Living Outside the Box: Our Bikes and The First Test Ride

Excitedly and nervously we left the bike shop. Since living here and realizing it's just more practical to own a bike, we decided that we needed to give in, and nervous or not, go for it! Neither one of us could remember the last time we had been on a bike. We both owned mountain bikes as kids, but throughout high school and college we really didn't ride anywhere.

You see people riding all kinds of bikes here. Mountain bikes really aren't that practical, so we went with the kind that are designed for city biking. Mine happened to have 7 gears, which is way more than I need. Doug's has 3 and works well for the "little" bit of hills that you may encounter. Buying a bike is like buying a car. They are extremely expensive. Just like car brands, there are certain brand names for the bikes. I was able to find a nicely used Gazelle and Doug found a brand new Giant. Both are very popular brands and we felt it was best to go with a brand name one. Doug has more vacation time that he will ever use so he was able to trade in 5 days of work and buy the bikes. Other than a cart for carrying Ella, and some locks we still need to purchase, we didn't have to spend money out of our pocket for them. Since biking isn't as common back home, check out some of the aspects of the bikes that are very important here!

First, front and back lights. It is the law that at dusk, your bike must have a light and it must be turned on or you will be fined. Our lights run by a generator that is in the hub of the wheel. The spinning of the wheels runs the generator producing electricity for the lights to work.

You also have to have a bell so you can tell people your coming if they are in your way. (I'm pretty sure I'll hear the bell from someone else on their bike telling me, the slow-poke to get over, more than I will use mine.) My bell is a little nicer than Doug's. It is right in the handle bar, while Doug's is a separate bell attached to the handlebar.

Kristina's bell

Doug's bell

Finally there is a nice piece on the back of the bike where a basket can be attached to help carry around food, the dogs, or anything else you want. You can also get something like this for the front. Almost everyone rides their bike with another person sitting on this piece!!

Unfortunately, many people try and steal bikes here too. Each bike comes with a standard tire lock. We have to go and get another lock that will allow us to lock the bike to a pole or actual bike rack when we are out. I don't think anyone would try and take Ella's cart off the back. It would look rather silly with them trying to carry it away and a little suspicious, but just to be sure we're going to go to the bike shop and ask what is the best way to lock her cart to the bike.

The bike paths here are extremely nice. You can get ANYWHERE on your bike. While some are set up more like the roads you would drive on to get downtown, some are a nice path that allows you to ride across the dyke or through the countryside. We hope to take many Sunday rides.

Since we were very close to downtown Arnhem the day we picked up our bikes, the first path we started out on ran right along the side of the road. Very quickly we came to the roundabout. This is actually located at the same exact spot as the roundabout for cars, but is down under the roundabout on the street.