vernacular bikes

[kirkcudbright]

It's Bike Sunday here on the Recirculating Cheese channel. It's impossible to not take pictures of bikes in Amsterdam; they're literally everywhere. However, I saw very few American-style bikes - only a handful with dropped handlebars, and maybe one or two mountain bikes. Instead, you see bikes with upright handlbars, cargo racks, lights, fenders, and chain guards. These are bikes for transporting people and stuff, in comfort.



This is the classic "Dutch bike" (note the double top tube), but I didn't actually see so many of them.


This is the vernacular (and ubiquitous) bike lock. I bought one at a street market, as a souvenir.

Comments

[c1.livejournal.com]

I've begun to think that many Americans have it wrong: they think of bikes and think of Lance Armstrong. And there's a thin sliver of a fraction of people who'll end up cheating winning like him. But they see his bike, and think that's what "biking" means. It's no surprise most people would feel left out.

Then again, how many people really just need an economy sedan, or perhaps a wagon, but Just Can't Live without a monstrous SUV that can't pass a gas station if the lives of all the kittens in the world depended on it?

So America will remain beholden to image over function. (NB: image != form.)

[redheadedmuse.livejournal.com]

these totally made me smile, thank you!

[pywaket.livejournal.com]

I also notice that the Dutch know where the correct location for gears and brakes is: inside the hub. I don't think I saw a single derailleur in your pics. And quite a few of those bikes did seem to have multiple gears, despite the flatness of the terrain.

That Raleigh Sports with the full chaincase is particularly nice :-)

[ceo]

The thing that's always struck me about the Dutch bikes I've seen here is that they're obviously from a country with no hills. I think they ought to be able to make bikes comfortable, durable and easy to ride without weighing 80 pounds.