I had first coined it The Bicycle Video Of The Century, but that was just my enthusiasm running wild. It doesn’t matter. What it is: it’s a gift from my best friend & creative genius Gabemac, a gift to me and all of you who follow and support Amsterdamize.

Gabemac traveled to Burning Man and he came back with so much more than this video. Actually, he said: “Dude, this video doesn’t really tell the whole story of Burning Man, it represents maybe 1% of what I experienced there. At some point I just had to put the camera away, it didn’t do it justice.”

I believe him. But this 1% sure as hell gives a fine impression of what the 99% entails. Enjoy!

I’m so going to Burning Man in 2012 and I’m bringing my bike.

Today I read this. Then I browsed through a few folders. Which led me to putting together this little token: We’re only human.

Sometimes a cycle life gets in the way of …, well, you know, actual bike blogging. So, long overdue, but here it goes. Before I arrived in New York at the end of April I anticipated riding with my #bikeNYC friends & possibly joining well over 30.000 other individuals from around NYC & the US on the Five Boro Bike Tour. Best of all, combining the two.

As you’ve read here, the first part never fails, including the part where online friends become the offline equivalent. Cycling just unites that way, easy.

So here it is, part two of my #bikeNYC adventures in 2011.

May 1st, the day after the New Amsterdam Bike Show (which will be part three). Sunshine galore. Ignoring my jetlag, I cycled from my hotel in Soho to 6th Avenue/W Houston St & observed the 5Boro crowd cycling from down- to uptown. Quite a sight and good fun, as the film will show.

Half an hour later I met up with Ronald (Dutch expat, Research Associate at The Street Plans Collaborative) , Carina (Danish expat, freelance video reporter), Liz (Pilates instructor & advocate for Livable Streets), Noah (Mr NYC Cycle Chic), Steve (bicycle advocate/lawyer) & Noel (Asoc. Director of Engagement Technologies for the World Economic Forum) right across the street.

This was me for the day (not unlike on any other day at home):

And my hosts for the day:

Liz & Noah

Steve playing around with his 5Boro vest & Carina was ready to roll.

So we did. Setting out for our self-proclaimed ‘Un-5Boro’, circumventing a few things we couldn’t be bothered with and perhaps just join the Five Boro Tour at some point. Yes, naughty us, crashing the party ;).

Grab yourself a beer/glass of wine/a cocktail, sit back, relax and ride with us for the next 52 minutes, if you will. Roll the tape:

I know, right? Quite an awesome day, despite getting stuck on the BQE for 2,5 hours. Oh, the irony :).

Here are just a few of my favorite pictures I took along the way:

Can you say ‘I Am Legend’ & BikePeaceNYC, you look fab? ;)

You can always count on the NYPD…

Me, hard at work going up Queensboro Bridge…

Arriving at the waterfront in Queens.

Stuck on the BQE, but smiling.

You’ll always find a few Dutch around.

In a massive bicycle gridlock it’s easy to get acquainted with the nearby residents.

Stand out much? Nah..

The United Nations On Wheels #bikeNYC rat pack!

Last pit stop before Verrazano.

Noel didn’t want to freeze his toes off on Verrazano Bridge..and I figured you’d not often catch him in this position.

As I mentioned in the film, the NYPD, in this case a very bad-tempered cop, yelled us off our bikes. Steve tried arguing with him, but to no avail (and no surprise), he wouldn’t budge. Through some banter, Noel found out the cop was not on the payroll of the City of New York, which was odd, but it could easily explain his mobster-like behaviour. Anyway, it was quite entertaining.

Steve lent me his bike helmet (historic moment, I tell ya) saying he’d done 5Boro before and wanted me to finish it (thanks again for the sacrifice, Steve!). Noah & Liz also said goodbye, as they were not ‘packing gear’. Finally, Noel happened to have an extra 5Boro vest, so we were on our way, up and over the bridge, to the finish line on the other side on Staten Island.

Noel and I rode right on, towards the ferry.

But not before stopping for some brew.

Where you, predictably, bump into like-minded/familiar people.

