NYT Article on Dutch Bikes...
 

Was browsing and saw this article. Thoughts?

--sam

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/fa...html?_r=1&8dpc

Bikes as a fashion statement? Worst things could happen.

I'm often impressed when I see bikes used as everyday transportation by average people. I've seen this in China, Germany and other parts of Europe.

The most popular bikes used is Munich or Shanghai is the upright single speed with a full chainguard.

Maybe these riders simply need a bulletproof ride to work that keeps them reasonable clean & dry.

Michael

What a patronizing article.

I hope there is a Dutch Bike boom over here. I'd like to see the price come down.

Bikes have been a fashion statement for years. It just hasn't been that one. The reads like an article from someone who knows nothing about cycling and who thinks that everybody who owns a bike always rides in full kit. I always ride in my work clothes. Granted, that rarely involves a tie but it does involve the rest of the suit and I have never even considered riding in anything else. Sounds like somebody needs to get a grip (on some handlebars).

+1

$1000 to 2000?!?!?! EEEeeK! A good friend of mine has the step through or girls version of this bike and it is cool and all but $2000? He has had it a few years before the hipness of it all and paid around 300 for it new through the mail! The chainguard is held on sort of clever but is a pain in the butt if you have to get to the chain.

We can only wish!

Don't worry. No one who buys one will ride it enough to ever deal with the chain.

ha ha ha, true but he got his a wile back and didn't know it was a fashion statement. He got a flat one time on the back wheel and you have to use a bike stand to hold the thing. It took over an hour to deal with all the crud you have to take off the thing! No joke! Get a flat on one and take it to a shop and see what they say:lol: The thing is a puzzle.

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 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 think I'll import Chinese Flying Pigeons. Basically the same old, heavy, practical design at a much lower price point and even rarer than the Dutch bikes in the US. I'll charge a little less than $1k - $2k.

As for fixed gear bikes being impractical, I commute in my work clothes on one so I don't know what's so impractical.

How true.

:roflmao2:



.

[QUOTE=jyossarian;8741462]I think I'll import Chinese Flying Pigeons. Basically the same old, heavy, practical design at a much lower price point and even rarer than the Dutch bikes in the US. I'll charge a little less than $1k - $2k.

A little less than $1000 or 2000?! What are things coming two? I feel like I just got slapped in the face. :twitchy:

I took my wife's breezer's full chaincase off last night (to remove the rear wheel). Was a learning experience anyway.

Do you just use an ankle strap? (if your work clothes have pants) (although usually I just stuff my pants cuff into my sock if I'm dressed that way) (I'm edging closer and closer to that ssfg concept and wondering about a chainguard vs just continuing to make sure i'm wearing a sock if I'm wearing long pants)

Yeah, I don't know. I think the practical approach of the relaxed city bike runs counter to fashions goal. It's about function, not style.

The article might talk about these particular expensive versions of bikes that are for the moment, "fashionable", but this style has been around forever and is well suited for a certain type of ride.

I think, a lot more people would be lured on, and perhaps stay on, a bike if it was more "normal" and didn't have to ride fast, wear special clothes, be young or have an attitude. After all, aren't we all a little closer to Pee Wee than Lance?

Maybe this fashion trend will keep more people on a bike than the fashion trend of Italian racers did in the 70's which probably turned more people off using a bike for practical purposes than had them continue using a bike for commuting or errands.

How so? I might have missed something but this seemed to be one of the more positive articles about commuting and cycling fashion that I've read.

Geek strap FTW! MY work clothes are normal office clothes. No suit & tie anymore since we went to business casual back in the 90's.

Took this while I was in Oxford, England last year.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3147/...3c786efa_o.jpg

Lots of "Dutch" bikes there. Lots of bikes, period.

Presenting cycling as an everyday activity is patronizing? I'm not seeing this. Is it that the article is critical of the lycra crowd?

There lies the problem. here in the US we overcomplicate things. When you get a flat, you take off the wheel, replace the tube, etc., etc.. It's just our own inability to think outside the box.

You get a flat on a Dutch bike, you take the tire (not the wheel) off on the non-drive side, find the hole, glue a patch on it, and put the tire back on. Doesn't take any longer than the "US method"

Born and raised in the Netherlands I grew up riding Dutch bikes. We would take the back wheel off every other year or so to replace the tire. With a full chain guard you rarely have to lube the chain either, so no reason to ever take the chain guard off

Duppie

“I liked the perversity of it,” he said. “I liked saying: ‘Anyone can do this. It’s normal.’ I never ride with a helmet either, even when people are telling me I’m an idiot. Riding a bike should be normal, and you shouldn’t have to wear a funny Styrofoam hat.”
One day he collided with another rider, tearing a gash in his suit sleeve and another in his pride. Today his suits reside in an office closet, and he cycles to work in jeans and a polo shirt.
Would he have gotten in the accident on a Dutch bike? He laughed. “Probably not,” he said. “I was riding with no hands, and the guy came out of the bike lane. If I’d been on one of those, I would probably have been going in more of a straight line.”


The guy would be a lawyer...

I don't have it in front of me and don't feel like re-reading it for specifics--but sort of, yes. Saying that people who don't dress like a fashion model on their way to work aren't dressed like grownups is pretty much the definition of patronizing.

:notamused:It had a bad sidewall gash from a beer bottle!

Patronizing how?

IIRC, contemporary fixie culture are dominated by fashion, too. It's probably the overall growth driver behind it right now.

Btw, don't knock chain guards until you tried them! They are the next best thing since fenders!

I do agree prices need to come down, but the good ones aren't exactly cheap in the EU. Couple with taxes and import duties, the US prices are pretty comparable if not with a small markup compared to EU prices. A 500 euro bike is about $650 in the US without taxes. I paid about $750 for my Batavus, a far cry from what the others were asking($1500+ for Azor and Pashleys).

That is not what your first post said ;). So my original point is still valid. You don't need to take the wheel off when all you have is a flat
Duppie

ha ha, he has had to take the thing off 3 times now that I know of. His sister is my boss at work!

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.

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.. :D).

And, yeah, I don't think the article is patronizing, either. It's an accurate summation of what most people -- cyclists and not -- think of cycling around town.