Testing a Dutch Workcycle Oma
Apr. 2nd, 2010 10:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darkemeralds posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
bicyclesIt was bound to happen eventually: today I rode another bike to work.
Poor Clyde had to go into the shop for a pair of new shifters. Since this was warranty work, I took him to the Wrong For Me bike shop that sold him to me.
That shop has no loaner or rental program, presumably because their customers either own multiple bikes or don't ride daily. Clever Cycles, the Just Right For Me bike shop that I discovered last week, does rent bikes, and is a short walk from Wrong Bikes.
So to Clever Cycles I walked, and from Clever Cycles I rode away on a rented Dutch Workcycles Oma bicycle, in the glorious sunshine of April.
Doesn't she look like a Victorian lady with a bustle?
This is a serious car-replacement bike, an everyday bike. It's designed for work--for carrying groceries, kids, briefcases, flowers, small dogs, etc. It's designed to be ridden in good clothes, in bad weather, on city streets, day or night. You sit up straight. The handlebars are high and wide. All eight gears work perfectly. The chain and gears are completely encased, for low maintenance and no grease on your clothes.
The built-in headlight and taillight are powered by the bike's motion--no batteries!--and both are positioned so they won't be blocked by any load you might be carrying.
The Oma weighs a ton. It doesn't go fast. Everything on it is steel except the fine Brooks leather saddle and the serviceable rubber grips and pedals.
So what was it like to get this behemoth up the riverbank? To my surprise, it was somewhat less effort than on Clyde because, for one thing, shifting into low gear actually worked. This bike is made for load-bearing, and by the magic of good engineering it seems to transfer the energy of leg muscles to the wheels with tremendous efficiency. The trade-off is that it's not a speedy bike. At all.
I thought Clyde, my big red cruiser, made me stand out in Portland bike traffic, but riding a Dutch bike was like wearing a "not from around here" label. It's a completely not-American, not-sporting, not-recreational, not-fast, not-sexy bike. It's a Mercedes sedan of a bike. It will get you there in comfort, and it will do it for decades.
This isn't the bike for someone who has to store their bike upstairs or anywhere else "up". It was a significant effort just getting it up the four steps to my front porch last night. There was no way I could park it in the garage at work this morning because that parking is all vertical. (I locked it in the standing racks outside.) If I buy one of these, I'll have to park it in my back yard. Happily, Workcycles are built to live outdoors in Amsterdam.
Riding a Dutch Workcycle has made me feel very differently about riding bikes. It completely removes any sport-competitive-touring nuance and puts me squarely into "what if I were to give up my car?" territory. It is not an incidental bike. It's a bike for people who rideg a bike every day for every purpose, and never think of themselves as "cyclists".
I'm seriously considering making this my next bike.
Poor Clyde had to go into the shop for a pair of new shifters. Since this was warranty work, I took him to the Wrong For Me bike shop that sold him to me.
That shop has no loaner or rental program, presumably because their customers either own multiple bikes or don't ride daily. Clever Cycles, the Just Right For Me bike shop that I discovered last week, does rent bikes, and is a short walk from Wrong Bikes.
So to Clever Cycles I walked, and from Clever Cycles I rode away on a rented Dutch Workcycles Oma bicycle, in the glorious sunshine of April.
Doesn't she look like a Victorian lady with a bustle?
This is a serious car-replacement bike, an everyday bike. It's designed for work--for carrying groceries, kids, briefcases, flowers, small dogs, etc. It's designed to be ridden in good clothes, in bad weather, on city streets, day or night. You sit up straight. The handlebars are high and wide. All eight gears work perfectly. The chain and gears are completely encased, for low maintenance and no grease on your clothes.
The built-in headlight and taillight are powered by the bike's motion--no batteries!--and both are positioned so they won't be blocked by any load you might be carrying.
The Oma weighs a ton. It doesn't go fast. Everything on it is steel except the fine Brooks leather saddle and the serviceable rubber grips and pedals.
