Holy spokes

Freewheelin' with the Dutch Bicycle Company

By CHRISTINE LIU

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Spend any time with Dan Sorger and Maria Salve, the visionary husband-and-wife team behind the Dutch Bicycle company, and you can't help but feel a compulsion to hop on a bike and roll. They make it sound so easy to save the world—and one's sanity—in something as simple as better bikes. In January they set up their headquarters in Somerville, and the bikes they import from Amsterdam and Denmark (that they fell in love with on a serendipitous post-9.11 trip) are unbelievably well designed. "People with some sort of education see the long-term value of it," says Salve. "They are built to last." Low-maintenance and robust with a comfortable upright posture, the Dutch-style bikes are meant to be ridden everywhere and anywhere.

"They're not built down to a price," stresses Sorger, "They're built to specification," which explains the tight construction and flawless design integration of each bike. They're optimized as complete machines, versus a composite of mix-and-match components. They can seriously last forever, withstanding weather and life's messy turns; in Europe they're commonly passed down through generations. "It's not designed for sport, for recreation, as a flashy thing," Sorger explains. "It's a hammer; it's made for driving in a nail."

The bikes are built foremost for utility, but that's not to say the bikes aren't beautiful. They stand their ground as welterweight workhorses with time-honored, worldly, tried-and-true elegance. When I called before visiting the bike shop, Sorger asked me how tall I was. "Barely five foot," I said. "Great! We have a barely-five-foot-sized bike here for you to ride," was the reply. Indeed, I couldn't hide my glee pedaling a Velorbis Victoria Classic (called oma, or "grandma," style) around the spacious garage—or potentially beyond, as curious riders are encouraged to test-drive the bikes about town. Fine details like leather grips, skirt guards and sturdy baskets not only look super classy, but are also truly designed for real-world use.

With their straightforward, charming invitation for Americans to use a bike for everyday functions, the folks behind Dutch Bicycle Company are certainly performing a formidable role in rocking the car-centric status quo. By helping people rethink transportation, they facilitate "dealing with the hangover of this bastardized American dream," explains Sorger. "Not only that," adds Salve, "Bikes are fun!" No truer words.

[The Dutch Bicycle Company, 161 Broadway, Somerville. 617.591.1234. dutchbikes.us]