Jun
17
Schmidt und Schier Schau
Filed Under Bakfiets, Media, News & Events, Seattle, bikes, tech, video | Leave a Comment
Here are three fun videos from Kirsten Dirksen, *faircompanies and Huffington Post contributor. Kirsten visited our Seattle shop last Summer and interviewed us about Dutch bikes, the slow bicycle movement and Bakfiets cargo bikes.
Learn more about our bikes and meet David and Stephan.
May
28
Green Room Sessions
Filed Under Chicago, Events, bikes | Leave a Comment
Dutch Bike Co. Chicago will be participating in the Alternative Transportation Green Room Sessions at
Uncommon Ground
1401 West Devon Avenue Chicago
Thursday June 11th, 2009, 6-9 pm
Uncommon Ground boasts the first certified organic rooftop farm in the country. Stop by to savor the food and meet many of the great business people working to make Chicago a more livable city. We’ll bring a Bakfiets cargo bike for demos. Check out today’s Home Depot haul.
eat
Executive Chef Brian Millman will be preparing FREE appetizers utilizing product from Chicago’s own Green City Market.
drink
$5 TreeTinis – a year-round offering that changes seasonally featuring only the finest organic ingredients, Veev Acai spirit & organically produced Rain Vodka. For every TreeTini ordered, a tree is committed to be planted. Over 7,000 trees to date.
look
Our participants represent a cross section of ideas for
ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORTATION
listen
A very special performance by Los Guitarristas – Guitarras Sin Fronteras
Latin, Immediately following the Green Room Session at 9pm
a Chicago-based Guitar Quartet under the direction of Maestro Alfonso Chacon since 2003. We perform original arrangements of South and Central American folk and popular music as well as great works of classical guitar.
Please join uncommon ground for a very special evening of great food, amazing cocktails, live music, and amidst it all, support some great causes…
May
18
Cargo Bike Colombian Style
Filed Under Travel, Urban Planning, commuting, photos | Leave a Comment
Our favorite man in the field, Gregg Bleakney is currently embedded with the Colombian national cycling team training in the high altitude of Medellin. We had a chance to Skype this morning and he sent me some pic’s from his recent days in Bogota. Here you can see the everyday cycling culture in some of the poorest parts of the city. In the last few years, the city of Bogota has built hundreds of kilometers of cycling lanes equally through both the poorest and wealthiest sections of of the city. This has seemingly made life more egalitarian and reportedly greatly reduced crime. Check out the burly and practical cargo bikes on which many family members are taken to work and school.
The road below is a dedicated bikeway, along which a cottage bike repair industry grows. Note man in background wearing backpack with passenger on front of his double top-tube, yellow cargo bike.
The two pic’s below illustrate the great contrast between the wealthy, freeway serviced areas of Bogota and the barrio, yet note the attention to bikeway detail in both areas. There is pride amongst the residents in knowing that the government will spend money to improve even the poorest areas of town.
Apr
7
Extreme Makeover Dutch Bike Seattle Edition
Filed Under News & Events, Seattle, Shop | 6 Comments
Dutch bike Seattle got a makeover on Tuesday. Our shop is now visible from space, or at least from the Ballard Bridge. See some of the recent before and after pic’s.
Mar
31
Floating Fat Franks
Filed Under Accessories, Blogs, Customers, Seattle, Shop, bikes, commuting, photos, tech | 4 Comments
On a recent Saturday night, our friend Rick was pedaling home from a night out in Ballard back to his fishing boat at Seattle’s Fisherman Terminal when he found himself off the docks and plunged into the dark waters. Not a great way to end a night.
Luckily he was packing Schwalbe Fat Frank tires on his Rivendell and was able to swim out and locate his bike floating upside down by her cream tires. A few months ago Rick equipped his Rivendell with Schwalbe Fat Franks tires, the cream balloon racers. If you’ve never had the pleasure of cruising on these marshmallows over brutal winter streets you may want to consider it. Cheers to Schwalbe for making tires that save our bikes from swimming with the fishes.
Mar
5
Bling is the Thing – NAHBS 2009
Filed Under Blogs, Events, Industry, Travel, bikes, photos, tech, winter | Leave a Comment
I visited the North American Handmade Bicycle Show (NAHBS 2009) in Indianapolis this past weekend. This was a welcome respite and my first trip outside of Chicago since my arrival in October.
Thanks to my friends Tom and DeAnne for hosting my Indianapolis stay and welcoming me with all manner of good company, conversation and food. As well, I’d like to thank the Fighting Cocks volleyball club for initiating me into their fold with a shot of their namesake whiskey and a hearty rendition of their fight song. Mercifully, they only sang their limerick (to the tune of “Mickey Mouse”) once and I was able to avoid the 103 proof rye for the rest of the evening. These guys have been playing together through three generations. Their jolly party banter, good humor and obvious joy in each other’s company reflects a life well-lived and played amongst friends.