Police started wrapping up their long day…

We caught the Staten Island ferry back to Manhattan…

Which allows beers AND drinking on board. Perfect. After all, you don’t have a utility bike with basket and panniers for nothing, aight? PS: Noel had the Heineken, I had the local flavor, in true UN-style :).

Riding along the East River…

Noel heading back to Brooklyn and me to Soho, thinking: “Wow. Just wow.” Yes, epic.

We escaped reality, tasted ‘what could be’. We Were All Legends.

Thank you, #bikeNYC. With love, from #bikeAMS.

As you might have heard through the grapevine, not so long ago I was busy creating the film ‘Cycling For Everyone’ that officially launched & introduced the Dutch Cycling Embassy.

It was quite the process. Challenged by a very tight time frame before it was supposed to be presented (at the Dutch Embassy in Brussels during the Smart2Wheels Forum), I was scrambling to put both a team together and plan things accordingly.

The weather forecast wasn’t very promising. But we struck some much needed luck; nice temperature, mostly sunny and just a ‘bit’ of wind.

Of course this project was right up my sleeve. Amsterdamize has grown into something solid (albeit, I really need to catch up on posting affairs), I have years of experience in online marketing & particularly in combination with video, I’m no stranger to the historical context of things and I like to think Amsterdamize has contributed to the idea of this embassy :).

I managed to put together a great team. The creative, subtle & insightful camera skills of Erwan van Buuren, the charming presence of my friend Mi-Ah Roediger as ‘Girl On Bike’, production assistence by Reuben Hamburger and the smooth editing of one of my best friends and film director Gabe Bauer.

On day 1 we shot scenes in Amsterdam:
At the Workcycles shop…

At the underground bike parking garage (of which there are many) at Zuid WTC train station…

At the Apollolaan/Stadionweg junction, where we were often blocking people going from A to B…

Contrary to common use & customs, we sometimes put the Omafiets in the back of the van…

…to get to the infamous Nescio bicycle bridge (of British design(!)) on time, that connects Amsterdam suburb Diemen with IJburg…

Day 2 had us:
Shooting the morning rush hour on De Lairessestraat/Jacob Obrechtstraat, dominated by the school run…

Then we moved to the Nieuwe Spiegelstraat/Prinsengracht area, which included a stop-at-a-shop scene that I ended up not using…

On to Houten for the train station’s ‘Fietstransferium‘ and junction scenes…

And at the end of that busy day we moved our equipment to the majestic Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam. Unfortunately, these scenes were entirely cut from the film, due to playtime constraints.

On day 3 I had to fly to Reykjavik to be a keynote speaker at a cycling conference organized by the Icelandic Cyclists Federation (on which I’ll post soon), so the crew went ahead and worked with my instructions. And they did great, filming a tongue-in-cheek scene with a representative of the Fietsersbond (Cyclists Union) & their ‘measure bike’ and putting academics at ‘work’ at the ITC of Twente University.

Luckily (for you), I had also reminded myself to shoot a few videos along the way, for a modest ‘behind-the-scenes’ edit:

As traditions go, I also couldn’t resist assembling the footage we either didn’t use (as I said, often you have to ‘kill your darlings’) or cut it up beyond recognition. Hence: here are the outtakes. Warning: it’s almost 24 minutes long ;).

Oh, and of course, here’s the final product of all our efforts: Cycling For Everyone. Enjoy, if you haven’t already :).

And thanks to all who helped spreading this video, the counter now stands at over 45.000 views on Vimeo & the Dutch Cycling Embassy received a very warm welcome on Twitter and all the blogs!

Here are the YouTube links of two of them:
- Cycling For Everyone
- Cycling For Everyone – Behind The Scenes

And here’s the complete Cycling For Everyone photo set.

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 :).

Meet my good friend Rose. A free spirit, a talented artist & a lover of Amsterdam. Today I helped her out at one of the locations that displays her art. After finishing up we hopped on our bikes and rode back into the center. An off the cuff, yet perfect moment to get her on the record: Rose loves #bikeAMS TV. Enjoy.

