The Plain Bicycle Project

*New* Learn about shipping in the USA and Canada.

Thank you for wanting to help spread Dutch cycling culture! If you want something shipped to the US Please fill out this questionnaire and we’ll get back to you. Meanwhile, have a look at the online store to see what we do.

Comfortable upright bikes for life.

The Plain Bicycle project’s goal is to import everyday cycling culture to North America. We do it one container, hundreds of bikes and one smiling face at a time.

It started with a crazy plan. In 2017, we reached out to hundreds of people and crowdsourced the first container. Two hundred people signed up for a their very own random omafiets. The rest is bicycle history.

A symbol of cycling for the people. An omafiets is what some call a Dutch bike and what others call the best bike in the world. To us, it represent the past, present and future of transportation. It is that one bicycle for any age, for any ability, for any day. Like an armchair floating through the clouds (but with a fenders), the Dutch bike puts you face to face with your city, and its the antidote to a continent behaving as though cycling everyday has to be some kind of extreme sport.

Not Just Used Bikes – What else we do.

We aren’t afraid to say it: we have the world’s very best bicycles. And now we sell them new too. We sell one-of-a-kind transport bikes made by WorkCycles, for example. Just about the most bomb-proof bike on Earth. We tend to carry every type of Dutch bike you can imagine too. For families and commercial ventures, we began bringing in bakfiets (box bikes) and heavy duty upright tricycles like the classic Christinania (the SUV of Denmark). We now regularly supply customers throughout North America with the essential Dutch cycling accessories too (like racks, baskets, bells, kid carriers).

We do it for mode shift. We all know the planet needs a shift to cycling. Human powered transport can’t wait. When the bike boom becomes a bike era, it will arrive on an omafiets. And we want you to be part of it. We speak up. We take urbanism best practices seriously. We demand high quality bike lanes because we know that’s all that really stands between you and riding any bike, any day. This did not start as a bike shop. It started as a culture bomb. Riding in the snow. The omafiets is the Best. Winter. Bike. Ever. So we speak up on that too, because if anyone knows winter, we do. We may not treat snow with the respect it deserves in many Canadian cities, but we that others have shown snow is an incredible building material and bike path surface, when you treat it right. Glide and ride. When the pandemic stuck in the middle of winter, we decided to do something special, and began to bring in equipment like Nordic Skates and Kicksleds too. In 2020, we started a by-donation ski equipment library. Our non-profit work. We’re a social enterprise. That means we’re run by a non-profit and every dollar we make goes back into ushering a new normal where cycling every day is easy. We directly support the work of Winnipeg Trails. W. You can visit Winnipeg Trails to learn more. Ready to make your life even better? Browse the online shop or, if you are lucky enough to live in our hometown of Winnipeg, Canada, please come into one of our stores and ride something. We just might change how you see cycling.

Visit us at the antique railcars at The Forks

Located in the antique railcars in the main parking lot, near at the entrance to the Forks Marekt. Four million visitors a year take in Winnipeg’s biggest tourist destination. Same bikes, same service, more rentals. Home of the Winterpeg ski library every December-March.

Phone 204-297-8962

Visit us at the Bicycle Garden in the west end

Located in the beautiful Sherbrook Flats Building at 267 Sherbrook St, just south of Portage Ave. Our first brick and mortar retail space began as a COVID19 response and pop up. It is now home to both a full service bike shop and the office of Winnipeg Trails.

Phone 204-306-4737

Fix. Go.

Yes we repair bicycles. We may specialize in Dutch bicycles, but we can fix a flat or adjust the brakes and gears on just about anything. With locations conveniently located at the Forks and in Winnipeg’s West End, we’ll keep you going. If we don’t carry the parts you need, will help you find someone who does.

Solutions for Parents

Life’s too short for the mini-van. We’ve got something for every family.

The finest SUV money can buy

We are proudly a North America’n dealer of WorkCycles, a fine handmade Dutch bike manufacturer based in Amsterdam.

Among the many things they make that you should probably buy, the Kr8 Electric Assist Bakfiets will make even a Hummer-lover’s heart flutter. This bike is a dream for the school run or picking up a week’s worth of groceries.

Check out their beautiful top-of-the-line omafiets too. Order now for spring 2021 or sooner.

We mean business.

We offer heavy-duty bike sharing solutions for the kind of employer that runs lean machine and is always on the look out for their employees’ happiness, health and well-being. Bikes make trips for coffee and those meetings downtown SO much better. Why not buy a small fleet of bikes for the office? You can fit 10 in the space of one car (and at least two instead of that potted plant everyone forgets to water). Your staff will thank you for it!

Safe havens

Not all bike parking is created equal. We’re on a mission to make bombproof racks that hold a bike right. We’ve replicated the rack you would find in the suburbs of Rotterdam or Leiden. We only make one kind. Why bother with anything else? Try one out and you’ll see why this design is tried, tested and true and why there are 100000s of them lining the streets of Holland.

Made to order. Available in any colour of the rainbow.

Masters of metal

Plain Bicycle’s inventors-for-hire will work with entrepreneurs, schools and businesses to reinvent wheels. Be creative. We can help.

Build a Better City, Together

The Plain Bicycle Project is a social enterprise initiative of Winnipeg Trails, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing human-powered transportation in Winnipeg. The two go hand in hand. After all, what good is a bike without a great place to ride it? We’ve fought for you for years, and your support helps us push Winnipeg to the next level. Thank you!

Learn-To-Ride

We organize volunteer-based, learn-to-ride workshops tailored to adult women based on learn-to-ride program methodologies developed in the Netherlands and Finland. These workshops place an emphasis self-esteem building, peer support and comfortable simple bicycles. Suitable for anyone taking up cycling after a long hiatus, for those who never learned. Contact us to find out when we’re holding the next course or get involved as a volunteer!

How the Plain Bicycle Project began...

This initiative began with a cockamamie plan to bring one shipping container full of pre-loved bicycles from the Netherlands to Winnipeg. ..a bike culture bomb… The idea was to flood the heart of North America with the hallmark of Dutch cycling culture. By importing the quintessential bike type ridden by millions of men, women and children every day – the omafiets or “Grandma’s bike” – we relied on our families, friends, acquaintances and colleagues’ help to foster the growth of a different type of bicycle culture. Together, we made it happen. The rest is history.

The Podcast

One day, someone told us she wanted to tell the story of the project. Then, when she decided to get a plain bike, it became her story too. And the story of a city in flux. Listen to Erin Riediger’s Plain Bicycle Podcast. Listen on:

Ski too?

Bicycles are the perfect year round vehicle. But every year, snow opens up new possibilities. And plain bicycle’s retail spaces start to make a bit of room for special equipment that can only be used for part of the year.

Learn more about touring skis, kicksleds, the Winterpeg plan and the by donation ski library!