As part of the Discover the City on Two Wheels Spring Urban Living Rides we’re doing, we are going to offer folks a chance to test ride some cool bikes like the bakfiets, the Dutch cargo box bike ubiquitous in Amsterdam and Copenhagen as the cyclists version of the SUV.
Local developers at Constructive Ventures were kind enough to loan us a bakfiets they had for the events we are doing and on Tuesday I rode my touring bike down to their warehouse to pick it up. Not wanting to leave my bike behind and taking full advantage of the cargo capacity of the bakfiets, I popped the wheels off and put my bike in the box. The guy I met there took this picture of me heading out.
Image courtesy of Rick Westervelt.
I took my kids to school in the bakfiets this morning, and they enjoyed it immensely. While I’ve made my preference for long tails like the Xtracycle known, my 6 and 4 year old found looking at something other than my back much more fun. Go figure!
In addition to the urban living rides we’re doing we’ll also have a couple of days where anyone can come by and test ride one of these bakfiets and other cool Dutch bikes we’ll have on hand. We’d like to put more bikes like these on the streets of Austin, and if you do too, please visit our Kickstarter campaign page and help us out for as little as $5.
Related posts:
on Mar 25th, 2010 at 4:57 pm
One of these days I’m going to get/build myself one of these danish work bikes.
They’ve become quite popular in Portland and they’re EVERYWHERE in copenhagen. I think they’d be popular here too, but you’ll need plenty of gears.
on Mar 25th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
Definitely want gears. Some sold in Amsterdam are a single speed. That totally would not work here. This one had a 8 speed Nexus which was OK. A slightly easier easiest gear would have been better but you are somewhat limited on chain ring and back cog size with the full chain guard.
on Mar 25th, 2010 at 11:12 pm
Looks like you need a permit for hauling that junk.
on Mar 26th, 2010 at 12:12 am
Shhh . . don’t tell the city.
on Mar 26th, 2010 at 7:32 am
Ha, that’s pretty funny. My dad and I are building a motorcycle that might be able to do that.