On August 18th I had a meeting in Utrecht. As usual, I got there by train and I had brought my bike. Stepping outside Utrecht Central Station and riding towards the center is always a joy, despite the ongoing road works & the obstruction by the building sites.

This video spans about 10 minutes of recording around the tip end of the morning rush hour. When I say ‘rush hour’ & ‘Utrecht’, you immediately think of Mark Wagenbuur’s famous videos. He’s done plenty of them, rain/snow or shine. This is no different. Just my drop in the media bucket of covering Dutch people on bikes. Going from A to B, conveniently.

[Update] Can’t believe I forgot to mention this. ‘Speaking of the devil’, Mark coincidentally happens to be IN this video, turning right on the bike path intersection after the first light, with the yellow/blue plastic bag hanging from his handlebar, 26 sec into the video. :)

PS: Utrecht has a bicycle modal share of 35% of all trips. Recently the city council voted on a new investments to raise that nr to 55% and reducing car use by 50% by 2025. This is no hogwash or PR spin. They really put their money where their mouths are. Why wouldn’t they…funding of bicycle infrastructure & provisions has a real return on investment. It’s an economic decision above anything else, with far-reaching positive effects, building a livable city.

On occasion I get asked to explain the side saddle hop, because to quite a few people it looks complicated & the Dutch make it look so easy. Or my guests want to try riding along on the back of my bike & but they’ll settle for getting on while stationary. So here it is, an instructional video, the anatomy, if you will, of the genuine Dutch side saddle hop. A three-act. Perfection in motion.

No pressure, of course. Practice makes perfect, that’s all :).

UPDATE: Ricardo Javier sent me the following video of him and his girlfriend cycling around Amsterdam (it starts in the same area as where I shot my video), it includes some very nice side saddle action too. Thanks, Ricardo!

PS: riding side saddle is illegal in many countries, including Germany and Denmark. That’s also the case in Australia (unsurprisingly), but little birds told me that some Ozzies continue to break this law and that they call it ‘dinking’. Winners.

Work is done. It’s a warm & sunny evening. Taking it easy. Grab a bag with picnic goodies and flick it in a basket. Stop along the way to pick up some tasty burgers & find that sweet spot in the sun. That’s what Lauren and I did not too long ago.

* It’s been pouring this last week, so it’s only fitting that I’d edit and post this today, to keep our spirits up :).

My friend Suze paid me a visit this afternoon to catch up on things. As is usually the case, we sat at my window and watched the world go by, which is always interesting in the Red Light District. No exception today. Among other things, we witnessed a parked bicycle getting blown into the canal by the wind.

A few hours earlier one of the renovators next door, who’s been our temporary neighbor for some time now, had been hoisting materials up to the 3rd floor (video) (as it’s often done in Amsterdam, known for its steep stairs), so I figured I could use the hook at the end of that rope to get the bicycle out.

Suze said we should so do it, which was the last nudge I needed (on a rainy day), but in the end it didn’t work out exactly that way…but either way, just watch what happened.

A new day, a new video camera, new opportunities. The early evening light was exquisite, so I just headed out, doodling about. 25 minutes of footage brought back to a little under 13. It was a beautiful maiden voyage for my little HD friend & it passed the test…no, it aced it. For those interested: I shot it at 720p & 60 frames/sec*.

Here you go, ‘Veraneando En Amsterdam’, or: enjoying summer in Amsterdam. Enjoy the ride*.

* I wanted to export it to HD 1080p, but it turned out to big. The same applied to the 720p version, too big for Vimeo. I had to choose between cutting it up yet again or leaving it at a lower resolution. I chose the latter.

** Over the years I’ve noticed (to put it lightly) that when people watch a video like this, they often comment: “But what about when it’s raining or snowing? Surely, people won’t cycle that much then?” Sure they do, because it’s convenient. Here’s an old video of mine shot in December 2008, ‘Sinfonia Cyclissimo‘. Or watch Mark Wagenbuur’s videos, winter & http://amsterdamize.com/?p=2432

Statistics don’t sell cycling, cycling does. People have to see and feel it for themselves to really understand the significance of putting cycling at the forefront of rethinking our urban mobility. The most powerful means second to that are the visual arts: photos and videos. My modus operandi.

