I have to admit that I have a lot of bicycles, and I’m referring to bikes that are really just mine and not somehow part of the WorkCycles fleet or inventory. I periodically cull the flock but some have too much sentimental value to sell, even if I almost never ride them. There’s the Daedalus mountain bike from 1990, designed by me and built by Kent Ericksen of Moots in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. There were six made of which I still know the whereabouts of four. I don’t think I could ever see my lovely De Rosa go. I bought it a year or two old from a friend in about 1982 and raced and trained on it for years until breaking one of the silly diamond shaped chainstays. My friend Brian Spitz (who built some of the world’s cleanest race frames for a while) repaired it but then I hung it up and forgot about it for 15 years. A couple years ago I decided I wanted to get back on a racing bike, found it still wrapped in paper and built it up again. Now it gets ridden regularly, much closer to it’s birthplace in Italy. There are many others, in order of how long I’ve owned them:

Those are all complete, rideable bikes. I also have a number of bikes in various states of incompleteness and a rather absurdly large collection of (mostly old enough to have no monetary value) parts. The semi-complete bikes include:

At least all of the old transport and city bikes are destined for the WorkCycles museum and a few are already on display. A few bikes including the city bike, Brompton, papa bike and racing bike are ridden regularly. Some of the others will return to service when the time is right. Amsterdam has, for example, a fantastic indoor velodrome and I’ve been itching to get back on the track, though that might have to wait until Pascal is old enough to ride too.

Anyhow this is a long intro to noting that I got another bike. This one is a transportfiets (Dutch delivery bike) from the firm “Yankee” in Hoogeveen (where Azor is now and Union once was). I’d never heard of Yankee but that doesn’t mean much; until the 1960’s there were hundreds of small firms building bikes in the Netherlands. Lugs, tubing and components were bought in from various suppliers and the bikes were built from scratch. The quality was typically excellent but the designs were very conservative. Only experts can tell many of the bikes apart and little changed from the 1920’s through the 1960’s or even 1970’s in some cases. A few of the manufacturers were known for particularly high quality (Empo, Fongers, Gazelle, Simplex) and/or unique design (Fongers, Locomotief, Maxwell, Simplex). Yankee though has somehow disappeared into the gorges of history.

Despite it’s near anonymity my Yankee is a beautiful bike, even after at least 50 years and perhaps even a decade or two more. I purchased it from a neighbor. When he brought it in it wasn’t pretty but it was clearly solid, complete and quite original. He’d originally bought the bike some 15-20 years ago for his catering business but no longer needed it. Since then we’ve mostly stripped it down, thoroughly cleaned and polished everything, straightened the front carrier and handlebars, replaced the tires (with better old ones) and assorted other improvements. Only the pedals, which weren’t original anyway, are “incorrect”.

You might not be familiar with the old Dutch transportfietsen and aside from the lovely brass head badge this one’s as typical as they get. Here’s a rundown of some of it’s features:

Perhaps the most obvious feature of a classic transportfiets is the front carrier, always fixed to the wide, 1″ diameter handlebar, very heavy fork crown and front axle. Thus this giant carrier swings with the wheel making it a handful to ride when loaded. Typically a huge basket or wooden crate was mounted on the carrier to carry bread, meat, milk or whatever else the tradesman (or his son) delivered. The load capacity was huge, both in volume and weight. This carrier was made by the firm “Roelewiel” who made the carriers for many brands of bikes.

The reason these bikes still exist despite their hard lives is the extraordinarily robust construction. This bike weighs almost 40kg. There’s not a single dent in the fenders or frame tubes and the frame was still perfectly straight. The drive chain, chainring and cog are 1/2″ x 3/16″, like on mopeds and small motorcycles. The crank bearings are larger diameter and wider. The cranks are massive chunks of steel.

Bonus for the hardcore nerds who spotted that the left crank is mounted backwards: Yes, I’m aware of it. It’s that way because the crank was apparently bent in an accident and after straightening it still has a little “S” bend so it now fits better backwards.

Before WWII all Dutch transportfietsen had 28″ wheels, generally 28 x 1.75″ like this bike. For those keeping up with current fads and trends that’s the same size known now as a “29′er”. After WWII they were built with either the 28″ wheels or fatter 26″ wheels (for even heavier duty applications). My Yankee has the classic Vredestein “Transport Extra Zwaar” tires. This translates to “transport extra heavy” and they weren’t kidding; these tires weigh some 1500g each and they’re supported by special steel rims that weigh a couple kilos each.

