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.

Mike Rubbo from Sit-up Cycle, who’s recent video interview with Mikael Colville-Andersen made waves on the internets, posted another great video (check the whole post, it’s a good read too) with David Hembrow of A View From The Cycle Path, now a household name in the world of cycle blogs.

David is actually a Brit. who moved to the Netherlands with his family for the better bike infrastructure, which he now enjoys and makes wicker bike baskets too.

If David has a fault, it’s his constant posting of the Dutch as such paragons of bike lane building, etc. It makes you just feel like giving up in a country like Australia.

I’ve told David this, but he can’t stop. How could you in a country with 29,000 kms. of cycle paths? It’s sickening.

Anyway, my wish is to interview all the great bike bloggers of the world. With no grants, that’s a probably an impossible dream.

In the meantime, I’ve been using a young videographer, Violeta Brana-Lafourcade, who’s super economical, to go places for me, and to film interviews, which she’s done with flair.

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Now, here’s what Violeta sent me on David Hembrow. I hope you like; Talking to David Henbrow. Do leave a comment. It’s mainly about Sit-up bikes which I see as the key to change here.

Thousand will say the type of bike does not matter much, but are they right? Here’s David.

Oh, and here’s the whole video of cycling in the Netherlands in the 1950’s that was used in Mike’s video.