The Bikes of Copenhagen #03 - Dutch Treat

Let's get one thing straight. This strange North American tendency to call the kind of bikes featured on this blog "Dutch bikes" is odd, to say the least.

A Made-in-Netherlands bike is a Dutch bike, silly.
It's like calling cars "American vehicles". Our fine friends, the Dutch, must be giggling at this branding of classic European bikes as "dutch bikes", just because some tourist at some point went to Amsterdam and went home to coin the phrase. Yes, we're bitter. :-)

This is a Dutch bike. Only because it's made in the Netherlands. The Old Dutch.
And it's happening again, this time in a more modern, marketing orientated way, with the advent of the Bakfiets cargo bike import wave to America. All of a sudden a normal "ladcykel" or cargo bike, of which there are hundreds of makes all over Europe, are called Bakfiets, just because they are the first kind people have seen.

It's kind of like the first white man to visit a remote tribe in the jungle somewhere tells the locals his name is Bob and then all white people are called Bobs from then on. :-)

The Dutch don't even call them Dutch bikes, for heavens sake. In the Netherlands and Denmark we just call them bikes. In Denmark these bikes are sometimes called "bedstemor cykler" or grandma bikes, just as in the Netherlands they're called 'Oma' and 'Opa' bikes. On many bike brand websites they are often called Classic or Retro. But by and large they are referred to as "damecykler" and "herrecykler" - lady and gentleman.

Another Old Dutch Dutch bike from the Netherlands.
I like the British term "sit up and beg bike", which is lovely and descriptive, as I'd rather sit up and beg than hunch forward in some strange, unnatural position. If I'm racing in a time trial on Day 15 of the Tour de France, I'll want some hunched over aerodynamic goodness, but the rest of the year, I prefer a humane, ergonomically correct position. My mother taught me to sit up straight.

But I digress. Bikes from Dutch bikemakers are often seen in Copenhagen. They don't dominate by any means, but they are aesthetically pleasing additions to our bike culture.

The Old Dutch bikes above, as well as the DIVA at the top are all from Batavus. If you fancy going Dutch, Batavus is a great place to start. They have an amazing catalogue.

A propos brands that are only avaible in certain countries in Europe, Batavus have several models unique to Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. They even have a Danish Collection - "Batavus has developed certain models especially for the Danish market. The Danish bikes are carefully aimed at the demands and specifications regarding design and quality that many Danish cyclists have."

Visit Batavus' international website and click on the different flags to see the difference in products from country to country.