Interbike 2008: Shifts in Bike Biz
Model Michelle Candido in Sheila Moon Athletic Apparel on Raleigh Roadster. Photo by Richard Masoner
The overall impression from this year's Interbike industry trade show is that the bike biz is swinging slowly but surely in a direction that serves utility cyclists, transportation cyclists, commuters.
Momentum #35 covergirl Susan Pinkney arriving in Vegas for the show
The best indication is the design and marketing of the bikes themselves. In addition to the brands which have been dedicated to creating transportation bikes, the major bike manufacturers are producing models aimed at urban commuters and the flavour of this years booths and marketing tastes like... pavement!
Though I didn't take many photos at the show, I had a chance to interview some of the shows exhibitors and attendees on video about the trend toward commuter cycling. We'll edit a short piece and share that in the days to come as well.
We had many great city bikes to choose from and feature in the Urban Legend fashion show last Thursday night. We created the show using submissions of bikes and clothing from Interbike exhibitors plus shoes and a number of fashion pieces from outside the show. Stylist Sarah Murray of the Honey Mustard fashion and media services did a beautiful job of coordinating a wide range of outfits and bikes.
Photographer David Niddrie shot video of the fashion show which we will have available for you here in a couple of days. Very soon!
Jennifer Batoon & Nan Eastep of Joyrider Clothing in Oakland California
Big cheers for Nan Eastep of Joyrider Clothing who attended the three-day event and whose clothing was featured in the fashion show. This woman is so integral in her life and work designing beautiful, functional sustainable fashion for cyclists - she is a big inspiration to us! It was an honour to include her work in the show - and great to meet her in person.
Shawn Drayton of Brooklyn with jeans from his Osloh cycling-friendly clothing line
Lock loop pocket detail on Osloh jeans
Another big hero of the show was Shawn Drayton representing Osloh clothing out of Brooklyn. Shawn's cycling apparel was featured in the Urban Legends show, and features gorgeous, cycling friendly details, like an embroidered and reinforced gusset in the seat of the pants, a lock-hanging loop on the pocket, pant-protecting snaps at the cuff, and leather-reinforcement right at the spot where the bike chain would like to grab at the pant leg. We're looking forward to seeing more from Shawn and Osloh in the year to come. This man is inspired and very talented!
Andrea's Electra-Xtracycle with custom caned snap-deck
Andrea's Xtracycle detail
Xtracycle staffer Andrea brought her own bike to the show, which was her transportation in Las Vegas. Her bike caught my attention with its custom caned snap
deck which Andrea created herself.
Crumpler "sponsored" bathroom stall
Among the sillier elements at the show was Crumpler's "sponsorship" of
the water closets. Crumpler is always irreverent and inventive in it's
creative expression. Witness their custom-printed "interactive" toilet
tissue rolls, gorgeous stall-papering and carefully selected reading
material.
Crumpler tissue
the devil is in the details
- Walker's blog
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How long until copy contemporary Dutch city bike?
The new bikes are only a step in the right direction, but are still far from what is needed. Writers and designers ought to be constantly looking to the Dutch: how they use bikes, in conjunction with how the bikes are set up. It's a mistake to equate Dutch city bikes solely with traditional, retro styling; more relevant is contemporary Dutch city bikes. Everyone should pick up a Batavus catalog and study it, including the features on children's bikes.
I've learned to look at the latest so-called "commuter" bikes from U.S. companies and immediately spot the missing features. Even these bikes imply that you can't ride in rain (no fenders), or can't ride with a load (no rack), or can't ride with normal clothes (no full chainguard or skirtguard/coatguard), or can't ride in the dark (no dynamo hub & light system).
For an instant motherlode of images of the bona fide Dutch city bikes, both classic and contemporary in styling, with the complete standard feature set, use Google Images search on Dutch-brand + fiets:
batavus fiets
gazelle fiets
sparta fiets
union fiets
You can go into any bike shop in Holland and easily get a "normal" bike filled with integrated, properly designed-in features:
This is all normal, standard equipment on Dutch city bikes, and literally impossible to find on bikes in the out-of-touch American bike shops. Look to the specifically Dutch version of city bikes (fiets) to get the definitive example of the full contingent of integrated, designed-in equipment. Such fully-loaded bikes are heavy to lift & store, but not too hard to ride. The U.S. bike industry is only beginning to wake up; meanwhile, I'm forced to avoid buying U.S., and get a bona fide Dutch city bike from Holland instead, because that's the only possible way to get this up-to-date complete feature set, with some assurance that the manufacturer has been designing such bikes for long enough to resolve most of the flaws.
I'm surprised at the continued lack of focus on this full contingent of features. Few people are writing about the need and use of O-locks, skirtguards, and automatic hub dynamo LED lights, or the safety role of the reflective band on the tires. Most Seattle bike stores have not one dynamo hub in the entire store, and some have almost no hub gears -- employees at one store had never heard of of a dynamo hub or hub gear, and stated that the owner would never carry such a thing, though when I showed the 2009 Specialized commuter bike with these two features, one employee said that he himself would like to have such a bike.
When will the U.S. companies copy the complete set of features from the latest, contemporary Dutch city bikes? It's not enough to copy the features of British roadsters such as in Copenhagen. Only the Dutch bikes take it all the way, with the full set of features, which is why I've ended up focusing specifically on contemporary Dutch city bikes: they are the only definitive point of reference.
