Trying to Get Obama on a Batavus

Just as we placed our order for a small bunch of Batavus bicycles, some of the finest production city bikes in the world, the manufacturer decided to send 200 brand new, orange, bicycles to New York City for the city’s 400th anniversary.

There is also some sort of official attempt to get the president to take a Dutch bicycle for a ride sometime in April – we’ll see if that happens!

From the press release (.pdf file download):

400 wheels, 200 orange NY400 Batavus bicycles, will be leaving the Netherlands this week and are on their way to New York as a special gift, celebrating 400 years of friendship.

Why 400: Four hundred years ago, a Dutch ship called the Half Moon arrived on the shores of what is now New York City with Captain Henry Hudson at the helm. This year we celebrate the deep-rooted connection between the Netherlands and New York City including the common values of freedom, openness, entrepreneurship and tolerance, as well as the cultural ties of these forward-thinking societies.

Why Dutch bicycles?: The Netherlands is famous for being the bicycle place of the world. More than 60% of the Dutch prefer to bike when possible. Bicycling is not only a sport and used for leisure, it is used as an everyday means of transportation. In total, over 27% of trips made by the Dutch are done on a bike.

For the record, we placed an order for orange Dutch bicycles before hearing the good news about this act of kindness from Batavus.

More information at the NY400 | the Netherlands and the USA web-site

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