I have more than plenty of photos to show, the video part has been falling behind this year. That’s going to change. I ordered a GoPro camera. I recognized the power of this camera when I saw Paul Martin, part of the Australian Cycling Dutch Style group which I joined a few times on their study tour around the Netherlands a little while ago, put that camera to good use. It’s awesome.

Many visitors I host, have either followed Amsterdamize or have read up on cycling in the Netherlands otherwise, also going through tons of pictures and videos. Either they still couldn’t believe it, or were expecting the ultimate cycling Walhalla. Yet, all of them, really all of them realized upon arrival that nothing beats experiencing the reality on the ground. Steven Vance from Chicago, for instance, was only half-joking when he uttered I was cherry-picking the best cycling moments with my camera…until he rode here himself.

Alas, enough of the babbling. I positioned myself on the bridge over the Prinsengracht, leading towards one of the arterial bike routes in downtown Amsterdam, Nieuwe Spiegelstraat.

That street is a one-way street for cars (not a through-way, but mostly used by people who live there or delivery vans), which can rarely (and won’t) overtake people on bicycles (as it’s a Bicycle Street) and a two-way street for people on bikes (and mopeds unfortunately) & a narrow sidewalk on each side. At that time on that Saturday it was not particularly busy, not like during the week when on average 25.000 people travel up and down this stretch on a daily basis. It’s a fast, thus popular connection between the Museum quarter in the south and the downtown area, en route to Central Station.

The video already received a first comment on Vimeo:

That is what the motor vehicle to bike ratio should be in every city…ideally.

I know, that’s why I’m still living here :). Enjoy. If you have any questions, write it in the comment section.

Fietsforce.nl is a project initiated by Fietsforce Foundation Amsterdam, founded and run by a group of Amsterdam students, who “believe strongly in the combination of business and social commitment.” The foundation is supported by Pantar Amsterdam, one of the biggest employment re-integration companies in Amsterdam, which helps putting disenfranchised people to work. Finally, Fietsforce wouldn’t have been possible without the help of the Start Foundation.

Fietsforce: Fiets=Bicycle, + Force. You get the drift. Two-wheeled power. Social power. Because it provides a two-fold service: first, its mobile repair team services people with a broken down bike, on the spot. Second, Fietsforce provides youths the opportunity to learn skills, gain confidence & set off on a career path. There’s a third plus: Amsterdam & the Netherlands in general suffer from a lack of bike mechanics. Hopefully this pilot project will keep enough of them in this realm, maybe even start up their own shop. There are never enough specialty bike shops!

Below you can watch their enjoyable promotional video. I was asked by Fietsforce to wait a few weeks before posting this, as the service had quickly become a success, more demand than supply in this pilot period. Amsterdammers, take note: Fietsforce offers a 50% discount if you review their service!

Well, I’ll be sure to call ‘m when that pesky moment comes…I’ll wait a few minutes longer if I have to :).

Predictably there were quite some April Fool’s jokes of the bicycle kind, all over the world. To catch ‘m on the go you really need to spend time on Twitter.

The Dutch couldn’t stay behind, of course. So here’s my favorite of the day, in video format, by Heineken, to the tune of & borrowing the bicycle scenes from that infamous Dutch flick Turks Fruit (Turkish Delight):

Funny/nice/cute, no? Well, you’re a fool: it’s actually for real. They actually sell those. For the launch of their new downtown shop, Heineken used this day to create some awareness. It worked.

I can’t say it’s a step up from the usual milk crate, but I’ll give ‘m kudos for the effort. Now let me pop my La Trappe Tripel, to kick start the weekend. Somebody on Twitter just said it’s going to be 25C.

I’d be a fool not to drink to that.

It’s uneventful and a given, but I share what I enjoy and last night was nice. On our way to a cafe for pre-dinner drinks, Lauren and I cycled along the Amstel River and the mild temperature allowed me to whip out my iPhone to record a little something. With her family back in the US in mind and Amsterdamize, of course.

