Ordinary or Oddity?

It is an eye opener to realise that what one person considers ordinary can be considered someone else’s oddity.
Now i am not talking about the national kafuffle that is the sort of singing, sort of dancing, X factor stars Jedward but predictably enough for a cycle blog i am talking about bicycles.

At ‘really useful bikes’ we pride ourselves on stocking or trying to stock bicycles that fulfil a function, bikes that will help you go about your business more quickly, in a more society friendly way, keeping you fit, low maintenance and always ready to ride, you might think is a silly thing to say when a bicycle’s prime purpose is to provide mobility, all bike shops sell bikes like that don’t they?…

Historically the bicycle in the UK was all about going from A to B, my granddad rode a bike to work, used to tell me a story about being strafed by a Messerschmitt in a south coast country lane, he ended up unharmed (but shaken) upside down in a ditch, it was one of my favourite stories…bikes were part of the everyday… ye olde shoppe keepers delivered things with bikes, they were essential transport to get to work, bikes were an essential tool for social mobility and a definite business advantage.
These days the UK cycle shops contain mainly sports cycles, cycles that my granddad would have marvelled at and indeed i too am in awe of some of them….wonderful things made of angel wings and showered with a lusty techno dust, ride down glaciers and up walls, very clever, very sexy.

What i am getting at is that what was common place 50 or 60 years ago is now out of the ordinary, there are few ’sit up and beg’ bikes on the streets, no magazines for practical bikes, no forums (a bad thing?) and very little provision for them in shops. On the continent the design of their cities and an educated euro mentality has meant that bicycle design there has continued mainly in the ‘city bikes’ guise with sports bikes taking a back seat (but still definitely catered for). In the UK the emphasise is definitely on sports bikes to such an extent that a rack on a bike is often an afterthought, a basket on the front is a quaint addition to put your gingham teacloth and carafe of Pims in
Maybe this is a little to do with our terrain but I suspect more to do with fashion and the lure of the filthy lucre, we live in a society that craves technology and newer sparklier things, modern sports bikes pander to that fashion. Successive governments have not helped and we have seen the rise of the motor car used as a indicator of national success to the detriment of our local quality of life (IMHO) but let’s leave that one alone…

The bikes we offer you are not oddities, they are out of the ordinary but with a traditional and simple function, we see bikes as practical transport, as part of the everyday. We hope that what you see on our website and our slightly dishevelled show space is a catalyst for a new way of living, a snapshot of the future. a modern practical future for bicycles that have their foundations in the past.
The bikes we offer you are not oddities, you’re just not used to seeing them.

Workcycles FR8 universal

We have Workcycles FR8 (universal) in stock…

with this beauty you have a good selection of purpose built racks too…
take up to three kids on this bicycle with ease..the Rolls Royce of the dutch bike world, solid dependable and comfortable.
One size fits all so great if you need to share a bike to take the kids or get the shopping…test rides encouraged.

This is not the best pic of an FR8, but its honest and shows it in a simple guise in its home city of Amsterdam…you cannot beat a nice box up front..

Stereotyping, BBC radio 4 show, accurate or outdated?

I listen to radio 4, i like it, i cook the evening meal with a bit of comedy at 18:30… sometime its funny, sometimes not good at all. Sometimes its just cringy. Listening to ‘Rudey’s rare records’ on radio 4 is not a enjoyable experience  at the best of times, i’ll give it credit for one or two funny lines just for balance. This week was about Lenny henry (his character) getting fit, his way of doing this was to buy a bike and with it lots of lycra…(you see where this is going!!).

