I arrived at the Workcycles shop today to have a tire changed on Lauren’s bike and I entered an all too familiar scene: two of the mechanics decorating one of the rental cargo bikes. The customer’s name is Marnix & he was pressed for time, as his sister Brechtje was going to get married to Jeroen on the other side of town…and he was in charge of arranging the bride & groom’s ride before & after the ceremony. So the guys helped speed up the process of making that procession even more stylish and festive. Have a look.

You have to know that this is quite a common, aka traditional thing in Amsterdam & the Netherlands to do. Hell, I’ve seen 30 pedicabs for wedding guests parked outside a church at one point. My summer’s favorite picture is of the soon-to-be-married couple below, which I took in Vondelpark. Also a Workcycles rental cargo bike, but the bigger flatbed one.

I’m sure Brechtje & Jeroen’s wedding photos will turn out great. Life on two, or in this case, three wheels is bliss. Marnix, I know you’ll be reading this, you’ll have to let me know in the comment section whether you made it on time :).

Via Bakfiets.co.uk, via the Workcycles group on Facebook, a video report by Radio Netherlands on the popularity and dislikes of bakfietsen in the Netherlands.

Henry’s response to a group member:

There’s no movement against bakfietsen; There’s just always somebody with a superior attitude. Bakfietsen have gone from work vehicle to hippy and squatter transport to über-hip fashion for young families to yuppie minivan to “it’s just plain old practical so I ride one’ in the last couple decades.

Always practical, always opting for convenience. Yes, the Dutch are pretty boring and predictable that way. Well, most of them.

A few weeks ago I read that the Fietsersbond (Cyclists Union) had been busy this summer re-mapping, re-calibrating all of the (segregated) bicycle lanes and thus routes in the Netherlands. From 1996 up until now everyone relied on the numbers from the Central Bureau for Statistics, showing 17.000 kilometers of those connecting the entire country.

Uhm, apparently it was in dire need of an update, because these good people found many, many more of them. 12.000 more. Yes, 29.000 is the new number. And this is based on extensive research by 7 people actually going around on bikes and creating digital maps. 7 people? The Cyclists Union chose 7 out of the 14 Dutch provinces as a firm basis for their calculations, hence one person per province.

There’s no real explanation, other than these were ‘overlooked’, forgotten, obscured, or what not. I think the Dutch Tourism Board should update their info and start promoting the hell out of it.

Speaking of promotion, digging all this back up I found this cute little music video by a Dutch girls band from Amsterdam called Pep, singing ‘Fietsen’, or ‘Cycling’. More specifically: ‘Pedal towards freedom, in the wind and the rain, it feels heavenly good’. Ain’t that the truth.

I also bumped into Marlooz, who’s was there for professional purposes, filming the event. As it was about a race between moms on bakfietsen, often with kids on board, through Vondelpark, going from leg to leg, I proposed she could hop on the back of my bike to continue filming, adding some ‘action’ to her footage. Of course, you don’t have to ask a Dutch girl twice, excellent idea.

It was pretty amazing to see the moms’ agility on the mostly heavily packed bakfietsen while performing the stage tasks. Ranging from obstacle course to jousting. Yes, jousting. I shot some video of that, and here’s the result, you be the judge:

It was fun and truly a typical Dutch cycle phenomenon. Not something this blog was allowed to miss.

You can find the rest of my pictures here.

Amsterdamize : Mama Bakfiets Race from Amsterdamize on Vimeo.