I finally found a true Dutch bike in North America. Here's what you need to know

What is a Dutch bike? foreign have you ever seen a bike like this when I see a bike like this I can only think of one place [Music] the Netherlands good thing this channel is not about cartography the bike like this in my mind is a Dutch bike and if you've ever visited the Netherlands you know that when you step off a train in Amsterdam or any other city which you're greeted with is an ocean of bikes just like this one just larger sturdy Dependable practical but you know where you can't find a bike like this [Music] right here where I live in Canada or even in the USA for that matter it's really difficult to find a true authentic Dutch bike anywhere in North America and why probably because we tend to associate cycling with sports and Athletics and this is not a sporty bike what would it be like to have a Dutch bike here in North America [Music] hey everyone I'm Tom and this is shifter a Channel about Urban cycling bike commuting and the ways we get around our cities if you like this video please consider subscribing and if you really like it maybe think about hitting that super thanks button I want to introduce The origins of the Plain Bicycle Project you to a guy now I know his name is Anders hi I'm Anders he lives here in a city called Winnipeg he's also an artist and several years ago he and his partner Leanne scored a grant that took them to the Hague a city in the Netherlands and when they were there they were totally inspired by the bike culture of the Netherlands and the more they thought about it the more they realized they wanted to bring their bike culture from the Netherlands somehow back to Winnipeg and the first idea that we had was to do a long take 24-hour video shot of what it was like in The Hague because by then we had become acculturated and we were just we knew it was different but then we thought that would be kind of like a dick move actually to just project that at home on a big building or you know like in an art gallery to say look haha like what you don't get you know but Andrews and Leanne had this thought that maybe they could bring back a sense of that Culture by bringing back some of the bicycles some Dutch bikes onto the streets of Winnipeg but they knew just importing a couple of bikes and selling them would not do what they wanted to do they wanted to make an impact they wanted to flood the streets of Winnipeg with all kinds of Dutch bikes to really get people thinking about what are these machines why are they in my city what is going on here what they wanted was a culture bomb now I know what you're thinking the Netherlands is not such a great bike friendly place because of the bicycles it's about all the aspects of Life the cities are designed differently they're designed for pedestrians and cyclists in mind minimizes the use of cars built to encourage vibrant street life it's not really about the bike and Anderson Leanne knew that that not about bicycles per se generally it's about infrastructure and ways of thinking about transport for sure but it also is talk for days about the implications of just being able to sit upright or how foolish it is to not have fenders on a bike sold as a quote-unquote commuter and what that does depending on your level of Fitness or your gender or your comfort level on a road and just all that and like how that works together as a a very seamless system in the Netherlands that we're trying to bring here and so they decided they wanted to bring some bikes back to Winnipeg but not to import them and sell them as a business part of the reason we brought used bikes was for one Winnipeg can't afford it it's a little bit different here um in terms of I think your general what people would you know maybe be willing to pay for I don't know there's something about the fact that it was already ridden by somebody and proven you know like it's getting assortment of what everybody's already riding let's fix them up and get them I'm also heavily involved in the community Bike Shop movement in Winnipeg I've really tried to make sure everybody could have a bicycle so I'm also coming from that motivation and so they got to work working on a 90-day Visa in the Netherlands they gathered up as many used Dutch bikes as they could put them in a shipping container and sent them all the way back to Winnipeg and this was not easy they had no connections they didn't know a lot of people in the Netherlands they didn't understand international shipping it was not the simplest project we have made zero money on the first shipping container I think I still owe my mom money actually hopefully she's forgotten about that but like to make that happen like we were selling them for under 300 and like the shipping costs now are almost close to 100 a bike anyway um you know so that alone so by the time yeah buy and fix them put them somewhere Etc um it was a break even art project but you know what it worked and the next year they went back and they did it again and the year after that they did it again so by now they've actually gotten pretty good at bringing bikes back from the Netherlands and by coincidence I found myself in Winnipeg recently and went for a visit to Anders in Leanne and you know what's coming next don't you Getting my hands on a Dutch bike [Music] yes that's no yes it took me three months to finish this video [Music] um but then you hear comfortable armchairs [Music] you know why I wanted this bike it's because after talking to Anders and Leanne I realized something they weren't importing