I was thinking that for the 4-figures quoted in the NYT article, just get a Breezer, ready to go out of the box.

But it's not Dutch!

A rain cape goes over regular clothes. Tie it to the rack when you're done.

Leave earlier.

And chicbicyclist's point is that, with a car, you can go from home to office building to another office building to lunch to a job site to a meeting and back home without changing clothes. People want to do the same with a bike. Are you saying that it can't be done?

Cycling clothes go on my body. Why would I bother with a rain cape?

I think you missed the part where it's 95°F and 95% humidity, and we grownups can't be in the office in bedraggled clothes, drenched in sweat. Suggesting I spend more time outside just means more sweat when I finally get there.

In my life? No, it can't. The combination of weather and distance are too much for it.

The Dutch do it, the Germans do it, the Chinese do it (there are probably more everyday cyclists in China than the entire population of North America...), yet you can't.

I hereby anoint thee as BF Wussy of the Week. :p ;)

I have to check the breezer manual to see if you can wear a skinny tie when riding it.

Most social-focused NYT articles are strikingly classist; it's a very condescending newspaper in general.

Right, they all ride 15 mi each way in a suit and tie in 95F and 95% humidity, and arrive at the office fresh as a daisy.

Let's put this into perspective. The article is from the fashion section of the NYT which isn't hard hitting factual journalism, it's fluff. It's written to appeal to hipsters and scenesters who want to appear both fashionable and environmentally conscious. Give it a year and there'll be lots of Dutch bikes on CL.

Yes, the Dutch and Chinese are known for the 25% hills and 95% humidity on their 26-mile round-trips to their jobs on Wall Street, where their clothes need to look recently pressed.

I hereby anoint thee (the "as" is not necessary--learn English) BF Broken Record Despite All Facts of the Year.

Please do. If I can't commute looking like Rod Serling, I don't see the point.

Again, I got my authentic dutch omafiet for $750 + tax.

They aren't for you, that much is obvious. Why you take so much of what I think is offense about them or the idea of them, is beyond me, however.

I repeat, these bikes are not for you guys. It's not it's fault people live 15 miles into the suburbs or 15 miles from their jobs. The sooner you guys realize that, the less you will find the need to bring it down a peg.

Why you think I've taken offense is a little beyond me. Maybe it's that I'm willing to continue a silly conversation with an obtuse man when there's not much to do at work.

These bikes, combined with those clothes, simply will not work as a commuting setup for the overwhelming majority of New Yorkers. That's it--nothing else. It's a really simple premise that's very difficult to refute.

What suburbs? I live and work in Manhattan.

I think you have an odd view of what constitutes a long commute. Among the people I work with, my 13 miles (one way) is about average. I just have more fun on mine.

Wait, San Diego? Have you ever spent significant time in NYC? It's reeeeeeeally different.

If you have not lived in NYC in the summer you won't get it. It is worse than in the the south. Here in California I can commute 5 miles each way in Khakis and a Polo, no problem. There is no way I could do that in NYC in the summer, much less in a jacket and tie (and when I lived there and worked on Wall street (BBH if it matters) tie, and jacket were required, now my guess they are expected, vs required)

Even here if I am doing much longer than my 5 miler, I tend to put on bike shorts, as I am riding harder to cut the commute time....5 miles and I can take it easier.

15 miles is loooong for a bike commute, you're crazy(or a poster on bf) if you think that's nothing but a long commute.

Which is exactly one of the points the article was making.

Absolutely. When I lived in Los Angeles (where I grew up), and my distances were single digits, I just wore whatever I'd walk around in, pretty much all year.

That would be terrible advice for New York City, except maybe in the six nicest weeks of Spring and Fall.

This was the NEW YORK TIMES, and the article was aimed specifically at New Yorkers who think they want to bike commute and think buying fluorescent belts will make them look like grownups. Neither will work.

That's what I do with my 8 speed IGH when I get a flat. Turned the bike upside down, peeled the tire off by hand patched the tube and I was back on the road in a few minutes.

Most folks in the U.S. only ride for recreation and feel the need to dress like they're riding in the TDF. I wear khakis, wicking tees and dress shirts everyday and my co-workers can't believe I rode to work in those??? When it gets hot/humid, I leave a few dress shirts at work and just wear the tees when I ride.

