What is a station bike (stationsfiets) in the Netherlands?

Have you ever heard about the concept of a “station bike” (stationsfiets) in the Netherlands? Have you visited popular marketplaces to buy a used bike and seen someone describe the bike as a station bike? What is this about? You will be surprised, but it is a great description and tells you a lot about the bike itself before even taking a closer look at it.

Have you ever been to a railway station in the Netherlands? Normally you can see gigantic rows of bicycles stacked up and parked in front of the station, and then the user travels by train to work or university before returning in the afternoon and picking up the bike to travel back home. It is an efficient way of traveling and it takes care of your health, the environment, and it saves you time. But, what is a station bike?

What is a station bike (stationsfiets)?

You have most likely heard about the fact that thieves like to be where people are located. In a crowded tram or at a metro is an ideal place for a thief to steal a wallet from your pocket or backpack. But, let us imagine that someone wants to steal a bike and not your wallet. What is an ideal place for such an action? At a location crowded with bikes.

As a result, many people are afraid to bring their expensive and beautiful bikes to leave them at a railway station the entire day. They might have expensive locks, but they still don’t feel comfortable about leaving them at the railway station. What do they do instead? They buy what many refer to as a station bike, a bike that they don’t really care about. A station bike isn’t worth a lot, and thus, it wouldn’t cause a lot of anger and harm if it was stolen or some other things would happen to it. It doesn’t matter if it is out in the sun, rain, or cold all day either, because a station bike is the last station before a bike goes to the bike graveyard.

Would you like to buy a station bike?

Are you planning on buying a station bike? Even though it can look bad, you need to be sure that the brakes are working properly and that the tires are functional. There are many people selling bikes in such poor condition that they are impossible to use (unless you spend quite a lot at renovating the bike), so ask if you can try the bike for 1 minute before buying it, just to make sure. If you see the word opknapper or opknat, it means that the bikes need refurbishment before it can be used!

Below you can see an image showing my station bike, a bike that I really like using, but if someone would steal it one day, I have only lost the €20 I used on buying it on markplaats.nl.