Maybe this simultaneously signals the apocalypse of pretentious fixies and uselessly precious and fragile “porteur” bikes, each lifestyle accessories for their own subculture: The leather wrapped fixie/porteur! Who woulda thunk?

A couple tidbits from the “Ateliers d’Embellie” site:

“This is a “Porteur bike”, which mix my passions : leather craft, urban style, fashion and luxury…
Entirely handmade with rare, vintage and NOS parts, this bike is unique.”

“In the streets, this bike mixes the agility & the reactivity of the track frame, to the comfort from the big tires or the large front rack.”

“Powerful as much as elegant with the chrome, the copper touches and the color scheme, which is a classic vintage grey with brown leather hand made detailing.”

A couple questions:
1. What happens to the leather seat tube when you move the axle forward from the rear of the rear fork pads?

1b. …or when the axle slips forward. Will that rear wheel really stay in place with those leather axle washers? Methinks not.

2. If you’re going to build a cost-no-object obsessa-bike why use such a crude frame and bottom of the line parts such as the cheap pedals and tires?

3. What does one actually DO with such a bike, besides show it to your friends?

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.

No I don’t mean this type of Canal Bike that tourists ride around Amsterdam, though it does actually like like fun:

Friday Richard was locking up some bikes in the parking spot in front of our Lijnbaansgracht (the “gracht” part means “canal”) and accidentally dropped a loop of the cable into the canal… where it got hooked on something under the water. After some stout pulling Richard found the following:

Bingo! Free bike. We pulled it out of the water while tourists watched and laughed at this amazing Amsterdam phenomenon. Possibly only moving one’s furniture through the window with a rope and pulley suspended from the hook in the roof can gather more pointing tourists here. And for a better look at our prized catch:

We see that it’s a Gazelle Omafiets at least 40 years old though it definitely hasn’t been in the canal that long. Forty years ago there was no need for such a huge chain lock. The fish have eaten the rubber blocks from the pedals though apparently didn’t like the taste of the tires. The bike is equipped with rod operated brakes indicating that it was quite a chique model in its time.

The rear hub has since been replaced with a Fichtel & Sachs Torpedo coaster brake instead of the original Sturmey Archer drum brake hub. Note also that the rear wheel spokes are entirely intact (stainless steel) while the front wheel spokes are almost entirely rusted away (galvanized steel).

Restoration project anyone? It’s still standing in front of WorkCycles Lijnbaansgracht shop if you want it.

Amsterdam’s happy, horny, musical clown from the 1980’s sings “The Bicycle Seat Song” . Only here in Amsterdam, Netherlands, the world’s cycling capitol city.

A couple months ago I found an envelope on my desk with US postage, only our address without business name and a return address with no name. I figured it was probably for a neighbor and it was a while before I realized I couldn’t do much more with it than just open it. So I did, and I found the following inside:

A request from Jesse

Since we regard catalogs as some archaic leftover of the paper era we didn’t have any to send to Jesse. After an extensive brainstorm session and heated discussion it was decided to send Jesse not just one, or even two but several WorkCycles foam keychains, as pictured below. No, we didn’t send it COD with an invoice for the postage. Please note that the example keychain below is somewhat deformed as a result of Pascal using it for several months as a teething toy:

For several weeks we waited with baited breath for Jesse’s reply and it finally arrived a few days ago. We weren’t disappointed as it’s just as sweet and polite as the first letter:

Jesse, you’re completely welcome and we’d be happy to discuss your being our U.S.A represitive… in a few years. In the meanwhile we wish you success convincing your parents to get a WorkCycle.

Sometimes we get strange requests at WorkCycles. This time it was (for the second time) to make bakfietsen with trees in them. Hey, if your cash is good and it isn’t harmful or dangerous we’ll make it.

I’ve no idea what equidura is but somebody is apparently selling the stuff.

I don’t know whether the customer had seen this one we did a couple years ago for the Zwitserleven pension and life insurance company. Apparently they rode around Amsterdam with a pretty girl in the chair to demonstrate the relaxed life one would have as a result of buying their insurance, or something like that.

The cheapest way to get a palm tree for this bike was to buy one… and to this day this palm lives in our bedroom. We’re very fortunate to have high ceilings since the tree is almost 300cm tall now.

70cm WorkCycles Transport on smart car, originally uploaded by henry in a’dam.

I’m surprised this little Smart car doesn’t tip over backwards when driving with this huge (70cm frame) WorkCycles Transport Double-Tube. But apparently a man of 200cm (6′ 6″) fits in a Smart.

Photo by Doede van der Linden.

Paul Steely White has had a long day

New York celebrity speaker and bike transport advocate Paul Steel White of Transportation Alternatives stood from dawn till dusk on “Drive Your Bike to Work Day” commending bike commuters for their good behavior and imploring them not to join the spawning bike salmon this spring.

Eventually even tireless White couldn’t take it anymore but his WorkCycles Opafiets wasn’t fazed. (Why would it- It’s just a bike!) But rumor has it the Opafiets even continued on for a rendezvous met a certain desirable Omafiets in his neighborhood, saying something about wanting a Brooks saddle.

unsolicited sticker found on doede's bakfiets

Our website dude Doede van der Linden sent me this pic today. Somebody stuck this sticker on his Bakfiets Cargobike today.

“Rot op met deze &*%$#@! fiets” roughly translates to “Fuck off with this fucking bike” .

In other words somebody is displeased with Doede’s choice of bicycle. Below, the same in better detail.

The sticker in all it's glory

Here we can read the smaller text below.

Dit is een asociale fiets hij is echt te groot en waarschijnlijk kan ook jij er niet normaal mee fietsen

And in English: “This is an antisocial bike it is really too big and you probably also can’t cycle normally”

Now let’s consider this more carefully.

Now if anything is antisocial it’s telling people, unsolicited, by sticking things on their bikes, that they have too many kids, that they ride a bike that’s “too big”, and that they probably can’t ride a bike normally. So fuck off, you righteous asshole! Put stickers on your own bike and don’t tell people how they should live. Be happy that Doede rides a bakfiets (no wider than the handlebars of a normal bike in case it matters) instead of driving a Cadillac Escalade. And be happy that you live in Amsterdam, cycling capital of the world.