An hour and a half later we rode on, into De Pijp. A little damp, but a very nice ride. Hardly any car traffic, soothing, adding to an already good mood.

We turned into Albert Cuypstraat (which during the day has a buzzing market) and parked right outside Turkish restaurant Bazar.

Convenient, as it goes in a bicycle-friendly country.

Information I wanted to share with you weeks ago, so here’s a copy-paste:

Hey, my name is Curtis, I’m a film director from Canada. In the summer I worked on a film called ‘The Bike Heist’ we shot in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The central theme of the film is bicycles and friendship. We our currently releasing promotional teasers every month or so until the release this summer (2011).

Our best marketing tool is word of mouth, telling friends, blogs etc. Then they tell more people and so on, you get the idea. We have been featured on a couple bicycle blogs so far, but would greatly appreciate your support also. The website for the film is www.thebikeheist.ca and perhaps you can make a post on your blog or even embed the teaser. I would appreciate your support and it certainly is for a greater cause.

Long live cycling.

I’m riding right with ya, Curtis, thanks for making and sharing The Bike Heist!

Dear readers, followers, subscribers: share, embed, link to, RT, syndicate away

From the source (via @VrijeFietser on Twitter): “A bicycle, dramatic music & great editing: all ingredients of the short film ‘Fiets!’. There’s no narration, but the actors’ facial expressions are sufficient. Words are not needed. The music adds drama, but at the same time it’s also cheeky. At first you probably don’t see the purpose of the film, but it all comes together in the end.”

Doesn’t it always :).

I just had a most chillin’ Sunday, joining friends at the Appelsap HipHop Festival in Oosterpark in the eastern part of Amsterdam, enjoying some good munchin’ and good…well, let’s just say at some point somebody put Stevie Wonder on, but generally just extremely relaxed, and half the city seemed to have gathered there.

Halfway dinner (mussels, yum!) I got a text message from one good friend of mine, Wiendelt, asking me whether I had checked another friend’s Facebook page yet, in this case Gabe’s. Of course I hadn’t, and couldn’t resist, so I checked…

Suffice to say, I love it when friends get together, whip out their guitar and camera, and have a good laugh. Totally jammin’, making my day truly complete!

Quoting Henry:

A little bit of bike rap Courtesy of the City of Amsterdam who is finally waking up to the fact that bicycles are one of the Netherlands greatest attractions and on e of the strongest reasons it’s just such a darn lovely, peaceful place to visit or live. The incredible cycling mode share enables very high population density without the typical urban noise, danger and stress. Much of the 17th and 18th century city remains not as a museum but as a living, breathing, charming city as the city was once defined: a place for people. We love riding our bikes here… with our kids, dogs, SO’s, to work, to the pub, to school or just for the sake of riding!

It’s still true. The world around us is experiencing a surge in bicycle advocacy, people desperate for more ‘active transportation’ in an often hostile car-dependent society, while the Dutch take their achievements mostly for granted, both nationally and in international context. Amsterdam has a strong case to push aside the aged cheese, tulip & windmill (and pot & prostitution) associations, emphasizing its livability by embracing the bicycle as main transportation. The Netherlands as a whole could also do with a little shedding on that front. Right now ‘we’ are not doing enough.

The end game of successful bicycle policies is that nobody will have to think twice about getting on a bike. Young and old, rich and poor.

It’s just the logical thing to do.

In short, feel…

In early February of this year Antoine Sachs of ARTE TV from Paris arrived in Amsterdam on his tour around this country to document Dutch bicycle culture, infrastructure and more. He was particularly interested to talk to me about the ‘trouble in bicycle paradise’, being bike theft and parking problems. The first is huge, but on the decline, the latter is ever persistent with the rising cycle rates.

I was happy to host Antoine, show him around and highlight a few aspects on camera. This weekend he e-mailed me to tell me his video series about cycling in the Netherlands was finished and online on his blog ‘Chronicles Of My Carbon-Free Life‘.