When will the U.S. companies copy the complete set of features f
What about Electra, Breezer, and Biria? Don't they count?
Oh, and looking at your list--why non-quick-release wheels? Do you LIKE having to carry a monkey wrench around with you for when you have to fix a flat?
American offerings are not as close to Dutch as people suggest
Do Electra, Breezer, and Biria provide the features that the Dutch expect for a contemporary Dutch city bike?
Electra, Breezer, and Biria do not have the features to qualify as a standard contemporary Dutch city bike. Which Electra, Breezer, Biria, Trek, Specialized, and Fuji models are the closest to a contemporary Dutch city bike? What features do they still lack, that a Dutch customer in Holland would expect?
Information about Standlight capacitor feature, and auto motion+darkness detection, is hard to find online so is omitted from consideration below. Same with the question of appropriate geometry, stability, and handlebar shape.
First, review the real deal:
Trek L700, L600, L400, L300, L100, Style, Manhattan, Paris, Vienna, Toulouse:
http://www.trekbikes.com/be/nl/bikes/bike_path/leisure/l400e/
http://www.trekbikes.com/nl/nl/bikes/bike_path/leisure/l700e/
http://images.google.com/images?q=Trek%20L400
Generally these have all the distinctive features; these are typical contemporary Dutch city bikes and provide all the features that a customer in Holland would expect for a good, normal stadfiets (city bike).
These are sold in the European market, probably not in the American market. Availability in U.S., Canada, Seattle Bike Supply, Fourth Floor Distribution?
Now compare the features offered by the so-called "city bikes" or "commuter bikes" from Electra, Breezer, and Biria, to see how they fall short of passing for a standard contemporary Dutch city bike:
Electra Royal 8:
http://www.electrabike.com/amsterdam/
http://images.google.com/images?q=electra%20royal%208
Lacks a hub dynamo; has bottle dynamo
Lacks a sturdy rack; has a lightweight rack
Lacks O-lock
Lacks standard crank position; has foot-forward pedals
Lacks contemporary styling option; only retro/black is available
Lacks clear skirtguards; only solid color is available.
Breezer Finesse:
http://www.breezerbikes.com/bike_details_finesse.cfm
Lacks fully enclosed chain guard
Lacks O-lock
Lacks skirt guard
Breezer Uptown 8:
http://www.breezerbikes.com/bike_details.cfm?bikeType=town&frame=d&bike=...
Does have an O-lock, and reflective tires
Lacks skirt guard
Lacks fully enclosed chain guard
Biria Touring City Lite 8:
http://www.biria.com/bicycles/tc/tc_lite_8.jsp
Lacks fully enclosed chain guard
Lacks O-lock
Lacks skirt guard
Lacks lights and dynamo hub
Biria Trekking Superlight 8:
http://www.biria.com/bicycles/tk/tk_superlight_8.jsp
Lacks fully enclosed chain guard
Lacks O-lock
Lacks skirt guard
The story is the same with other major companies in the American bike market; these companies simply do not offer the features that are normal and standard for customers in Holland buying a city bike:
Specialized Vienna Deluxe 3
http://www.specialized.com/bc/SBCBkModel.jsp?sid=09ViennaDLX&eid=178
Lacks skirtguard
Lacks fully enclosed chainguard (partial)
Lacks O-lock
Trek Gary Fisher Simple City 8:
http://www.fisherbikes.com/bike/model/simple-city-8M
Lacks dynamo hub & lights
Lacks rack
Lacks fully enclosed chain guard
Fuji
http://www.fujibikes.com/
No models shown have hub gears (all have derailleurs)
No models shown have fenders
No models shown have hub dynamo
etc.
American companies such as Electra and Breezer are trying to second-guess contemporary Dutch bikes and omit as many features as possible, as though the Dutch are mistaken in valuing the utility of those features. I'm taking the wiser view that the Dutch know what they are doing and we ought to start by doing what they do, what they have evolved, first, before we start presuming to have better judgment and ideas than they do.
In the final evaluation, if anyone actually cares about increasing bike usage in America, there is no excuse for this complete refusal of the American companies to offer the complete integrated set of Dutch city bike features. Everything in a contemporary Dutch city bike is there for a reason, when understood in its usage-context. O-locks are important and well-suited for everyday casual city use in a highly bike-friendly city. Skirt-guards are a much-needed and fully justified feature in that usage-context; same with hub gear in conjunction with full-enclosed chain case; same with dynamo hub in conjunction with "advanced" light features. American designers are sluggish and full of resistance and doubt about such features, but ought to take on the full set of them as a systemic whole, just as infrastructure is key to bike sales. An O-lock and skirt guard is part of the infrastructure for heavy use of bikes (and increased sales of bikes).
"Commuter Bikes Available in the U.S." -- http://www.nordicgroup.us/commutebike/ -- "A frequent topic and complaint on bicycle forums is the lack of availability of true commuter bicycles in the U.S. While these bicycles are widely available in other geographical markets, the major bicycle manufacturers have chosen not to sell these products in the U.S. (this appears to be slowly changing with Trek's test marketing of several models). Hopefully Trek will be successful and other major manufacturers will follow their lead (Fuji ...). It's not like the manufacturer actually has to design anything new, these products already exist."
