I am overdue for my blog update. Sorry, but the weather was so great that we have gone for a bike ride last Wednesday (February 25) and also yesterday, March 4. Beautiful weather and 20 miles of gorgeous trails along the Des Moines river and surrounding areas. I forgot the camera, so no pictures of this trip. I have a picture or two to share, however. On I found on the web, and it shows a standard type of bak-fiets, which you can use to move just about anything that can fit in the “bak” T
he other one is a cut out from the picture in the previous blog, and it shows a bak-fiets with only two wheels, which is more difficult to balance, but seems to steer easier, with the single wheel up front. When I grew up in Appingedam, I helped deliver bread and other baked goods on Saturdays. We had a large, heavy, and covered bak-fiets; like the one with the kids in it, except much longer. Also the milkman had a large open bak-fiets which usually had two or more milk cans with a tap on the bottom, as well as a variety of other dairy products. He usually had a house-to-house route, which he completed every day.
If you look at the other picture (which I resubmitted here form last time), Corrie is holding an older type of ladies bike, the curved, low “bar” allows a lady to “step through” to get on the saddle, which is really handy if you wear a skirt. For you younger ones: it was very uncommon to see a middle aged or older lady in slacks, until the seventies, or later. This style bike is now affectionately known as a :granny-bike.” Also note the covers of part of the wheels in the back; this would prevent your skirt from getting dirty by rubbing on the tire or the spokes. Most bikes in Holland have splash-guards to keep the rain from dirtying your shoes or your back-side, like happens here when you go through a puddle... Remember that a bike is the primary local transport for very many people and it rains a lot in the Netherlands, so you can see the need. Also the chain is usually totally enclosed in a chain guard on Dutch bikes. I remember the difficulty of replacing the chain, if it would come of the gears. You’d have to remove the chain guard to do anything. Good preventive maintenance is a must. The other bike which Corrie is holding, (mine) has an open chain-guard, so it was an import, – German I think.
