Sep

17

Chicago Location Revealed

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Dutch Bike Seattle is thriving - thanks to all of our customers, friends and fans in Seattle and all over the USA. Sporty Seattle seems to be warming up to the more relaxed and practical lifestyle Dutch bikes inspire. We’ve even come up with a “Seattle Gearing” package (20 minute swap - rear 20T cog for a 22T cog, and add a few links to the chain) for those who need or want some more hill climbing power with their eight-speed Nexus.

There will be no need for Seattle Gearing packages in Chicago - where the biggest hills are typically bridges over the river or headwinds. We could gear up some of our Secret Service bikes as Chicago Speedsters… It may be handy to have a big downwind gear as you are making your way along a boulevard into the city. And, on your way into the city from the north end with that big fat tailwind pushing you along Lincoln, Clybourn or Halsted, (because you have a little extra time in the bank) why not turn off on Armitage and visit our soon to open Dutch Bike Chicago location at 651 W Armitage #1E.

Gaze through the window and imagine a big shiny black Secret Service or Opa or Oma or Transport waiting for you to take it home. Here the cha-ching of the register as Stephan and staff happily ring up enthusiastic new customers. Giggle at the thought of thousands of Chicagoans in sitting up and parading around town on their Dutch bikes, with perfect postures and bugs collecting in their perpetually grinning teeth.

See you in a few weeks…
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Sep

12

Sweet Home Chicago

Filed Under Chicago, News, Shop, Travel | 20 Comments 

I returned last night from a whirlwind three day trip to Chicago.  My main mission was to secure the lease for our new shop.  Mission accomplished.  Thanks to our friend Alby Van Alyea and broker Diana Rendina for making it a fun and smooth process.  And a special thanks to our new landlord and his enthusiastic wife for taking a liking (from afar) to us.  We look forward to meeting the both of you soon.

I’m not yet ready to reveal the neighborhood or the specific address, but I am willing to play twenty questions over the next few days.  So, if you want to play, just ask me yes or no question here in the blog.  I will answer in a timely manner.   The one who guesses the street and neighborhood will win a Dutch Bike Seattle T-shirt, illustrated by Ed Fotheringham (cartoonist/illustrator whose work can be seen in The New Yorker).  Friends and family are not eligible.  And no, Ed McMahon will not be coming to your door with an million dollar check from Publisher’s Clearinghouse.

Sep

5

Dutch Bike Seattle’s Opa in GQ Magazine

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We don’t have any links. You may have to head to the newsstand, barbershop or dentist’s office to get yourself a copy of the September issue of GQ Magazine. If you subscribe, you’re set. Just go to page 197 and feast your eyes on our Opa featured in a full-page editorial. Now I had to explain to my mom the GQ (Gentleman’s Quarterly) Magazine is the equivalent of Vogue or Cosmopolitan for men, and then she wrote it down, and she’ll get a copy, and she’ll be entertained and proud when she eventually gets to page 197.

Sep

5

Parking Your Bike in Tokyo

Filed Under Advocacy, Media, News, Urban Planning, bikes, tech, video | Leave a Comment 

A recent article in the Washington Post, “For Bicyclists, a Widening Patchwork World: U.S. Lags Behind Two-Wheeled Boom” by Blaine Harden illustrates the growth of cycling worldwide.  In the case of cycling infrastructure, the bottom line is - if you build it they will come.  This has been proven in cities all over the globe.  The article was accompanied by the video below of a sweet bike parking system in Tokyo and an interview with the president of Giant Bicycles.

Aug

18

Care and Feeding of a Brooks Saddle

Filed Under Accessories, Blogs, bikes, commuting, tech | Leave a Comment 

Bicycle saddles exist so that riders aren’t obligated to stand for the duration of a given bicycle ride. They are a source of comfort to some cyclists, and a source of discomfort to other cyclists. Most other things you chose to sit on do not require you to straddle them and rest nearly your full body weight on one of the most sensitive parts of your body. As a result, a saddle is the most personal choice you can make when it comes to a comfortable ride. No other part of a bicycle will make you want to ride it more or less than the saddle, and yet many people who buy a new bicycle never even consider the possibility of upgrading the stock saddle, or even trying a few other saddles with a different size, shape or material before they head home with their new bike.
… Read more

Aug

3

… and They are Gorgeous

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Jul

27

Retrovelo in the House…

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Soon.

We know that our Retrovelo shipment is here in Seattle.  Will it get inspected and released by customs on Monday?  Or, will it get released on Tuesday?  Or, will customs decide to make us wait… ?  I’ll keep you posted.

Jul

20

Dutch Bike Co. Seattle in the News

Filed Under Chicago, Media, News, Shop | 9 Comments 

Last month I was interviewed by Crai Bower for a Forbes Traveler article entitled North America’s Most Bike Friendly Cities where I had a chance to  hint at the need for a shift in the way we view bicycles - from sporting goods to transportation appliances.  I also had another chance to kiss Portland’s ass as one of the great cycling cities.  I do love Portland, certainly as a cycling mecca and hope America’s ass-kissing of Portland as a great cycling city will stir the envy of sport-cycling-centric Seattle (and other cities with elitist cycling egos) to invest more in cycling infrastructure for the everyday rider.  One of the other top cycling cities mentioned in the article is Chicago and from what I recently observed it’s true.  There are seemingly more everyday people, in everyday clothes, riding ordinary bikes at casual velocities than in any other US city I have recently visited. Chicago is big and it’s flat and there are a lot of old Schwinns piloted by the children of the original owners.  There are bike lanes along many of the main boulevards.  Mayor Daley is committed to making Chicago the best cycling city in the USA.  His plan calls for a 500 mile network of bikeways so no Chicagoan is more than on-half mile from a bikeway.  This may explain why our biggest and most fervent customer base is in Chicago. Chicago takes its working class viewpoint and applies it to cycling with superb effect.