So what was it like to get this behemoth up the riverbank? To my surprise, it was somewhat less effort than on Clyde because, for one thing, shifting into low gear actually worked. This bike is made for load-bearing, and by the magic of good engineering it seems to transfer the energy of leg muscles to the wheels with tremendous efficiency. The trade-off is that it's not a speedy bike. At all.
I thought Clyde, my big red cruiser, made me stand out in Portland bike traffic, but riding a Dutch bike was like wearing a "not from around here" label. It's a completely not-American, not-sporting, not-recreational, not-fast, not-sexy bike. It's a Mercedes sedan of a bike. It will get you there in comfort, and it will do it for decades.
This isn't the bike for someone who has to store their bike upstairs or anywhere else "up". It was a significant effort just getting it up the four steps to my front porch last night. There was no way I could park it in the garage at work this morning because that parking is all vertical. (I locked it in the standing racks outside.) If I buy one of these, I'll have to park it in my back yard. Happily, Workcycles are built to live outdoors in Amsterdam.
Riding a Dutch Workcycle has made me feel very differently about riding bikes. It completely removes any sport-competitive-touring nuance and puts me squarely into "what if I were to give up my car?" territory. It is not an incidental bike. It's a bike for people who rideg a bike every day for every purpose, and never think of themselves as "cyclists".
I'm seriously considering making this my next bike.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-06 08:19 pm (UTC)With drop bars you can in fact *see* perfectly well -- and you're not significantly less visible either (all other things being equal). The thing I don't like about it is that I get most braking power when riding actually on the drops; whereas in traffic mostly I'm riding on the hoods & that makes it harder to brake fast.
TBH if you're looking for one-bike-to-do-it-all, a decent quality hybrid may actually be your best bet. Get one with mudguards & a rack fitted & that sorts out the day-to-day weather & luggage thing; if you wind up wanting to carry large things you'd need a trailer[0] anyway. Flat bars so a fairly upright riding style (if less so than the Dutch bike), and significantly lighter with more gear choice (a good-quality bike should have good gears). It might need a bit more maintenance, but if you're competent to oil the chain & pump the tyres, an annual checkup by the local bike shop would be enough. (Which will doubtless compare favourably to the cost of a car's annual MOT or whatever the equivalent is in your locale!) I guess you'd have to try to fit a skirt-guard (they *are* available but are quite hard to come by) if that's important for you.
The Dutch bike is v cool, though :)
(Sorry, I have gone on at length! I like talking about bikes :) )
[0] I part-own (it's theoretically shared between 4 of us who all live with/v near each other) a bike trailer from Carry Freedom that can take up to 90 kg. It is seriously awesome & I would strongly recommend it to anyone wanting to be able to carry heavy loads by bike.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-06 09:04 pm (UTC)The trouble with kitting one all out with rack, fenders, basket, light, bell, mudguard, skirt-guard, etc., is that it doubles the price, and makes mechanics who work on that type of bike hate to work on it. It's essentially the problem I have with my current bike (well, that on top of its generally poor quality). True, the result would be lighter than a utility/Dutch bike, but not much less expensive.
At my point in life (I'm 54), heavy hauling will be done by paid professionals in delivery vehicles, but those Carry Freedom products are BEAUTIFUL!
no subject
Date: 2010-04-08 11:38 am (UTC)(I confess that my experience with baskets has been universally bad -- damage to bike frame, lots of wobbliness, and won't actually take that much stuff. Maybe I have just encountered rubbish baskets!)
I am seriously horrified by any mechanic who complains about working on a bike that's fitted with, y'know, USEFUL STUFF. Grrr.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-08 01:42 pm (UTC)Especially when they work for the shop that sold the useful stuff, and fitted it themselves in the first place.
What I have now is essentially a low-end but decent hybrid (well, cruiser-shaped, but hybrid tires) with those things that cost me about $700, and I can certainly keep it going for a good long while yet, which I'll probably do.
I must have totally lucked out with this basket. It's awesome.