Last night I loaded our freshly refinished (in RAL 2004 “pure orange”) dinner table into one of our big, classic rental bakfietsen in order to bring it home. This morning I was then faced with the dilemma of how to both return the bakfiets to the shop AND bring Pascal to his “creche” (daycare center), both about a kilometer or two from home. Do I dare let an almost two year old sit in the 190 x 85cm box untethered, unhelmeted, unpadded, unrollcaged…? After some deliberation with Mama-en-meer we decided that it should be OK, particularly since Pascal has logged enough thousands of cycling kilometers to not have much urge to do anything stupid and terrible-twos-toddler-like. Besides, we figured, the bakfiets has a top speed of about 10km/hr and everybody (even taxis!) gives it a nice, wiiiiiiide berth.

The old table I just painted orange.

So upon arriving at street level instead of Pascal climbing into mama’s cargobike or being lifted onto papa’s Workcycles Fr8 he was propped into the back of the bak, tucked between the moving blankets and my courier bag. I released the parking brake between my legs and rolled off the curb, still curious whether child would just stay where I put him or insist upon “exploring” the nearly two meters of mahogany playground in front of him. I’m happy to report that we figured correctly; Pascal was perfectly happy to sit back near me, feet out front, calling out the “autos”, “cheeps”, “big ships”, “mononos”, “bicipas” and “tjams” as we rode. We got a few approving smiles and no disapproving looks that I could see. Isn’t unfortunate few kids outside of the Netherlands can have such experiences?

We always go on this bike now?

While much of Workcycles’ business is B2B we rarely get photos of our bikes in action. They disappear into factory halls, paper mills and oil refineries, roam foreign parks, deliver sandwiches and sell coffee in far-flung cities. The industrial bikes are often purchased through supplier organizations who aren’t even sure where the bikes are headed or how they’ll be used. There are a bunch of Workcycles bikes being used around several cement factories in Kyrgistan; we guess it’s related to building oil pipelines.

Thus we cherish the rare photos we have and it’s great when a customer sends his own pictures and a description of what he’s up to. Ben Allen in Cardiff, UK passed along the photo above and the following description of his new courier business:

New bicycle courier business launches in Cardiff.

A new environmentally friendly business launches in Cardiff today. Big Blue Bike uses pedal power alone to courier business items up to 100kg in weight across the city using specially designed cargo bicycles.
Ben Allen (of Roath, 26) started Big Blue Bike after a trip to Denmark revealed how even large loads can be carried safely and securely on bicycles, usually much quicker than using vans or cars.

A passionate cyclist, Ben, knows that as a result of the recession and the current traffic disruption in Cardiff, businesses will focus on the time and money saved by using his service.

Allen adds: “With petrol prices soaring and traffic on our city streets at a standstill it makes sense to switch to a zero emission and congestion easing delivery method”.

Big Blue Bike,
44 Princes Street,
Roath, CF24 3SL
02920 405668

Mobile – 07817466462
Email – info@bigbluebike.co.uk
www.bigbluebike.co.uk

Ben’s big blue bike of choice is of course a Workcycles Fr8 with Massive Rack and integrated parking stand. With the (big) locking aluminium chest he can keep your goods dry and safe. A smart addition is the large advertising boards on each side of the bike that can be rented, hopefully providing Ben with a second revenue stream. We wish Ben success in his new venture!

Tattoo studio House of Tattoos a few blocks from WorkCycles in the Amsterdam Jordaan did this tattoo. Though it is one of our bikes (in mirror image) it’s not gracing one of our bodies; Tom found it while searching for tattoo artists. You can see more of Emilia’s work here. The bike isn’t really typical of her work. Most is of very finely drawn human and animal subjects.

I really appreciate the permanence and commitment of tattoos and some are really beautiful… but I can’t think of anything I want drawn on my body.

