Dutch Bicycles Are Obviously Far Superior to Those Available in North America

When I bought my first adult bike two years ago, I gritted my teeth and settled on a Huffy Cranbook. It was good enough, since it had a single gear, coaster brakes, an upright rider position, and the capacity to take cargo racks.

At the time, I didn't know that omafeits existed. Omafiet is the Dutch word for "grandma bike." The YouTuber Not Just Bikes explains how they are magnificently designed for practical, everyday use.

The omafeit has everything my Huffy does and so much more: a complete chain guard, a step-through frame, a coat guard, a heavy-duty cargo rack, a frame lock, and a dynamo for a headlight. The omafeit is a simple, rugged assembly of steel parts that's ideal for everyday transportation.

That's why I think it would also be an ideal vehicle for a post-apocalyptic lifestyle. There's no point in owning a vehicle that requires frequent maintenance or specialized parts. It's not as energy efficient as a road bike, but it's more efficient than a fancy bike that you have to walk away from because a gear slipped and the underdwellers have caught your scent.

So be practical and get an omafeit.

-via Laughing Squid


Oh i duno, just because something has more guards doesn't mean its automatically better. If anything breaks, you gotta remove all those guards. Also it costs money to put on more guards. Not saying guards are bad, but its a trade-off situation. Saying its just better is a All or Nothing fallacy.
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Nothing beats a basic city bike with a terugtraprem, in my humble opinion. Over here in spain they are importing used dutch bikes as the only thing you can get here are carbon fiber 35 gear mountainbikes with suspended forks. Great on a mountain trail (I guess) but utterly useless in the city.
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Dutch bicycles are very good bicycles for the Netherlands. The flat topography of the Netherlands make it easy to use a single speed bike. The Netherlands have a very long tradition in using bikes and have the by far most bicycle friendly infrastructure. In any flat topography, low speed, ultra-low maintenance and high reliability application i would always select a bike from the Netherlands. In any other case, the best bike may strongly depend on the intended use, the intended topography as well as on the preferences of the bicyclist. I would not even considering e.g. a dutch mountainbike.
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