Originally Posted by
Lalato
Many of your thoughts mirror my own. It's as if it's so amazing that people can ride a bike to work in their work clothes.
That's our fault, really. Some newbie will come here and say, "I want to start commuting by bike -- what do I need?", and we tell him to get wicking underwear (even if it's bike shorts), cold-weather tights, a high-vis jacket AND vest, fifteen lights, a trailer, and do it all with a full carbon TT bike with electronic Dura-Ace.
Well, we usually don't recommend that bike..
.. but my point is, the "norm" among a lot of cyclists is that a bike commuter is obviously a Bike Commuter and is visible from low Earth orbit.
That said, I do like the "Dutch" bikes, and if this kind of article spurs more people to start commuting by bike, then great (with the added benefit of bringing prices down, we hope).
--sam
I posted a pic in a recent thread of a hypothetical bike build from a Dutch (I think) manufacturer's build-a-bike site. I went into it thinking of all the stuff I'd want in a utility bike -- step-thru frame, fenders, disc brakes, dynohub and lights, internal gear hub, rear rack, etc. It looked a LOT like a stereotypical Dutch bike. The sucker was somewhere over 2500 Euros; sure would be nice to get that cheaper (although the Rohloff hub launched the price a bit..
).