I have seen the IBRKA rules and codes, have they been used once in an event? Too many classes is too confusing, but we need classes for all who wanna participate, complete kustom or not. The important thing is all bikes in competition should be rollers and for having fun. Like to make international standards, but as it is would change too much on COTY ruling, worked fine and the competitors are getting used now to the system. It's not like 300 bikes in competition I spoke with some people already about a FBI world tour. Have a FBI US south and FBI US north/Canada meet. The Venice beach show might be an option and the Wasaga-Hamilton meet for the North. Have the best of show invited to the FBI in Amsterdam. Now we need to find big sponsors though. Q: Here in the USA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation might want to suggest a different set of initials, perhaps the Chopper International Alliance? ;-) Thanks very much for the chat, Rhalf. It'll be very interesting to see how things develop in the future. May the Chopperdome continue to thrive and prosper. A: Thanks. CU next year at the FBI Part VII, The magic number? "Happy Cruisin" Rhalf van Heusden The Chopperdome Adm. de Ruyterweg 346 1055 NA Amsterdam Nederland Tel: +31 (0)20 7743396 |
Rhalf's Latest: 346 Tuschinski Chopper |
Michele Bartoli, two-time UCI Road World Cup winner, astride Rhalf's 346 Royal Delft bike. |
A: The critical mass, bicycle style, is much too political. I agree if that's what you mean. Reading http://www.bike-eu.com/news/2530/big-us-cities-invest-in-bik e-mobility.html last week, you'd think it might happen in NY in the future. The television or other media helps, we've been out on the streets and "cruising" for some time now and it seems to be more alive, as in riders meeting and cruisin' away an afternoon or evening, on this side of the ocean, but will need more exposure if we want more to join. For this lonely guy in Malaysia: get a girlfriend, build her a bike and start the crusade... Q: Well, actually I was hoping for more of a comprehensive and detailed blueprint than that, but since that's how you started, I suppose that guy in Malaysia could take it from there ;) |
And with the latest AMD champ showing a motor bicycle close to what, for example, Sam (McKay) does with his boardtrackers, we will see more who have been into kustom for some time now, growing in the bicycle scene, I think. In the crowded and traffic-congested cities, young kids in the Netherlands are into scooters. For the older ones, the electric bicycle is pushed enormously by the big companies. But my question is, what to do with all these batteries when they no longer function? |
A: Not only from Europe. Canada and the US were represented in small numbers. But 350+ is correct. Yes, it's still growing, with new faces showing up every year. As most of the time I'm in the park, organization work means no time for myself during the FBI, so I can't really tell; but the reaction from spectators during the Saturday evening party cruise is always positive. And it's not like the people in Amsterdam have never seen a bicycle before. . But large groups hanging around town during the weekend are still crowd stoppers; and with 250 bikes through the parks and along the canals it is something special and noticed. Q: I saw in Brain's coverage of the Wasaga Beach Canada Meet that you came over for that one. Based upon that experience, do you think there is much difference between Euro kustombike culture and North American? Are they different sorts of demographics in the participants, is there much difference in the styles of the bikes and so on? |
Slowly, other start-up shops came to us and it became a real business, and I got the idea that we might have been part of the start of something. So what gave me the idea? I don't know; I had a hobby and thought if I liked playing with bikes some others must do so as well. If it's a good business, I can eat my steak and have friends around the world. As long as it's fun it's good. . Q: And it seems to still be growing. Make and Sic Nic reported that the latest FBI Choppernation Meet drew about 350+ participants from all over Europe. That's a very impressive turnout, in my opinion. What is the reaction of the citizens of Amsterdam, to this horde of people on crazy bicycles invading their city? |
Q: Rhalf, I've been trying to remember when I first became aware of you and Chopperdome. I think it was about the time I'd just interviewed Steve Hutchison after he made his first pair of billet wheels; and we had maybe one Euro bike in our Gallery at the time (by Alex Frank, a guy in Hannover. Okay, two, if you count Simon Moir, who's British. What gave you the idea that kustom-style bikes and parts was a good business to get into, at that time, in that part of the world? . .A: When we started in 2000 there was not much going on in Europe; the regular bike biz had no interest in it. I know, as I visited almost any bikeshop in the area to get parts for my HB Lowglide, and later on for Kitty's Roadster. It was hobby time and the internet made me aware of the parts on lowrider websites in the US. With the idea of a community buying from the US, the hobby biz started. |
