muses on Netherland

[wellard]

a question for those that live there or have been lucky enough to visit, a conversation at work yesterday left me wondering. Why are there so many mountinbikes in holland? [img]graemlins/confused3.gif[/img]

[Melusine]

To plough through the metre-thick mud we get after it rains, of course! And it rains all the time. And to cross over all the dykes. And to stunt-jump over all the ditches. Yeah....

That enough cliches for you?

We're just a bicycle-loving country, figures some of them are mountainbikes, I guess. Though the way you put it, I agree that it might be just a teensy bit silly to have mountainbikes in the flattest country of the world

[Ronn_Bman]

Better to be prepared for the mountain, than have the mountain take you by surprise.

[Arledrian]

It's not so much mountain bikes that dominate over there, it's mainly just regular kinds of (gouwe ouwe Batavus) bikes. It's just all about tradition I suppose. Cycling has always been the easiest and cheapest method of transport in the Netherlands, and what with cars and licenses being so incredibly expensive over there, many people have just decided to stick with that they know best. People over here think I sometimes sound like grampa Joe, just because it's true that I used to cycle five miles to school when I lived there. I suppose my saving grace is that I never walked fifteen miles in my bare feet just to get the paper every morning.

[ 02-17-2003, 05:54 PM: Message edited by: Arledrian ]

[Attalus]

I wish that we were a bicycle-loving country. I wouldn't have to see all these obese children and young adults that I do. Lazy, lazy, lazy.

[Irongrinder]

I guess it's obvious, it's a luxuary problem we have, I had one myself as well just for the nice looks of it, but didn't like it after a while so went back to a normal bike. I still have a normal bike as I didn't start on my driver's license yet....stupid me, because the governement keeps making it expensiver every year and more difficult to pass for it.

My brother has a mountainbike, but a kind of racing version. He uses it for sporting and used it a lot untill he went to the marines. So now he only uses it sometimes in the weekends.

[Kakero]

you all haven't been to China have you? over there, there are bikes, bikes and more bikes all over the place.

[Arledrian]

Originally posted by Kakero: you all haven't been to China have you? over there, there are bikes, bikes and more bikes all over the place.

There are more bikes in China? And it only has about eighty times the population of the Netherlands. Pretty good going really, for such a piddly little country [img]tongue.gif[/img]

And Irongrinder, really, if I can pass that test over there with a half hour of sleep and nothing but black coffee in my system, any old schmuck can.

[johnny]

Mine got stolen, my normal bike as well. I guess it's a tradition here, cycling i mean. It's healthy, and prevents you from becoming a fatass.

[wellard]

Originally posted by Melusine: Though the way you put it, I agree that it might be just a teensy bit silly to have mountainbikes in the flattest country of the world

Thankyou Melusine [img]graemlins/heee.gif[/img] I wonder sometimes if my thought proccesses or humour is soo obscure that I live in a world of my own. glad you understood what I was getting at.

and yes johnny. The first day out of my motel and in my new flat in dordrecht my bike got stolen, broad daylight, outside the bakers shop window. when I went into work at the fokker factory and told everyone, they just laughed and could not understand why I got so riled!

They told me a story of the local council buying a few hundred bikes and just leaving them out on the streets for free, hoping that if there was a bike for everyone then the likelyhood of someones own bike getting stolen would be reduced. Seemingly it did not work [img]smile.gif[/img]

Is this story true?

[ 02-17-2003, 08:06 PM: Message edited by: wellard ]