panniers. Checkin’ out some (no longer) top secret WorkCycles prototypes. Willem & Dominik of Gitaarduo belting out the tunes. They’ve expanded well beyond bicycle themed songs and brought friends along to do original pieces. MacBike‘s new amphibious, submersible bakfiets. They’ll be using a fleet of these to lead underwater canal tours of Amsterdam. Its a little known fact that much of the most interesting history of Amsterdam is to be found under the murky canal water! Frank of BuroFrank and Stella brought their new prototype mini-bakfiets.

Here are some of the most notable personalities, at least those whose names I can remember:

Henry of WorkCycles compliments Rick of Segijn en van Wees on their beautiful bikes with attitude. Stella checkin’ out 8 week old Pascal who’s checkin’ her out too. Wesley Hemelrijk with artist Simsa Cho. More about him later. Marc of Amsterdamize fame, Bruno of Museum Tickets and Chopperdome Rhalf. Chris and Richard, a couple of the brains behind WorkCycles. Anne, veggie meat griller supreme with Milou and Natasja. Ronald Onderwater of the other famous submersible bike with Johan of Azor Bike. David Lee of De Woordensmederij. Eric Loques of WorkCycles with another sketchy English character. Me showing off Pascal Yo. Heng Sie and Aki, Ingeborg & Martijn Samsom, Marlies & friend. Eric Schuijt, world famous bicycle traveler and owner of nearby Vakantiefietser with photographer Martin van Welzen who makes the lovely photos for our site (the good ones that is – I take the amateurish ones). Henry and dad Leonard with Jan Rijkeboer, owner of Azor Bike.

Nope, I’m not even going to try remembering the names of the kids. Its clear they had a fine time though. A pair of De Redding bakfietsen (also to rent for parties!) made handy jungle-gyms. We grilled up lots of “pannekoeken” (dutch pancakes). Balloons were inflated, exploded, folded, tied, drawn on and fought with. A Xootr made a handy time-trial vehicle as the kids challenged each other to do the fastest lap through the crowd of tipsy adults. Two boxes of street chalk were reduced to mere powder – Note Jonah’s foot “drawing” technique. The kids won prizes in the lottery, here a big box that promises “300 games”.

And without further ado, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: The Oktoberfietsfeest Lottery (Raffle). The inside joke is of course that everybody wins, but you do have to put a ballot in the box (teaching good voting habits to the youngsters) and you do have to be here for the drawing. Take off for the next party or to visit your dying mother in the hospital… your loss, sucker!

We gave away tons of WorkCycles hoodie sweatshirts, T-shirts (new) and work/cook aprons (also new). These are all in stock and available to purchase as well. Lots of other schwag including Vredestein baseball caps to Schwalbe courier bags, LED blinking pedals and Axa SL7 locks (don’t actually try to USE these!) was also given away.

But the grand prize everybody was gunning for was the custom WorkCycles bike, complete with orange tires and matching graphics. Artist Simsa Cho was the lucky man of the day and I can’t think of a more suitable owner for such an extroverted bike.

Thanks everybody for your support and patronage! It was a pleasure being your hosts and we look forward to seeing you soon.

Missed the party? You’re still welcome to visit our new shop any time. You can find directions to WorkCycles Lijnbaansgracht here. We’re open for business both at the new location and at the original WorkCycles in the Veemarkt in Zeeburg.

Here you can see what the WorkCycles Lijnbaansgracht space looked like when we began construction this March.

Its already time for the fifth annual, world-famous WorkCycles Oktoberfietsfeest (“october bike + beer + bratwurst party”). The tasty food, plentiful drink, balloon animal making, generous lottery/raffle, child friendliness, and general relaxed/no-pressure atmosphere will all be present as usual. This time, however, we’ll enjoy the comfort of our huge new Lijnbaansgracht shop in the cozy Jordaan neighborhood and some exciting new, bike related “activities”.

The party can be either in- or outdoors so weather is irrelevant.

Consider this our new Jordaan shop’s “official opening” as well. Just in case you’re wondering the original, jam-packed WorkCycles Veemarkt location will remain open.

While we’re at it we’ll also introduce the new line of “H.C. Clothing”, the source for all your hoodie and t-shirt needs. NOT!

BREAKING NEWS: Grand prize in this year’s lottery will be a brand-new WorkCycles bike! Runner ups will get WorkCycles hoodies, t-shirts, aprons and many other “special” gifts.

Check out the report from last years Oktoberfietsfeest here.