The early transportfietsen were mostly or all fixed gears, meaning they had no means of freewheeling nor did they have brakes. The rider slowed the bike by means of resisting the rotation of the pedals. This was no mean feat on a heavy and heavier loaded bike with the further momentum of such heavy wheels. Of course these bikes were only ridden by professionals, though even they indulged in competitions. During WWII the occupying Nazis banned fixed gear bicycles (really, I’m not making this up) perhaps for a couple reasons:

The Yankee has a coaster brake hub I’ve never seen though. It’s a Bendix like the American hubs I grew up with, except that this one is different. Inside and out it looks much like the German Torpedo but still different, most notably that it has a helical actuator instead of the roller clutch used in the Torpedo. In any case it’s definitely a special, heavy duty model with a 3/16″ cog threaded in place with a locknut.

Am I going to ride it? Nah, probably not for a while. I’m just going to hang it up in our Lijnbaansgracht shop as one more constant reminder of what “quality” means.

Bas of www.transportfiets.net, (that’s trans-port-feets-poont-net for english speakers) turned me onto this super little video. It’s genuine film footage from a 1933 race in Bussum (near Amsterdam) on baker’s and butcher’s bikes. Back in those days most transport bikes had fixed wheels (“fixies” you young folk) and like all those modern-day urban hipsters on track bikes, these bikes had no brakes either. There’s a difference though: A transportfiets weighs an easy 50kg, and that’s before it was loaded down with 50kg of meat. The wheels alone weigh a good 10kg each. Can you say mo-men-tum?

I have a handful of old “transportfietsen” in various states of disrepair and disassembly. They’re glorious machines; Very simple but so solidly made that they put all other bicycles to shame. Riding them is a great sensation. It takes a while to get up to speed but once all that mass is rolling there’s no stopping it.

These bikes were employed by practically every baker, butcher, milkman and other business in the Netherlands from perhaps the 1920’s until perhaps the 1960’s, when cars and delivery vans became affordable for small businesses. Keep in mind that the Netherlands was quite a poor country through modern history until the 1960’s. The bikes were ridden by delivery kids, much like pizzas are now delivered by annoying kids on mopeds with boxes on the back.

Note also that the Dutch Transportfiets predates the similar format but rather esoteric and much lighter duty French “porteur” or “veloporteur” by decades. Transportfietsen were also made in quite large quantities which partially accounts for the remarkably large number still on the streets, considering that the last of them went out of production in the 1970’s. Of course the fact that they were quality built like tanks also helps.

Transportfietsen were made by hundreds of firms, small and large and most of them look essentially the same: double top tube, huge front carrier fixed to the handlebar and (large) front axle, generally no rear carrier or parking stand. Pre-WW2 examples all had 28 x 1 3/4 wheels and usually fixed wheels. Later both 28″ and 26″ wheels were used and most were made with a single-speed Fichtel & Sachs Torpedo coaster brake hub. Parts such as chains and sprockets, forks handlebars, cranks, pedals etc were all bigger and stronger than on normal bicycles. I have never seen an old transportfiets originally equipped with gears or a front brake.

Have a look around transportfiets.net for tons of examples, including a number of bikes in restoration and also lots of old archive photos and catalogues. Bikes like this will never come back so it’s great that some enthusiasts are keeping them alive as examples of the values of another era.

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.

Na vier jaar in onze originele vestiging in de Veemarkt (Zeeburg, Amsterdam Oostelijke Eilanden) heeft WorkCycles echt meer ruimte nodig. Toen ik hier in mijn eentje begon vier jaar geleden had ik nooit kunnen geloven dat we zo snel uit dit pand gingen groeien. We hebben hier bijna iedere centimeter gebruikt: fietsen staan buiten, hangen van de muren en plafond, staan bij de buren en nog meer fietsen wachten bij onze fabrikanten want anders kunnen we ’s avonds de deuren niet dicht krijgen.

