The typical Dutch design chopper

That is exactly how Rhalf of the Chopperdome in Amsterdam describes this unique bike that he created. I have seen more than a few choppers, but I have never seen one painted quite like this. This isn’t the type of bike that I would typically ride, but it sure would look great with the hand painted Delft beer mug that I bought in Holland. I like the contrast between the delicate Delft blue floral pattern and the aggressive lines of this bike. Dainty blue and white teacups and saucers are fine, but if given the choice, I think I would rather bring this back as a souvenir from my next trip to the Netherlands.

You can see more pictures of the bike on the Chopperdome website. Additional pictures of it can be found here at Chopper News Network. Make sure that you look at the detail shots. The chainring cutouts are great and the wooden clog valve caps are a nice touch. Cool bike; thanks for the submission Rhalf.

Posted

July 13, 2006

Miscellaneous

James

Tags:

Comments

11 responses to “The typical Dutch design chopper”

robodobo

July 13, 2006

Chopper bikes are like mopeds and fat girls. They are all fun to ride until your friends see you on one.

Reply
James

July 13, 2006

Robo, Have you been waiting to use that joke since the 8th grade? At least you got it out of your system, but try to go easy on the juvinile jokes in the future

I can make an exception for the “Hertz Donut” joke or the old “have you seen a match burn twice” classic. Those get me every time, but I don’t think they translate very well to email.

Reply
James

July 13, 2006

Whoops, I posted the same thing twice. I’ll learn what I am doing one of these days.

Reply
robodobo

July 13, 2006

Yeah, I’ve been waiting to use that joke for a while. Maybe you could explain your other “jokes” in a future post, Ol’ Robo is not familiar with those. You may like chopper bikes from a design standpoint, but that is all they really are, an exercise in design. I like that you like bicycles for everyday transportation and agree that a practical effecient commuter bike is a great thing. I’ll also argue that the owners of choppers rarely ride them more than a walking distance or faster than a walking pace. They really just seem to be for show or to serve as rolling chairs for inner city gangbangers not old enough to drive. I like design with the purpose of improved function.

Reply
James

July 13, 2006

Thank you for the follow up comment Robo. You make a very good point. You are right that
choppers are inefficient machines. They are created purely for aesthetics (and questionable
aesthetics at that in many cases). As you point out, I doubt that many of them are used anywhere
near as much as a more practical bike would be. Still, some of them are interesting and are
influencing more mainstream feet forward designs that really are responsible for getting new
people to ride bikes. You may not be interested in riding in a foot forward position (for the record,
neither am I). We can probably both agree though that introducing new people in to cycling is a good thing.

So how do you feel about all the production chopper influenced bikes on the market (Electras, Townies, etc.). I
wouldn’t ride one, but bike shops seem to love them because they sell well to first time bike buyers. I don’t really
know if the people who buy bikes like those actually continue to ride them, but I am of the opinion that the more bikes out there the better.

Reply
Road side dave

August 6, 2006

chopper bikes can be both practical for comuting and rad as hell, my bike is both! i have ridin it for many miles…comfortablely and it is fresh…word yo. and i am not a gang banger. come and see @ roadsidedave.blogspot.com

Reply
fbi hq

August 15, 2006

Hi

Thanks for posting…
@Dave, you know what you are talking about 🙂 we do rides on choppers easy upto 60-70 km, check out the FBI part V on CNN and rock with us next year…

http://www.choppernewsnetwork.com

Reply
James

August 16, 2006

Nice job making that bike Dave. Looks like it was a really fun project. As you can probably gather, I am not a chopper rider myself, but I can appreciate the work that goes into these machines.

Reply
Rockx

August 21, 2006

For the record: I built my chopper / ratbike about 3 years ago, ride it daily in town (av. 20-25 km/h; top a little over 40). I occasionally ride distances up to 100 km. Just to let u know it ain’t all show.

Reply
Anonymous

February 26, 2007

It all depends on where you draw the line between ‘show-bikes’ and ‘riding-bikes’.
There are a great many people making nice looking bikes that are just for show, these are often uncumfortable and hard to ride.
There are a few people who resist the ‘show-bike’ and make bikes that look good but are comfortable and easy to ride, my own transport is a 7ft 9inch long cruiser chop with 5inch wide rear motorcycle tyre and 15 gears. I regularly cruise at about 23-25 MPH and have covered over 1300 miles in the past 9 months. I dont do show bikes, they all have to be practical long distance vehicles.
Ozz Scott, Dorset County Choppers.

Reply
Anonymous

March 19, 2007

yet another example of fine work. will be a good ride too, you have to visit chopperdome when in amsterdam, see some al nice bikes..
ozz, dorset county choppers..

Reply