We like building special transport bikes… at least when they’re useful, cool and we get to make them in series. Here are some photos of the latest version of the Workcycles Cargobike Delivery, based on the now famous Bakfiets.nl Cargobike child-carrier frame.

This is one of a series of five Cargobike Delivery bikes for London organic delivery restaurant Farm UK. Farm UK makes sandwiches, ciabatta rolls, bloomers, salads, drinks and cakes entirely from UK farm sourced ingredients. They’re apparently super “lekker” though I always thought a “bloomer” was something old women wore while playing tennis.

Regardless of what tasty bits Farm UK puts in their sandwiches and salads, they deliver them by bicycle. Feeding entire office buildings requires loads that normal transport bikes can’t dream of carrying, but getting through downtown London’s urban jungle on a three-wheeled delivery bike would be an exercise in frustration (though still not as bad as with an automobile). Thus we’ve built Farm these supersized Cargobike Delivery bikes.

The boxes are made from an extremely tough and water resistant treated plywood normally used for concrete molding. Its called “betonplex” here in the Netherlands. Its very hard and stiff so we’re able to keep the walls quite thin and light. The box has a hinged and locking lid to keep the goods safe and dry while Mr. Sandwich Salesman is making his deliveries.

Dom and Ben from Farm UK have promised to send pictures of their bikes in action, complete with their Farm UK livery. Perhaps this post will spur them on to stop being productive for a few minutes and get that camera out.

An acquaintance Todd Boulanger in Portland Oregon (USA) spotted a new “4 in one” bike called the Zigo at the Interbike trade show and sent a note with a mention that was like the “very nice European bike that does the same” but much cheaper. I’m not sure whether Todd couldn’t remember the name of this European version, or simply didn’t want to mention it.

Regardless its called the TrioBike and I’d almost forgotten it until Todd’s mail. The TrioBike is a Danish designed product and its something of a joke amongst my colleagues here in Holland. Some laugh about it but how such a horrible product has won design awards, gotten mountains of (internet) press and glowing reviews from around the globe is both puzzling and troubling. One more lousy bike on the market doesn’t concern me, but the power of armchair internet reviewers does. Then again there are hardly any TrioBikes on the road so maybe its only a matter of perception and annoyance.

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Nog een bijzondere transportfiets/stadsfiets van de WorkCycles skunkworks. Op basis van de onopvallende WorkCycles Secret Service fiets hebben we deze bijzonder stoere herenfiets met 8 versnellingen gemaakt.

Enkele bijzonderheden:

1. Handgesoldeerd frame met matzwarte poederlak
2. Frame-vaste voordrager
3. Achteruit remgrepen met remkabels verborgen onder kurk stuurlint
4. Shimano Nexus 8 versnellingsnaaf met shifter op stuurpen
5. Shimano Nexave rollerbrakes met verkoelingschijven
6. Naafdynamo, LED achterlicht met standlight en B & M halogeen koplamp
7. Continental Sport Contact banden met een mooie gladde profiel
8. Hebie chain-glider kettingkast

Terwijl deze “veloporteur” vrij normaal eruitziet neemt het eigenlijk veel werk om alles samen te passen. Bijvoorbeeld deze achteruit remgrepen passen niet in een stadsfiets stuurbocht zonder flink vijlen. Daardoor zijn zulke custom fietsen niet goedkoop: Deze kost zijn gelukkige eigenaar ongeveer €1300.

Maar dan is hij toch mooi en fietst heel fijn – verschrikkelijk snel en soepel voor een fiets die 35kg bagage voorop mee kan nemen. Is het dus zoveel geld voor een unieke en tijdloze fiets die je voor de volgende 30 jaar blij en trots gaat maken?

This morning, for the first time, I found a reference to the box of a Bakfiets Cargobike as the “bucket”. “Bak”, “box”, “bucket”… I’d just never thought of that connection before.

The usage of these Dutch words is a constant source of confusion for English speakers and even with Dutch being my second language it’s amazingly irritating to constantly read about a “bakfiet” or an “omafiet”. Thus I’ve decided to set it down in electrons, once and for all. I’m no pro in the world of etymology, but here’s at least an overview of the correct usage and some of the most obvious Dutch-English language connections surrounding our beloved fietsen en bakfietsen:

Bak (pl: bakken)
Translation: Tray, pan
Related English words: Box, bucket

Bakken
Translation: To bake
Related English words: Baking

Bakker (pl: bakkers)
Translation: Baker
Related English words: Baker

Fiets (pl: fietsen)
Translation: Bicycle
Related English words: none, roots disputed
It’s critical to note that “fiets” is the singular form thus “fiet” is not a word. Nor is there an “omafiet”, “opafiet” or a “bakfiet”, for that matter. One fiets, two fietsen. Please remember this and 25 million Dutch speakers worldwide will thank you.

**Update 21-02-2012: A pair of Belgian linguistics professors (Yes, Flemish and Dutch are very close cousins) claim to have figured out the mysterious origins of the word “fiets”. It seems that when the bike was first invented Germans called it “vice-pferd”, meaning “replacement horse”. This was shortened to Viez, pronounced in English or Dutch as “fiets”.You can read the article here.

Gebak
Translation: Pie, as in “baked in a pan”. A pan is, after all, also a sort of box. So the “bak” refers to the process of baking but the Dutch word “bakken” for baking stems from the same roots. Confused?
Related English words: none
If you visit the Netherlands it’s important to know about gebak since you’ll spend much time in cafes here and appelgebak is almost universally the only treat available in a Dutch cafe.

