Just came back from Amsterdam!

fishdisco

Amazed by the cycling culture! It's amazing! Everyone rides - old or young, in suits, boots, jeans, heavy coats, high heels, with baskets, plastic bags, backpacks, whatever, anything goes!!! Cycles everywhere!

What are those simple bikes everyone's riding? Who needs a specialized anyway?!!

Eat My Dust

I once saw a black dwarf, smoking a cigar, riding a girls pink Barbie bike with stabilisers in Amsterdam.

On another visit to Amsterdam I was explaining this to a friend, who suggested that I had been hitting the "cafe's" too much, when to our surprise I saw him again, he cycled right passed us!!!

fishdisco

Ha ha ha ha!! Nothing would surprise me!

dondare

fishdisco wrote:

Amazed by the cycling culture! It's amazing! Everyone rides - old or young, in suits, boots, jeans, heavy coats, high heels, with baskets, plastic bags, backpacks, whatever, anything goes!!! Cycles everywhere!

What are those simple bikes everyone's riding? Who needs a specialized anyway?!!

Sounds like Camden Town.

dondare

Eat My Dust wrote:

I once saw a black dwarf, smoking a cigar, riding a girls pink Barbie bike with stabilisers in Amsterdam.

On another visit to Amsterdam I was explaining this to a friend, who suggested that I had been hitting the "cafe's" too much, when to our surprise I saw him again, he cycled right passed us!!!

Still sounds like Camden Town.

helz

Eat My Dust I saw that guy too when I was in Amsterdam - I kid you not!

Clever Pun

people ride those bone shakers so they don't get stolen or stand out... purely functional a2b bikes

clanton

The other impressive thing is their general level of skill and casualness - quite happy to take corners at speed one handed chatting on a mobile phone with a kid in those carrier things on front!

whome

My understanding is they are functional utility bikes perfect for Dutch commuting. So built in locks, lights, mudguards, chain guards, skirt guards, racks, etc, ect. Not cheap rubbish, just bred for functional utility instead of sports or off-road pretensions.

Cyclegent

But....but...they don't wear helmets, or dayglo tabards! Oh, the humanity!!!

cntl

>>But....but...they don't wear helmets, or dayglo tabards! Oh, the humanity!!!

If I lived in Amsterdam, I am note sure I would wear a helmer myself Cycling over there is safe because of the LARGE numbers of cyclists (plus the infrastructure and priority in highway code they receive). Some more info:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk6YxhKH590

BentMikey

It's safer in Amsterdam in SPITE of the infrastructure, not because of it.

star_rover

I'd guess that most of them aren't commuting very far though. I wouldn't fancy a Dutch utility bike for my 12 mile commute.

cntl

>>It's safer in Amsterdam in SPITE of the infrastructure, not because of it

I think you may be right. There's a town (I think it was Germany???) where they removed all road markings, sings, traffic lights, etc. and recorded a significant drop in accidents. Forces people to pay attention.
It seems then that Dondare was quite right pointing out that sometimes dedicated infrastructure can make things worse!

dirk_van_gently

This kind of thinking does fly in the face of established thinking, but if it works?
http://www.citycycling.co.uk/issue28/issue28page23.html

Cyclegent

star_rover wrote:

I'd guess that most of them aren't commuting very far though. I wouldn't fancy a Dutch utility bike for my 12 mile commute.

True - and the Netherlands has the major advantage of being flat, like that other cycling country Denmark. I 'd like to see the average Dutchman ride one of those clunkers up Highgate Hill while wearing his overcoat, eating his crepes, smoking his pipe and giving someone a 'backy'...

cooper.michael1

fishdisco wrote:

Amazed by the cycling culture! It's amazing! Everyone rides - old or young, in suits, boots, jeans, heavy coats, high heels, with baskets, plastic bags, backpacks, whatever, anything goes!!! Cycles everywhere!

What are those simple bikes everyone's riding? Who needs a specialized anyway?!!

Ive said this for years, one of the main reasons people dont cycle over here is due to the thought you need to dress up like a tw*t to cycle anywhere.