I was hoping for some efficient form of public transportation to whisk me down to Indy for the weekend. The Amtrak “Hoosier State” runs once per day leaving Chicago at 5:45 PM and arriving Indy over five hours later at 11:50 PM. Not attractive, seeing as a three hour drive down the freeway takes me right to the bar where I can drink a beer and eat pizza with Tom and DeAnne. In that way Hertz is a far more convenient (and not much more expensive, sparing carbon emissions-associated guilt) solution than Amtrak. Amtrak was not going to ferry me back & forth to my hosts who live in the suburbs of Carmel, IN. Once clear of Chicago’s early Friday afternoon congestion I felt a proud freedom fueled by the open highway ahead, a full tank of gas, a company debit card, my folding bike in the trunk and cruise control locked on 72.
Indianapolis, beyond being home to the world’s most famous speedway and the NFL’s Colts, is the home to many war memorials. Driving into town I am greeted by a most impressive obelisk capped by a sword-bearing, torch-holding, tunic-clad, winged-cap-wearing sort of lady liberty. The Indiana Soldier’s and Sailor’s Monument and the round brick-paved plaza surrounding it mark the center of the city. For a moment I imagined I was in Italy or France, but once through the lovely plaza it was clear I was just on my way to a big parking lot in the neighborhood of an American football stadium. I popped the trunk, unfolded my bike, rode through crowds making their way to a monster truck jam and found my way to the convention center.
I saw no bike parking accommodations outside the convention hall. In the lobby, a local organization hosted a handy bike corral, likely to spare us the bike confiscation debacle of last year’s show.
The convention hall itself was packed. I bumped into some of my new Chicago friends as well as Dutch Bike Co. Chicago customers. My impression from talking to some of the builders is that the quantity and caliber of prospective buyers increased over last year’s show. I imagine that mid-west cycling enthusiasts confined by this unusually wicked-cold winter make it a point to stoke their passion at any opportunity. This festival of bespoke bike porn proved the perfect remedy for mid-winter blues.
The show seemed more homogeneous than last year’s: missing were odd builders and specialty component manufacturers (Rohloff, Schlumpf… ) from the far reaches of Europe. More present were the bigger custom manufacturers like Independent Fab., Co-Motion and component manufacturers like Brooks, Cane Creek and SRAM. I liked that SRAM was promoting their Truvativ two-speed HammerSchmidt crank/bottom bracket. Though an innovation focused mainly at the mountain bike and 29′er market, I believe the HammerSchmidt would make an elegant and bullet-proof two-speed city bike solution.
As far as city and utility bikes, many builders displayed sporty solutions with derailleurs and forward-leaning positions for the riders. Really, because they’re so precious, it’s hard to call a $3-5000 hand-built bike a utility bike, unless its a cargo bike or a long-tail. I would have liked to have seen builders using full chain cases and more internally-geared hubs. These two components combined with a completely upright riding position are the trademarks of a true utility or city bike. The maintenance and longevity benefits of having your whole drive-train sealed are innumerable, way beyond the bonus of never needing to roll up your right pant leg. I saw not one bike with a full chain case, though some very beautiful stylized chain guards.
Someone leading the city and utility bike design movement is Mike Flanigan, known as ANT Bike Mike for his company Alternative Needs Transportation. Mike is building one of his popular designs in a more standardized manner. No longer a true custom, his low-volume production, front and rear-racked Boston Roadster is a paragon of fun, style, utility and affordability. One look a the steel one piece crank may drive many gear-headed dilettantes into a hypertensive pseudo-scientific rant, but to me it just says strong, durable, time-tested and gives me the warm fuzzy feeling I get when I think of my first Schwinn.
It’s worth mentioning that Mike’s roadsters have internally geared hubs, grip shifting, dynamo hub-powered headlamp and tail lamp, fenders, roller brake, a sprung saddle, as well a front and rear rack – all features that turn a bike into a practical and comfortable appliance – a true city bike and one that will serve its owner for years to come with little maintenance. The only thing missing is a full chain case, which remains in the domain of Dutch city bikes designed for those who wear their business clothes when they ride.
It’s also worth celebrating the sporty and cool Bilenky cargo bikes. Bilenky seemed to have the widest variety of bikes, from fat-tired monsters, to porteurs, to hybrid tandems and a triple with recumbent stokers on either side of the captain.
While in Mike’s booth on Saturday I had the pleasure of meeting someone who is likely The Daddy of all Indianapolis bike riders. He asked me to guess the year of his birth. I suddenly knew I was getting sandbagged. I blurted 1920, figuring he was so old that everyone guessed short of his real age, so I thought I’d guess long. He answered 1915. Whoa, and still riding a bike. That’s 93 or 94 years old, for those of you who don’t have a calculator or like me, spare brain cells devoted to arithmetic. He owns 3 bikes and told me the story of recently re-discovering his first (1920) bicycle in a local antiques shop. He said that the bike was the only one to be found in a neighboring town’s mercantile store, initially so big that at first he could only ride it standing up, because he could not reach the pedals from the saddle. Eventually the bike fit him and after some time he repainted it and it was this paint job which gave the bike away almost ninety years later when he spied it hanging in the antique shop. Missing was the perfect ending in which the antique shop owner sells the bike to the nostalgic 90-plus year-old man who was once the bicycle’s original childhood owner.