"Invariably when the subject of commute bicycles comes up in bicycle related forums, there are well-meaning responses that advise the original poster to convert his or her existing bicycle into a commute bike. While this is definitely an option, it misses the point. Not everyone is a gear head ... Not everyone has the desire or the ability to add the accessories necessary to achieve this conversion, and in fact, due to the lack of after-market chain guards, it is not even possible to achieve a complete conversion. Many people just want to pay the money and get a complete, fully integrated, fully assembled product; they are not looking for the cheapest solution."
Properly integrated, designed-in equipment is also cleaner, safer, and more reliable; for example, the ends of fender rods don't poke out; colors match; headlights can be part of the fork, and cables can be routed inside the frame tubing. A bike with aftermarket add-on accessories is not the same as a bike with these features designed-in. An employee at Rain City Bikes (http://www.raincitybikes.com) in Vancouver speculated that the accessory companies don't want bikes to come with features, but profit from sales of stripped-down bikes that require hundreds of dollars of add-on features to make them practical for the intended use. It's a conspiracy in the U.S. bike industry: sell customers what they don't want, and then charge them extra to alter the bike to be what they do want.
Do non-quick-release wheels implies having to carry a wrench, to fix a flat?
The main point of reference I use is the gear choice and usage conventions in Amsterdam, and in Copenhagen to a lesser extent. I will check gear choice and usage conventions during research trip to Amsterdam & Copenhagen, and check photos of retro and contemporary Dutch city bikes. I don't know whether the norm for contemporary Dutch city bikes is quick-release wheels.
The issue of wheel quick-release is easier to examine in person, on-location, than from online and brochures, the same as with standlights, auto motion+darkness detection, geometry, stability, and handlebar shape.
Breezer Uptown 8
I just test-rode the Breezer Uptown 8 and it is pretty awesome.
The "new" version of this bike does have a fully enclosed chaincase:
http://www.breezerbikes.com/bike_details.cfm?bikeType=town&frame=d&bike=...
Still no skirtguard.
One American bike company is almost there! Hopefully next year they'll put the chainguard on their cheaper bikes.
Ending the American blackout of European city bikes
When test-riding a city bike, be sure to try making a U-turn on the sidewalk, and riding with one hand. This tests the stability of the geometry, as opposed to "twitchy handlebars".
The Breezer webpage I posted has a link to the New model which does have a fully enclosed chain guard. That was the only change I noticed, which is noteworthy: Breezer seems to have "gotten" it now, on chainguards. Their partial chainguard probably reduced the pants getting caught, but still caused some oil marks.
Trek is based in the U.S., but I suspect their line of contemporary Dutch city bikes is not normally available in America. I might ask some American dealers about the pricing and availability of that line. The Trek Wikipedia article doesn't contain the words Dutch, Holland, or Netherlands, and yet their link to the official trek site is a Netherlands domain, in the Dutch language. This is not explained.
At http://www.trekbikes.com, click "Stad / Trekking" and then click Leisure. "Designed for the modern commuter with convenient features like integrated fork lights, sleek chainguard, stylish frame and luggage rack for toting gear."
"Contemporary Dutch city bike" could be more accurately, and verbosely, labelled as "Contemporary fully outfitted European city bike". A few of the familiar brands in America make a full-featured contemporary Dutch city bike, but as a consistent rule, those models are withheld from the American market. For example, Cannondale offers such a bike -- in England, but not in America. From what I could see, the fenders seemed like merely a roughshod aftermarket add-on, rather than engineered into the bike like the sleek fenders on the new Trek/Fisher models.
If I were to buy an American bike with the full feature set, I would evaluate each of the distinctive components closely, comparing them the refined features as they are implemented on actual Dutch brands. For example, the Electra Amsterdam pseudo-Dutch bike recently had a recall because the bolt heads inside the chain guard were too tall, causing the chain to derail, causing the rider to fall over. Even when American designers realize the merit of the full set of features, it will take some time -- as per Breezer's older vs. newer design -- to implement them right. That's why I still desire, at present, a bona fide Dutch bike.
To get a firm grip on the details of contemporary Dutch bikes, I recommend everyone around the industry not only read the Batavus printed catalog, but collect and read them for various model years. And look at the websites of Gazelle, Union, and Sparta. Where is the leading edge, what are the most advanced versions of commuter/city bikes? The industry ought to be ask this question, judging the degree of evolution of models in this category, through the lens of "commuter/city bikes".
In America, there's a tendency away from this vision -- the idea gets sidetracked and mis-guided: say "urban bike" or "city bike", and the American industry thinks "fixie". Say "commuter bike", and the American industry thinks "touring bike with dropped handlebars". It's necessary to verbally shut out these categories, in order to force open the "new" category, like answering "neither" to the tired bike-shop question of "mountain bike, or road bike?" The answer to the question "mountain bike, road bike, fixie, comfort bike, hybrid, or cruiser?" is "None of those."
The labeling of the "city bike" category is inconsistent even in Holland, Europe, and the U.K.: sometimes the company websites label it as "street", sometimes "leisure". It seems that even Holland and Europe are in need of a standard term for what is in fact a standard and popular type of bike. Much of the problem involves linguistic and conceptual categories. The driving question should be "What set of bike design features can best replace a car, in the next decade?"
A similar category that gets verbally omitted from the thinkable options in America now is "roadster"; that is, a 3-speed, upright bike such as is shown in "sharrow" icons and road signs -- what used to be, in the 1950s-60s in the U.S., a normal adult bike. These are tremendously popular and stylish in Vancouver, but are generally only available used -- they are not on the floor of bike stores. Schwinn makes a couple new models that are roughly similar, but not as spot-on as a reissue would be.