There follows lots of jokes about his lycra covered package, his dodgy riding style, not being able to find his brakes etc…

I found it all a bit much, very stereo typical and not really very funny…but then i think and this probably is how non bike users see bike users (cyclists). When you mention cyclist what does that conjour up in folks minds, probably the lycra, geeky technical stuff and then sweat probably….basically an object of ridicule…

I could bang on about it…..have a listen to the show on the BBC listen again (you can fast forward through bits), see what you think.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nkb2s (3 days left to listen)

Its fashionable to get a bit chopsy when you feel misrepresented, start a campaign and call it a word ending in ‘ism’. Lets just say that this program is a great advert for why bike users need to use things like cycle chic, amsterdamize type media and of course your own good self when picking up the kids or going to the shops on your own practical transport looking like a normal (although enlightened) person.

All these  things can help to redress the balance.

P.S. a conundrum, I ride a bike but am i a cyclist?

Bakfiets in stock for test rides.

We have taken delivery of our latest bakfiets, both long and short version. both are available for test rides. We also have in stock rain covers from Clarijs arguably the best covers available. We hold stock of the biggest range of colours, with not just the standard UK red and black, but also cream, silver gray, pink, orange and blue. Individualise your bakfiets.
bakfiets are not just good for kids but for business and for general getting about. I take the dogs to the walk destination in mine…
We also tweek them here so that they suit the undulations of the Uk, it makes a hell of a difference.
test ride them at the dairy.
07801 150727

Workcycle pickup.

Our next trip to Amsterdam should be very soon. Our long awaited collection of FR8’s and handmade city cycles will be in the dairy and collected by their very patient purchasers very soon.
Our preordered stock is now all allocated so workcycle bikes are a little like the proverbial rocking horse do da…We are trying to keep up with orders but handmade bikes do not fashion themselves out of thin air and in an effort to keep damage and delivery costs down for you we organize pickups of a few bikes at a time, and that adds a little delay to an already lengthy order process.

just as well that Workcycle bikes are worth their wait………..

an emotional cinematic ride

I have two films to  recommend to you, both old and both very different, both watched on the big screen in the dairy, both entertaining and visually interesting.
First a film that some bicycle lovers might have already seen, ‘the bicycle thieves’ by Vittorio de sica, 1949, full of emotion and really lovely bicycles, no lycra to be seen and what style, what a great film.
the second that is a particular favorite is a Jacque Tati film called Jour de fete, it features a postman on a bike, its got loads of character and if you watch it with patience and open eyes it is a joy to behold.
Films from the 40’s and 50’s often had bicycles included, just because they were part of everyday life….then came the blockbusters reflecting everyday life, the car chase, the daring stunts…in ‘the bicycle thieves’ there is a bike chase every bit as thrilling (ok, its not quite ‘the french connection’) but you can watch this one without the need for dolby 5.1.

fixies? nah, …3 speeders….thats where its at!

On Sunday Marky did a ride from Surrey to Sussex for the Anthony Nolan trust. His bike of choice, a 3 speed Kona africa bike, the tough dependable city bike from the well known Kona brand. It’s perhaps a strange choice for a 75 mile cycle trip but we are growing to love the simplicity of the 3 speed hub, the Africa bike is a good comfy little bike equipped with a shimano 3 speed coaster brake. It performed the task very nicely…Mark did an off road event on it recently too….says a lot about the bike, the hub and a bit more about Mark!!…
We both took a spin on the Bristol Bath cycle track on Saturday, rode an Africa bike and a workcycles secret service 3 speed from the dairy into Bristol and both had a lovely time on our 3 speeders.

Whilst the Africa bike is a dependable (and fun) workhorse, the workcycles secret service is a little more debonair, Mark was feeling quite privileged wafting along on the cream of the Dutch bike crop…we still cannot work out what Henry, Richard and the workcycles team do to these bikes to make them feel special…we have poked, prodded, looked at them from underneath…now we have decided that perhaps its best not to know how the elephant disappears but just clap in wonder when it does……..
Now where was i?? Oh yer….3 speeders… we like them a lot….we think it might be the next big thing.

“ladies” bikes

What is it with the world of British ‘cycling’ that means that terminology and attitudes are stuck in the days of old, where step through frames were designed so that skirts would hide a ladies ankle and for an era when Knickerbockers were deemed a risqué garment.

