Skinny bike
Buy a skinny bike in Amsterdam
Skinny bike. One speed, thin rubber, often black. This is the Amsterdam type — not a road bike.
Message about this skinnyOverview
Thin rubber, often one speed
Skinny is Amsterdam: thin tyres, often one speed, bars low or bullhorn, frame black or chrome. You see them on every canal. It is not a Gazelle and it is not a Canyon. It is a city bike pretending to be a racer — and on bricks your sit bones notice.
Fixie or freewheel
Fixie (fixed gear, no freewheel) or single-speed with a coast. Say which. A real fixie in the rain on Magere Brug is a choice, not a bargain. We do not push it.
What Amsterdam skinny steel survives
What we check: cracks at the stay, a hub that does not run true, a stem that has already snapped once. Unknown ‘Amsterdam steel’ is fine if the welds hold. Marktplaats junk without a bottom bracket is not.
Lock: a ring lock often does not fit
A ring lock rarely fits a skinny frame. Chain or U-lock through the rear wheel, around a pole. Thieves lift a skinny as readily as an e-bike — it is light.
Not a road bike, not an omafiets
A road bike has drop bars and a derailleur. An omafiets has a chain case. A skinny has neither. Tap the right page, or we talk past each other.
Colour is beside the point
WhatsApp: skinny, fixie or freewheel, size, budget. A photo of what you ride now helps.
Brands we look for, among others