Anyone familiar with Zandvoort

[Allrounderco]

...the Dutch bicycle brand, not the town.

I've been casually on the lookout for an Omafiets for basic transportation use, and a Zandvoort step-through roadster is in my area. This bike has been for sale for a while on the 'Bay for an asking price about three times higher than what I want to pay. Recently, the seller added Best Offer, so they might be motivated to move it. I know if this was a Batavus, it would probably be worth the asking price in this condition. A Gazelle - I'd probably already have it. But Zandvoort? And it's a single speed, on top of everything. Not a deal breaker, but obviously shouldn't be the same price as a DL-1, which at $299, it probably is.

On the plus side, it's got 622 rims, so I can get all manner of comfy and winter tires for it. I almost converted one of my Raleighs from 590 to 559 in order to run winter tires. This is ready to rock, and the coaster rear brake is a nice to have in the snow. So I'm thinking of throwing a $100 offer to the seller, and see what transpires. But I'd like to see what I can find out about the company first.

Here's the listing, for any who are curious: http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...0001&campid=5335809022&icep_item=154306874849

 

[non-fixie]

It is certainly not a well-known Dutch brand, or I'd have heard of it. My guess is it's a "sticker brand", used as a shop's or chain store's house brand.

Not necessarily a bad bike, as even chain store bikes aimed at the Dutch market had to live up to the Dutch perception of what makes a decent bike, and "indestructible" and "reliable daily transport" are high on the list of requirements, if not the only requirements.

EDIT: I am Dutch, BTW. I just realized my location doesn't show in my profile.

 

[Allrounderco]

@non-fixie - Thank you for that. The "sticker brand" theory makes a lot of sense. When I try to do general searches, I come up with nothing. Ironically, there is a very similar Zandvoort (a three speed) currently for sale on eBay, as well: http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...0001&campid=5335809022&icep_item=143738650663 Here in the USA, Dutch made bikes are few and far between. I had a Gazelle built Raleigh Grand Prix last year, and I occasionally see an odd Batavus folder for sale (and plenty of Batavus mopeds). I've found that bikes like this are becoming trendy in metro areas, and both new and old Oma/Opafiets command near 4 figure prices. I only became interested in these from Rowan DeBonaire's Velocipedium You Tube show - I've never actually seen or ridden one. But it seems ideal for what I want out of my daily workhorse. This green bike I'm eyeing seems to be in great shape, and looks quality, in so far as I can tell from the photos. I think I may just start a conversation with the seller, and see if we can come to an agreement on price.

 

[non-fixie]

The green looks nicest and is also the less expensive of the two, so that sounds like a plan.

Bikes like that are much cheaper here, but shipping costs to the US would also bring up the price to a comparable level at least.

 

[Allrounderco]

The green looks nicest and is also the less expensive of the two, so that sounds like a plan.

Bikes like that are much cheaper here, but shipping costs to the US would also bring up the price to a comparable level at least.

The green one was always the only choice, as it's about a half-hour's drive away.

Funny thing about shipping one: There is a group in Manitoba (central Canada) who is importing Dutch bikes by the hundreds, refurbishing them, and selling. It began as a university social experiment - they wanted to flood the city of Winnepeg with "plain" bikes to see if they could change the culture of bicycling there. Apparently it was a success, because they are still operating: https://plainbicycle.square.site/pr...true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=false&category_id=3

 

[non-fixie]

Nice project!

And if you sell the bikes for $360 and ship them like in the picture on their site, you've got a decidedly better business case:

 

[Allrounderco]

@non-fixie There's a story behind that, and I'm not going to relay it perfectly, but it goes something like this: On their first shipment, they had a deal lined up with an insider which I believe was a bike co-op that procured the bikes, and let them sort through and refurbish on site before loading into the container to ship. On the second (or maybe third) time around, they didn't have this luxury, and were dealing with what I understand to be basically a municipal impound lot of abandoned and discarded bikes. For some reason, they only had a half-hour window to load the hundreds of bikes in that shipment, and what you posted I expect is the result of that. There was a podcast series titled: The Plain Bicycle Podcast, or something very similar, which is where I get this info from.

 

[non-fixie]

Dutch bikes are made to be used / mistreated (depending on your point of view), so that pic really didn't look all that strange to me.

 

[nauseated]

That's not an Oma, otherwise referred to as "Jesus bike" bike the Nederlanders

this is :