I have just stayed with friends in central Amsterdam for a week with a view to experiencing Dutch bike culture!!. My friends have Gazelle's with Bosch motors and they rented for me an unbranded bike with what looked like a standard Chinese motor.
I will admit that for the first couple of days I was terrified - everybody were going so fast - I had mum's with children in cargo bikes dinging their bells trying to pass me as I chugged along. To me the most dangerous vehicles were the ones that look like a Segway with cargo box on front like the Dutch Postal service.
There were DHL, UPS, Council and many delivery services using them mostly driven at 1 speed - fast.
As the week went on I speeded up and kept pace with my friends. We talked about crash helmets - no one except motor cyclists wore them - they said because they are generally not in contact with motorists they didn't need them. I showed them a picture of a cycle lane in my nearest town - they laughed. They couldn't understand how a car or van can park or stop in the cycle lane.
I noticed that most of the small family cargo bikes had motors with some amazing configurations of the bike, motor and battery which when you looked at them seem very practical. I saw a few "Vespa" type electric scooters but what caught my eye was the revival of the Tomso 2 stroke moped - there were several variations of the standard model I remember from the 70's
Back home now, chugging at a steady pace on my Freego folder - I certainly could not have kept up the fast pace in Amsterdam - it's a young persons city but I enjoyed my bit of Dutch bike culture.
I will admit that for the first couple of days I was terrified - everybody were going so fast - I had mum's with children in cargo bikes dinging their bells trying to pass me as I chugged along. To me the most dangerous vehicles were the ones that look like a Segway with cargo box on front like the Dutch Postal service.
There were DHL, UPS, Council and many delivery services using them mostly driven at 1 speed - fast.
As the week went on I speeded up and kept pace with my friends. We talked about crash helmets - no one except motor cyclists wore them - they said because they are generally not in contact with motorists they didn't need them. I showed them a picture of a cycle lane in my nearest town - they laughed. They couldn't understand how a car or van can park or stop in the cycle lane.
I noticed that most of the small family cargo bikes had motors with some amazing configurations of the bike, motor and battery which when you looked at them seem very practical. I saw a few "Vespa" type electric scooters but what caught my eye was the revival of the Tomso 2 stroke moped - there were several variations of the standard model I remember from the 70's
Back home now, chugging at a steady pace on my Freego folder - I certainly could not have kept up the fast pace in Amsterdam - it's a young persons city but I enjoyed my bit of Dutch bike culture.