bikes they're importing an idea and this idea it's really powerful it's uh transformed cities it's transformed Copenhagen and Madrid and now Paris and Montreal and New York and the idea itself is a lot bigger than just a bike it's about life it's about Better Lives it's about better Urban living but if you're looking for a metaphor this bike is a pretty good one okay My first-ever ride it's all together the inaugle will ride an actual Dutch bike here in Calgary off we go oh yeah this is different oh I'm so I feel so tall [Music] thank you Why people think this bike is weird okay I've had this bike for about a week now and I've showed it to a couple of friends and the reaction that I get from most people who see it or ride it is that that bike's weird and compared to what people are used to around here it is weird but I'm going to walk you through each of the weird bits and it all comes down to one thing practicality Uprightness now the first weird thing is the shape of the bike yeah this bike is super upright when I'm riding it I almost feel like I'm on a chair my back is ramrod straight and that does a couple of things for one thing it puts me up really high I feel really tall on this bike and when you're riding in a city that means I have a better field of vision I think I can look around I actually see over some of the cars not the pickup trucks but over the cars when I'm turning my head to look behind me or shoulder check it's a little bit easier when you're down really low and having to shoulder check you know across that way it's not the simplest so that's one practical reason for it another one is just Comfort it's super comfortable and also this step through frame is interesting here a lot of people say oh that looks like a girl girls bike and technically in the Netherlands I think you would call this an Oma feeds which means Grandma bike there are versions with a crossbar but they're not as common and it's usually for taller people but this is also a practical thing like it's just so easy to get on and get off now look at these handlebars Swept-back handlebars they're swept back so far now Swift Back handlebars are not that uncommon here in North America but rarely do you see them come back this far for one thing it's really comfortable I mean because my weight is so far back on the bike I feel like there's there's no weight on my arms or my wrists or my elbows or my shoulders like you would normally have all the weight is back here it takes a bit of getting used to to ride it and every time someone rides it for the first time they're really shaky but once you get used to it like it's just really easy and comfortable okay this thing is Chain guard also weird isn't it it's a chain guard and inside that is the chain this thing does a couple of things for me one it keeps the chain closed clearly so it doesn't get as dirty and you don't have to clean it as much you don't have to grease it as much the other thing is you're not going to get your pants caught in there and if you're like me most of your pants have grease stains on the bottom yeah that's not going to happen here as well just makes it easy to use the bike you don't have to worry about maintenance as much you don't have to worry about cleaning it it's just Internal gears ready to go when you need it wow while I'm bent over let's talk about gearing that didn't come out right while we're here let's talk about gearing now so a lot of Dutch bikes like this are single speed the Netherlands is famously flat so you don't need a lot of Gears to go up and down Hills I don't live in the Netherlands and there are lots of big hills in my city so I went with a Shimano Nexus three speed but I went with that one because it's an internal beard thing so along those same lines there's a single speed it's super low maintenance very practical you could get a seven speed on here I guess you could add a derailleur if you wanted but you know in the spirit of Simplicity and practicality I think this is a pretty good option what's also interesting Wheel lock about Dutch bikes like this is the lock that's very common on them these are very this is a wheel lock you don't see them a lot here in North America so I'll just show you how it works basically you turn the key lock this a metal rod goes between the wheel so you just can't spin the wheel anymore so no one's going to walk away with your bike you never have to worry about bringing your lock you don't have to think about it it's just always there you don't even need a rack you can just park it on the street and lock it up and you're ready to go I don't know if all I would trust only this lock here on our streets I think it's just too easy to pick it up and throw it in the back of a truck this one comes with a chain lock as well it just slides into here and then you can wrap this around a bike rack or something secure to the ground as you could lock your frame and have and actually lock your wheel as well so that's two like almost two stages of locking that's really good another thing about this too is you can just wrap it around here when you're not using it and there you go and you can just ride like Sturdy back rack that okay another weird thing about this bike is this heavy duty rack on the back these racks are famous for being able to carry heavy loads my beloved two-wheel gear pannier fits on no problem at all this carries all my camera gear but these racks can carry all kinds of heavy loads but that's a practical thing too these are heavy steel frame bikes they're not some delicate carbon fiber ultralight they can take a