Enjoy the slides below…
Feb
11
David in Europe Until 2/24
Filed Under Seattle, Shop | Leave a Comment
David is in Amsterdam this week meeting with suppliers. We have limited staffing until his return on the 23rd, so shop hours will be limited to weekends. Feel free to call Stephan at our Chicago shop 312-265-0175 if you have any questions. Thanks and cheers.
Dec
21
A Bakfiets in Winter
Filed Under Accessories, Bakfiets, Chicago, commuting, photos, tech, winter | 5 Comments
Seems over the last few weeks here in Chicago we’ve had a snow storm every few days. Eddie, our property manager, begins his snow shoveling rounds many times before 4:00 AM. Shoveling sidewalks is The Law here in the windy city and property owners are fast (and smart) to mitigate their liabilities. Buried under the covers, as I drift in in and out of dreaming my next tropical vacation, I can hear the shovel scraping.
Now for many cities, this sort of weekly winter onslaught results in municipal paralysis (to the delight of all school-free children). In Chicago, four or five inches of snow quickly succumbs to battalions of snow plows, running day and night on all the major boulevards, strewing salt behind them as if the roads are salmon fillet and we are curing gravlax for the holiday. Due to this saline seasoning, the roads remain wet to well below twenty degrees. Cars shoosh by as if it just rained. Truly icy main roads are a rarity, and on the occasion the roads do dry, they just imitate ice like the flats of Bonneville.
I do not ever remember applying the adjective awesome to the cold, but today it applies. On my morning Bakfiets ride to the gym, ice formed on my nostril hairs. My breath escaped into giant steam clouds only to freeze as layers of ice on my sunglasses. I suppose there is a point where a gob of spit would freeze before it hits the ground, but it’s not quite that cold yet, but seemingly close. NOAA says it’s -3 degrees Fahrenheit, that’s -19 degrees C for you Swedish astronomy fans. Did I mention it’s sunny and the wind is blowing 30-40 mph? That makes the wind chill -30 degrees F. Santa says wear a hat, eye protection and some good gloves. The ride to the gym is less than two miles, so I savored less than ten minutes each way of the invigorating awesomeness that is today’s blowing cold.
When it’s this cold the accumulated snow, well, it does just that: accumulates. It has no place to go other than under and around parked cars. It doesn’t melt, no matter how much salt the DOT Head Chef throws on the pig. Even the randomly strewn blue salt crystals on my Bakfiets cargo cover were encased in ice. I passed several motorists digging out their cars, one, stuck in a rocking back and forward, howling tire dance (with a tip of the cap to Sammy Hagar) called “I can’t drive 55″ (like it’s 55 degrees, that is). No problem for a post-apocalyptic, wool overcoat-clad, studded tire riding Bakfiets pilot. I just plow my bike into the snow bank, hop off and push the guy out of his predicament. Subsequently, we both drive off much happier about the state of motorist-cyclist relations.
Because Chicago is really, truly, unbelievably, billiard table flat, it is universally “Bakfiets-able“. The only hills are bridges and valleys, freeway underpasses. This makes it easy to carry whatever I like, wherever I like. About 40 lbs of “stuff” (anything will do, even snow) in the front of the Bakfiets will help the front wheel cut through even the most peanut-buttery snow. Because Bakfiets and rider are together as aerodynamic as a cathederal, wind can just as easily be an enemy as a friend. I ride the narrower tree-lined side streets, where the wind is less ferocious and pedal like a liquor store bandit whenever the wind is to my back, because it is just as likely to be blasting me in the face by the next intersection.
Dec
18
The Artwork of Tully Satre
Filed Under Art, Chicago, Events, Shop, Travel, party, tech | Leave a Comment
line 1 |līn|
We are pleased to exhibit the artworks of Tully Satre (”say-ter”) this month, through January 30th, 2009. Mr. Satre is a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Are these post-modern tapestry designs, tartans, a painterly algebraic expression or obsession? You decide. The meticulous attention to line will surely tickle you.
Show hours are TU – SA, 11 AM – 6 PM and SU, noon – 5 PM
(closed Mondays)
Nov
28
Practical Chic Drives an Oma
Filed Under Blogs, Media, News & Events, Seattle, Shop, bikes, video | 1 Comment
Our friend, style & finance blogger and author of the snappy recession guide Don’t Get Caught with Your Skirt Down, Jill Keto takes some time to have a glass of wine and take an Oma for a test ride. Disclaimer: no animals or children were harmed in the making of this video.
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Stephan’s del.icio.us Bike Links- 49cm Azor Oma Women's Dutch Bike - FOR SALE
- Traitor Cycles
- The Cocktail Ride - the chainlink
- LED Bike Lights Wheel Lights Spoke Lights
- Search: bike path - Time Out New York
- DIAMANT - Erste Deutsche Fahrräder
- Wanderer Fahrräder - WANDERER. Wert erfahren
- Institute for Transportation and Development Policy
- World Streets Blog
- Bakfiets en Meer: utility cycling news & opinion from Amsterdam
- CycleChic Copenhagen