Monday 23 February 2009

Accessorize your bike

The image shows a page out of a special offers leaflet from one of the chain stores in the Netherlands this week. Mostly they sell toothpaste, soap, nappies. In the UK a near equivalent might be "Boots" (the chemist). However this week there are also some special matching accessories for the person and bicycle.

You can buy a matching belt, umbrella (useful for cycling in the rain), sun-glass holder (at the same time as an umbrella...), cycle saddle cover, panniers and removable bag for your bike basket. A few other items are on previous pages.

That's cycling as a natural thing for anyone to be doing. No sense of danger, no protective gear, just matching accessories to look trendy on your bike.

6 comments:

tvcommentaar said...

Link to folder
I always search on the Halfords site for my gear. We where searching last summer for a tomtom. Not for the car but for the bicycle, couldn't find one except for the 'Fietsersbond' planningroute site.

Anonymous said...

I have pink panniers...on my pink omafiets. I do get odd looks here in the UK, but mostly compliments - such as 'ooh look at that lovely bike' etc.
I love riding it here, reminds me I must get out on it soon, its been a bit neglected of late!
(My panniers came from HEMA, a simliar store to the one in your post I think?)
I love reading your posts, and wish I could live in NL!

David Hembrow said...

Matching pink sounds good too. Why not ?

I tend to think of HEMA as a bit more of a general purpose department store. Plenty of bike parts there too, of course, and such things as water proofs - including Jip en Janneke waterproofs for kids, and such like. Jip en Janneke were the first Dutch books I read - at the age of 40 - so a little older than most people read them.

Anonymous said...

Lidl UK are doing a special cycling promotion later this week, but I wouldn't call any of it fashionable! Cheap though.

David Hembrow said...

Aldi do cheap bits too. Both of those German chains do that over here too. However, what the Dutch retailers sell is a little different in emphasis.

Anonymous said...

I always think of Kruidvat as being quite like Superdrug.

I like to shop around for my bike gear as I find Halfords quite expensive sometimes.