Na een jaar zoektocht hebben we eindelijk een geschikt pand gevonden voor een tweede fietswinkel, werkplaats en kantoor. Het moest veel groter zijn en in een andere buurt want we gaan de 1e WorkCycles fietsenwinkel open houden. We wilden het liefst in de gezellige Jordaan waar we al vele klanten hebben en geen andere fietswinkels zijn die specialiseren in transportfietsen, bakfietsen en stevige stadsfietsen. Het is ook handig dat ik in de buurt woon.

Het nieuwe WorkCycles vestiging zal meer dan vier keer zo groot zijn als de winkel/werkplaats in Zeeburg. Yay! Meer ruimte voor een grotere stadsfiets, transportfiets, bakfiets assortiment, een flink werkplaats met meer machines en ook meer huurbakfietsen. In Amsterdam Centrum gaan we zeker veel meer bakfietsverhuur doen. Ook zullen we eindelijk ruimte hebben voor sommige fietsen die gewoon niet pasten onze originele winkeltje: o.a. bakfietsen voor de kinderopvang, grote oudewetse bakfietsen en industriele transportfietsen.

Waar: Lijnbaansgracht 32 B-C-D-E-F-G en H, hoek van Goedbloemstraat… om de hoek van de Lindengracht en Westerstraat.

Wanneer: We zijn nu bezig met het pand mee en met geluk kunnen we het in Juli openen.

Wat: WorkCycles ‘tuurlijk! Dezelfde als onze winkel in de Veemarkt maar dan met meer fietsmodellen. Wel mogelijk dat we ook gaan uitbreiden met andere dingen die we vroeger geen ruimte voor hadden: regenkleding, kinderfietsen, transportfietsmuseum…

Wat meer: We hebben meer medewerkers nodig! Ben jij een een fietsenmaker (-makster) of verkoper (-ster) en geïnteresseerd in een baan met nieuwe uitdagingen en een prettige, rustige werksfeer neem dan contact op.

.

Links: Yep, het is groot… en nog een beetje grof. Een beetje verf en dan zal hij een stuk beter eruitzien.

Rechts: Tweede entree bij de Goudbloemstraat voor de werkplaats en bakfietsverhuur.

Links: Achter hebben we een leuke ruimte waar de kinderen kunnen spelen.

Rechts: Het pand wordt toch wel met een toilet afgeleverd! Aardig hé?

The transportfiets (transport bicycle) fans over at transportfiets.net have assembled this collection of 500 images of mostly Dutch transport bicycles spanning almost 100 years. Amongst them you’ll see tons of old baker’s bikes, but also butcher’s bikes, milk delivery bikes, industrial bikes, postal bikes, newspaper delivery bikes couriers bikes, modern child carrier bikes. Either thankfully or unavoidably there are quite a few of WorkCycles bikes amongst them… even a couple secret prototypes if you watch carefully.

The accompanying music seems a strange choice but who’s complaining when you can see 500 transport bikes in 5 minutes.

WorkCycles in Amsterdam wilt in enkele gebeiden uitbreiden en dat betekent dat we we nieuwe collegas moeten vinden. We zoeken veelzijdige mensen met diverse kwaliteiten, bijvoorbeeld…

• je houdt van mooie, degelijke fietsen
• je bent technisch deskundig
• je vindt het leuk en tevredenstellen om goed werk uit te voeren
• je bezit goede communicatie vaardigheden
• je wilt leren, groeien & verantwoordelijkheid aannemen

ook pluspunten:

• je hebt ervaring in de fietshandel
• je bent fietsenmaker of monteur in een andere branche
• je hebt ervaring met verkoop
• je spreekt meerdere talen: nederlands, engels, frans, duits

WorkCycles is een klein bedrijf dat bakfietsen, transportfietsen en degelijke stadsfietsen ontwikkelt, verkoopt en exporteert. We hebben ook een fietsenwinkel waar verkoop, reparaties en bakfietsverhuur plaatsvinden. Veel meer over WorkCycles kan je in deze blog leren en bij onze commerciële website.

We bieden aan een aardige werksfeer en een nadruk op kwaliteit in plaats van hoeveelheid, en gelegenheden om te groeien. Natuurlijk komt er ook een concurrerend salaris bij.

Mocht je willen soliciteren, neem dan graag contact op met Henry:
email: henry [at] workcycles.nl
mobiel: 06 1874 1307