Q: Rhalf, I've been trying to remember when I first became aware of you and Chopperdome. I think it was about the time I'd just interviewed Steve Hutchison after he made his first pair of billet wheels; and we had maybe one Euro bike in our Gallery at the time (by Alex Frank, a guy in Hannover. Okay, two, if you count Simon Moir, who's British. What gave you the idea that kustom-style bikes and parts was a good business to get into, at that time, in that part of the world? . .A: When we started in 2000 there was not much going on in Europe; the regular bike biz had no interest in it. I know, as I visited almost any bikeshop in the area to get parts for my HB Lowglide, and later on for Kitty's Roadster. It was hobby time and the internet made me aware of the parts on lowrider websites in the US. With the idea of a community buying from the US, the hobby biz started. |
UCME was the first name we used for the homepages we ran at that time- not a real business, still a hobby, so I could get my parts and help out some others. In 2001 Fickser came alive, and the business started with importing a series of PHAT cycles. Our original plan of reselling the bikes to bikeshops didn't work, as I said. There was no interest from bikeshops at that time, so our showroom became The Chopperdome and opened the end of July 2001. .. The FBI Choppernation is the birthday party of the shop. Now we had the customers straight into our house and learned from the demand. We quit our part-time jobs, and until the end of 2004 we were more or less the only kustom-style bicycle shop in Europe. |
Slowly, other start-up shops came to us and it became a real business, and I got the idea that we might have been part of the start of something. So what gave me the idea? I don't know; I had a hobby and thought if I liked playing with bikes some others must do so as well. If it's a good business, I can eat my steak and have friends around the world. As long as it's fun it's good. . Q: And it seems to still be growing. Make and Sic Nic reported that the latest FBI Choppernation Meet drew about 350+ participants from all over Europe. That's a very impressive turnout, in my opinion. What is the reaction of the citizens of Amsterdam, to this horde of people on crazy bicycles invading their city? |
Kitty & Phat Chopper |
A: Not only from Europe. Canada and the US were represented in small numbers. But 350+ is correct. Yes, it's still growing, with new faces showing up every year. As most of the time I'm in the park, organization work means no time for myself during the FBI, so I can't really tell; but the reaction from spectators during the Saturday evening party cruise is always positive. And it's not like the people in Amsterdam have never seen a bicycle before. . But large groups hanging around town during the weekend are still crowd stoppers; and with 250 bikes through the parks and along the canals it is something special and noticed. Q: I saw in Brain's coverage of the Wasaga Beach Canada Meet that you came over for that one. Based upon that experience, do you think there is much difference between Euro kustombike culture and North American? Are they different sorts of demographics in the participants, is there much difference in the styles of the bikes and so on? |
A: Differences yes, but with the hosts we had for this event, the Chopaderos Toronto Chapter and friends and with their fond love for going the distance at the FBI 2006 I felt completely at home. |
Design and styles, you have Cadillac and Mercedes designed with their own cultural background and needs for their specific customers. See here the Project 346 Basman, euro style. It's a slightly bigger frame than the classic 50'-60's US cruiser frames that Electra or Nirve used as the basis for their cruisers. The Dutch are tall overall, and used to cycling, so when Basman came up with his frame at the COTY we saw the missing link in frame styles. . Although the frame designs we use at the Chopperdome have a US background in design and style, we in Europe add more into the technical part. Maybe this is due to the availability of the many sources for good bike parts we have over here in Europe. |
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Rhalf's HB Lowglide |
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Chopperdome shop, 2002 |
I can't speak for the whole of Europe, but Germany and Belgium follow the Netherlands in their will to make bikes their daily ride. Could be commuting to work or daily after-work relaxing, but the use of bicycles in Europe, especially in The Netherlands, and the US/Canada are two different worlds. . 15 miles in the US is a distance to take the car for visiting friends, I take a bicycle. Distances in Europe are also a fact for the whole "movement". Although traffic can be a bitch, in five hours from Amsterdam to Paris, France is possible by car and you're across Belgium. |
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First Chopperdome FBI Cruise, Amsterdam |
Q: I get the impression, just from looking at the photos, that the European cohort is quite a bit younger than their North American equivalents. Averaging in their 20s, say? Whereas here they are typically in their 30s and 40s. Does that seem true to you? A: We just look younger, but "Thanks for the compliment" the boys will say :) But the US has a longer history in "kustom" so you will find some older guys. But on the other hand, is there so much difference between upgrading your hand-built road bike with some nice Campagnolo parts and handlebar tape and what we are doing? In this, Europe might have a stronger history, but getting these fanatics to cruise down to a more relaxed speed is difficult. |
