Originally Posted by
I-Like-To-Bike
Just curious: Does anyone know how many Bakfiets are sold or exist in the U.S.? Doubly curious of the number sold or existing outside of Portland or owned/used by anyone who is not affiliated with the bike store selling them.
Given their selling price, weight, and overall size and associated difficulty in manhandling into a home, apartment or vehicle when not in use, or difficulty in riding up hills when in use, I suspect that few people in the U.S. really find much use or value with bakfiets other than as an expensive novelty for sunny day rides to a nearby park or bike path on a close to home (presumably with ground floor or garage storage space).
I do see bakfiets in use all of the time in Austin. Usually downtown or very close in neighborhoods on the outskirts of downtown. Almost entirely east of I35 due to the hills in other directions. They are used to move children, compost collection (Compost Peddlers), and keg deliveries of local beer. I have two friends that have bakfiets. One is custom made here and is owned by a senior member of COA Bicycle Program staff. They live just east of downtown. He works downtown and his wife is the director of a Waldorf style outdoor learning preschool in their neighborhood. Works well for them. The other is a parent I know through my child's school. She uses hers to go back and forth from home to school, to the park, to grocery/farmers market, etc., and rarely if ever rides outside of her neighborhood. They both live in single family residential houses with yards, carport/garage, etc., in very expensive real estate for our neck of the woods due to close proximity to the downtown area. Also, both of their neighborhoods have cycle tracks, separate bike paths or buffered lanes, etc… Not the case with much of our city at large.