Parliament presses forward with plan to force fat bike minimum age

The PVV, VVD, and NSC are sticking to their plan to implement a minimum age of 14 and an obligation to wear a helmet for fat bikes. The three parties told ANP that they will submit their motion on Wednesday night during a debate about traffic safety, despite the doubts of Minister Barry Madlener (Infrastructure and Water Management). He said earlier on Tuesday that a distinction between fat bikes and other electric bikes is "not useful."

A distinction based on tire thickness or frame height is "unjustifiable," Madlener wrote, because those characteristics do not make a bicycle less safe. The minister also expects manufacturers to produce new bicycles that circumvent the criteria, for example, by using smaller tires.

Olger van Dijk (NSC) pointed out that the motion his party is submitting with VVD also proposes a weight-based distinction. The MP understands Madlener's concerns about the "wild growth" of fat bikes. "You have to be aware of that, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't address issues with fat bikes. It's really a separate category."

Hidde Heutink of PVV said that the minister will do what the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of parliament, tells him to do. His fellow PVV party member Madlener promised last week to implement any measure against fat bikes that a Tweede Kamer majority proposes to him.

According to fat bike manufacturers, making a distinction between fat bikes and other electric bikes is not feasible. Niels Willems previously stated on behalf of Covenant Safe Fat Bikes, "Even if it were possible, the entire industry would immediately work around it. " It would be "hopeless" to describe the components of a fat bike in a law.

For example, Willems, co-founder of fat bike manufacturer Brekr, already sells a fat bike with an adjustable saddle, one of the points that political parties want to use to distinguish between fat bikes and other e-bikes. "Tire thickness and saddle size are things that you can easily replace as a manufacturer. As soon as that law is in place, the new bikes that do not fall into that category will be ready, but they will try to appeal to the same target group," says Willems.