Some industry insiders, myself included, were at least suspecting things weren’t going smoothly at Amsterdam’s populair transport bike producer De Fietsfabriek. Yesterday their filing for bankruptcy got leaked and now the press is all over it like flies on poop. That’s not really surprising considering the uncanny knack those guys had for keeping the media’s attention. It is (or was) indeed a very charismatic story about a temperamental and driven Kurdish immigrant’s success with that most Dutch of products; the bicycle. I have to admit that it sounds far more exciting than “Highly educated industrial designer and ex bike industry guy from New York makes conservative, high quality bikes in Holland”. But I suppose the downside of celebrity status is that you’re even more newsworthy when things go wrong.

A lot of people apparently think it’s really important news for WorkCycles since friends, colleagues and acquaintances have been sending me links and commentary all day long. Just for the record: We’re not exactly cheering here. Regardless of the situations that led to their financial difficulties I sympathize with their situation as a fellow business owner. According to the news reports the two partners are looking at personal responsibility (Fietsfabriek was an unincorporated partnership) of about 1.2 million euro. How on earth does one dig themselves out of such a hole?

Most who’ve forwarded the news do so both because WorkCycles and De Fietsfabriek are often compared as Amsterdam colleagues/competitors. Magazine and newspaper articles have often featured both of our bikes and interviewed both myself and either Dave or Yalcin from Fietsfabriek. However the suggestion is really that WorkCycles would benefit hugely from the disappearance of Fietsfabriek. I’m no so convinced of this. It is true that both firms produce their own unique lines of heavy-duty city bikes, transport bikes and trikes (bakfietsen) and both are based in and have multiple shops in Amsterdam. We’ve even sold our bikes through a handful of the same dealers, though for what it’s worth the WorkCycles line has generally (or always?) replaced the Fietsfabriek line.

But as Dave Deutsch, one of the Fietsfabriek partners, and I have discussed several times we’re very different companies that make very different bikes that appeal to different audiences. WorkCycles are mostly black or grey or other boring colors. We’re willing to paint them anything you wish but that’s just what our customers want. Our bike designs, and perhaps our entire company “look and feel” is straightforward, the focus being an admittedly nerdy, no-BS, technical perfection. Fietsfabriek, on the other hand, has been much bolder: bikes with frame designs that are fun bordering on silly, in colors spanning the rainbow. I’ve seen them quoted as saying they’ll build whatever the customer wishes. Sorry to disappoint you but WorkCycles won’t make such claims; We’re flexible but we build bikes with a collection of parts and principles we’ve thoroughly tested and trust. Of course I have to think that WorkCycles bikes are better, but I suppose they think the same of their own product.

Photo by Marc of Amsterdamize

The differences between our products and approaches have fortunately led to each company appealing to different audiences. Fietsfabriek is much bigger and better known in Amsterdam while WorkCycles is stronger elsewhere, particularly in other countries. Regardless Fietsfabriek’s extroverted charm and constant media attention has brought them a much younger, hipper customer base than ours. When customers go “shopping around” for a bakfiets or sturdy city bike in Amsterdam they’ll likely visit both but the experiences are so different that customers seem to choose where they belong.

But still, isn’t the Fietsfabriek one of WorkCycles main competitors? Only from a tunnel vision perspective. Our competitors are everything else people might spend their money on instead of transport bikes: kitchen remodeling, cars, travel, a flat screen TV. In particular the rampant bike theft is worse for our turnover than another bike company that brings considerable media attention to small bicycle manufacturers. If Amsterdammers could perceive it as safe to park their bikes we would sell far more, better equipped, more expensive bikes.

Will WorkCycles benefit anyway? Of course, probably to some extent. All things considered Amsterdammers will continue buying bikes at about the same rate so some of the would-be Fietsfabriek customers will inevitably come to us in their absence… and just order their bikes with different specs and in brighter colors than have been typical Workcycles. But while these types of bikes were totally novel in 2003, now in 2010 they’re fairly mainstream and can be found in many hundreds of shops all over the country. Thus whatever vacuum that opens will be filled not just by WorkCycles but also by many dealers offering bikes from a variety of large and small manufacturers. And therein lies one of the fundamental challenges for both of our companies: There’s far more competition now than just a few years ago. Compete or die.