Q: That would seem to be a big part of the difference. Here, there are lots of people in their 20s involved with cycling, but they seem to view it more as a sports activity than as basic transportation or part of their social life. This applies to both road and off-road cycling; and there are also the "eXtreme sports" bike guys on their little BMXers. I have a feeling that many of those people, especially the off-roadies put their bike in a car or van and drive to where they ride it. |
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Inside The Chopperdome |
Inside The Chopperdome |
In North America, getting one's auto driving license at 16 or whatever is like their Bar Mitzva, a sign of adulthood, and a car is a common high school graduation gift. When my daughter finished high school here in NYC, I built her a new bicycle as a graduation gift. Almost anywhere else on this continent, I'd have had to build her a car. With a killer sound system, of course; that seems to be the most important feature in cars now, going by the advertising directed toward 20-somethings. Are there many older kustom builders/riders in Europe at the meets, or do they tend to stay at home and build? . A: There are older kustom builders/riders as in 50+, only a few, but it seems to grow. Having finished their car or motorcycle, they discover bicycles. The Basman with its classic lines and euro style, in black or white, attracts an older builder/rider again. |
And with the latest AMD champ showing a motor bicycle close to what, for example, Sam (McKay) does with his boardtrackers, we will see more who have been into kustom for some time now, growing in the bicycle scene, I think. In the crowded and traffic-congested cities, young kids in the Netherlands are into scooters. For the older ones, the electric bicycle is pushed enormously by the big companies. But my question is, what to do with all these batteries when they no longer function? |
Rhalf's HB Lowglide |
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Rhalf, his new Dyno Roadster, and his brother, 1997 or '98 |
Rhalf, his new Dyno Roadster, and his brother, 1997 or '98 |
Taking part in traffic from an early age on a bicycle is why people still ride a bike when they get older. Parents in the US who have never ridden a bike will never drop their kids in traffic, scared as they are; another lost generation. . You mentioned sports: cruising and kustom are not seen as sport by the big companies, and that's where they make their money. BMX, road or mountain biking get their share of television exposure, and after every Tour de France, road bike sales explode in the country of the winner. Two years ago, at the first peak of our kind of biking, the first kustom bikes showed on television: Pimp My Ride etc. Schwinn was there with the Stingray. Whether you like 'em or not is not the question, but these kinds of big companies have the money to push programs like this. And with the withdrawal of the cruiser/chopper bikes again, it's back to sports on television for some time. |
Q: I'm convinced that we don't need TV shows for our kind of biking to become popular. It's the sight of people actually out on the street riding them with their friends that makes people want to get into it. There's a certain "critical mass" which makes it happen. I use the term in the nuclear physics sense, not the "political" bike culture sense. When fissionable (radioactive) materials reach a critical mass of the material, a chain reaction starts and an explosion occurs. Of course, a TV show about kustom cruising and meets would probably help... |
It looks to me like kustom biking has reached critical mass in Amsterdam, and probably parts of Germany. That these are all areas where kustom bike meets have been happening isn't a coincidence. It could easily reach that point in NYC, too, but it will take a bit longer. . There are many bikers in this city, but a lot more people in their 20s who've never been on a bike without training wheels. Many of my daughter's friends think she's some sort of fearless Amazon because she rides a bike alone in city traffic. But I got her started early, when she was six or so. We always have extra bikes on hand, so she's got several of her friends joining her now. It's like a "nice" virus. We have people sending in photos for the Gallery from almost every part of the world now. It's usually, "No one else is doing this here, but I have a friend who wants me to help him build one"...And so it goes. |
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Rhalf on Sri Lankan bike tour. |
Rhalf on Sri Lankan bike tour. |
I imagine that's pretty much your own early story. Do you have any advice for that guy in Malaysia or wherever, who doesn't want to be the only kustom bike guy in town? |
