Riding in amsterdam

Padge

I am just getting back into road riding and would be interested in hooking up with others in the Amsterdam area. If anybody knows of a suitable club that would be great.

At present I am doing 50-60km spins on my own but am hoping to build that up.

ademort

Hi i live in Holland and would like to ask if you can speak Dutch

ademort

Hi PADGE, i live in the Netherlands, there are plenty of clubs in and around Amsterdam but before i start writing with information for you, could you please say what you want to do. Are you just looking for training buddies or do you actually want to race, please let me know. Greetings Ademort

Padge

Ademort,

Thanks for your replies, I'm afraid I don't speak much Dutch but am trying to learn more.

At the moment I am just interested in training, either with a squad or casually and if things go well maybe get into racing.

I live in the center of Amsterdam so any clubs in the South, East or West would be great.

Thank you,

Padge

ademort

Hi Padge, will be in touch tonight, have no time to write this morning, its far too cold to go cycling anyway. regards ADEMORT

ademort

Hi Padge had a quick look on the net today and found a club that should be ok for you.
wielervereniging Amsterdam
Chairman,-Hans van de sloot
tel no 0204206410.
If you contact this man he should be able to give you all the info you are looking for mate. If it turns out to be a disappointment let me know and i will give you the other clubs details.There are several in you area, but this one looks very promising.Also when you have time pay a visit to this bicycle shop
De Vos Fietsen
Dennenlaan 41
zwanenburg.
This shop has over 5000 bikes in stock of which 400+ are top quality racing bikes. He does excellent deals on bikes, one of the best bike shops in the Netherlands so i am told. Please keep us informed as to how you get on. Prettige dag verder Greetings ademort

Padge

Ademort,

Thank you for that information, I have sent an e-mail to Hans.

I have visited De Vos Fietsen but although they have a great range and great prices they would not allow me to test ride a bike. Maybe that is not a problem for everybody but I ended up going to my local bike shop instead.

Regards,

Peter

ademort

Hope you get a positive reply from Hans and you can start the new year with a new club. Shame about the bike shop, everyone says they are so cheap, you can ask for any type of frame and components and he will beat anybody for price by 20%, thats amazing,but if you cannot have a test ride then you take a big gamble for your 20% saving. I just wonder did you go to the shop with a friend or did you go alone. If you were alone maybe he thought that you were a risk, having no fixed address and being a British citizen. I just wonder if you take a bike for a test ride in the U.K. how long would you expect to take the bike out for. When i lived in the U.K. i built my bikes and never purchased a compete bike from a shop, thats why i,m asking. Greetings Ademort

Graham Webb

Padge wrote:

I am just getting back into road riding and would be interested in hooking up with others in the Amsterdam area. If anybody knows of a suitable club that would be great.

At present I am doing 50-60km spins on my own but am hoping to build that up.

Hi Padge,

My first Dutch club in 1967 was 'De Adelaar' based at Hilversum some 22 km East of Amsterdam. I don't see any language difficulties as most Dutch people speak English. With this club I was world amateur road race champion and if you mention my name I'm sure you'll get a warm welcome. http://www.gwcdeadelaar.nl/ They have their own training area, when I was in that club they had their own 200 metre track, but that has gone now.

'Spins' of 50-60 km are OK now but you will have to do more than that to beat the Dutch. To the East of Amsterdam there are fantastic cycle paths that take you right into Germany, I used them every day. My favourite was out to Germany then along the River Rijn to Arnem and back to Hilversum, 300 km. My daily rides were always 200-300 km, plus track league three nights a week or evening crits and road races at the week end. That made the worlds 200 km road race a piece of cake for me!

Good luck, Graham.

Graham Webb

ademort wrote:

Hi i live in Holland and would like to ask if you can speak Dutch

Ja ademort, ik kan Nederlands lezen en schrijven, maar het zou onbeleefd zijn om hier voort te doen in een taal dat weinigen kunnen verstaan :!: Waarom die vraag :?:

Padge

Graham,

Thanks for your information, I had a look at the club website and they look very impressive. I was hoping to find something a little closer to home to start with although I was told that the club I contacted was on a break until February.

I thought Ademorts question about my Dutch was to find out if he could respond in his native language, a fair question in the circumstances.

Thanks again, if I make it to Belgium with my bike I will be sure to make contact.

Padge

ademort

Hello Graham great to see a former world champ taking part in the forum, can i just clear something up please. The reason i asked padge if he could speak Dutch was to help me to understand his present situation. It would be pointless passing on a number of websites to Padge that are in Dutch if he obviously does,nt understand them. That,s why i give him the name and phone number of the chairman of the cycling club and also the address of De Vos cycle shop, rather than refer him to their website. Hope this clears up any misunderstanding
Padge also regarding the test ride of bicycles here in the Netherlands, i asked the chief mechanic at my LBS how it works exactly. I do a fair bit of business with them and Know the mechanic very well. He tells me that if a customer wants to try a bike, then its no problem. but they may only ride around the little square outside the shop it,s maybe 70Metres×70, so its not much is it.They will not allow a customer to take a bike out for a longer ride as the bike is not insured.Maybe this is also the case at DeVos. Padge, as you can see above Graham wrote to me in Dutch and what he writes is,- Yes Ademort i can read and write Dutch but it would be impolite to do it from now on in a language that few people can understand.Graham then asks , Why the question Hence this answer. Oh and by the way Padge i am English.

Liam O\'Connor

Can anyone recommend any good bike shops in or around the centre of Amsterdam? I'm going over for a few days in March and wouldn't mind a bit of a browse - if I can distract the missus with museums or shopping for an hour! Thanks. Regards, Liam

ademort

Hi Liam wrote in an earlier posting but anyway here it is again
De Vos Fietsen
Dennenlaan 41
Zwanenburg
Have never been myself but has around 5000 bikes in stock of which 400 are racing bikes,according to his advertisements is at least 20% cheaper than anyone else.
www.vosfietsen.nl/ Greetings Ademort

Graham Webb

Who goes to Amsterdam to look at cycle shops :?:

Nuggs

You need to be careful - if you stop at every red light you'll never get anywhere...