I hope your French is good, because, as is still customary in France, it’s all dubbed. No big hurdle, as the footage will tell a clear enough story. Enjoy.

On Thursday, April 23 I pedaled off to go to Shirley Agudo’s book signing at the Waterstones store, in conjuction with Book Night. It being a beautiful day, I didn’t rush and snapped a few shots before entering. Still, I got there early enough to spot famous & fabulous Fabiola approaching the book store on his/her bike.

See, he/she wasn’t on the cover of ‘Bicycle Mania‘ for nothing :). It was great finally meeting Shirley and fellow-photographer Trevor Waldron, talk Amsterdam bike culture…well, actually, not culture, more about our own hows, whats and whys.

Perhaps because of that evening, I took my time, more than usual, when I hit the streets the next day.

On Sunday I met up with David Bernstein, host of The FredCast, ‘a weekly podcast devoted to the latest cycling news, gear, gadgets, gizmos, components, podsafe cycling music and more’, based in of Park City, Utah.

He was in town on business and seized the opportunity to go for a ride with me. No need for a rental bike, as he’d brought his own speedy Dahon folder.

We sat down in the Jordaan, had a great talk about a whole range of things-to-do-with-cycling and finally landed in Vondelpark to record a new episode: ‘Show #151: Amsterdamize!‘ (interview starts at 29:41). The rest is now ramblin’ history ;).

The rest of the day offered me some more observations, not to be ignored.

And last but not least, Queen’s Day came and went. Life is grand, never a dull moment.

The deal:

The only rule for 30 Days of Biking is that you bike every day for 30 days—around the block, 20 miles to work, whatever suits you—then tweet about your adventures with the tag #30daysofbiking. Event starts on April 1 and ends on April 30!

It’s become quite a thing on the Twitterz. No wonder, it works the same way as on the streets: more people will take up cycling when they actually see (more) people do it, the more the merrier. Low entry barrier, make it look easy and share your thoughts and experiences, inspire others. It makes a great and growing global on and offline cycling community.

I’ve been cycling every day all my life and wouldn’t know what to do without it, you already know that. But I’ll support any effort, all creative means to get people on two wheels (more often).

What, you’re not cycling yet? Then get yourself a bike, get on with it…and never look back.

In honor of #30daysofbiking I recorded this little tidbit, one of my daily rides home from the train station, on an early Tuesday evening in April.

(Shot with my Nokia phone, so low quality)

In September of last year the good people of Dublin Community TV hopped over to Amsterdam, here to film for The Pedal Project:

Rob Carr to me:
“The TV Series is 3 part documentary on cycling in Dublin. The main premise of the series will be to look at how a cycling culture can be developed in Dublin and what that might look like. To that end, one programme will be a kind of travelogue where we go on a journey from Dublin to Amsterdam via London by bike, ferry and train. We will follow Ciaran Fallon (the new Cycling Officer at Dublin City Council) on his journey as he meets various people involved in the cycling cultures of London and Amsterdam to see what is happening from a cycling perspective in those cities and what Dublin can learn from them. We are of course hoping you will be one of these people…

From DCTV:
“As Dublin has grown wealthier we have become carcooned basing our personal and city transport system on the car” said director Barra Hamilton. “We know this isn’t working – but what is the alternative and how do we get there? That’s the question we set out to answer with this documentary. We spent months talking to academics and elected officials, council planners and staff, campaigners and cyclists – and through the production process of TV we’ve constructed a convincing case and viable plan to recast Dublin as a cyclable city.”

“The Pedal Project is an ongoing debate emerging into public view in all its complexity and variety for the first time” said co-director Rob Carr. “We are inviting people to contribute to the process. From the reasons we should, and shouldn’t, insist on cycling helmets to how we design our roads to create dedicated spaces for cycling while ensuring ‘permeable’ road systems with a mix of transport forms – The Pedal Project offeres a tool for people to use in instigating wide ranging discussion on what we want from our city.”

The end result is fabulous. The Pedal Project does indeed make the case for much needed change and does so by covering all the important angles. And I think it’s safe to say that in this series Dublin is interchangeable for many other cities around the world.

