Posts tagged “amsterdam”  

Part of the Amsterdam experience, besides all the bikes, is the street art like this Party Ballon with Marilyn Monroe and Michael jackson.

Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

While the turnout was light — it was 31 degrees with mixed rain and snow — we had a good time during the Mobile Social Amsterdam @fitc. Mark from Amsterdamize was our guide and took us for a ride when we needed to get another bike …

HD video from the Mobile Social Amsterdam during FITC, a creative conference. We were down a bike so we rode to get another bike while alternating who sat on the back of Amsterdamize’s bike.

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Nice backdrop for an urban bike.

We’re en route to Amsterdam for the first Mobile Social of 2010 during the FITC conference. We’ll ride with Marc from Amsterdamize to a reception at Work Cycles.

Then on Tuesday I’m talking about changing the world with bikes.

The Dutch Embassy brought 400 Dutch Rail bikes with them to the Olympics and at least two were parked outside of our hotel.

We also saw them riding around. They’re well adapted to the wet and we’ll see more this weekend when we’re in Amsterdam for the first Mobile Social of the year during the FITC conference.

Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

In the Fall of 2009, Bike Hugger rode urban in London, Amsterdam, Prague, and New Dehli. Along the way we met lots of people incuding Alien8, Marc from Amsterdamize, Henry from WorkCycles, and the good people of India.

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iPhone

iPhone users can download and watch now and access our Huggacasts via the iTunes Store on a Wi-Fi or cellular network.

We’ll kick off another year of Mobile Socials @fitc next month.

Our first Mobile Social of 2010 is in Amsterdam during FITC, a creative conference about design and technology.

• Event: FITC Amsterdam
• When: February 21, 2010, 2-5 PM Local Time
• Where: Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Who: FITC Attendees, Locals, Bike Huggers
• RSVP now at Upcoming or Facebook

Meet outside of the Felix Meritis -- conference center -- and group ride to a reception at WorkCycles Jordaan. Marc from Amsterdamnize is our host.

Not Riding?

Can't join us for the bike ride? That's ok, you can still meet us anytime after 17:00 for some beer, apps, and conversation at WorkCycles Jordaan.

Rental Bikes

There are lots of places to rent bikes in Amsterdam:

• Damstraat Rent-a-Bike P
• Bike City
• MacBike Central Station

The New Year brought an interesting spike in my newsreader with opinion writers commenting on a new California law regarding bicycles without seats. It’s now legal to ride a bike without a seat in California, if that bike was designed to not have a seat. Don’t know how many bikes there are without seats. We noticed the Fastboy assless last year

While at WorkCycles to pick up bikes for the Amsterdam stop of the Mobile Social Worldwide, @amsterdamized showed us his photos. This collection was recently included in a NYT feature, the NY 400 celebration, and he was hanging them on the wall for a party.

Mark will sell these soon.

You see whole families on bikes in Amsterdam, including babies like this. We think she is happier than a car-seated child in a minivan with a DVD player.

Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

With some many bikes in Amsterdam, some of them get abandoned and rot.

Uploaded by henry in a’dam | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Inspired by poetry slams, reality television competitions, and celebrity death matches, the New Amsterdam Bike Slam is a unique battle for the future of New York City transportation.

Spread over four days, the New Amsterdam Bike Slam is a live design battle, a dance party, a world-class transportation summit, a bridge across the Atlantic, and a path forward.

The Slam occurs from 9/10 - 13. Working now on getting into this for some live blogging and we suggest they get the Vortex of Terror there too.

Henry is an influential amongst the Cargonistas who you may not know about yet. He’s likely responsible for the cargo bike your either riding or thinking about riding. Henry left the American corporate world to change the world with bikes and does so from a shop in Amsterdam called WorkCycles.

Regardless of who was copying who it was all very much about cult audiences, and the few firms involved were busy keeping it all to the extremist elite. I was fascinated by the possibilities and fun of these crude machines and convinced that with better design, quality, service … in short professionalisation the bakfiets would be popular amongst normal families and businesses.

Last week during his annual pilgrimage to Eurobike, Henry takes issue with the latest Handbuilt bike show knockoffs, Amsterdam via China, and mountain bikes apparently built to carry pizzas to skiers. He also blogs what you won’t see in the glossy mags or ad-plastered websites.

We visited WorkCycles last year and are planning another visit next month. I’d like to zip around Amsterdam on a one speed with a step through frame while there. It’s Dutch for fast.

The Kona crew in Amsterdam.

When we were there, we rode with Amsterdamize.

What is Velocouture? Check it out after the jump.

Originally uploaded by Amsterdamize | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Hopefully we’ll get back to Amsterdam with more time to ride and see sights and bikes like this.

Uploaded by little green | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

We’ve done that. Not only wet, but stormy the day we rode in Amsterdam.

Uploaded by a.pic.a.day | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

As Dutch bikes go, this one is a speed racer and on display at Work Cycles. During the ride, Mark, our guide said, “you think it’s easy and flat, but we’ve got the wind, rain, and these little dike hills.”

Bikes as transportation or not, us cyclists are programmed for competition and there are impromptu races going on everyday in Amsterdam. Just like the commuter challenges back home in Seattle. I was clicking through my 3 speeds the entire time; left up and over this bridge; right down this alley, cut back over a bridge; and a fast straightway past coffee shops and retail stores.

Dutch thieves are also fast and each stop requires a rear rim lock and a thick chain through the frame and front wheel. I asked Mark why so many bike thefts and he said, “supply and demand, a constant need for a bike.”

Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

We daytripped Amsterdam en route to Rome. Amsterdamize was our guide. As you’ll see and hear, it was “cold, wet, sideways rain with lots of coffee; just like Seattle but with 8 hours of jet lag.”