A: The critical mass, bicycle style, is much too political. I agree if that's what you mean. Reading http://www.bike-eu.com/news/2530/big-us-cities-invest-in-bik e-mobility.html last week, you'd think it might happen in NY in the future. The television or other media helps, we've been out on the streets and "cruising" for some time now and it seems to be more alive, as in riders meeting and cruisin' away an afternoon or evening, on this side of the ocean, but will need more exposure if we want more to join. For this lonely guy in Malaysia: get a girlfriend, build her a bike and start the crusade... Q: Well, actually I was hoping for more of a comprehensive and detailed blueprint than that, but since that's how you started, I suppose that guy in Malaysia could take it from there ;) |
Michele Bartoli, two-time UCI Road World Cup winner, astride Rhalf's 346 Royal Delft bike. |
That was an interesting news article you pointed out. I find it ironic, though that Clear Channel, which is promoting the SF bike rental/advertising scheme, is the same company whose radio personalities at several of their stations in different parts of the US were promoting motorists' harassing and attacking cyclists only a couple of years ago. Clear Channel owns many more radio broadcast outlets than were allowed under previous administrations. The Bush administration fixed it so the old ownership limits could be exceeded by them. In return, Clear Channel used their hundreds of radio stations to broadcast continual propaganda promoting the Bush administration's criminal invasion of Iraq. It's a funny old world, innit? And of course, New York City has a recent police regulation requiring any more than two people riding bikes together to obtain a parade permit or face arrest. Critical Mass' fault of course, as they demonstrated against Bush during one of their rides while the last Republican convention was going on. BikeUtopia hasn't come to America yet, by any means, no matter what lip service is paid to the desirability of cycling, by politicians and their business mogul owners |
Interview conducted by Jim Wilson |
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Getting back to the original subject, what do you think about this being a good time to start coming up with standardized international kustom show classes? And drag racing classes, too. I came up with a proposed set of rules and classes a number of years ago for a proposed international sanctioning body. Some people do read them every once in a while and E-mail me asking how they could join. But I always tell them that they should form local groups, and then that group could join the international group, when and if it happens. . Considering that there are meets happening in Europe and North America now, with people from both continents participating in each others' events, and there are more all the time, is it a good time for us to start seriously planning an international sanctioning body? Every other kustom activity seems to have one. |
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Rhalf's Latest: 346 Tuschinski Chopper |
Rhalf's Latest: 346 Tuschinski Chopper |
A: Detailed blueprint, transportation/riding a bicycle is not seen the same all over the world, the poorer the population, the faster they want a motorscooter or car. A bicycle is looked at as a poor man's transport, so before you get "fashionable people" on a bike in Asia and they find time in their busy schedules to survive/work to do a kustom job will take some time. So a blueprint for any specific land or region has to be looked on carefully. Same with the classes... When we started as a shop, cruisers, choppers and lowriders stood side by side in the shop. After visiting the US a couple of times and seeing the lowrider finals in Las Vegas, I wondered why so few other builds showed there. So many styles would be possible just for the lowrider builders. We are still a small group in Europe, and making more classes is useless. The FBI rules for drag racing and COTY changed every year a little bit, learning from previous events. Might need to add a class in future for restored classics, but with this year's show, and hearing no real complaints about the setup, I think we are on the right track. |
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Kitty again, demonstrating the benefits of cycling. |
I have seen the IBRKA rules and codes, have they been used once in an event? Too many classes is too confusing, but we need classes for all who wanna participate, complete kustom or not. The important thing is all bikes in competition should be rollers and for having fun. Like to make international standards, but as it is would change too much on COTY ruling, worked fine and the competitors are getting used now to the system. It's not like 300 bikes in competition I spoke with some people already about a FBI world tour. Have a FBI US south and FBI US north/Canada meet. The Venice beach show might be an option and the Wasaga-Hamilton meet for the North. Have the best of show invited to the FBI in Amsterdam. Now we need to find big sponsors though. Q: Here in the USA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation might want to suggest a different set of initials, perhaps the Chopper International Alliance? ;-) Thanks very much for the chat, Rhalf. It'll be very interesting to see how things develop in the future. May the Chopperdome continue to thrive and prosper. A: Thanks. CU next year at the FBI Part VII, The magic number? "Happy Cruisin" Rhalf van Heusden The Chopperdome Adm. de Ruyterweg 346 1055 NA Amsterdam Nederland Tel: +31 (0)20 7743396 |
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Kitty again, demonstrating the benefits of cycling. |
