Bicycle No. 22: Sunday May 6, 2007

Hurrah! We have bought our new bikes, and they're currently being fitted with mudguards and rear brackets. It was extremely odd riding a bike that had TWO brakes and 21 gears -- I need an instruction manual to cope with those -- but they should make the steep incline of Canon Street a silky dream. No pictures of them yet, so here's a picture of two chaps on a rather nice bike route along the Test Valley, out near Houghton in Hampshire. All we need do now is buy a car that will allow us to get out to these idyllic spots.

Bicycle No. 21: back in April

I know, I know -- it's been almost a month. But what a busy month! We've sold a house, moved country, established a new home office, and are now attempting to buy new, shinier bikes with lots of gears. We're still not quite there yet and the fact that there are hills (!) here is a little offputting, but bikes will be had. However, I already have my first bicyle-related bruise -- and it's a corker. On Monday, we headed over to Hargroves Cycles to check out their stock. As we approached the shop, I tripped up over an unexpected kerbstone and went down hard on my knees. The following morning, it was a deep red-brown bruise. Irritatingly, my final bike bruise of Amsterdam -- same leg, lower calf, thanks to a recalcitrant bike stand outside the gym -- had only just faded. I am destined to carry a permanent bike blemish, clearly.

However, here is a picture of a lovely bike that couldn't inflict any damage on me as it was safely locked up inside a hair salon on the corner of the Leliegracht/Herengracht back in the home of bicycles.

Bicycle No. 20: Friday 13 April, 2007

Sniff. An inauspicious date indeed. The last bike ride to work. Locking up my trusty steed in the basement bike room and ceremoniously handing over the keys to Bill for safe-keeping. This bike has served me well. I inherited it from Erin when she returned to the US. Temporarily abandoned for a newer, shinier bike when its chain locked up on me, I came back to it when newer, shinier bike was thieved from our building's bike racks. Fixed up, it was good as new -- even if the seat did swivel slightly and the brakes were somewhat spongy. It was too heavy for British roads and lacked the 21 gears necessary to cope in a country with hills, but I loved it.

Bicycle No. 19: Saturday March 31, 2007

Bikes on the Rozengracht also make handy dog-tethering posts. Not sure where the owner was, but Fido here didn't seem too worried about being abandoned -- not as worried as I'd be if PJ chained me to a bike on the street. Ahem.

Bicycle No. 18: Friday March 16, 2007

A visiting US colleague recently asked if anyone in Amsterdam wore cycle helmets. Simply put, no. OK, you occasionally see some small children wearing them, but the attitude in the photo above is far more common. Does this mean, then, that people get killed or injured left, right, and center, she asked? Again, no. Much of the time, bikes are carefully separated from cars and pedestrians; for the rest of it, cars drive far too slowly (thanks to tortuous one-way systems and speed bumps) to do much damage even if they hit you. And, I guess, nearly all drivers are probably also cyclists -- or their parents/siblings/spouses/children/friends are. And, if a car hits a bike, it's automatically the car's fault -- regardless of how stupidly the cyclist was cycling. A great incentive to drive carefully, and one that should be adopted elsewhere.

Bicycle No. 17: Monday March 12, 2007

It's bin day on the Keizersgracht -- a day when a bike becomes a removal lorry. The canny Dutch, reluctant to leave a great (i.e., free) bargain behind, start loading up items onto their bikes. This old boy has got himself a nice glass cabinet, complete with light fixture in the top, has secured it to his bike, and is now going to wheel it home. Hurrah for proactive recycling! (PJ will be most annoyed; he had his eye on something rather similar in last Thursday's collection.)

Bicycle No. 16: Sunday March 11, 2007

I took this a couple of weeks ago on a stroll around Amsterdam -- it's actually two bikes, only one of which is attached to the rather large trailer. I'm impressed that anyone would even consider trying to cycle round with these ladders on a bike. The sharp corners and steep bridges of the Jordaan make it a somewhat treacherous endeavour. However, I'm not sure when the owner last attempted it; the back tyres look rather flat to me.