Gebakken
Translation: Baked, fried, sauteed (it’s all the same, dutch is not a language of cuisine, just like English only has one word for snow.)
Related English words: none

Thus some of the myriad combinations we can make with the above words…

Bakfiets (pl: bakfietsen)
Translation: tray bike, box bike, bin bike, bucket bike; The bakfiets traditionally has 3 wheels but plenty off Dutch refer to heavy-duty two wheelers as bakfietsen too. Bakfiets is a subset of “transportfiets“
Related English words: none

Again “bakfiets” is singular and “bakfiet” doesn’t exist, not even in Dutch fairy-tale land. Bakfiets also happens to be the name of the company that made the bakfiets popular again as a family vehicle, but anybody can legally call their pedal-powered load carrier a bakfiets.

Bakkersfiets (pl: bakkersfietsen)
Translation: Baker’s bike, subset of “transportfiets”
Related English words: none

Baker’s bikes (and similar butcher’s bikes) were once very common throughout northern Europe, generally ridden by the baker’s or butcher’s son. Archive photos from the 1930 though 1960’s show swarms of them on the streets of Amsterdam, all the boys in neat white jackets.

(photo from transportfiets.net)

Transportfiets (pl: transportfietsen)
Translation: Transport bicycle, carrier bicycle, freight bicycle
Related English words: none

Transportfiets is the umbrella term for all load carrying bikes, particularly those intended for commercial use. In principle classic and modern bakfietsen, baker’s and butcher’s bikes and industrial bikes all fall under this heading. But in “street terms” the Dutch think of the classic baker’s bike when they hear “transportfiets”.
In this post I wrote all about my own, lovely old Yankee bakkersfiets.

Thus you should now understand clearly that the bakker (or at least the son of the bakker) rides a bakkersfiets, which could be but is not necessarily a bakfiets. It could even be a fancy “banketbakkersbakfiets” with a display if we’re talking about a pastry and cake baker. Regardless it is definitely a transportfiets. There is certainly a bak on either a bakkersfiets or a bakfiets, and its quite likely that gebak will be transported in or on the bak of the bakker’s fiets. That gebak will, in any case, be loaded on TOP of the bak to make sure it doesn’t get smashed.

But really all I want you to remember from this lesson: THERE IS NO FIET, BAKFIET OR OMAFIET!!! Thank you.

Gazelle displayed their new Bakfiets Cargobike child-carrier competitor. Its called the Gazelle Cabby and its based on the rear frame of their new in 2006 MPB (Multi Purpose Bike), which is a blatant, late and ill-conceived attempt to cash in on popularity of the excellent Batavus Personal Bike, which was introduced about 7 years ago. Just to note: I do work with bicycles but don’t have anything to do with either of these bikes or Gazelle or Batavus.

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Het geldt blijkbaar ook voor de bakfiets: In Amerika, hoe groter hoe beter. Een klant in de VS heeft deze speciale bak gemaakt en op een Bakfiets.nl Cargobike chassis gemonteerd.

Nou het laadvermogen van een normale Cargobike is 80kg en van een opgevoerde WorkCycles Cargobike Delivery 100kg, dus hopen we dat ze niet van plan om veel bakstenen, gereedschap of zoiets mee te nemen.

Precies specificaties weten we niet maar de bak is van glasvezel versterkte polyester gemaakt. Volgens de fabrikant is het vrij licht tenzij zijn enorme maat.

In the Netherlands we simply ride our bicycles everywhere, often while carrying children, groceries, friends, a spouse, flowers, building materials or whatever else needs to get from Amstelkade to Bloemstraat. Thus we build bicycles with special carriers and don’t think much about how the now rather heavy bicycle can be carried aboard an automobile. Why would one put a bicycle in an automobile? That would be akin to putting a car on a truck or a missile on an airplane. Very strange!

Apparently its different for the Canadian Army Cargobike Infantry Division who are now using the Workcycles Cargobike as a key weapon in their antiterrorist system. The military Cargobike Weapons Delivery Bicycle is equipped with (very small) missile launchers and (light) machine guns operated by a (preferably child sized) gunner inside the bulletproof polycarbonate bubble. Each Cargobike is transported on a specially fitted Mercedes Unimog, ready for rapid deployment wherever needed, be it in the woods, in the tundra, at a hip coffee shop or at a pickup hockey game.

Het lijkt alsof ik wat geïnspireerd werd door die mooie Germaan transportfiets met kruisframe in een andere post – zie hem hier. Maar nee, eigenlijk bouwt WorkCycles regelmatig degelijke semi-transportfietsen op basis van een stevige kruisframe. Deze frames worden in België met de hand gesoldeerd met lugs en dikke buizen.

De fiets in deze afbeeldingen is een “special” voor een Amsterdamse kunstgallerie en schoenwinkel (een bizondere combinatie maar echt waar) die “Le KunstWinkel” heet. Als ze maar een website had zou ik een link moeten plaatsen.

Tenzij dat deze fiets leuk is en moderne onderdelen heeft is zeker geen nep-ding. Alles behalve mischien de open-kettingscherm (gewoon om het te proberen) is echt bedoeld voor het zware werk.

WorkCycles is blijkbaar niet de enige op zoek naar een moderne, maar wel echte degelijke transportfiets. De liefhebbers bij Transportfiets.net hebben al wat discussie hierover gehad. Ze stellen dat een transportfiets moet als absoluut minimum twee kratten bier (ongeveer 30kg) op de voordrager kunnen vervoeren. Ik vind dat eigenlijk wel een lage drempel, maar ik denk dat het gekozen werd om aan te tonen dat de verschillende moderne, retro-stijl, nep-transportfietsen toch niet dat kunnen doen.

WorkCycles is al enkele jaar op zoek naar degelijke transportfietsen maar niet echt om bier te vervoeren, tenzij dat ik wel moet toevoegen dat we het wel eens hebben gedaan. Twee kratten bier passen echt perfect in een postdrager op een Monark Vario Kombi.

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