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Old 04-14-17 | 06:02 AM
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Stadjer
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From: Groningen

Bikes: Gazelle rod brakes, Batavus compact, Peugeot hybrid

Originally Posted by junipash
Hi Stadjer!... thanks for the response..

I think Workcycles uses Azor as a frame builder and then puts some specific components on them, builds them up and sells them. From the few youtube videos I've watched showing about Azor's history and their factory, I was very very impressed. I'll investigate my options for ordering directly from them with the options I'm after vs ordering from Workcycles and see which one makes more sense...
Probably, appearently they assemble bikes for this French company too. Maybe WC uses better components, but there are some nice frame types on the website.

In any event I'm really excited to have a "new" dutch bike as my experience with them before was in Indonesia where all of the dutch bikes are very old.. beautiful, but very old. I bought two separate Opafiets style bikes (one a "Magneet" and the other a "Simplex") while living there and on both of them the steering tube snapped while I was riding it!! I think the guy who was selling me the bikes was probably getting broken frames and having them cheaply re-welded.. not a great a guy! But anyway that bad experience still didn't dampen my enthusiasm for dutch bikes!
Usually Simplex' frames don't break, that was a high end brand, but I understood Fongers are more wanted there because they were imported by the army and got a special tropics treatment by waxing the inside of the frame, so maybe the other brands rusted from the inside.

I'm looking to get front and rear roller brakes and the nexus premium 8 speed IGH.. I reckon that'll be pretty reliable and give me a good wide range to get up most hills.

Thanks again for the feedback.. I think I'll wait a few more weeks and make up my mind which model to go with and work out the ordering process.
Maybe it's because of my location, but I can't see https://www.azor.nl/ in English. They aren't short on customers so I wonder if they are happy to let WC handle the individual foreign customers. If you click on 'bekijk folder' you'll get the brochure pdf in Dutch and I could help you with translation issues a bit, but I think the normal procedure is to order a bespoke bike together with the local LBS with an Azor dealership. So you'll probably end up at WC because of logistics, and they do taylormade too. The nexus8 is safe choice, contrary to the nexus3 and nexus7 it's consistently low on mechanical resistance, the other ones vary with individual IGHs and with the 7 the most used middle gears have the highest resistance and with the 3-speed the 3 is very inefficient. Roller brakes are the natural successor to classic Dutch drum brakes and as reliable and mainenance free, with more than enough stopping power.

Originally Posted by CrankyOne
I believe the geometry of the WC Kruis is the same as WC Opafiets. WC can verify this for you. At one time the top tube was necessary for frame stability for larger (male) riders and the Kruis was an option to provide the same stability with a slightly lower effective top tube height — for pastor's garments. Today the top tube or double top tube or kruis is often more tradition than necessity except for really heavy loads. Most males can ride a step-thru or Omafiets with no problems.
I bought one last year for in the city, but I wouldn't like to visit a lot of parishioners in a wide rural area on it. I've got the tallest regular oma frame but it's too wobbly for my 6ft4 to average good speeds. It becomes very inefficient not just because it too small to use the full length of my legs but also too much energy is wasted on flexing the frame at higher speeds, so 20 km/h means way too much sweat for a priest.

It's not entirely clear what a priest bike or a pastor's bike is, some say it's a regular oma with longer cranks, some say it's a tall step through cross frame, but there are also special mades from the 30's like a 71 cm frame size oma. I wouldn't call a high cross frame a priest bike, for the simple reason a priest couldn't get on it decently with a priest's garment. My impression is that the high cross frames from the 30's were mainly a matter of style, just to have something different and show off that it's not just an ordinary bike but a more expensive one. Just like Americans these days want the lightest bikes, the Dutch back then wanted the most rigid bikes, without it making much difference for the ride. There was even one manufacterer that publicly stated there was no technical reason for a cross frame and the diamond was just fine, but due to consumer demand they produced them anyway. Maybe these days with the Dutch beeing much taller, it makes more sense to produce cross frames. Azor's Eiffel tower frames are the most rigid and I like their looks, but they're not old fashioned.
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