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Hah! Appears we’ve just booked ourselves a few days in Amsterdam for a spot of culture and cycling. Seems the women in my life just took it into their heads to organise everything. My daughter’s just back from Dresden/Berlin and obviously feeling restless.
Who am I to complain?
Let’s see if I’ve learned anything from last time…
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In light of my brief exchange with Fixup on the subject of bars bereft of brakes, I felt I really had to share this snap of a generally unspectacular bicycle I spotted in Amsterdam. There are likely thousands like it but there was something about the empty square bars that, for me, just epitomised the idea of the bicycle as a modernist icon.
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Marc at Amsterdamize.com has some very useful tips on cycling in Amsterdam (where else!) and I thought it might be worth appending what I learned on my recent visit.
- If you rent a bicycle as a tourist/visitor, make sure you go for one with the rental company sign on the front – I got the impression the locals appreciate the warning label! :c)
Rental bicycle showing "Tourist" warning label on front
- Before deciding to rent a bicycle with a coaster brake, bear in mind that mumblety-cough years of reaching for handlebar-mounted brake levers is an instinct that may take time to unlearn. Traffic – even two-wheeled – is probably definitely not the place.
- If you want transportation rather than recreation and you’re more familiar with “hand brakes”, then ask for them. Neither prayers nor swearing are effective methods of arresting a bicycle’s progress (see above).
- If I still haven’t put you off, bear in mind that a coaster brake, like a fixie, doesn’t let you “cock” your pedal for easy take-off at stoppages. You need to stop with your pedals in a sensible position or you’ll look like a grinning idiot with a touch of chorea as you try to bend the bicycle to your will. The locals know this and simply don’t stop.
- Don’t worry about the language. Everyone cycling in Amsterdam speaks English perfectly – you’ll frequently hear them offering helpful advice such as “You’re going the wrong way…!”
- In some areas of Amsterdam, you may find a bicycle symbol painted on the ground to mark a cycle lane. Sometimes you may also find cycle lanes where the symbol is painted upside down. Don’t worry, this is intentional and simply indicates that you’re going the wrong way…
- Don’t try and follow an Amsterdamer through a narrow gap – you won’t fit! Trust me! They’ve got retractable pedals or something…
- Dutch traditional black bicycles are quite tall in the stem compared to British roadster models. There is likely an historical reason involving tax avoidance. It means the zwarte fiets can perhaps feel twitchy and wobbly at low speeds to some riders. This is perfectly alright. Just pedal faster.
- Give it a go. Once you go black you may never go back…
We used Damstraat Rent-a-Bike which was convenient and inexpensive and we found the guys there to be helpful and friendly. Give them a try. I think they’ve possibly stopped laughing by now!
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Witnessed between the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum…m’Lud!
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Just got back from Amsterdam – I promise to post some photographs soon – where I found a tasty 50’s ladies Rudge sitting in the corner of a bicycle rental shop. Only €110 but I would have struggled to transport it…
I’ll post at greater length when I’ve recovered from the fiasco of disorganisation that is the British rail network.
In the meantime let me just say that I now have an informed opinion on coaster brakes. Simply put, they are the work of Beelzebub!
No, really!
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