"Berlin is more a part of the world than a city, "said the 19th century Bavarian poet, Jean Paul. Today, that's still feels true. It's been observed that Berlin is like New York in its culture yet preserves nature like Seattle. And, unlike Amsterdam or Copenhagen - whose utopian bicycle cultures are impossible to replicate in North America - Berlin feels closer to home.  

While the Netherlands has seen a steady growth in city cycling for over 100 years, this was not the case in Berlin, Copenhagen or 'older' bicycle cultures in North America (the oldest being Montreal). What kickstarted these 'bicycle cultures' was the 1970's oil crisis. In Montreal this led to some of the earliest bike lanes in North America, but very little industry around city biking. In Copenhagen it led to the worlds finest bicycle infrastructure and an industry that punches above its weight. And, in Berlin it led to the same position many North American cities are in today, asking the question, what does bicycle infrastructure look like in a huge, sprawled out city? And, how is the bicycle that rides this infrastructure different?

In Montreal, as in the rest of Canada, the 1970's saw a large influx of heavy British city bikes, not unlike the Dutch bikes that we first imported as a company back in 2006. These provided as many new problems as they did solutions. They were heavy, they were archaic, and they couldn't handle sprawl or hills. In Copenhagen the industry largely innovated on the Dutch bike, making it lighter and increasing handling. But Copenhagen like Amsterdam is a small city and a flat city, and solutions were far more local than global. If a global answer was available, it's not surprising that it would be from Berlin.

Berlin is a city of over six million souls, nearly twelve times bigger than Copenhagen by population. Back in the 1970's, Berlin was home to several bike stores, many of whom were witnessing the same groundswell of grassroots citizen cycling as we do in North America today. They needed a one-bike solution that could handle long commutes, short commutes, hills and valleys, and could multitask long recreational weekend rides. These Berlin retailers tried Dutch bikes only to discover they only worked for short commutes, flat commutes, and definitely not longer recreational rides. It's the same issue we have here!

However, there was a problem. The bicycle industry in Germany at the time was largely tuned to performance and recreational bikes and turned a blind eye to the growth in city cycling. To the Berlin bike stores responding to their customers and who believed biking is a real transportation solution, this was very frustrating. It's the same problem we have in North America today. Does your local bike store carry city bikes? Do they even know what a city bike is?

In true German fashion these Berlin retailers banded together and created a regulative body called the VSF, the Verbund Selbstverwalteter Fahrradbetriebe, which meant, the "association of self-managed bicycle companies." These companies developed certified (zertifiziert) best-practices for bicycle shop management, bicycle design, bicycle infrastructure, and bicycle legislation. You can see the little label in the picture to the left. Today they are a 300 strong network of bicycle companies that play an outsized role with German bicycle legislation and whose members follow strict regulative agreements on product innovation. Many of the companies we import, from Hebie, to Busch & Muller, to Tubus are all VSF companies.

The VSF began by creating a set of standards and certifications that pushed German bike companies to produce proper city bikes. Today, it is these standards that VSF created that form the Straßenverkehrszulassungsordnung, or: the Road Traffic Licensing Regulations for bicycles. Under these rules, to be certified a road traffic vehicle - in this case, a city bike - a bike would have to always include the following: a low-maintenance internal gear hub, fenders, a certified rack (of minimum 35kg load), a dynamo lightest, to name a few. This set the standard for what is and isn't a city bike, and created a fertile context for city bike innovation.

Of course, every journey takes unexpected twists and turns.

Alas, the German bike industry largely ignored the VSF and continued producing mountain bikes and racing bikes. That took a lot of leadership on the part of VSF to change, but to get there they had to go it alone. But, by this time they were strong in partners and in principles. They knew what they wanted because they knew what their customer wanted. They had their ear to the ground. Now it was time to build a bike from the ground up.

So, in 1988, VSF decided they couldn't wait for the bike industry to follow their certifications. Instead, they would model what this bike looked like themselves. In 1988 VSF set up the first Fahrradmanufaktur plant in Bremen. This factory let them produce bikes according to the standards that they thought essential (and that today have officially become German law). Moreover, this produced the culture of innovation (and regulation) that makes every part of a Fahrradmanufaktur so special.

Today, Fahrradmanufaktur are built in Oldenburg, near Hamburg. They are part of a much larger, VSF certified factory that builds other great German bicycle brands like Rabeneick, Kreidler, and more. Today they have expanded, becoming the go-to brand for touring and trekking - employing many of the lessons they learned from building strong city bikes that can multi-task distance and heavy loads.

So, why Fahrradmanufaktur? Because they are leaders, innovators, and manufacturers who produce investment-grade products with a heck of a lot of integrity.

And darned if they don't build a pretty bike too!.