Photo by Marc of Amsterdamize

The newspapers first all published approximately the same piece which simply reported that Fietsfabriek has filed for bankruptcy as a result of huge debts and that the curator is working on a continuation. According to those in the know there’s a debt of 1.2 million on a yearly turnover of about 3 million. There are 60 employees for which permission for layoffs has been requested. (To me these are strange numbers: a debt of almost half the yearly turnover and 60 employees for just 3 million turnover.)

If you can read Dutch or wish to read an online translation you can check the article out in Het Parool.
Fascinating are the reader’s comments that follow: Some blame the bankers. Some blame the saturated market. A few bakfiets haters take the opportunity to demonstrate their moral superiority and insult some parents. And a surprising number imply fraud, one claiming rather specific knowledge of an enormous tax fine for avoiding customs charges. That’s some pretty hefty stuff to be accusing in the comments section. Truth or just an axe to grind? Who knows.

Later in the day Het Parool published an UPDATE. Herman Stil apparently researched further, calling around to Fietsfabriek dealers, their bike designer and partner Yalcin Cihangir. Ouch, this piece paints a much uglier picture. One former dealer announces that they opened a bottle of bubbly upon hearing the news and goes on to run off a list of problems. (In the comments below the same dealer denies the bubbly part but supports the rest of the statement.) Other dealers offer similar descriptions including poor quality, many broken frames, chaotic delivery and administration and add that their critique only led to intimidation. Several dealers listed on their site replied that they haven’t done business with the Fietsfabriek in years. Michael Kemper, the German designer of the Fietsfabriek bikes claims he hasn’t been paid the agreed royalties in two years. Yalcin denies all of the accusations and fires back that his critics aren’t bike makers, just people who want to share in his success. Concerning Kemper’s accusations he turns them around claiming that Kemper began producing the bikes himself and selling them to the dealers behind his back. Cihangir is quoted as saying “I’ll come with new models, a new Fietsfabriek. Just wait.”

What to believe? It’s really hard to say. I assume some of the worst accusations are hyperbole or half-truths on both sides. But my impression has always been of a company with a genius for seat of the pants marketing and promotion but not for organization, infrastructure and long-term relationship building.

The irony of all this is that perhaps the biggest publicity they ever got was from a hugely successful two-part documentary in 2004 by Frans Bromet called “Failliet of niet? – de fietsfabriek” (“Bankrupt or not? – the Fietsfabriek”) in which Yalcin struggles getting his new Fietsfabriek business on its feet out of an imploding bike builder called ‘t Mannetje, a criminal Jan Willem Deijmann and seemingly everybody doing their best to cheat everyone else.

Business-wise I’m not particularly fussed about where it goes but I certainly wish the best for Dave, Yalcin and their employees.

Espresso is good. Bakfietsen are good. So why not combine them into mobile coffee vending trikes? It’s a business with low barrier to entry, catchy and probably fun too. Great idea and though you write us weekly to build such a beast… you’re actually not the first one to think of it. You might have first seen it on TV.

Around five years ago Paul Sabin from Kent, England bought a couple of our classic bakfietsen, fitted them with a gas-fired espresso machines and the necessary plumbing and called his business “Tradecycle”. It’s kind of like “Workcycles”, except a little different. Paul’s trikes were featured in an episode of “The Apprentice” on BBC1. Somebody’s coffee trikes were also featured on Eastenders, though I’m not sure whether they were Paul’s. Paul bought a couple more bikes over the next couple years but somehow the publicity didn’t jump-start their business. It has, on the other hand, generated an endless stream of potential entrepreneurs writing to WorkCycles to have one of these bikes made. The Tradecycle website is still online but they’re no longer in operation.

Below the original Tradecycle coffee trike. All were built on a WorkCycles chassis but each one was a little different from its predecessor.

