Looked at them both on the street and in bike shops and gave serious thought to whether I should maybe pursue buying a Dutch bike. Thankfully the current answer is no - but I would love to make some changes to my Bianchi Milano that would make it, I don't know, more sensibly dutchy.
Virtually every bike I saw in Amsterdam has a bell, has lights - almost always hooked up to a generator, either an old friction generator or a generator front hub - has fenders and rear side splash guards, at least one rack, a kickstand, a rear wheel hand-cuff style lock mounted to the frame, and a second lock, more often with a chain than a long U.
The bells are used sensibly to shoo pedestrians out of the way on bike lanes and in the narrow streets and alleys. The lights are used primarily to be seen, not to see, though I saw a couple (out of thousands) of bikes with lights meant to brightly illuminate the road. The kickstands are to keep the bike upright when parked, and the racks are for carrying stuff. Saying these things sounds kind of morinic, I know, but might be revalatory to most of my fellow Brooklonian bike riders, who primarily yell at people to shoo them out of the way, ride invisible after dusk, hardly ever stand a bike on its own, and generally like to emulate bike messengers and sling their loads, if any, around their shoulders.
I particularly liked the mid-frame kickstands that sit under the bike and have two feet. The seem more stable and more usable in the city. I also particularly like the front racks on many of the bikes I saw, and of these I particularly liked the frame-mounted racks rather than the handle-bar mounted racks.
Some of the frame mounted racks (like on this three seater stretch baby limo) mount to either extensions of the down-tubes, or insert into holders welded onto the down-tubes. Gonna talk to bro re whether he thinks he can add these holders to my bike. Bikes at Het Zwarte Fietsenplan, like the (I wet myself) NX7, have them. Looks like they also sell bolt-ons...
An amazing number of the bikes I saw had second and sometimes third seats on them, and I saw lots of kids in these - the seats are not for show. I also saw a fair number of older folks getting transported, sitting side-saddle in the rear. Also lots of cargo bikes, with kids sitting in the front-mounted truck.
Saddles. Ah, saddles. I should say now that I saw two, exactly 2, fixies in the 6 days I just spent in Amsterdam, and these two bikes were maybe the only ones I saw that had hard, skinny seats. For all I know lots of folks have sporty second bikes at home with spartan seats, but that's not what they use every day for in-town. I saw lots of sensible, cushy, waterproof seats. Top-o-the-line bikes tended to have Brooks saddles. A few bikes have these button seats that completely eliminate the technical hoops and fire for avoiding numbnuts: they just put the seat under your sit-bones and no where else. (Do they work on bikes that are less upright than the oma and opafietsen? Dit is het perfecte zadel voor dames met (korte) rokjes is what I hear.)
And the people I saw kept their butts in the saddles. Hardly anyone posted. Here in BKLYN, people post out of most stops. Is it just part of looking cool? In Amsterdam I only saw the most hurried riders do so. Amsterdam riders are more likely to rock around in their seats to get up steepest rises at the canals rather than post. Could also be because Amsterdam riders so often have a cell phone or (in November) an opened umbrella in one hand.
Blah blah blah. Here's my to-do list:
- Put bell on bike;
- Check w/ Het Zwarte Fietsenplan if their bolt-on mount will work on my big-round aluminum down-tube, and if not maybe trick Bro into helping, or look at something from Steco that will bolt on to the head tube;
- Start looking into getting a front wheel built around a generator hub.