Today we were featured on the front page of the Seattle Post Intelligencer’s business section in the article Small Retail: A practical ride with the subtitle reading “Biking upright, Dutch-style, is catching on”.  And, it is catching on.  This makes us happy.  More and more people locally are finding us and tickled that they need no special uniform, athletic qualifications or technical knowledge to operate our bikes.  They are meant to be ridden in the manner we used to ride and love bikes as children.  This explains the grins and exhuberance which usually accompany test rides.

For those of you who read the PI article, you already know we let the cat out of the bag.  Some of you may have already put two and two together.  For everyone else, I’d like to tell you, we are opening a second retail shop in Chicago sometime this fall.  Thanks to our fervent cutomers there, including the incomperable aLex, we already feel welcome.

Jul

11

Rocky’s Nemesis Rides a Bakfiets

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For those of you who grew up enjoying Sylvester Stallone as Rocky - and you know who you are - you’ll be pleased to know that his arch-rival Apollo Creed, the smooth-voiced actor Carl Weathers is fit and busy.  He’s riding a Bakfiets around Seattle and sharing a zen-like stream of non-sequiteurs, musings about change and encouragements to a variety of speechless individuals in a series of ads for the Washington State Credit Unions.   Titled “Change is Beautiful” the ads take you around town, from Gasworks to the bike trail along the the canal in Fremont, all the while with Carl making his way in our Dutch Bike Seattle Bakfiets with a bucket full of flowers.  The subtext to the ads is “change is calling” and when you watch them you will agree, change IS calling.  We just don’t yet know to what it is calling us.  Stay tuned as Carl leads the way…

Change is Beautiful - Carl Weathers on a Bakfiets

In other media related news the Bakfiets has become the recent focus of the comic series at Yehuda Moon.

Jul

7

What’s Special About a Dutch Bike?

Filed Under bikes, tech | 1 Comment 

We get asked this question in the shop and over the phone quite often.  Shoppers examine all the extra features and ask, “what’s that for… why’s this special… how does this work… ?”

Before I present my litany of features, I’d like to make clear that “Dutch Bike” in many contexts is really a generic term being used to describe a style of bike, typically a two-wheeled, utilitarian bicycle, with fenders, a rack, relaxed frame geometry, an upright seating position and generally an “old-timey” look harking back to the turn of the 20th century.  It is a style of bike you find all over northern Europe, from Amsterdam, to Hamburg, to Copenhagen, to Trondheim.  They can be manufactured in Holland, many are not.  As reported in the Seattle Times today: nine in 10 bikes bought by Americans are made in China. Europeans also suffer from a high consumption of Chinese goods.  Our Azor bikes are built in Holland from frames made in Belgium, Holland and China (this is particular to the Oma, which is in such high demand, Dutch production cannot keep up).  Regardless the frame origin our warrantee (10 years frame / 1 year parts) reamains the same for all our Azor bikes.

So what does a Dutch bike get you?  Here’s a list of features, standard to our line of Azor Dutch bikes:

  • fenders, mud flap, skirt guards — keeps your suit, skirt or kilt clean on the way to work in all weather conditions
  • sealed chain case — keeps you clean and keeps chain clean, reduces long-term maintenance
  • sealed 8-speed rear hub — provides effortless shifting, reduces long-term maintenance
  • sealed “roller” drum style brakes — eliminates brakes and attendant dust on rim, consistent stopping in dry or wet conditions, long lasting performance
  • dynamo front hub — generates electricity for…
  • halogen headlamp — continuous beam, bright for all night time antics and safety
  • LED tail lamp — stores electricity from dyno-hub to stay lit at stops (no flashing, no batteries required - ever)
  • bell — gets pedestrians out of the way (mostly only works in Europe) and makes cute-happy-friendly sound (this works in USA) before you run into unaware pedestrians
  • heavy-duty rear rack — carry cargo and friends (colloquially known as “girlfriend rack”)
  • center stand — allows stable loading and independent parking
  • steering return/centering spring — centers front wheel so bike stays upright when parked with a loaded front basket
  • integrated lock — legally required (in Holland) and convenient for cafe hopping or errands (not for overnight use)
  • integrated bungee straps — convenient for securing anything unruly to the rack
  • relaxed frame geometry — makes for a smoother ride
  • big 1.75″ wide x 28″ Schwalbe Marathon tires — smooths ride and highly puncture resistant
  • long stem and swept-back handlebars — allows you to sit completely upright with a straight spine and little or no pressure on your hands
  • stainless steel fasteners, stem and handlebars — makes your bike highly rust resistant
  • powder-coated frame —  a thick baked-on finish, highly rust and scratch resistant and more environmentally friendly than paint

Though any of these features when weighed alone are not that special, when integrated into a complete bike they make for a very special and functional machine, high on comfort, safety and utility, as well as good looks.  Many other Dutch and Dutch-styled bikes may come with all or some of the above.  The list is a fine starting point for comparison.

We also need to make it clear that adding all these features also adds weight to the bike.  So, if you imagine you want to race, carry them around or load your bike onto a rooftop carrier, you have the wrong bike.  These bikes are appliances, not sporting goods.  In general they will be 5-10 lbs heavier than similarly kitted sport bikes.

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