Cycling is a very healthy and sustainable means of personal transportation, which is being promoted in many other countries. It’s also much more relaxing than taking a bus or train – unless it rains cats and dogs!
I got my bicycle very soon after arriving to Delft, since I realized it was an indispensable item for living here. I purchased my bicycle in Brik-Fit. Brik-Fit is not a normal bicycle shop, but rather a workshop that gives mentally disabled people the opportunity to have a job and earn money by repairing and selling bicycles.
People always say my bike is a very girly bike and I guess they’re right. However, having a colored bike has a very important advantage: it’s much easier to recognize it when it’s surrounded by dozens of other bikes. I bought the bags at Hema for a very low price. Those bags made my life much easier, since now I can carry my architecture books and models without hurting my back.
Another thing I like about my bicycle is that even though it’s old, it works like new. It has no gears, so it’s not too fast, but it is highly reliable. So far, it never let me down.
I’ve fallen off my bike a few times, particularly on winter days when there’s ice on the road. And once I fell as a consequence of the wind! I was cycling alongside the EWI Building. I felt the wind’s pressure but didn’t think that the wind could be so strong as to make me fall. I was obviously mistaken. I stayed on the ground laughing, because I couldn’t believe what had just happened. Two Dutch people stopped to help me and I told them I was really surprised that the wind can make someone fall off a bike. They looked at me kindly, as you look at a little child, and explained to me that this isn’t rare at all in the Netherlands – especially near the EWI Building. At that particular moment, I heard the sound of a crash, and to my utter astonishment, I saw a man on the ground some ten meters behind us. He’d also been blown off his bike because of the wind.”
www2.ipse.nl/ruimte/rui-brikfit
Ex-TU-student Gerwin Hoogendoorn, die met Gerard Kool en Philip Hess van de Senz Umbrella een wereldwijde bestseller maakte, presenteerde deze week op een beurs in Parijs een prototype.
Ontwikkeling
Uiteraard is de kenmerkende vorm van de stormparaplu gehandhaafd, maar dat is volgens het Delftse bedrijf wel ongeveer het enige wat vaststaat. “Hij is echt nog in ontwikkeling. Het was in Parijs eigenlijk een sneak-preview. We hebben hem aan potentiële klanten laten zien om erachter te komen wie er behoefte aan heeft en welke wensen er leven”, aldus een woordvoerster van Senz.
Wensen
Aan de hand van de wensen bepaalt Senz de komende maanden welke materialen gebruikt zullen worden, welke afmeting de parasol krijgt, welke kleuren leverbaar worden en wat de prijs wordt. Het is de bedoeling dat de parasol over ongeveer een jaar leverbaar is voor klanten als resorts en horeca. “Die hebben nu een probleem als er wind opsteekt. Dan moeten de parasols weg of worden ingeklapt.” Op termijn moet de parasol ook voor gebruik aan het strand en voor particulieren beschikbaar komen.
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