Left, Jan VanderTuin fetches the mail with his utility bike, whose load is on the frame rather than the handlebars. It has a waterproof container designedfor the weather in Eugene, Oregon. The model is used to deliver pizzas to students at the University of Oregon. At right, Jan delivers packages on Manhattan's tough streets using a Long John, designedfor easy manipulation of heavy loads (up to 180 pounds) in tight traffic. (NY Photo: Peter Britton). Both the narrow maneuverability of the Long John and the waterproofing of the utility bike suggest the depth of modification local workbike design could undergo with more support for alternative transport. the handlebars (see photo left). Contrary to current practice, however, good bike design isn’t just a matter of engineering: it must take the rider’s community into account. For example, in Italy and Switzerland many bicycles are built, frame and all, at your comer bicycle shop. Every day a variation on some classic model is built to meet local or personal needs, and the bike is typically repaired and adjusted in the same shop for its lifetime. In fact, it is difficult to get any other bike repaired there. The bike shop is part of your neighborhood, and the relationship between you and your bike builder strengthens over the years. This relationship is now being hurt by mass-produced bikes, designed for the least common denominator among consumers, built by robots, or people forced to act like them, who never get to know the riders. In Italy and Switzerland many bicycles are built, frame and all, at your local bicycle shop. Local economies benefit from decentralizing and personalizing bike production. Custom Italian bicycle frames are famous throughout the world because each Italian neighborhood has bike designers and builders. Northern Italy’s modem economic success owes much to a tight fabric of diverse skills in quick, custom, small-scale manufacturing. Italy has become something like the product idea shop of Europe. In Switzerland a century of molding bicycles to local needs produced a national school for bicycle design and manufacture, a bicycle unit in the Swiss Army, and a fleet of thousands of baker’s bikes for the post office. In their neighborhood bike shops tlie Swiss learn that this Below, Brad Evans rides a Long John with waterproof container on Oregon back country roads: this lightweight workbike is built like a mountain bike to handle rough terrain. Ifyou'd like to order one, see page 17. Rain Winter/Spring 1992 Volume XIV, Number 2 Page 15
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