I’ve become fascinated by the idea of “working bicycles” and Henry WorkCycles in Amsterdam sells a wonderful collection. It’s a shame that overseas shipping makes actually buying from them prohibitive.
There’s also Xtracycle, which appears to be as much a movement as a bike shop. Despite what is otherwise an excellent feature-filled website, I still can’t quite get my head around what they actually do to bicycles — it looks like they stick an extension on the back and build a platform over it. It turns out that if you actually read their website, they make it perfectly clear what they’re all about; sorry about that.
Meanwhile, Catherine is raring to hook up the welding torch and start crafting a custom job for me.
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I was in Montreal over the weekend and was fortunate enough to see a couple v-low choppers in person. Great little bikes that are almost pieces of art. I saw them on CBC and they are even more impressive in person. Make sure you have a couple of good bike locks if you get one.
http://www.v-low.com/frame.htm…
There’s an interesting bicycle culture that I’ve seen in the last couple of weeks I’ve been in Vancouver. In addition to the many gore-texy mountain bikes that abound in the city (where people can load their bikes on the front of a bus!) there is a “cruiser” sub-culture as well. There was a parade last weekend of over 200 old-style touring bikes. Amsterdam style, vintage Schwinn, banana-seat and sissy bars. It was great to see.
Just had my first ride on an Xtracycle.