FAQ…

What: Party with BBQ, food and drinks

When: 5 October, from 15.00 until we kick you out

Where: WorkCycles Jordaan, Lijnbaansgracht 32B, at Goudbloemstraat (near Westerstraat)

Who: You, friends, colleagues, family, kids, neighbors, martian WorkCycles fans etc.

Why: Celebrating another successful year of business and growing (up). Thanking our customers and colleagues for their support. Because we can!

See you soon!

Groeten,
Henry & the WorkCycles crew

This is my third update about the beautiful new WorkCycles cargobike/utility bike/child transport bicycle shop we’re building on the Lijnbaansgracht in the historic Amsterdam Jordaan district. That’s right in the city center so its no longer needed to trek that 3 km all the way out to our original location in Zeeburg. I wrote the previous two entries in Dutch so here’s one for the English speaking world.

We’re doing the construction ourselves and with the help of handy friends because its cheaper and more fun that way, and then in the end everybody can say “hey I built/wired/plumbed etc that place” and I’m still riding the WorkCycles workbike I got for doing it. The plan to open in July remains and you can be sure we’ll announce the opening as soon as a date is fixed.

Our plans are nothing short of grandiose: This shop will be 350 m2 filled with bakfietsen, city bikes, utility bikes, family transport bikes, cargobikes… you name it. It’ll also be home to our and our friends’ collections of classic (or just old) utility bikes. Its a funky 150 year old building with strange corners and details which gives us endless opportunities for character. It’ll probably take a few years to find a place for everything in the midst of doing “business as usual” in the meanwhile but that’ll just provide you with an excuse to keep visiting.

You can see photos of our progress a few weeks ago here:

http://www.bakfiets-en-meer.nl/2008/05/09/verbouwing-workcycles-toekomstige-jordaan-vestiging/

…and more from a few weeks earlier here:

http://www.bakfiets-en-meer.nl/2008/03/29/workcycles-nieuwe-fietswinkel-in-de-jordaan/

We zijn nu al een paar weken bezig mee met de verbouwing van het nieuwe WorkCycles (transport-) fietsenwinkel en werkplaats op de hoek van de Lijnbaansgracht en de Goudbloemstraat in de Jordaan buurt van Amsterdam. Er is nog veel te doen maar het ziet er ten minst nu wel belovend uit. Alleen maar enkele weken geleden was het zeer grof, donker en depremerend. Niemand kond geloven dat we van plan waren om een speciale fietswinkel hier te zetten.

Nu zijn de houten planken vervangen door ramen en mooie nieuwe dubbeldeuren met grote ruiten: veel breder dan grote ouderwetse bakfietsen. We hebben ook tonnen slechte gips verwijderd (en enorme wolken stof gemaakt) om de warme rode bakstenen te zien. Wat een verbetering! Een WC met ruimte voor een babytafel staat klaar – heel handig als je moederfietsen en bakfietsen voor kindervervoer verkoopt. Veel van de slechtste muren en de plafond zijn nu bekleed. Het basis werk aan het pand schiet dus op. Nog een paar weken totdat alles mooi geschilderd staat.

Daarna hebben we nog en heleboel werk met electra, licht en IT bekabeling en daarna onze werkplaats, kantoor, loods en verkoop showroom inrichten. Onze plan is om genoeg klaar te hebben om WorkCycles Jordaan begin Juli te openen. Dan kunnen we doorgaan met inrichting en aanpassingen terwijl de winkel al open is. We verwachten niet dat klanten onmiddelijk naar binnen gaan stormen.

Het is heel leuk dat bewoners uit de buurt regelmatig langskomen om te leren wat het grote pand gaat worden. Ze zijn bijzonder nieuwsgierig omdat het leeg stond en steeds lelijker werd voor enkele jaar nadat de Dirck III drankwinkel vertrok. Totnutoe is iedereen wel enthousiast dat WorkCycles hier gaat zitten, of tenminst blij dat iets hier gaat zitten.

Maar wat we een klein beetje vervelend vinden is dat iemand blijkbaar had gehoord over een fietsenwinkel die bakfietsen verkoopt en dat in “Fietsfabriek” vertaald. Nou even voor de duidelijkheid: Beide WorkCycles en Fietsfabriek ontwikkelen en verkopen bakfietsen, transportfietsen en stevige stadsfietsen, maar ze zijn twee verschillende, helemaal onafhankelijke bedrijven. Er is, trouwens, ook geen ruzie tussen deze twee bakfiets leverancier collega’s.

Typical WorkCycles als de nieuwe winkel klaar staat gaan we een feest vieren voor alle onze klanten, vrienden en collega’s. Nog geen datum – midden Juli als we ongelofelijk geluk hebben… anders laat September/begin Oktober voor onze jaarlijks Oktoberfietsfeest.