People who pull on full lycra and put on SPD's and TT a 5 mile commute do damage to the image of cycling.

If you travel to many areas of Germany, Denmark etc.. also, you see normal people, riding practical bikes, in normal clothes.

richardjallen

I saw someone on their bike the other day wearing a pin-strip suit and a trilby hat. I didn't think it looked quite right as cycling attire. The muck from the road would ruin a good suit. A rain coat on top would solve that problem I guess.

BentMikey

I was long chuffed today to see a gent and his girlfriend, dressed up nicely in fairly normal clothes, on an "omafiets" with her riding sidesaddle on the rack, pootling through Hyde Park.

OTOH I couldn't imagine doing my commute without lycra and look pedals. It's 15 miles, and about to become 21.

Cyclegent

cooper.michael1 wrote:

fishdisco wrote:

Amazed by the cycling culture! It's amazing! Everyone rides - old or young, in suits, boots, jeans, heavy coats, high heels, with baskets, plastic bags, backpacks, whatever, anything goes!!! Cycles everywhere!

What are those simple bikes everyone's riding? Who needs a specialized anyway?!!

Ive said this for years, one of the main reasons people dont cycle over here is due to the thought you need to dress up like a tw*t to cycle anywhere.

People who pull on full lycra and put on SPD's and TT a 5 mile commute do damage to the image of cycling.

If you travel to many areas of Germany, Denmark etc.. also, you see normal people, riding practical bikes, in normal clothes.

I agree - but I think there's something in the British character that enjoys spending lots of money on special gear. It's part of our one-upmanship culture , ie you've got a better house/car/plasma tv than your neighbours. In the same way many British people seem to think they've got to buy expensive bikes and wear ludicrous 'performance' clothing to cycle three miles...I don't think this attitude is so widespread on the Continent.

John the Monkey

My commute is 8 miles each way, and I sweat like a pig - I wear cycling kit largely because it wicks the sweat away, and doesn't flap about like mad, or chafe once it's wet (like the cotton T-shirts I wore initially did).

For me the gear is about practicality - I couldn't wear work stuff on the commute, and regular sports/leisure stuff was downright uncomfortable. People who can do it all in jeans and sweatshirts, good on you. Gosh, I sound defensive. My bike did only cost £50 though.

Regarding the Drachten thing - I'd imagine that it works in places where people are used to seeing bikes as part of the traffic. I suspect that over here, motorists would act more or less as they do already, i.e. treating cars and motorised traffic as though it had a right to be on the road, and everything else with attitudes varying from indifference to outright hostility.

Cyclegent

richardjallen wrote:

I saw someone on their bike the other day wearing a pin-strip suit and a trilby hat. I didn't think it looked quite right as cycling attire. The muck from the road would ruin a good suit. A rain coat on top would solve that problem I guess.

Well I do have an old suit that I very occasionally wear to cycle in if I'm going direct to a meeting from home or something. Surely a trilby hat would get blown off though? I do have one but it cost me a lot of money and I wouldn't risk it!

Totalnewbie

That riding side saddle thing only works on strong Dutch bikes though, right? I met the bloke at the cinema after work a few weeks back, when his bike was out of action, he wanted me to give him a lift home and I said no, in case I ended up damaging the bike/breaking the rack! I walked back with him instead.

I'm in a mixture of normal/sport clothes at the moment for my 5 mile commute; usually jeans and a wicking long sleeved running top, with trainers (I don't know how other women can cycle in their nice dainty shoes, my feet would be slipping when I pedalled hard, although I'm planning to wear my flat boots once it gets colder) I also have some fleecy running tights for when it is colder as they'll be warmer than jeans, though I am dubious about going out in public in them!

I think it looks good when people are in 'normal' clothes but I couldn't mangage it myself for anything but a couple of miles, and believe me I'd like to!

Cyclegent

I personally avoid jeans, as they tend to chafe a bit, and in wet weather they soak up water like a sponge. I find lightweight wool trousers are best for winter, as they dry quickly, and cotton for summer. Shoes need to have a cleated rather than ridged sole, so that you get both horizontal and vertical grip.