Art, Bicycles, and Travel

The Art of The Bicycle

Bicycles.   

This bike with its quirky decorations caught our eye

If there was a check list of my husband’s interests this would be on it.  He loves the basic early model bikes—even the beat-up rusty ones. The sleek new modern designs sometimes peak his interest too.  

While spending time at home in the shop doesn’t lead to much bike observation time looking for and finding cool bikes has been a fun treasure hunt on some of our more recent trips.

 

This woman was transporting
an amazing number of toddlers!

This fall we made a long planned for trip to Amsterdam and ended up touring several small towns that were a quick train ride away.  The Netherlands is a great place to look at bikes.  EVERYONE rides: to work, to the store, to dinner, to pick up the kids. No special bike clothes needed. 

Double-decker bike parking at the train station

The entire country seems to be set up for the everyday biker.  The train stations had huge bike only parking lots where they were stacked two high. As we rode past on the train, we could see parking garages for big companies that had floors of bike spaces.  Small spaces in the city were filled with bikes.

After a day of walking on the cobblestone sidewalks I totally understood why people rode bikes everywhere!  Exploring the historic down towns of big cities and small villages is a great way to spend a day but by the time evening rolled around my feet were done!  Several times I found myself wishing for a simple one-speed bike and an easy cruise back to the train station.

Informal bike parking in the city

While I was enjoying the idea of these easy Dutch bikes – ones that didn’t demand that you hunch over the handlebars to get the best aerodynamic position, my technical minded husband was comparing brake links, frame styles, and tires.  Starting in Amsterdam he found there were bikes with a blue front tire. A special tire?  A fad?  Finally, at the end of the trip a quick stop in a bike shop revealed the answer.  Several years ago, a company started a subscription bike service – for a small monthly fee you get a bike and repairs or a new bike if it breaks down.  The blue tire easily identified one of the leased bikes.

Ahhh, I can see the start of a plan for our next trip to Amsterdam!