That's the dumbest argument so far.

No it's not.

But let's go with it.

Those bikes and those clothes will not allow a New Yorker to go 3 miles, in the summer, on the flats, without showing up to work 2 days out of 5 looking like they just got pulled out of a tub of other people's sweat.

Those bikes and those clothes will not allow a New Yorker to go 3 miles, in the winter, on the flats, without showing up to work 2 days out of 5 looking like they didn't have enough quarters for the clothes dryer.

They're good for maybe six weeks looking professional when you get to work. Not much more. And that's IF you don't get any flats, and IF you don't have any chain problems, and IF you guessed right about what the weather was going to be and dressed perfectly when you left the house.

The article is stupid.

These dutch bikes arent much different than the "american" beach cruiser.

same thing if you ask me. Actually I think a beach cruiser is a much better desing.

Heck yeah--if I still lived in Venice, it would be fine, if a little expensive for a bike that gets sand and salt in the works.

Even on my measly 2 mile commute, I have to deal w/ two short, steep inclines that take some sweat and effort to get up when loaded down w/ my briefcase & locks. My guess is during fall/winter/spring, I could pull off the suit and not be anymore sweaty than cramming into a hot, crowded subway car. But I don't need to wear a suit. Maybe what I need is a grownup job that requires me to dress like a grownup so I can spend more of my income on fashion.

You missed the point entirely.

For a forum nut, 15 miles is routine. For everyone else, it's not.

And I'll give you the flat argument(but even then, many already sport the heavy thorn resistant tires), but if you have chain problems, you got a crappy bike. The dutch bike is designed entirely to be ride and go, and even sports a full chain case so you don't even have to bother with them apart from the yearly or twice yearly trip to the lbs.

If it breaks down, just walk 3 miles and call your boss. It's no different than if your car breaks down or if the transit authority stops service for a couple of hours.

Which point? There have been so many...

The weather isn't worse in the winter in NY than in Copenhagen. You can wear a full dress coat (coat/skirt guard) and hat like they do there. In the summer it is hotter (not generally 95 (high average is only 84 in hottest month), but it does get up there), but the point is in general if you can walk in the weather, you can ride in it. I live in a city hotter than NY with some hills, but its true I can wear shorts and sandals in the summer usually. But for the vast majority of the time, I could wear most any clothes for my 6 mile commute each way. If biking ever gets mass appeal for normal transport like it has in some places, it will be because most people are just hopping on and going, not through sport biking with separate gear, so the article has some points I suppose even if it must be from more of a style angle and we all know Dutch bikes are all about utility (although the author does not ignore that).

Amsterdamize collects some of the heated responses to the article and comments on them:
http://amsterdamize.com/2009/04/16/new-amsterdam-times/

IBikeNYC chimes in as well:
http://ibikenyc.com/

For a bike commuter, I'd say 15 miles is on the longish side of average. The article was nominally about bike commuting, not about non-bike-commuting. In the real world, people cover real distances.

You know as well as I do that there's no such thing as a trouble-free bike. You really want to fix minor problems in $798 of overpriced clothing, in summer, in New York?

(And the "chain problems=crappy bike" thing is very silly.)

Of course it's different.

When a car transmission pukes its guts onto the pavement, you're stuck until the tow truck comes. There's nothing you can do.

When a subway train stops because somebody committed suicide on the A line, you're stuck until they mop up the lymph. There's nothing you can do.

When a bike has any little dumb issues--let's say, since you've conceded they have flats sometimes that that's what's happened--it takes a couple of minutes to patch or replace it, and then you keep going.

You really think the most attractive options when a tube blows are either getting tire grunge on your $500 linen pants or walking your 46-pound 3-speed three miles and being late to work? I don't. I'd rather get tire grunge on my $95 black rain pants (in the winter) or my $0 hairy kneecap (in the summer) and arrive at work on time, as though nothing happened. That's one of the beautiful things about bike commuting. The chain comes off, you don't wait for a tow truck. The tube goes flat, you don't sit trapped underground.

Anybody who's been doing it for more than, oh, let's pick a good-sounding time period...ONE YEAR knows how to deal with a flat or put a chain back on.

In those clothes?

On those bikes?

Fahgeddaboudit. They're for bike commuting in Narnia.