What constitutes a "U.S." or "Dutch" bike, given outsourced manufacturing? Not the location of the design team or the location of the manufacturing, but rather the location of the consumers: whatever typical Dutch people buy and ride in cities in Holland, is what most meaningfully constitutes a "Dutch bike".
Both traditional and contemporary Dutch bikes are popular in Amsterdam. It's a mistake to limit the term "Dutch bike" to the traditional styling (black, steel frame, black skirtguard); arguably more important is the contemporary styling with the latest features. These latest features include clear skirtguard, tasteful colors, subdued brand labeling compared to garish mainstream American models; hub dynamo, standlight, motion+darkness detection; 7 or 8 speeds, or even NuVinci hub; adjustable kickstand; child seats; fork-integrated headlight -- even brakelights are rumored, a useful safety feature.
In some cases, the American bike companies are *already* making, and have continued making for some time, full-featured bikes that match up to the best and most noteworthy bikes from actual Dutch brands such as Batavus, Gazelle, and Sparta. But they have intentionally withheld these bikes from the American market, as demonstrated by the lack of that category of models shown on the American version of their websites.
A typical large bike company's set of websites includes a "street" (or "leisure" or "city") category for their European websites, which is missing from their U.S. site -- even though all the other categories remain present in all languages. Why is the "city bike" category the only category that is missing from the American version of the bike companies' websites? It's a conspiracy: the true, full-featured city bike (stadfiets) is the category that is the greatest threat to the car industry; this existing category needs to be un-hidden from the American version of the bike companies' websites.
The American bike companies will reply "there is no demonstrated market in America for fully outfitted European city bikes". The companies should make their existing models of fully outfitted European city bikes available in their American catalogs and websites, if not stock them in stores, and observe the level of interest.
The American bike companies
Dutchbikes/Seattle and /Chicago, CleverCycles of Portland, and others seem to be making a go of selling Azor and other Dutch bikes here. That seems to show that there is demand for such bikes.
One thing that does concern me, though, is topography. The Netherlands are a proverbially flat country. Many parts of the US are quite hilly, if not downright mountainous. The Dutch bikes tend to be singlespeeds or three-speeds. Eight-speed versions are sometimes available. Is that enough for cities such as San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Nashville, Ashville, Charlotte, Lexington (KY), Cincinnati, and the like?
Hub gear in hilly cities
All brands of fully-outfitted European city bikes offer 8-speed hub gears; it's a standard, common option, ubiquitously available in Holland even if people there often opt for 3-speeds.
I test-rode Azor and other Dutch bikes a little on hills in Seattle, with 8-speed hub gears, and will some more. I wouldn't touch a 3-speed hub gear; the only options I'd consider are 8-, 14-speed, or NuVinci. It has to have a single shifter, not two, and switching gears while stopped is essential, including for safety (traffic negotiation) and health (strain) reasons, and for general ease of use.
Seattle is survivable with an 8-speed hub. The proprietor of Montlake Cycles bike shop says that he found no advantage of a NuVinci hub over an 8-speed hub, because the NuVinci was hard to shift under pressure. For hilly cities, he recommends an 8-speed hub gear with switching out the front and/or back gear to lower the range, thus reducing the top cruising speed of the bike, in order to gain climbing ability. He's never felt that he was missing a gear in between the 8 gears; he's only had to adjust the limits of the gearing range. Per the Slow Bike movement http://www.google.com/search?q=slow+bike+movement , what's needed is not a higher top speed, but a better quality of low speed. This means learning to sit upright and casually coast downhill, ambling.
As someone blogged: "Although I'm European, I leave in Seattle, supposably one of the bike friendliest cities in the U.S. We are far from achieving Slow Cycling, in the US. The road infrastucture is way too aggressive and you have to be a true bike militant to ride in the streets. I'm considering going back home..."
Some people ride fixies in Seattle. A fully outfitted European city bike is inherently slower than a road bike, but the proprietor of Dutch Bikes Seattle says about riding his bakfiets, you just kick back, go slow, downshift; "City-bike culture: we'll get there eventually." This type of bike on hills is convenient to hop-on, and slower than a sport bike (road bike), and in many ways better suited for everyday city use than a sport bike. In Vancouver, mountain bikes are popular, though they are slow -- probably slower than a European city bike. No bike can make Seattle hills go away; you manage to deal with it, one way or another.
Know-it-alls who make cut-and-dry declarations about how other people ought to ride should be made to ride the wet, steep, dark, car-crowded streets of Seattle. It's the opposite of riding technique in flat and dry Sacramento or Phoenix -- or Holland.
Do non-quick-release wheels implies having to carry a wrench, to
I don't know about you, but I find it hard to unscrew the nuts with just my fingers. I need a wrench to get the wheel off if it doesn't have QR. Perhaps your fingers are way, way stronger than mine are. If that is true, you are unusual.
And why a skirtguard? I don't know any women who wear skirts to cycle; indeed, I know very few women who frequently wear skirts/dresses. Most women I know wear slacks on all but the most formal occasions.
O-lock & skirtguard form a system?
Looking at European city bike features as an integrated system, the skirtguard and o-lock might make sense together. Perhaps the O-lock catches clothing, so the skirtguard is needed to compensate; that would explain why these two features are typically found together rather than singly.
