White wall tyres….. must be the ‘Executive’ model. A fine and sturdy looking bike at a modest price. Well done Dylan.
Granville rides again
Yes, that ‘terugtraprem’ (back pedaling brake) needs some getting used to…
I like the carrier on the front. The supports are shaped to enable the use of side-bags. You can really load this thing like a mule..
The back and front carriers are indeed able to take the weight of a mature person. Before everyone had a car, Dutch bikers used to take along everybody they knew and needed transportation on their back carriers.
There’s a song from the forties or fifties about it.
The chorus goes: “mijn achterband is wel wat zacht, maar ‘t geeft niet, lieve pop; spring maar achterop, spring maar achterop, spriiing maar achterop!”. This translates into: “my rear tyre is a little soft, but it doesn’t matter dear doll, just jump on behind, just jump on behind, juuust jump on behind!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD3x9ZQjvck
The artist is Eddy Christiani; alledgedly the first Dutchman to use an electric guitar.
Drilling holes of a few mm’s in diameter won’t affect strength much, I suppose. As you say, the bike is designed with a large margin regarding the load-carrying capability.
Is the frame steel or aluminium? A lot of dutch bikes nowadays are welded, using aluminium tubing, as opposed to the classic steel frames with lug fittings that were welded autogenously (a kind of soldering with a hard solder added, using a very hot flame). These old steel frames used tubing with smaller diameters.
Because of this the new aluminium frames are not very much lighter.
On their touring bikes the Dutch have been adding weeny-like things like front-fork suspension and suspended saddles, making them heavier still. At 15 kgs your bike is rather light if compared with those luxury-bikes. The last mentioned weigh about 20 kgs..
Here is the info from the builder:
https://www.bsp-fietsen.nl/fietsen/transport-utility/viking/
the frame and the carriers are aluminium.
However; iet’s a nice bike and you got it for a good price.
So does my wife.
But a man needs a project. The other half of humanity will never understand. But that’s allright. As long as they don’t keep you from making it reality..
“So does my wife”.. She thinks I am bonkers; not you. From looking at you, I suppose she would think you’re a decent bloke..