beating and they can carry heavy loads one thing I Pedal brakes didn't mention about these handlebars is how clutter free they are right you know why because there are no brake levers why because the brakes are down in the pedals this bike has coaster brakes uh you just pedal backwards in order to slow the bike down and stop just like when you were a kid probably I don't know why but I love these brakes I do have them on another bike of mine part of the reason I like them I admit is because it keeps my hands free to hold the selfie stick when I'm making these videos we're weird I know but whatever if this bike was going top speeds I'm not sure I would trust coaster brakes all the time but when it's a bike like this and you're going City speeds and you know you're hauling loads you're going to the grocery store you're picking up your kids I think coaster brakes are just kind of nice and easy Dynamo lights and simple another thing that's a little weird about this bike is that it has lights affixed to it that's not that it's kind of weird you don't see that on a lot of bikes here in North America but it's also connected to a Dynamo so the movement of the wheel sends power to This Light it makes sense especially if you're going to be out doing errands and if this is the way you get around sometimes you're going to have to get around at night dynamos are also great I have a whole video about why I love Dynamo lights um these ones with the rub against the wheel are not the best but they are the most affordable option I prefer the ones in the hub also it just looks like it fits right looks like a Dutch bike needs a headlight and the last feature I want Durability to talk about on this bike is what I guess I'll call durability one thing about these bikes is that they last forever they're steel framed they're simple they're built for everyday use out in the elements and so they are pretty much bomb proof they don't have finicky gears to worry about they don't have lots of little things that need to be fixed it's a really different way of approaching bikes than what we see here in North America oh look at I forgot to talk about fenders in this practical way of keeping mud off your shoes a lot of these bikes look the same they usually are pretty affordable so everything about it just screams sort of practicality and durability it'll last it'll last a long time and you don't even I really have to take that much care of it so I like that because I hate doing bike maintenance it's also interesting to me how standard they are in the way they look I mean most of them are black most have the same shape this one doesn't even have a brand on I don't know I have no idea who which company made this bike this is a used bike but it's also interesting to me that there's no branding on it like we often tend to make everything in North America that you buy into some kind of status symbol this is not that I know Michael Colville Anderson of copenhagenized once described these kinds of bikes to me as they're like vacuum cleaners you don't even think about them you just use them but come to think of it thanks to Dyson we've now kind of fetishized vacuum cleaners I don't know if that counteracts the point or actually makes my point but the point is these are not about status or anything they're really Ultra practical and they really fit into the aesthetic of cycling the culture of cycling the way they think about cycling in in the Netherlands which is something that we don't really have here yet so Why these bikes are built for life those are some of the things that make this bike weird and if you bring it back to Andrews and Leanne's original idea I think that weirdness is what makes it special we're not packaging it as as a rich person's play thing you know and and I think that's kind of where the cycling industry has gone and there's reasons for that that no shop owner is to blame for like for every square inch of space on a on a on a semi truck you're paying the same amount of shipping so you might as well ship a three thousand dollar fat bike or a carbon whatever and I get why because those are fun and Etc but they break if you ride them every day and they're expensive you don't want somebody accidentally knocking it over while they're picking up their basket full of cheese you know and and so there's a reason Dutch bikes are how they are and we just want everybody to be able to afford one and so here we are one more Dutch bike in a city filled with not that many Dutch bikes it's not exactly the culture bomb that Anders intended although he did get a bit of that affected Winnipeg but I do think there's some value in having this even riding this bike a few times now draw some attention it looks different here and so it often Sparks the conversation is this the perfect bike for everybody no I don't think so it's yeah it's heavy yeah it's not great going up hills it's a bit slow too but it is great for me right now in a lot of ways that I ride and I'm really enjoying it I'm having a lot of fun with this bike and it's super practical too so if you're interested in a bike like this luckily Andrews and Leanne have gotten so good at importing Dutch bikes to North America that they're now selling them online you check out their social Enterprise it's called plane bicycle I want to thank them for sharing their story with me there's also a podcast about playing bicycle you should check out because it was a bit of an adventure to get where they are today so worth checking that out and thanks to them for this great bike thanks for watching I'll see you next time