European city bikes are used in bike-friendly areas for short distances with sturdy tires. These factors combine to enable riding without tools on a bike without quick-release wheels. This question of whether Europeans take this usage-approach could be asked online; there's enlightening input from Europeans in online postings.
Perhaps the skirtguard is useful for transporting loads on the back rack.
Americans only know car-culture, so it is unthinkable for them, for women to wear skirts while cycling. http://www.copenhagencyclechic.com/ presents a different world of usage, and reasons to wear a wider range of clothing. For one thing, riding a bike in cold weather becomes possible *in conjunction* with wearing more clothing and using a skirtguard and chaincase.
Skirtguards, and non-quick release.
A) Skirtguards- Is it a negative thing to encourage Women to be able to wear what they wish?
The Europeans ladies take skirt-wearing for granted: Why should OUR lovely Ladies be short-changed (or us red-blooded Men? ;+)?
B) Non-Quick release hubs- Though I would agree that bolt-ons make the struggle to change a flat more challenging:
-IF the user is a "Pro-Active" Rider, and has a touch of know-how, it's not that hard (and the tools needed are neither heavy OR bulky; and take up less space/weight than a cable that would be needed to secure your wheels and bike).
-If the user is a real efficianado that loves their Bike: I would recommend Pin-Heads. I have them on my Bikes; and swear by their efficiency, and convenience. And they solve the whole quick-release challenge.
In short: There are answers to any challenge, or need; and in this case the answers are easily accessible.
Interbike
Up until this year, my experiences with Interbike have been via the web.
From what I understand, there's always been room for the little guy, but my it seems to me that there was a lot more for the person riding for transportation and utility as opposed to stuff for the racer or the tourer or BMX racer.
It's good to see.
Ron Callahan, Managing Editor
Bike World News
The missing term: European city bikes
The Interbike photos at http://nordicgroup.us/interbike2008/ show how bright the reflective tires are. Alas this webpage uses the narrow and weird term "shopper bike" instead of "roadster" or "city bike". That webpage's wording shows the disjoint between continued mainstream thinking versus the many companies that are starting to reawaken to bikes for transportation and utility as opposed to racing, touring, or BMX.
From the present webpage article: "The overall impression from this year's Interbike industry trade show is that the bike biz is swinging slowly but surely in a direction that serves utility cyclists, transportation cyclists, commuters. The best indication is the design and marketing of the bikes themselves. In addition to the brands which have been dedicated to creating transportation bikes, the major bike manufacturers are producing models aimed at urban commuters and the flavour of this years booths and marketing tastes like... pavement!"
Everyday city pavement?
"I ... interview[ed] ... exhibitors and attendees on video about the trend toward commuter cycling. We'll ... share that in the days to come ... We had many great city bikes to choose from and feature in the Urban Legend fashion show ..."
Notice the term "commuter cycling" and then "city bikes". A typical, normal, full-featured European city bike would help blow open the new commuter/transportation/utility bike trend at Interbike. Have the pages of Momentum magazine ever shown a full-featured city bike like the 2007 best-bike-of-the-year, the NuVinci hub version of the Adagio model of bike by the Batavus brand -- or the similar "generic" full-featured European city bikes by a bland, routine company such as Union, which is sold at the big-box Halfords stores in Europe? Was there a bike adhering to this established, complete city-bike formula at Interbike?
'stadsfiets' is the Dutch word for a city bike; the plural is 'stadsfietsen'.
The best search is an Images search for "stadsfiets":
http://images.google.com/images?q=stadsfiets
For this specific category of bikes, the term 'city bikes' is best, not 'commuter bikes'. The preponderance of the photos in the "stadsfiets" image search indicate that 'city bike' connotes the kind of bikes that dominate the Dutch bike catalogs for in-city use -- most distinctively the combination of: skirtguard/o-lock (o-lock goes through the skirt guard); full chainguard/hub gear/no derailleur; and lights/dynamo.
The term "commuter bikes" is too broad for the purpose of bringing in a "new" vision of everyday transportation cycling for in-city, 5-mile range where you just hop on as you are, and go. "Stadsfiets" (translation: city bike) implies no fussing with attaching any bike-related equipment. "Commuter bikes" is too American of a term when one intends to envision in-city cycling; it's a useful term for the overall category of non-recreational *usage* of bikes, but it fits too well with the American status-quo that envisions purchasing lots of specialized cycling gear to ride fast a long distance. "Commuting" is too narrow, restricting the category to "bikes used to go a significant distance to work"; at the same time, in today's American range of bikes, "commuter bike" is too broad and vague; it typically means "any bike with aftermarket fenders and rack".
"Commute" implies optimizing for a daily 10-mile range, while "city bike" implies optimizing for a daily 5-mile range. This is part of the alienation between road bikes versus city bikes: road bikes value going far and fast; city bikes are seen as anathema or useless junkers because they "only" go medium-short distances -- longer distances than a cruiser, shorter than a long-distance commuter road bike.
City bikes can leverage the precident set by mountain bikes and cruisers: that short distances are ok and valid, while rejecting the "sports and recreation-only" orientation of mountain bikes and cruisers, to advocate a "new" purpose, of slower, short-distance, frequent transportation. City bikes aren't non-recreational; rather, they are not exclusively recreational; they integrate recreation with in-city transport that is practical, stable, reliable, esygoing, and safe. It's a balance of features and purpose that has become unfamiliar and has never really been imagined in America.
