Read introduction here

My introduction can be found here

Monday, 18 February 2019

Dutchify your bike

When I moved to NL I shipped my bike here. I liked my bike, and my husband's employer was going to reimburse our shipping costs (but they weren't going to pay for a bike).

My bike was primarily a leisure vehicle in the states. I did use it at times to commute to work, but that was rare. Here my bike is a source of transportation (when I actually use it, that is). And as such, it had to be modified for those purposes.

Fortunately, as discussed here pretty much every store in NL sells bike paraphernalia which makes some of the additions quite easy to acquire.

1) A bell. I already had one from the States so I simply had to put it on the handlebar

2) A bike seat cover. This comes in handy for those rare (snark) occasions it rains in NL and you want to keep your seat dry while your bike is sitting outside and you're in a store

3) Headlight and taillights. I've read tweets about the police actually giving tickets to fietsers for not having a headlight on while biking at night!

4) Lock(s). Here again, I already had a lock from back in the US. So far it seems to have prevented my bike from being stolen (knock on wood). There seem to be 2 primary types of bicycle locks here in NL (or at least our part of NL). 1 is a MASSIVE chain with a keyed lock. This is often used on mopeds. The other is a clamp that grabs the rear wheel (pictured below). This one holds the key in the lock while the bicycle is unlocked. Convenient way to not lose your key while the bike is in use. This one, however, doesn't prevent someone from simply taking your bike with them. It only stops others from riding your bike away. Most of the time I've seen this lock paired with a chain.


 



5) Some form of storage. This is usually either a basket atop the front tire or saddlebags over the rear tire. These come in handy when carrying purchases or large/heavy items from place to place. Baskets seems to be either wicker or plastic. The plastic ones seem to be either milk crates or a shopping basket and may or may not have a store's logo on it. Both of these require #6

6) Storage frame. I found this one out when I first purchased my saddlebags. The gentleman in the store was very helpful and assisted in putting the saddlebags on my bike. I already had a plank like thing attached to the seat stem which hung out over the rear tire, but alas, this was not sufficient. There needs to be a frame on the rear tire to prevent the saddlebags from interfering with the gears. Likewise, for the basket there is a frame that attaches to the front stem which allows the basket to be seated there. The bike shown below has a frame over the rear tire and in front of the handlebars.

I really lucked out on having the rear frame added to my bike. There is a little shop very close to our apartment and the guy had (or found) a rear frame that fit my bike frame. The frame with installation only cost me €15!! (I keep meaning to go back to him and ask if I can pay him to teach me how to work on my bike. I sure don't want to get stuck somewhere with a flat!!)



7) If you have children you can opt to add a seat on the handle bars and/or on the back tire. I've also seen a windscreen on bikes that have a front child seat. And it seems if you have a child seat anywhere on your bike then you get a kickstand that will hold up the bike completely vertical by itself. You don't want the bike falling over with little Anki on it while you try to get on the seat.

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