Bikey pics from Europe
Posted 31 December 2006 | Filed under Bicycling, EntrepreneurshipDean and I got back from Europe before the solstice — London and Amsterdam mainly. Blogging has been a low priority, or rather the prospect of writing up the trip properly has kept me procrastinating. Another difficulty is that while candor and dish are part of why people read blogs, our trip was driven by a business agenda that I can’t yet disclose completely.
I will affirm that Dean’s household and mine are in cahoots to make Clever Cycles a success. Cleverchimp has always been more interested in bicycles per se than in electric assist; it’s just that nobody was making an electric assist in line with these values, and we found that we could. Stokemonkey will continue to be a major part of our activity, but we’re going to tell a bigger, more coherent story about how sweetly bicycles can meet all, or nearly all of a family’s or business’s local transportation needs.
I’ve decided just to publish photos from our trip, with some spare comments, rather than write lots, at least for now. Enjoy. There’s a high degree of thematic overlap with 2003′s “euro bike foray” notes. The main difference on the streets of Amsterdam over the last three years is that Maarten van Andel’s Cargobike (in particular) has exploded in numbers.
December 31st, 2006 at 16:28
Great pictures.
Do you have any idea where I could buy one of those rain shields that fit over the rear wheel that I see on some of the bikes in your pictures?
December 31st, 2006 at 16:33
Not certain I follow your meaning George. If you mean a skirt guard… pretty sure they’re specific to fender makes/models. Good luck in the US, unless you want to buy an Electra Amsterdam. Batavus (big Dutch bike company) is soon going to be selling in the US too.
January 1st, 2007 at 06:29
Aha, so Stokemonkey has landed in Holland! I will contact the people from Workcycles (maybe I can bribe them into selling it to me :) Hope you enjoyed the trip and that you were able to see something of the countryside.
January 1st, 2007 at 11:17
Hi George,
I have some ideas how you can make the skirt guards yourself, depending what your goal is… let me know and we can talk!
January 1st, 2007 at 12:09
“Quick & Easy Bicycle Skirt Guards” – http://www.instructables.com/id/ES89UXYK1MEP287UQZ/
January 2nd, 2007 at 08:10
I’m hoping the Batavus shows up in Portland soon. And I can’t wait to hear about your plans. vj (who is probably going to make a skirt guard from corroplast soon)
January 2nd, 2007 at 09:06
wow….
I am impressed that you guys come up with so many different skirt guards!
January 8th, 2007 at 11:57
Todd et al –
Thought you might enjoy this site showing the amazing cargo capacities of the chinese. I wonder how scenes like these will change with the coming car culture in China.
http://aistigave.hit.bg/Logistics/
February 23rd, 2007 at 20:09
Your pictures of Amsterdam and Nederland are making me homesick.
I’m one of the few people who commutes to work by bike everyday at my job in this
relatively small left coast town and most folks consider me a little nuts, this is when they drive SUVs to get there?
Go figure. Perhaps I should move to Portland. Thanks for the pics. The longtail
Surly extracycle rig sure is tempting.
January 11th, 2008 at 16:52
[...] a bike as part of traffic. It’s a yearning survey of the bicycling societies China and the Netherlands, both of which have powerfully shaped our own aspirations for reclamation of Portland from a [...]