There's a term "shopper bike" that a few people use as though it means something -- there's a grain of truth and accuracy in that term; baskets and handlebars from which to hang shopping bags *are* found in circles with roadster bikes and city bikes. But "Shopping" is an over-narrow focus; "city bike" is broader and more relevant. No one who themselves uses a roadster or city bike uses the term "shopper bike".
It would be an interesting study to gather the terms used at European and American websites for the category and subcategory which a manufacturer's city bikes are placed in, in multiple languages: there's no standardization of this popular category of bikes that is hidden and suppressed in America. But a search demonstrates that the Dutch word 'stadsfiets'does connote this set of features and attributes that is the exact antithesis of the American sports-and-recreation mentality; therefore what's needed is a definite specific, narrow usage: if the term 'city bikes' is defined specifically to mean the type of bikes that typically show up in the image search for 'stadsfiets', this terminology usage will open up the missing range of bikes in America.
To buy a new "stadsfiets" in Holland, you go to the equivalent of an auto dealership, not a sporting goods and recreation store. That practical vision of bike as transportation spans into the European big-box store, Halfords, as well, which sells a house brand of Union bikes (Union stadsfiets).
The "commuter bike" needs little promotion; in many cases, there's a new vision, but the product is still merely the same old type of bike that people are forced to cobble-on an aftermarket fender and rack, except that the fender and racks are pre-cobbled onto the all-too-typical bike. This "new" kind of bike merely amounts to shuffling the equipment sales around, pre-attaching the fender and rack "accessories". This pre-assembling falls well short of a new paradigm in previous years' limited mental world of American cycling.
The fixie needs no promotion; a current issue of a glossy American cycling mag recommends roadsters instead of fixies, for those who want to be in the trendy underground. But to follow that advice further, the latest evolution of the roadster is the contemporary city bike, and that integral vision of the "city bike", per the stadsfiets, does need promotion, to help the transportation/commuting/utility cycling movement. Fixies are noteworthy, but not practical or optimized for low-key, everyday cycling with a range of loads, clothing, and road conditions. Fixies are a specialty niche approach, while city bikes -- which are fully equipped roadsters -- are optimized for mainstream adoption suitable for a range of loads, clothing, and riding conditions.
Many bike companies seem to think that city bikes point directly in the direction of electric-assist bikes, but the jury is out on that; the connection between the vision or usage-paradigm of city bikes and electric bikes seems like it would be strong, yet it's not. City bikes are a proven combination of attributes. It seems that the term "shopper bike" is being invented to describe electric bikes, and some people are taking that term and applying it to any roadster that has a basket. The same alienated marketing thinking that came up with the ill-advised term "comfort bike" came up with the questionable term "shopper bike".
"When test-riding a city
"When test-riding a city bike, be sure to try making a U-turn on the sidewalk, and riding with one hand. This tests the stability of the geometry, as opposed to "twitchy handlebars"."
Why would one want to execute such a manoever?
1. Riding on the sidewalk is dangerousand, in many cities,illegal.
2. While riding one-handed is not, afaik, illegal, it is still dangerous.
Also, anent racks, the main reason why the Dutch bikes have heavy duty racks, it is my understanding (and correct me if I am wrong), is to carry passengers. Carrying passengers on bike rack is, in most US cities, illegal. Hence, providing racks strong enough to carry a passenger is encouraging and facilitating people to break the law.
I'd also add that I have it on good authority that the O-lock is very easy to pick.
European city bikes expected to be practical & flexible
Does Interbike seek influence from Europe? It is common now for bike advocates and designers to travel to Europe (Denmark, Holland, and Germany) to experience a different perspective than that of "cycling = danger", that typical American mono-focus and single-vision about how bikes are to be used, or rather not used, or used in vanishingly narrow ways, by a sliver of the populace.
The Art of [Urban] Cycling: A Guide to Bicycling in 21st-Century America
by Robert Hurst and Marla Streb
http://www.amazon.com/o/asin/0762743166/
Top-notch, real-world book, integrating the best of Vehicular Cycling theory with invisible-style cycling.
Per the book The Art of Urban Cycling, too many statements about cycling technique are gross overgeneralizations that don't fit with complex reality, and those who promote idealist cycling rules are forced to be hypocrites when placed in the real world. Streets and sidewalks vary far more than the idealists advocate. One should be an expert in safety rules and principles, but temper that with complex practical considerations on a per-situation basis -- flexibility combined with vigilance.
Forget the limited thinking of cyclists in car-cult America; what do people in Holland and Copenhagen think about bike stability? That is what matters, when the effort is to *change* transportation infrastructure. A city bike (folk transportation) ought to be capable of turning around on a sidewalk without falling over, and ought to be capable of moving reliably with shopping bags hanging from the handlebars, even if riding with one hand.
It is legally required that cyclists ride with only one hand, as an inherent part of signalling a turn, and Vehicular Cycling principles dictate that you ride with one hand, because that system dictates that you should use hand signals.
In Dutch thinking, a rack ought to be able to carry a passenger. A country that desires to become bike-friendly ought to put aside parochial, limited thinking that comes from a car-cult paradigm, and give serious consideration to the expectations the Dutch have for bikes, and their usage-conventions.
O-locks vary in their security; there was a recent recall. Key locks in general offer little security; the problem isn't O-locks, but key locks in general.
Enough of hearing about preconceptions and expectations coming from car-cult America; give European city bike and folk transportation a chance to speak and put forth an alternative combination of considerations. The notions about cycling that come forth from car-cult America are themselves part of the problem, a facilitator of perpetuating car-culture dominance.
