A resource I cannot overstate its importance was a blog entry from an owner that told all things positive or negative for their first year of going car-less and using a Bakfiet. The blog is HERE. If you pay attention while reading the long posting, you'll notice the rider says it takes some serious huffing and puffing to power the Bakfiet up Portland hills. That gave me pause, since I live in Seattle. Then I found out the 2009 model improved the tilt of the seat stem, allowing more leg power. Also, we live in Fremont, and it is relatively flat from our home to Ballard and downtown along Westlake Avenue. These are the main areas I want to ride anyway.
A comment about Dutch Bike Co Seattle. They were simply informative and enthusiastic about the bikes. Fritz, the guy who sold me the bike and will assemble it on Wednesday, owns a 2009 model. He purchased it on a bike shop salary. So these guys really believe in the gear they're pitching.
They let me take the shop Bakfiet for an hour test drive, riding to my home along the Burke-Gilman trail, the very route I will take for grocery runs and fun-runs to Ballard. Riding the bike helped convince me how cool it is.
If you've only been researching Bakfiets on the web, do yourself a favor, go see one, and hopefully ride it. Not a used one, but the new ones. There's so much beautiful detail in these bikes. So many features.
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