Yunus Durmus thinks that the bike he rode before he moved to The Netherlands was much better than what he has now, but it was a mountain bike. At home in Turkey there are no established bike paths, just a lot of opportunities to ride in nature.
There are not many mountains in The Netherlands, so with little use for a mountain bike, Durmus had to buy a bike when he moved here two and half years ago.
Name: Yunus Durmus (Turkey, Embedded Software Group, EEMCS, PhD Student)
Price: 95 Euros
Brand: Custom made by Brikfit
Striking feature: It is the color orange
How did he choose his bike? Durmus said first of all it was cheap. But more importantly, it was built by Brikfit, a place that employs mentally challenged people to repair old bikes and resell them. “In most other countries you see that such people are out of the daily life, they are not involved in the economy of their country. However, Brikfit proves that they can also contribute to their society and live a normal life.”
Durmus lives in Amsterdam and takes the train to Delft every day. He uses the bike every day to travel between the train station and EWI building. The bike is old and orange with parts probably taken from several other bikes. “My bike seems so creepy that no one tries to steal it,” says Durmus. “And it is a good asset for me since every night I leave my bike in the train station. However, what they don’t know is that it works quite fine.”
Though he enjoys riding his bike, it has not been without incident. “I had two accidents. First, I hit a car, and second a young guy hit me so fast that I had to change my front tire. I swear that none of them were my fault!”
When asked what he thinks about biking in The Netherlands, Durmus said the country is flat and is built for biking. “It would be a huge mistake if they were not using bikes. Besides, you can also see its effect on the Dutch folks. They are fit, which you always admire, and I think they are calm due to the joy of riding a bike every day.”
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