To get some perspective on steering stability, passenger racks, child seats, chainguards, performance, built-in lighting, and advocacy: ride city bikes in Europe, and read Art of Urban Cycling.
Dutch stadsfiets as paradigmatic city bike
I wrote a Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_city_bike.
I want contemporary-styled Dutch city bikes to be available everywhere. This requires clearly defining that category of bike, which equates with the typical images in a Web search for the word "fiets" or "stadsfiets". I reached the same conclusion as Curbside Cycles: the ultimate type of city bike is the contemporary Dutch city bike (the typical good stadsfiets). Curbside/4th Floor sold over 1000 Batavus bikes in Canada in 2008 so far. Batavus is the leading bike brand in Holland. Seattle Bike Supply did not sell so many Batavus bikes, because SBS perpetuates the American bike industry's problem of forcing everything through a sports & recreation mentality rather than bringing in the appropriate utility/appliance/transportation mentality.
Curbside just finished a tour of Europe building up expert knowledge of the European city bikes and the environments they occupy. http://www.curbside.on.ca/blog. Curbside's goal is "to expose North Americans to real city bikes from real companies that are trusted by Europeans."
The Dutch approach to city bikes is the only one that takes this particular idea to its full expression. That particular approach was my entire impetus to create the article to force open this shut-out type of bike. After everyone is familiar with the specific Dutch full-featured approach, then people can experiment with the too-American approach of removing features.
More PR exposure is needed for the workaday, prosaic, contemporary-styled Dutch city bikes -- their anti-romantic, "appliance" design is ultimately more exciting in their implications than the exaggeratedly retro-styled Omafietsen. Alki Bikes shop in West Seattle hopes that there's a fusion between the traditional and contemporary Dutch city bikes -- such as tasteful colors, clear skirt guard, and steel frame. They had a Batavus Yakima in the store window, amazingly. I test-rode it. What looks like the most boring, unremarkable bike to the Dutch and to America is in fact the most portentous.
Batavus is of note because they have been attempting to distribute to the American market, while Gazelle has refused to sell to the American market. Trek is of note because they tried to sell their full-featured Dutch city bikes in America before. What's standing in the way is not lack of consumer demand, but rather the out-of-touch American bike industry: the sports-crazed magazines, stores, and expositions.
Batavus has tried importing into North America twice in the past already and it failed not due to a lack of consumer interest, but a lack of interest in the bike industry. The "U.S." Batavus website will be replaced by a new version, a "North America" website, with 4th Floor as the authorized distributor listed for the U.S. and Canada. Fourth Floor Distribution has made it their mission to make Batavus remain available in the U.S. and Canada, and is working with Batavus to break open this nascent market.
Anyone in the U.S. or Canada can have their local bike shop get a Batavus through Fourth Floor Distribution. A "City Bikes" web page at Curbside or 4th Floor should be focused on standard contemporary Dutch city bikes, with a price list. This is a relief because I've done extensive research and have found no way, otherwise, to obtain contemporary Dutch bikes in the U.S., even though this is the most important type of city bike.
I check all so-called "city bikes" to see if they match the feature-set of a stadsfiets. I am strictly interested in full-featured stadsfietsen, because after that is defined as a clear and available point of reference, the other so-called "city bike" variants are readily derived by subtracting features or by moving toward the already-too-familiar design choices.
We don't learn much from the British Roadster or the Danish city bike, but we learn a paradigm-shifting system of features from the Dutch city bike, and I'm particularly focused on the contemporary styled ones, which remain completely undiscovered in America. A webpage for a store showing categories should use a "City Bikes" page showing bikes that look like most image-search hits on "stadsfiets" -- not only for Omafietsen. That is the exact paradigm that needs maximum exposure -- the plainest, most normal and everyday modern Dutch city bike, is precisely that which has a complete information blackout in America.
Even "Dutch Bikes Seattle" doesn't officially carry the "bland", prosaic, no-nonsense contemporary-styled Dutch city bikes (though they do have a contemporary Gazelle that a traveler brought back and urged them to sell), and an un-built Batavus city bike frame. I might order a Batavus through Dutch Bikes Seattle, via Fourth Floor Distribution. Or from the most popular shop, Gregg's Cycle, which was how I learned of Batavus, when I left Gregg's a note asking how to obtain a bike like normal Dutch people actually are buying in Holland.
The Batavus printed catalog, like the Web images search on "stadsfiets" or even just on "fiets", indicates that when the Dutch think city bike, they think mostly of the aluminum contemporary models with clear small skirt guard, like the Entrada and many other models exactly conforming to that mold from Batavus, Gazelle, and Sparta.
There is regional disagreement in Europe about bike design. Germans dislike the Dutch full chain case. The Dutch dislike the German rat-trap carrier. The Italians dislike the weight of the Dutch bikes. The Danes think Dutch bikes aren't pretty. The German idea of a good city bike merely amounts to American stripped-down bikes with a couple randomly-chosen Dutch-like components; stripped-down pseudo-city bikes are praised for performance, and Dutch bikes criticized for being feature-list driven. But that German mentality is exactly the American mentality, and can logically only lead in the direction of stripped-down fixies arbitrarily and meaninglessly labeled as a "city bike".
