Dutch City Bikes

Posted on Aug 3, 2008

These here are bikes. Period. Not frilly, hand painted, electronic suspensions or flashy colors, just black. Plain black. A mans bike. And to help you from worrying about what kind of clothes you are going to put on for your bike ride, they have made it real simple. You wear whatever you want, it doesn’t matter. Heck you could wear a wet suit or a tuxedo with these bikes. The chain is completely enclosed and so is the top of the rear wheel, so your coat tails won’t get caught up. The riding position is also key. You sit upright, not leaned forward with all of your weight on your wrists and your butt hung up in the air. You can also carry as much or as little as you want, even people. These are sixty pound plus behemoths. They can take on a huge crate up front, two huge saddle bags at the rear, you can bolt on two child carriers or a rear seat for your girlfriend. You can also take her out on a date on one of these. Yes you can, go ahead I dare you. I did it. It was great. A fancy restaurant too. We were both decked out to the nines. My wife still remembers that date four years ago. How many of your wives remember where you took them four years ago, and it wasn’t even a special occasion. These bikes are workhorses, literally. Day or night, rain or shine. They are equipped with lights front and back and for those of us not living in the flat Netherlands, available with 8 internal gears. You can shag around your Groceries, your dinky laptop, even the printer if need be. It all can go in there. But you say to me, they are heavy, too heavy, I’d have to push it uphill. So what! Wouldn’t that be nice, walking and biking for a change. Trust me, if you ride this bike around town for six months, I guarantee your skinny tired Italian racer will really feel ultra light and responsive, perfect for that race you are going to enter yourself in, right? My only problem is which one. I can’t decide on either the Transport or the Kruisframe bike even though all of them are cool. These bikes come with Kevlar reinforced Schwalbe Tires, Shimano Nexus internal gear and internal hub brakes, Brooks sprung leather saddles, Heavy duty rear racks, coat guard, chain guard, front and rear full fenders, front and rear lights and Steel frames. The even have steering stabilizer springs, just in case. You can also add the heavy duty front rack to all of these as well. Anyone care to join me? In order of appearance: Transport Bike, Kruisframe Bike, Secret Service Bike, Opa Bike, and Velorbis Churchill Classic. All available at DUTCHBIKESEATTLE