Thursday, September 9, 2010

Italian Postal Bikes



Saw these bikes in Como, Italy. The first two are the same model, one with a rack mounted stand, one without. They were riding together, must have been lunch time. The third one is a different model. To me, there is an optical illusion that the front wheel is smaller than the rear wheel? I think they are the same size.

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Sunday, August 15, 2010

Delivery trikes in Dijon




I had a long time away from this blog due to computer issues and general laziness and dislike of computer related issues. Anyway, my wife and I recently took a road trip that took us through Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany. We really only drove through Belgium and Switzerland, but stayed in the others. In Dijon, France there were numerous trikes from this company, and also Postal Service bicycles which I will post later. These had electric assist. The scowling guy actually gave me a big smile after I took his picture.

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Sunday, January 24, 2010

Snowy Amsterdam







A recent trip to Amsterdam was made nicer by a light snowfall.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

David Wilson Industies reborn


I restarted DWI as a contract bicycle repairman. With the world economy the way it is, I can more easily find part time work from a variety of sources rather than trying to find someone willing to hire me full time. I am a word of mouth mechanic locally with the large IKEA employee base as a starter. Mobile service available. I am also working with IKEA directly, servicing their loaner fleet of about 16 bicycles.

In addition to that, I am working part time at a custom frame shop specializing in adult/child tandems among other things. Most of his bikes are made at various factories in the Netherlands, but he keeps a prototype/custom shop out in the sticks. So far I have only done assembly there, but will get to do welding/framebuilding as well. Dutch style. www.onderwaterfiets.nl/

Ronald shares an old barn with another guy who custom builds box bikes specially for daycares that can hold 8 kids. www.deredding.nl/

One of the shops I am working for occasionally now, hopefully more regularly soon, is Beer Transportfietsen. Owner Chris Beer has a bike shop specializing in transport bikes, both two and three wheels. www.beertransportfietsen.nl/ There are links along the left side of the page. I noticed they are not there when I use google chrome browser so good luck.

The De Fietsfabriek shop that I had been working at previously has moved location and is reopening as a multi brand shop in about a month. I will soon meet with Mel about working with him again in the new space.

It's fewer hours than it sounds right now, but think it will pick up sharply very soon.


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Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Egyptian bakfiets

Egyptian style bakfiets with nice matching front wheel covers. This one looks well used, but at least it's intact.

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Monday, December 28, 2009

Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt




Not one, but three butchered cycle trucks at the all inclusive resort we stayed at for a week over Christmas. Foot activated rim brake. I did see one other in town with an intact basket, in similar beat down condition. I also saw construction workers hammering rusty nails straight to be reused for a fence, which does say something about something. At least they're still rolling and working hard I'm sure.

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Monday, November 30, 2009

oude bakfiets





This is one of my favorite styles of bakfiets. Original models were fixed gear (you could not coast). Hand brake is the lever sticking out from below the seat, pushing down to brake. These would rock with a Rohloff hub laced into the rear wheel.

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