If it is performance (speed & responsiveness) that you want, and that you are mainly focused on, then head from a Dutch bike in the direction of fixies or road-racing bikes, with almost no chain guard, with a rear derailleur, with a forward-pitched riding style, and so on -- but we already have that in spades! If that's what you want, great, you are fine, you are set, you are happy, and the perfect type of bike is easily available. But if that combination of attributes and features doesn't suit you well, when all usage-factors are considered, look to the specific approach, of full-featured Dutch city bikes.
Germans effortlessly obtain stadsfietsen in German bike stores, so there's no real issue for them to resolve, unlike the desperate situation in North America where we don't have a choice and are forced to buy the German-approved, non-fully-equipped so-called "city bike" and cannot buy, cannot even know about, the Dutch solution.
In Holland, the average trip length is no more than 7 km (4.3 miles), for which one wants to wear regular clothes. The term 'commuter bikes' does a disservice. A bike should not just get one back and forth to work, but should multitask one's entire urban lifestyle. Seasoned bike commuters should not view their bike as sports gear; they should actually understand that the way they ride best fits a modern Dutch city bike.
Inexperienced brands like Electra, Velorbis, Viva and Kronan still have drawbacks. Some have had lawsuits with other companies (Velorbis with Pashley, Viva with Biomega) and represent faux-rip-offs that are heavy on brand and low on substance. The North American consumer is a blank slate and overly impressionable. My encyclopedia article helps consumers discern between what constitutes a quality, reputable city bike -- the real deal, not a 3rd-rate rough approximation.
I am unimpressed by the overly sports-focused American attempts to approximate a Dutch city bike. I give up on looking at such American attempts; when it comes to sensible city bikes, "If it ain't Dutch, it ain't much." Dutch-influenced bikes are put through the heavy filtering lens of the American industry mentality, and the result falls short. I'm going to have to buy a bona fide (contemporary) Dutch bike. I've come to distrust the marketing words "fast", "speed", "lightweight", and "sporty"; they are red flags indicating that the bike falls short of a genuine city bike.
On their own terms, Dutch city bikes are fast and high-performance, when measured from chair to chair (from the kitchen table to one's desk at work), and the usage-context of multiple errands per day. The Wikipedia article explains the usage-efficiency of each component, in its full usage-context -- including why hub gears make the most sense, how an O-lock actually is useful, and how these components fit together as a system.
MacBike Amsterdam Safe Cycle Guide
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjNNDPXVvT0
Instructional video with captions and no audio.
Shows how to use an O-lock and a 2-pin chain to secure a Batavus Personal Bike. Shows a ride-off theft, illustrating my analysis.
Remarkably, Curbside also uses the Personal Bike as their rental bikes (http://www.curbside.on.ca/blog/?p=423). That's remarkable because contemporary Dutch city bikes have been totally unavailable and no one knows about this entire category. Curbside's city, Toronto, does deserve a closer look as the leading North American cycling city. On the surface, at a glance, my futile "city bike" conversions to my Specialized Expedition all-terrain bike ended up looking strikingly similar to this popular new unisex variant of the Dutch city bike. But I want the real deal, high quality, with all the features, and integrated-in.
The contemporary Dutch city bike ought to be the model for European city bikes overall. Bikes with fewer practical features aren't true city bikes. Dutch bikes have recently entered the Danish market and are taking over rapidly; they have been in Germany for awhile, and have recently entered France, the UK, and Belgium. Anyone interested in city bikes should focus on the modern stadsfiets. Even in Denmark, true Dutch-type full-featured city bikes, with no features subtracted, are becoming popular; even the Danish are still learning about city bikes and why the Dutch formula makes sense.
As Henry at Henry Work Cycles says, "the Dutch have a bicycle culture like they have a washing machine culture" - they don't because they do. Bikes in Holland are about as common as air and canals - no big deal. Many Dutch people commented about the YouTube videos about their bike usage-conventions, "I never thought about our bikes before; I guess we do bike alot, now that I think about it."
In Holland, the retro style of the Old Dutch bike has always been in demand, but this does not represent a Dutch consumer demand for something highly stylized; it is ho-hum, simply a workaday appliance that has always been there. In Denmark, the UK, France, and North America, the old-style Dutch bikes are well-received as a romantic product -- yet the Dutch don't see their bikes that way. The bike type that is truly "from another planet", to covet and obtain, is the modern, practical type of Dutch city bike, by which I mean 8-speed hub gear and clear skirt guard.
Fourth Floor Distribution (http://www.onthefourth.com) shows a contemporary, true city bike on the main page -- an Entrada by Batavus. The associated Curbside store website will explain to consumers the differences between a Dutch and non-Dutch bike, and the differences between the different types of Dutch bikes. The Entrada-style bike is the real solution. Electra ought to focus on that contemporary Dutch design, rather than the Old Dutch design. To the Dutch, the 3-speed Omafiets is not the only Dutch bike; most Dutch people instead buy aluminum multispeed models; that's what actual Dutch people buy, for their good city bike -- a lighter bike with 7 or 8 gears.
The North American bike industry doesn't get it, with city bikes. For a city bike, what's needed a good Dutch-type city bike such as by Batavus or possibly Trek. The wrong approach is for the American bike industry to approach city bikes with the existing misplaced mentality of techie sports performance, and trying to sell a sports-focused city bike to a sports-focused demographic. That approach has led normal bike users to look to brands perceived as romantic such as Velorbis and Kronan, but people should be looking instead to the pragmatic and better-suited contemporary Dutch city bikes.