^ I didn’t choose unisex, it just came that way at the right price 🙂

Functionally I find the step-thru quite useful as far as super-loading with shopping/cargo as it seems easier to stabilise when mounting and dismounting. Those actions are also quicker and easier with a step-thru. Super-relaxercise. Even in tight jeans, best trews or a short-skirt as is also the kind of bike all kinds of friends want to borrow or ride along on, either on the rack or standing on the pedals in front of you. I like a versatile bike to be the most versatile.

Yes I’d have a stepthru again. Only thing it limits IMO is the inability to mount on a vehicle bike rack by a top-tube. You can buy clamp-on tubes for that tho so no biggie. You’re right on the overbuiltness, no concerns there so far on most all-terrain except laden offroad downhilling maybe! I’d still worry more about the roller-brakes than it folding on me 😉

Pretty sure unisex and stepthru bikes don’t carry the same social stigma for men in the Netherlands as they do in the UK?

The step thru frame is really useful for when loaded.

The best part of the Elephant Bike is the ‘basket’ on the front.

Yeah, if it was hilly then an electric one would be great

The one I rode in Berlin (but was a Dutch bike with a hub gear and coaster brakes) was fine for pootling but was bloody heavy, so the hilly stuff was ok but any serious stuff would be painful

(I have a 3 speed Brompton which I love!)

Are coaster brakes the back pedal ones? They’re bloody awful in my experience. I had one on my old commuter and despite riding it 5 days/week it still caught me out occasionally (not being able to make the pedals horizontal at traffic lights was a total PITA). I wouldn’t have another. Hub gears and dynamo hubs make a lot of sense for commuting though. I’d have a Dutch bike for commuting if I didn’t live 5 miles away. They’re immensely practical but deeply uncool; so less of a thief target compared to similar priced MTB/hybrid/road bikes/CX (I assume?!).

I’d have a Dutch bike for commuting if I didn’t live 5 miles away

My round-trip grocery runs are 5 or 16 miles depending on what we need. It’s a breeze once I sorted the ratios! Roller brakes and hub gears/front generator. Agreed on the coaster brakes, our kid had some on his cruiser, I couldn’t get on with them at all.

Becausen they are functional and utilitarian they are cool. Plus they did the whole matt black stealth look way before rock shox came up with black stanchions.

Malvern rider love the photos.

Malvern Rider (and PeterPoddy and anyone else with experience of the step through frame), I would be interested to know what you think of the step through frames – usually marketed as the ladies’ version – as opposed to those with a cross bar/top tube.

I’d have a step through every time. I’ve ridden quite a few and you just sort of walk onto the bike. None of this cocking your leg over mullarky.
Plus, add a load on the front and rear and that’s a lot of bulk to get your leg round. You just walk into the bike, kick the sidestand back and ride off.

I want a Gazelle Heavy Duty NL. Step thru…. 🙂

My old batavaus step through is ace for all the reasons above. It’s quite simply the most civilised and practical bike I have. Being a bit old and of extremely skinny lugged construction, it is quite amusingly flexible (especially when loaded with child on the back and a basket load of stuff on the front), but it really doesn’t matter. It only makes it more comfortable over the cobbles in Edinburgh.

If I get a replacement it’s likely to be a Gazelle Heavy Duty NL like PP, and it may well be a step through too!

Oh, and I commute about 9 miles a day on it, often a bit more.

It’s the same as this, but a bit older and with a big old rack on the front.

PS. who reckons the OP will want one for himself after collecting this one?

I’d have a Dutch bike for commuting if I didn’t live 5 miles away.

This is the perfect kind of bike for that kind of use.

I pointed a friend at one of these a few years back and she’s still loving it.
http://www.bikefix.co.uk/S300

If I get a replacement it’s likely to be a Gazelle Heavy Duty NL like PP, and it may well be a step through too!

Seems like a v good choice for a utility bike. I replaced my Kona Ute with the Batavus Personal, it’s worked out better, more stable and versatile in every way for what I use it for and 26ers make more sense for cargo than 29ers. Am also sure the bike is nearly as long as the Ute!

Maybe this is the “Dutch” bike we all need….

They are offering a 25-year guarantee on the frame and 10-year guarantee on the belt drive.

Looks like it would load up well for a tour.

Knobbies and the HT550? Someone has got to do it. 🙂

Or at least an end to end.

Just noticed Batavus have a new/recently introduced utility model that looks like it could do some jobs:

Batavus Quip

Is the bike supplied with a kickstand?

it’s difficult to lean one of those bikes against a wall when it’s got back-swept handlebars.

Good topic:)

Picking the bike up Sunday, I’ll post photos and a few thoughts then on it. I did spot this down the road in Peebles, seems a bargain.

link

Well here it is!
[url=https://flic.kr/p/TY84o9]IMG_20170528_160341[/url]

I rode it home today across the city, lots of fun but standing starts on hills are hard work and emergency stops are a bit risky. Quicker than my wife home in the car driving from south to north across Edinburgh. Duke jnr loves it but he likes anything that moves.

Now everyone has new wheels, even my daughter got a trailer to sit in. Think its time for dad to get a 29er!

Thanks for all the input, enjoyed this thread alot.

Picking the bike up Sunday, I’ll post photos and a few thoughts then on it. I did spot this down the road in Peebles, seems a bargain.

link

Cheers for the heads up for this. Put in a last minute red-wine fuelled bid whilst on holiday and picked it up today! Perfect condition….it was used in a Grolsh commercial for Tesco, then given away as a prize, so had never been used! Will get a photo of it once I can see further than 2metres (stupid east neuk haar!).