Meanwhile mobile coffee vending specialists Coffee Latino from the other end of England took a look at the offerings and decided they could do better. Being the only such vehicle in the world they also begin with a Workcycles classic bakfiets chassis as the basis. They then fit their Fracino LPG-fired espresso machines with gas and water plumbing that meet UK standards. It’s a fair guess that with a few modifications these systems will also meet the regulations of most other countries. These new coffee bakfietsen are sold under the name of On Your Trike. If you want a turn-key coffee trike you needn’t look any further; contact On Your Trike.

So will WorkCycles build you a complete espresso bakfiets / coffee trike? No, that’s just a bit too specialized for us. Thanks for asking but we’ll happily build you the chassis, box, canopy and stabilizer legs. Then the experts can select the most suitable espresso machine and coffee grinder, as well as safely rigging up gas, electricity and water in the same compact and mobile space. Only complicating matters further is that each country and sometimes municipality has its own laws about safety, food hygiene and mobile vending. Mobile coffee vending is thus a great idea but you’ll either have to contact On Your Trike or research and build it yourself.

Another customer, Sven Boerner in Leipzig, Germany did just that; He built his own beautiful espressobakfiets for his coffee vending business. You can check it out on Sven’s own site (in German language): Das Kaffeefahrrad

Meanwhile I was thinking about selling Dutch “peperkoek” (“spice cake”?) from a bakfiets but it doesn’t seem to be catching on.

Last month colleague and friend Jos Louwman (founder of Amsterdam’s famous MacBike) and Fredjan Twigt did just that; They sailed (and pedaled) bicycles from Agadir to Dahkla, about 1100km, in eight days. They carried their camping gear and drank about a gallon of water a day. What a great adventure!

The sail-bike is called a Whike and it’s Fredjan’s brainchild; the result of combining his passions for recumbent bikes and sailing. Of course the basic principle of sailing on land or ice is not new; Ice boats have been used in cold regions for centuries and some race boats can exceed 200km/hr. Yes, it IS possible to travel several times the wind speed with low friction sailing vehicles.

But ultimate speed isn’t the purpose of the Whike. On the Whike site it’s described as a fun, original and comfortable vehicle. At least in the Netherlands it’s legal for use on bicycle paths and public roads. An overview of how the sail power at various wind speeds:

Force 1 to 3: The sail works as a “help motor” and you need to pedal along. You note that you easily ride faster than without the sail.

Force 3-4: You now really feel the power of the wind. You easily ride past other cyclists and with a crosswind you needn’t pedal to continue moving.

Force 4-5: Pedaling is simply no longer necessary to get where you want.

Force 5+: Be careful for gusts and always keep the sheet (the line that trims the sail) in your hand. Depending on your skill and weight maybe fit the (smaller) storm sail.

So what does this have to do with practical cycling? A lot. The bike industry is currently doing their best to push electrically assisted bikes, something WorkCycles is more than a little ambivalent about. Thus far we’ve been highly underwhelmed by their lack of reliability, unnatural feeling, ineffiency, poor serviceability and downright ugliness.

Meanwhile here’s a bicycle with a tiny sail that does approximately the same thing: no batteries for the landfills, controllers to fry, sensors, chips etc etc. It’s a lesson in minimalism. The rigging for a sail of this size is practically indestructible and even if something broke or tore in an accident it’d be easy to repair or jury-rig to continue.

Sure, Whiking through the streets of downtown Paris or Manhattan is not entirely realistic but I bet the concept could be made practical for a far broader range of applications than our technology driven perspectives would allow us to believe.

Innarested? Check out the Whike website.

Photos by Jos Louwman and Fredjan Twigt. Thanks!

Most WorkCycles bikes are used daily for such mundane purposes as riding to work, carrying the kids to school, carrying tools around an oil refinery or delivering the post. But some of our bikes have far stranger goals in life. Case in point: exhibit and communications design firm Atelier Markgraph in Frankfurt am Main, Germany bought three WorkCycles Cargobikes and two Fr8’s with Massive Racks and we were quite curious about how they were to be used. Their description sums it up:

Bremen and Bremerhaven take their ’Knowledge Worlds’ on tour for the fourth time.

