The Fietsvak bike show in Holland is probably deadly boring to Dutch bike retailers, but fascinating to us out-of-towners. In many ways, the Fietsvak is the Dutch bicycle industries way of kick-starting the year by showing some ‘late release’ products and ‘limited edition’ products that keep consumers anxious and the bike industry on their toes after a boring winter…
For those who follow our little online magazine you know that we get around a fair bit. There is a less-than-glamorous reason for this. As importers of Europe’s city bikes, we feel obligated to ensure that we bring in the best and only the best. Our travels are a great way to experience the very different bike cultures of Europe and find vendors that are…
The automobile has always been a measure of success in North America. This is hardly a controversial statement. Car ownership has not only been a measure of personal success but of national success. As America flounders in its recession, the measures for national health are still found in ‘key economic indicators’ like housing and automobile. [...]
Hillary Clinton on a Biomega? At the very least she will be shaking hands over one this week at the COP15 summit. Leaders have been invited to the house of Jens-Martin Skibsted, designer of the Biomega Copenhagen, owner of Skibsted Ideation and recent collaboration partner in KiBiSi – a new brand thinktank. Skibsted, who has [...]
It all started with the NY Times article early this summer, on April 15th, 2009. Stating that the “great downturn may have its first status symbol,” the article romanced a whole new demographic out of their cars and onto their bicycle. As the importer of top-brand European city bikes (on a shoestring budget), we were [...]
It was in his Ethics that Aristotle insinuated the task of philosophy to provide the principles for ‘the good life.’ Since then, the interest in the ‘good life’ has been an obsession from monks in cloisters to nation states. The French principles of liberty, egality and fraternity is a delineation of the ‘good life’ as [...]
After distributing Batavus bikes in North America for nearly three years, we weren’t really surprised to see Gazelle finally enter the marketplace. While Netherlanders typically view Batavus and Gazelle as equals and have no absolute loyalty to either, the two companies have being doing fierce battle for years. In fact, very few people know that [...]
This last winter Ralph Prins, export manager of Batavus came to visit. After business was done, we rolled around the snowy streets of Toronto in what was clearly the most dangerous season to ride. Bike lanes were covered over in snow and there was very little shoulder on major streets. Yet, Ralph had a heyday [...]
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