Looking forward to using it to bomb around the lanes and farm tracks round here 🙂

Happy to help out there goat karma! Pics soon please

😀

Ace.
Both of em!

I like the crates that the Dutch make for those front racks: just throw your rucksack, shopping, jacket or whatever in the crate and go.

was thinking an old wine or port crate, but that might be a bit too hipster-ish….

Edit-loving the pink basil crate though…!

was thinking an old wine or port crate, but that might be a bit too hipster-ish….

Lots of wooden crates here, but £43! seems steep. If you can get hold of one from a local wineshop, presumably all you would need are the fixings which Basil sell separately.

Some cracking Far Eastern roadsters.

Great thread, btw.

Great photos and a bargain to boot! You will have fun on that.

We shall be keeping anything hipster related well away from the bike. Living in the hipster capital of Scotland that is Leith I have had my fill of over priced artisan coffee, beards and trendy art events.

Well goat karma that was a good buy, you’d pay half that for a front wheel w/generator-hub! Liking both the old and new models.

And yet another one up for bags.

Great thread; I love these utility bikes.

I can’t believe so few people have recommended buying an old one. The technology hasn’t really changed in decades, so why not get an antique? I’ve got a 1947 Phillips which has dynamo lights, three speed SA hub, enclosed chainsaw, et cetera – perfect! It also cost practically nothing.

Epicyclo – really interested in this bike:

[Edit] I can’t get the picture to work, but it’s the one you posted on page 2 [/edit]

It’s difficult to tell from that picture. Is it a BSA?

One thing about step-through frames that I noticed whilst on the kebab organic houmous run on Friday evening; you can’t do that think where you just stand over the bike and have it lean against the inside of your leg, when at a cash machine for example. Not a biggie, but you only realise it as the bike is falling over underneath you…

Hmmmm… starting to think it might be a Triumph…

Gave the bike a whirl last weekend on a nice loop around the area. Bike is absolutely great, slightly overgeared for around here perhaps, but not too bad. Super comfortable apart from the huge saddle too. Compared it my wife’s old Pashley, it’s so much nicer. Less rickety, lighter, better gears (her sturmy archer hub is crap).

After umming and arring, I went for a plastic Belgian beer crate for my basket for a princely sum of £7 on ebay.

Dremmelled out all the bottle holders and handle inside, leaving a pretty sturdy shell. Bit messy looking inside, but does the job, and zip ties seem to hold it fine. Its pretty hipstery now tho :D. Been for a test ride and the extra weight makes no difference which is good.

Duffer – Member
Epicyclo – really interested in this bike:
I can’t get the picture to work, but it’s the one you posted on page 2 [/edit]

It’s difficult to tell from that picture. Is it a BSA?
Ah, sorry I didn’t spot this earlier.

It’s a 1935ish Armstrong. Great bike – even done a century plus on it around Wester Ross (ie big hills).

The HT550 types will recognise this spot.

It’s even been round the ‘Puffer track (bit scary though on rod brakes)

I can’t believe so few people have recommended buying an old one. The technology hasn’t really changed in decades, so why not get an antique? I’ve got a 1947 Phillips which has dynamo lights, three speed SA hub, enclosed chainsaw, et cetera – perfect! It also cost practically nothing.

They can be just the job, something like an old delivery bike? but I try and compare my old utility/stree bike (a 1936 police constable’s bike – prob a Raleigh Populaire?) and the modern Dutch machine is leagues ahead. Dynamo efficiency, lighting, shifting, alloy wheels, roller brakes, great tyres. It also feels stable and very spacious/superb riding position compared to old Brit comfort/utility bikes which seem cramped to me (unless you go oversize, but then you have the standover issues). The old gas pipe frames have the rigidity for sure, but rusty wheels and rim-pull brakes aren’t my choice downhill carrying both me and a weeks groceries 😯

Duffer – Member
Great thread; I love these utility bikes.

I can’t believe so few people have recommended buying an old one. The technology hasn’t really changed in decades, so why not get an antique? I’ve got a 1947 Phillips which has dynamo lights, three speed SA hub, enclosed chainsaw, et cetera – perfect! It also cost practically nothing.

Tell us more about the “enclosed chainsaw’ 🙂

Tell us more about the “enclosed chainsaw’

Well you wouldn’t want an exposed chainsaw! Are you mad?! 😀

It looks brilliant! I’m most interested in the bars. What are they? They look inverted, but they’ve still got the rod brakes.

I’m currently tinkering with a 1936ish BSA, which I’m trying to get a different handlebar profile onto, but I can’t work out how the brakes would work. I’ve been thinking about a Bobby Dodger, but that’d leave me with no brake on the back… You seem to have solved my problem.

Duffer – Member
‘Tell us more about the “enclosed chainsaw'”
Well you wouldn’t want an exposed chainsaw! Are you mad?!

Don’t you want to scythe through traffic?

The bars are actually off an Indian bike – an Atlas. As soon as I saw them I grabbed them because they haven’t been fitted to bikes in this country for about 100 years. I’ll try to dig up where I got them. (Crap instant rust chrome though).

A BSA could probably fit a cable brake at the rear.

I built up a drum brake for the front because I was getting too many close shaves with the rod brakes – that’s really because there’s no decent pads anymore.

I then had to mod my bars so I could run a drum brake at the front which necessitated different levers. If you look you can see I am running the cable through some alloy tubing which I have bent to conform to the bars and also fit the original rod brake lever mounts.

I have been thinking about building a rear wheel with a drum brake as well, but may use a coaster brake because that eliminates one set of cables. The rear brake is still rod, but I fasten the cable to it just below the steering head.