Frankfurt am Main, 26 September 2009 – Surprising experiments, unique exhibits, exciting excursions – the travelling exhibition ’Knowledge Worlds’ shows just how much the two cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven have to offer.

After a highly successful debut tour in 2006, the exhibition is now bringing ’knowledge worlds’ from seven museums in Bremen and Bremerhaven out to the public for the fourth time. Bremen is represented by the Botanika, the Universum and the Ethnological Museum; Bremerhaven by the coastal zoo, the Maritime Museum, the Emigration Museum and the recently-opened Climate House. Once again, the exhibition was conceived and designed by Frankfurt’s Atelier Markgraph, which was also responsible for implementation.

The mobile experimental lab consists of five bicycles and one car. The exhibition stops off at events, pedestrian precincts and school playgrounds, where it invites children and teenagers to explore and discover the secrets of the sciences.

The exhibition’s architectural concept is as freewheeling as the vehicles themselves. In moments, luggage racks and bike trailers can be converted into experimental stations. The car interior doubles as a ’knowledge worlds foyer’ that explains the experimental stations interactively. Museums run films on a screen that appears when the car boot opens; stools are arranged in front to create an impromptu open-air cinema.

A new corporate design and logo were designed specially for the fourth tour. They build on human perceptions, with five colours to represent the five senses – vision, hearing, smell, taste and touch.

Two cities, seven museums, one car, five bicycles: ’Knowledge Worlds’ is a simple, freewheeling exhibition that promotes the successful concept of Knowledge Worlds.

We’ve been working with ROC an Amsterdam technical college and a few other bicycle firms to create a new bicycle mechanic education program. There is already such an education track there but it’s primarily classroom based. This new program will be practice based, with interns working at each participating business for several months. In time the students will also work in and operate their own bike shop, similar to the student-run restaurants at cooking schools.

The problem we’re looking to fix may seem ironic; while cycling is über-hip amongst adults, it’s anything but amongst Dutch teens, especially the teens likely to follow a bike mechanic education track. The interns who periodically work at WorkCycles generally have no interest in bikes whatsoever. As soon as they’re old enough they dump their bikes in favor of scooters, and the bike education is often seen as a stepping stone toward a career as a car or truck mechanic. They’re generally also not the sharpest knives in the drawer and that’s part of the challenge.

Thus in order to fill this new education program with motivated (or at least willing) and capable kids the image of cycling and bikes has to be spiffed up in the eyes of our teenaged target group. In discussing these plans and tactics the organizer pointed us to the video above as a model. Though I doubt many of these kids have a long enough attention span to sit through this particular video it certainly is a great example of how to promote cycling amongst adults.

The video is from the BOVAG, the branch organization for businesses involved with selling and maintaining vehicles (including, bikes, mopeds, scooters, cars, trucks etc). It simply offers ten reasons to cycle more, with the emphasis on cycling instead of driving a car. It’s nicely shot, offers just enough facts to make the point, doesn’t take itself too seriously and is guilt free. The reasons…

1. Cycling improves your fitness.

2.Cycling keeps you slim.

3. Cycling gives you a great feeling.

4. Cycling reduces your chance of illness.

5. Cycling is convenient.

6. More cycling means cleaner air in your own surroundings.

7. Cycling is quiet.

8. Cycling improves access for short distances.

9. Cycling is inexpensive.

10. More cycling means less greenhouse gasses.

The title? “Natuurlijk pak ik de Fiets!” (Of course I take the Bike!)

This is 19 month old Pascal’s absolute favorite-est toy; a toddler-sized mini bakfiets purchased last year on Queen’s day for €5 and fixed up a little. Whenever he visits dad at work(cycles) (which is quite often since we live just five minutes bike ride away) Pascal immediately searches out his bakfietsje. He then races around the showroom and workshop, deliberately slamming head-on into chairs, doors and shins. Thankfully he avoids the bikes. Sometimes he’ll fill the box with bells, locks, Brooks handlebar grips or whatever products he can reach and “transports” them to far-flung corners of the building.

