Benjamin, my friend Wiendelt’s 3 year old son had a pleasant surprise for his dad a while ago.
Click the image and watch his video:
“He’s yet to be fully potty trained, but he can bike. Just turned 3 years! Watch him go!”
How very Dutch of Ben! 
Filed under: amsterdamize, news, photos | Tags: age, birthday, chill, news, personal, tribes, uk
bikes of Amsterdam, originally uploaded by stjerne.
I was so preoccupied running around the interwebs, I forgot it was 23 minutes past midnight. I’ve already turned 37 years young. That deserves a fitting picture, especially on this new blog of mine.
Will decide this weekend on the how/where/when to celebrate this momentous occasion..:)
Update: I just have to post this great article from The Independent, with one particular excerpt:
‘Wheel life: A guide to Britain’s new bike tribes’
There are more bicyles on Britain’s roads than ever before – and in more shapes, sizes and styles. But who’s who in the nation’s new bike tribes?
…
The Tribe: Sit-up-and-beg Brigade
The Rider: Sian Emmison
The Bike: Bobbin Playbike
Riding traditional uprights is all about sitting up and cruising around town serenely – not tearing around with your head down. It’s not aerodynamic but we’re not interested in speed so much as comfort and style.
My bike has really wide handlebars which I can hang all my shopping from, and I’ve got a lovely straw pannier on the back.
You get a weird cross-section of people who go for uprights. There are young retro girls who want a bike to go with the whole vintage look, Europeans who are used to that style of bike, older people who want a bike like the one they used to ride, and trendy kids who want something vintage but edgy, painted in bright colours.
I’m a retro girl. I wear a lot of vintage clothes on my bike and can even cycle in a skirt and a mac.
My bike really sums up my values – it’s all about looking old-fashioned but being modern. Pashleys fall into the same category but I think the bikes are a bit square to be honest – people who look like librarians ride them.
Pashley or Bobbin – we all tend to get ignored on the road, especially by couriers who hate us because we’re always going too slowly for them. They just act like we’re not there!
1971- 1981 (forget the five stages of Erik Erikson)
- Ability to bike without side wheels preceeds being fully potty trained.
- That, or you’ve tasted all kinds of bug meats in a suicide position.
- Quickly you opt for the back position, since you’re the oldest.
- Every day until age of 5 ends with scars you’re proud of.
- Ice skating is more fun behind a spiked bike.
- Your dad is the coolest, because he does allow you to stand straight up on the back and be King.
- One day a year you’re allowed to haul cans behind your bike through town at 6 A.M., and it isn’t a child wedding.
- It wasn’t weird at all your dad created a customized bike box for the family’s 11 year old Boxer dog.
- Every vacation, abroad or at home, your family reserves more space for bikes than their offspring.
- Every vacation on a domestic island your parents make you peel shrimps and carry the bucket with you on your 20 km ride back to your tent.
- Every vacation abroad you see the romantic benefits of being the cute blonde kid on the odd bike.
- The increasing need for speed doesn’t translate into a Tour de France ‘Jan Jansen’ bike, just more scar trophies.
- Hand me down bikes from older brother get systematically demolished ‘by accident’. Or handed down to youngest.
- No brakes, no lights, no worries. It’s all about anticipation. It’s fun, too.
- So is catapulting your older brother at 30 km/h down a dune bike path by sticking an umbrella in his front wheel spokes.
- How he ended up breaking his big toe in the spokes at the same time, was a freak of bike nature.
- Washing line clippers with cartons on the front and back wheel frames will never loose their charme.
- Riding 65 km with family to point B with head on storm isn’t funny, even on a brand new purple Gazelle.
- Riding back 65 km with wind direction changing 180 degrees is called Dutch Cycle Karma.
- You realize you’re one year away from going to highschool and you suddenly need a grownups bike.
- Your suburbia biking mentality is oblivious to the city slicker evil of your future fellow juniors.
