Dutch duo peddle old bikes as fashion, furniture

DELFT, Netherlands (AFP) ― Two Dutch entrepreneurs have found a novel way to make money out of the thousands of bicycles abandoned in the Netherlands each year ― by turning them into designer fashion items and furniture.

Industrial design student Lodewijk Bosman, 25, and Hidde van der Straaten, 28, founded “The Upcycle” in university city Delft in January 2012 to exploit a typically Dutch problem.

The Netherlands has more bikes ― 18 million ― than its 17 million population, and around a million new bikes are bought every year.

But with so many bikes come parking problems, and if they are left in the wrong place, or simply abandoned, the authorities pick them up and take them to the pound.

This happens to tens of thousands of bikes a year, and while owners can get their bikes back by paying a fine of around 20 euros ($25), few do.

Unclaimed bikes are sold to bike shops that sell them on second-hand, either in the Netherlands or abroad.

Lodewijk and Hidde also buy the abandoned bikes and parts, but with something different in mind.

Take for example an Upcycle bedside lamp, price 88 euros. It consists of a bike light with a new LED bulb fitted to a stem made of a few chain links and intertwined spokes ― all standing on a wooden base wrapped in plaited inner tubes.

Other products include a bracelet made from bike chain links for 10 euros.