I have a question – are bikes typically insured? A co-worker in Germany once talked about his bike being stolen and collecting insurance money. After reading your post I am curious as to if insurance is common or cost effective?

Thanks again and take care.

Bikes scooped out of the canals…very interesting. I didn’t know that …blimey, where was I? sure hope i could be a fortunate witness as well. Got to keep my eyes and ears open and my camera ready.
Thanks for the info.

Cheers!

A huge number of bikes wind up in the canals in Amsterdam, too. I happened to be “fortunate” enough to watch one of the canal cleaning barges pulling things up from the Lijnsbaangracht (near the Rijksmuseum) and they brought up at least 4 bikes per scoop. I think they later printed in the papers that they’d pulled up something like 250 bikes per kilometer of canal.

@Mizdi Yes, you’ve pretty much got the story straight. The hubby rode his bike for about a month, I think, before finally deciding that taking the bus to a station further away was going to be less frustrating.
If we ever move back to a rural area of NL, we’ll get a car. Neither of us had a dutch driver’s license while living there, so that wasn’t an option at the time.

Why the bike theft? It is not uncommon here to buy second hand bikes, even from reputable bike shops, nor to buy directly from anyone who offers a second hand bike at a fraction of the price of a new one.

Thieves could easily pass them as their own. They could also repaint it or change accessories to avoid detection from the real owners. The point is, since bike safety is never ensured but a bike is still a necessity, most people especially those who had to leave their bikes somewhere outside while they do their business inside, prefer to buy a cheap one (stolen or not… usually the buyer doesn’t even bother to ask for proof of ownership anyway). If they lose it, its not too depressing and they could always buy another cheap one. So the cycle goes on… As long as there are unsuspecting buyers of stolen bikes or bike parts…. there would be thieves.