In an age where ladies do wear the trousers it strikes me that men should be allowed to ride a step through frame without people pointing the finger and saying he is riding a girls bike.

I ride step through frame a lot, they are easier to mount and dismount, particularly if you have children on the back rack. I am a heavy old fella and I have not had a step through frame sag under my enormous bulk. So it’s not a structural thing.

So why do people refer to a step through frame as a ladies bike….well it doesn’t help when a leading bike usage advocate perpetuate the myth, I did mail them a while back and explain that these days modern bikes are often designed as unisex and that tends to incorporate no top tube, ie step through frame. Cargo bikes in particular adopt the low or no top tube design.

It makes sense to make using a bike as easy as possible; this includes sit up and beg riding position, baskets and racks as standard. Step through frames make sense from a practical point of view for everyone. So lets simplify things, remove the outdated his/hers twaddle and make the bike a simpler thing to explain and use.

Step through bikes are not just for girls, they are for everyone.

We have a selection of very unisex step through frames to try here at the dairy. for example the Universal frame FR8, great for families where both parents share the responsibility of taking the kids to school or playgroup, one size fits all.

Orders taken for workcycles.

We are getting the hang of things, the biggest lesson to learn when trying to bring the best bikes to the great British nation is when bringing stuff in from Holland, things have taken an age…you need to think ahead….but if that’s the bad news, the good news is that the bikes, when they are here, are absolutely worth it. We don’t sell pap, we are honest about the bikes we sell, so if there is an ‘idiosyncrasy’ with a model we will make the effort to sort it. If a bike is just plain ‘not really useful’ we won’t sell it.

Our favorite bike for practicality and all around ‘really usefulness’ is the FR8, It is wonderfully stable, proper comfortable, and with its thunderbird style modular concept it will suit your purposes even when your situation changes.

Like a new born child we kept the FR8 close to our bosom, but like all best kept secrets you lot found out about it and have found homes for our last shipment. our last FR8, our beloved demo has a new home with a family in London.

The FR8 and the bakfiets cargobike are both excellent family bikes, both with a different approach but both deliciously practical and very importantly fun…

With this in mind, just as we are putting our regular order into workcycles, we are politely asking that if anyone is thinking about purchasing a workcycle bike in the next 3 months that they pull their finger out and get in touch. orders can take 12 weeks + to come through. sometimes its quicker but its always best to be realistic. If you want to purchase a workcycles bicycle, its best to pre order, we do keep stock but it sells out fast.

So orders taken now, new stock and demo bikes available in about 8 weeks we hope.

We still have Yuba Mundo’s, Kona Ute and Africa bike, Xtracycle, Electra and Koga Miyata demo bikes available for you to try here at the dairy, Bristol. 01454 319960

workcycles FR8 on You Tube

For those of you that want to see an FR8 in action, check this out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjWKLozSa5c
points to note, the rear child seats are removable, as is the front child seat and the front rack….versatility and quality are the key points for the FR8. Lovely bike designed and manufactured by workcycles.
the last delivery is sold out, but we will happily take pre orders for our next shipment.

Just as we do with our bafiets cargobikes, our FR8s are individually built and fettled by us to your needs and wishes.

As a follow up to my trip to Amsterdam, no pics i am afraid, it was good to see Jochem from dutchtub and help unload a delivery to the workshops there. check out www.dutchtub.com.

The workcycle shop was great, a really nice vibe and full of great bikes and stylish helpful people. Their packing skills are almost as good as there ability to design and fettle bicycles. (sorry to make you all late home).  When you go to Amsterdam next, do pop in and see them. great bikes there, and its situated in a nice part of town a little bit out of the way.

It was a whistle stop tour but a productive one. Workcycle bikes are great and as one lovely customer confirmed to me when picking up her omafeits recently, their bikes feel and look better than the bikes they are based on (azor in this case).

great bikes brought to you by ‘really useful bikes’.

Rob