The other day when I picked Pascal up at the daycare the women there commented that he seems oddly obsessed with the little bicycles, tricycles and rideable vehicles. Apparently he goes from one vehicle to the next much of the day, doing a few laps, “testing” them for fun factor, and generally hoarding them. Hmmm, how strange… I can’t imagine where he got this from.

Pascal also likes the tiny Micro Mini scooters in the shop though this one definitely takes second place to his baby-bakfiets. Probably the scooter is actually still just too big for him. Pascal rides it without problem but the handlebar is at about his chin height, nose height before he’s standing on it.

The same also seems to be the case with the Micro G-Bike “loopfiets” (pedal-less balance bike) we have here. It’s made for kids about 2 years old and up and Pascal can just barely get his leg over it. He’ll go a couple steps, never really settle into the saddle and then fall over. He tries it every now and then but it’s clearly frustrating.

Micro G-Bike

There are a lot of loopfietsen available, a number of which are good. We like and sell the Micro G-Bike (and its bigger G-Bike + brother) because:

Prices:

They’re all available to try and in stock a at WorkCycles Lijnbaansgracht shop.

Since Pascal loves riding these bikes and little vehicles so much I figured I’d tinker a bit to see whether he would actually ride the G-Bike already if it were lower. I replaced the 120mm wheels with a pair of 80mm inline skate wheels I had. This lowers the bike by 2cm which is a lot considering the saddle is normally only 30cm high in the lowest position. Kyoko and I each rolled around on it, clown style, and it rides just fine. It’s just slower over carpet and bumps. Of course it’ll be more inclined to get stuck in holes outdoors but once he’s ready to ride beyond the living room or playground I’ll just put the original wheels back on.

A toddler on a two wheeler without training wheels might sound like crazy-talk to those not in the Netherlands but actually it’s quite normal here. Dutch kids grow up sitting on mom and dad’s bikes and learn to ride at a very young age. Training wheels (which are actually counterproductive) are thankfully disappearing in favor of “loopfietsen” (balance bikes, run bikes, training bikes…). Just today while an expat family was in the shop testing (adult) bakfietsen I asked their five year old daughter whether she could ride a bike yet. “No, only with training wheels.” Much to her parents’ surprise I handed her a loopfiets and commented to them that she’d ride a two-wheeler by the time they left. As it turns out my statement was conservative; the little girl pointed the bike down the length of the shop, made a couple careful first steps, pushed off and lifted both feet in the air, gliding along until another push was needed. Mission accomplished. Her folks can now remove the training wheels from her own bike.

Being an American who’s founded and runs a bike company in the Netherlands, bicycle capitol of the world is considered newsworthy by some so I periodically get interviewed. I’m certainly happy to have the opportunity both as marketing value for WorkCycles and also just to speak my mind. I’ll admit that it’s also fun to act like a mini celebrity in my little pond.

Here on “Bespoke” of Fourth Floor Distribution in Toronto, CA the topic revolves largely around the issue of quality, something WorkCycles is widely known to be a bit obsessive about: Noshing in A’dam. The Workcycles interview

“Red Kite Prayer” is a blog for the cycling enthusiasts that many amongst the ranks of transportation cycling proponents decry… entirely missing the point of course. Most of the articles there involve the professional racing scene, high-end racing bikes etc. It happens to be amongst the best reads in the business, with humor, engaging discussions and nice photography. Just to make my point for the 100th time: Transportation cycling and recreational/competitive cycling are not at odds with each other. They’re just different.

This interview was different from most in that the interviewer (Alex Armitage, coincidentally the brother of a peloton acquaintance from my racing days) approaches the topic from the perspective of a bike enthusiast accustomed to high-end road bikes. It’s an interesting read:
Builder Interview: Living Life as a WorkCycles Bike, Part I
Builder Interview: Living Life as a WorkCycles Bike, Part II