Euro Trippin'

While it was wasn't exactly the National Lampoon version, Last week's pavement team Euro trip was still pretty fly. The team decided to skip across the pond to the land wooden shoes and windmills to figure out how they get down dutch-style. Listen, those people are bike-sick. I'm not talking sick as in "wicked". I mean sick as in, a disease that has taken over every aspect of your being. Amsterdam is like a some kind of crazy bike Willy Wonka land. Three piece suits with three kids in tow sick. Cop on a folding bike sick. Buy a Christmas Tree and take it home with me on my bike sick (check out the Flickr stream). We hopped on some crappy rental bikes and hit the city. The thing is, everybody's got crappy bikes. The coffee was not crappy. I will say that.

London was next and the bike scene is ridiculous. Hand it to the women of the Empire. Not only do they rock the sexiest of all accents, but they ride just as much as the guys do. Tons of fixies. Expected and nothing shocking but some hot whips for sure. We stumbled across a guy who builds custom colored fixies out of a garage for around 200 pounds (that's money, remember we're on the metric system here). The bikes are "gahbage" but it's a sweet business model. Tip: If you want great Indian food, go to London. Go to  Amaya in Chelsea. Get the Madras chicken. 

#1 Thing I learned: Obey all cops. Even if they are on folding bikes.
#2 Thing I learned: Dutch cyclists do not know any more about bikes that American cyclists. They just view the bicycle differently.
 - Think about that one. 40% of all trips in the Netherlands are on bikes. In the US, it's less that 0.5%. If we could get ourselves up to even 5%, that would be a revolution.

Comments

[amsterdamize]

I like your take on it ;)

Correction though: 40% of all trips in Amsterdam are by bike, nationally it's around 30%. It's the highest in Groningen (north of NL), over 50%.

cheers,
Marc

[James Collins]

Combining utilitarian bike use with city style, you can't go past this blog:
http://www.copenhagencyclechic.com/

Documenting the stylish use of the bicycle for everyday transport in Copenhagen.

Europe just has a completely different attitude to the bike. It's normal to ride places instead of driving. And it's normal to ride in a suit, or a dress and heels. And it's normal to ride to the shops to do your groceries. It's a great lifestyle to see in action.

[Siouxgeonz]

It's a good sickness to have :P

[Carlos D. Castillo Hernández]

And the reason most of the bikes there look "crappy" for the average northamerican eye, is because of bike theft. I lived in Amsterdam for a couple semesters back in 1998-1999, and the first thing my mates told me was to get a "cheap-looking" bike that worked well, because anything even evoking or insinuating "flashy" or "new-looking" would get stolen in less than a few hours. Bike theft is a real problem there, is so common that the police doesn't even bother investigating it anymore.

So when you live there, you have to choose: get a perfectly working bad/old/crappy looking bike, or buy a new shiny trek every other week. Remember it is a way of life and you must left it unattended most of the day, the bike there is not something you keep always on your garage while you're not riding it.