Author: dutchbikeco

It’s that time of year again when we get more and more requests for fenders and mudflaps.  It’s amazing how many people ride all winter long without them, constantly getting the wet streak up the backside and just getting their bike filthy.  It’s a decent investment in a cleaner ride but they can be tricky to install correctly.  Off the shelf they usually need a little bit of tinkering and customization to fit the wide variety of frames out there, so don’t be frustrated if you need to cut them or add hardware to get them tight and noise free.

Happy New Year!  David Bowie and Five Years just sounds right.  Jupiter is out tonight, quite bright here in Seattle so look up the next few nights and check out the moons…

If you live in Seattle you’ve probably noticed all the Mercedes Smart cars with the Car2Go logo parked all over.  It’s a pretty innovative car share idea not unlike the Zip cars but with a bit more freedom.  For those of us who bike, bus or walk but still have a drivers license this idea makes sense if you need a vehicle to do some errands, you won’t be fitting a couch in there however.

Right now the membership is waived with a free 1/2 hour test period and then .38 cents a minute after that.  I grabbed a membership the other day, I must say it’s pretty cool.  As of now there are 232 cars in Seattle, you can see where they are on your phone.  I’ve been able to grab one a couple times within a couple blocks.  It’s a bit like driving a lemon wedge around but it’s not as ridiculous as I thought it would be.  Parking is included so you don’t have to ever feed a meter or worry about time zones.  Perhaps the other shoe will drop and these cute little cars will turn out to be part of an alien invasion force.  Better make a few Trader Joe runs before that happens.

Over the years it’s always boggled me why there is no tax break in any state for selling bicycles.   Please correct me if I’m wrong.  So many tax exemptions for every industry but ours.  Now we may be faced with a head tube tax of $25 on bikes over $500, not sure what the purpose is but to discourage people a bit and make getting a bike analogous to the hassle of buying a car with all the weird fees.

Yes, a bike takes up a bit of road but it’s tires don’t contribute to any road maintenance at all.  Make the tax equivalent to tire width multiplied by the amount of rubber on the road.  Happy to pay a tax but make it relevant to its impact.

Go here for the Seattle Times Article.

This coming Friday August 9th the Food Network will be filming an episode of Eat St. with the boys from Crisp Creperie Food Truck.

If you want to stop by and grab a crepe you’ll likely be featured on T.V. If you’re in hiding don’t stop by, just make sure you have a crepe

griddle in your hideout.

Public Service Announcement!

This is the season when we hear about a fair amount of people whose bikes have been stolen, we get emails with hopeful request that we might see one come in for service.  To this date we’ve never had the luck of taking one off the hands of a thief though our neighborhood is crawling with them.  The sad fact is a lot of the bikes that get snagged and  go off to another state to get sold.  The Seattle Police just announced that they have 500 bikes awaiting their owners, if you’ve had yours stolen it’s worth checking out. Click the above text to get to the website.  Good Luck!

I came into bikes as an adult kind of accidentally, meaning I accidentally blew up the engine in my pick up truck and found myself a non-driver.  A friend took me to a now defunct place here in Seattle’s U-District called The Bike Shack where we proceeded to assemble a bare old orange frame into a working bicycle.  Watching it all come together over a matter of just a few hours was amazing to me, and I was hooked as soon as I rode it home.  After riding that summer I went down to Ashland Oregon to attend The United Bicycle Institute learning wheel building , bike mechanics and frame building.  I came back and lucked into a job, well really more like a 6 year apprenticeship at Wright Brothers Cycle Works in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood.  It was an amazing place to learn.   Owned  for 40 years by master mechanic Charles Hadrann and still kicking it also functions as a Co-Op with thousands of members allowing me to see and learn about a dizzying array of bikes from every era.  I may not be able to solve every problem but I’m more than willing to give it a go.

I love bikes, I thoroughly enjoy bringing neglected old bikes back onto the road or making a brand new machine hum.  Sometimes I wonder which I like better, spinning the pedals or spinning the wrenches.

It’s Fall, the days have been beautiful lately but we’re all aware of the November rains about to pounce.  We’ve been seeing more and more bikes with the muddy road cake that this weather brings.  As mechanics, we hate to see it, it really sucks to scrape it all off all winter long.  Even those six packs of beer you may bring will never fully reconcile  for the medieval sludge city riding can cake on.  Happy to do it however, just start thinking about FENDERS!  They really work, no butt stripe, no wet toes, and your drive train will last much longer.

So to entice you all who in fact read our website, we’re offering a 50% Discount on all Labor if you kindly use the code ” MORGAN”.

Julie’s been Baking…

Apart from making the awesome salted chip cookies, Julie has started to mix it up a bit and play with dough.  It really is her passion and its always good too mix it up.  The last couple of weeks she brought us Bagels and Pretzels and this week the new stuffed variety.  First and for most is the braised pulled pork with Julies own hot sauce.  The pocket sandwich is like a toasty Calzone, easy to carry and dip into a sauce.  Goes really well with a Pike Place Amber, after 11:am of course…