Hallo,
We are a french couple visiting the Netherlands (starting tomorrow) by bike. We have few questions:
- are there specific places / towns where we have better chances to find cheap bikes ? (except amsterdam, since without bike it will be too big to start with).
- we heard about police bike auction but according to some website it seems reserved to the community or people whose bike was stollen, at least in Amsterdam and Hardenberg (which is understandable). Do you know if they is a website listing all the police auction dates (we can go anywhere in the Netherlands to buy the bikes)? We did try googleing this "Fietsenverkoop bij politie + town-name" (translate with google translate) but we didn't find any info except for the auction in Amsterdam, Hardenberg (where being french resident we can't go), and Groningen (the next auction is too late for us)? Are there other keywords we could use?
- what should we do if we find a good bike (not suspiciously cheap and from a private person : we found out about marktplaatz) without any serial number on it (in France there is no identification number on bike so we don't do if it's mandatory in netherlands to have a serial number, or if all the bikes have one). Is there a way to ensure it's not stolen? Would a photo of the ID card + the address of the seller will be enough?
- also : are bikes cheaper in Belgium ?
Thanks a lot for your help!
We are a french couple visiting the Netherlands (starting tomorrow) by bike. We have few questions:
- are there specific places / towns where we have better chances to find cheap bikes ? (except amsterdam, since without bike it will be too big to start with).
- we heard about police bike auction but according to some website it seems reserved to the community or people whose bike was stollen, at least in Amsterdam and Hardenberg (which is understandable). Do you know if they is a website listing all the police auction dates (we can go anywhere in the Netherlands to buy the bikes)? We did try googleing this "Fietsenverkoop bij politie + town-name" (translate with google translate) but we didn't find any info except for the auction in Amsterdam, Hardenberg (where being french resident we can't go), and Groningen (the next auction is too late for us)? Are there other keywords we could use?
- what should we do if we find a good bike (not suspiciously cheap and from a private person : we found out about marktplaatz) without any serial number on it (in France there is no identification number on bike so we don't do if it's mandatory in netherlands to have a serial number, or if all the bikes have one). Is there a way to ensure it's not stolen? Would a photo of the ID card + the address of the seller will be enough?
- also : are bikes cheaper in Belgium ?
Thanks a lot for your help!