Go watch and after you finish, don’t hesitate to see the other parts: One Less Car & Two Wheeled City (those are external video links, but you can instead navigate to those parts inside the embedded player). Oh, and just fyi, the Amsterdam part starts at 13:43, but don’t skip ahead, watch it in full.

Yesterday I stumbled upon another Amsterdam blogger, Sarah at muntthee.com (mint tea). In particular, her words of devotion to this city’s (bicycle) culture:

Amsterdam has often been titled the Bike Capital of the World with 40% of all traffic movements by bicycle. The ubiquity of bicycles lined up against every building and the number of cyclists on the road is probably the most unique element of this city. The bicycle is a part of the Dutch identity and Amsterdam truly embraces bike culture. When I first moved here, I was so amazed by all the different types of cyclists riding in this town. It is fascinating seeing whole families being carried on one bike or people moving their furniture on the back of their bikes. The bicycle is by far my favorite part of living in Amsterdam.

So, inspired by this bike culture along with the coolest blog Copenhagen Cycle Chic, I have decided to post weekly photos of the interesting bikers in this city. This first picture was taken when I first moved to Amsterdam. She is out of focus but this is a little girl riding alone with her teddy bear in Vondelpark. I can’t handle the cuteness of this city sometimes.

Of course I welcomed her :-p and today I looked a bit further. Turns out Sarah is a filmmaker and motion graphics designer from Japan & Texas (images of samurai westerns jumpstarted my imagination) and moved here last summer.

I don’t know what it is, but for some odd reason there’s always a connection between the simple act of cycling and artistic/creative people…wonder why that is….no, I don’t, but I was ready to find the proof in the pudding.

Sure enough, going through her show reel, I found a video called ‘(One month in) Amsterdam’. Now, things coming to conclusion, I figured ‘Amsterdam’ would be a must-watch. I was right:

Looking forward to more, Sarah, consider me a fan!

Last Sunday I played guide for the Mobile Social Group Ride, organized by Byron of Bikehugger, as a prelude to his presentation ‘Changing The World With Bikes‘ at the FITC Amsterdam 2010 (- “Design, Technology. Cool Shit”) conference at the Felix Meritis European Centre for Arts and Sciences on Keizersgracht.

‘It’s prohibited to place bicycles against this building’s facade. Bicycles will be removed. This building has permanent camera surveillance.’

We ended up with the four of us. I rode alongside Rick from Toronto and Byron and his wife Pam. We blamed the poor weather conditions, not everybody’s cup of tea. Or some were just aiming for other destinations. Byron and I joked about how the weather’s always crap when he and Pam hit Amsterdam. And when it’s not raining, snowing or frogs falling from the sky, when we start riding, it eventually will. It’s a given. ;)

FITC provided two, very artsy/colored beater bikes for the ride, put together by Champagne Valentine, one more crooked/bend than the other. Very cool. Still, we needed one more bike, so we thought we’d head over to Workcycles (where a small reception would take place later that afternoon) and see if we could borrow one. Henry hadn’t arrived yet, so we pedaled on to MacBike at the central station. And by ‘pedaled’ I mean that Byron was sitting side saddle on the back of Mr Freight. Not an opportunity to waste, of course:

We rode on to the Plantage buurt (near Artis Zoo) and forced by a downpour we fled into a nearby cafe. Cycling in the rain ain’t a biggie, but if there’s no absolute need to torture yourself, treat yourself to some nice beers instead. It was equally nice to just talk about stuff that transcends the act of cycling, aka our professional realms. I discovered that I had even more in common with my guests than just the love for bicycles/cycling. Yeah, always funny how that works.

The final stop was at Henry’s, who had provided for great finger food and more beers. A setting for lots of (real) bike geek talk and showing off stuff, as you can imagine…but with items you might not have guessed. :)

Meanwhile in the city, things transpired as usual, people going about their way.

(Yeah, I know, it’s not raining in those pictures. But for editorial purposes, this just will have to do :-p)