Not to disagree with anything you've written, but many Dutch of my acquaintance loved their old bikes. The older the better. They claimed that they don't make them like they used to.

It helps that Holland is so flat. You don't really need more gears if you don't have to go uphill much.

Well. First of all it reminds me of the Neal Stephenson novel (snow crash) featurring the bike courier - she had her carbon frame sprayed up with fake rust spray.

Secondly, you may remember Barry the lockpicking guy (went to FC a few times). He exposed the 'insert blank - click - open!' vulnerability from Axa (a subbrand from Assa). It's been all over the news, and of course on http://www.toool.nl/blackbag/ (and please do keep an eye on this site ... Last week Barry impressioned a naval Enigma lock)

Thirdly - the rule is simple. Use two locks. The potential thief out to get a random bike will pick the next bike only locked with a single lock.

My bike was not stolen in Amsterdam since 1990, and I use it all the time and leave it out everywhere.

I'm glad you wrote this piece, I tried leaving a comment at the other site but got a 404 page.

I have two bikes. One is new, I take to work (26 km roundtrip) and for general daily use. It has the factory lock but I don't take it where I know it will be unattended for more than an hour.

Then I have the older bike. This is the one that I can afford to lose, or have parts of it lost. The good bike is insured, the crap bike isn't.

I've never bought a stolen bike but my son once stole his own bike back.

Prostitution is now legal in the Netherlands, since October 2000. If I remember correctly, there were protests against it at the time, largely by prostitutes! Now they have to pay taxes, charge VAT, and perhaps pass health inspections (not sure about this last).

I believe that soft drugs are still illegal but tolerated. Although in July a ban on smoking in cafes, restaurants, and pubs comes into effect, and the anti-druggies are trying to use this to shut down the coffee shops. At least one coffee shop, anticipating the new regulations, has gone non-smoking--apparently most of their business was take-away anyway.

Thanks from the guys closer to the scene. I have one more request: does anyone know the words (Dutch? English) of the song that is sung at football matches against your near dear big neighbour? And, is there a causality or correlation? It would be just too good an urban myth to leave unspread :)