We (Rendel Hijlkema & Thijs de Ligt) started The BikeBoys in September 2016. Being students ourselves, we talked to multiple exchange students who wanted to buy a bike in Amsterdam but either got a very high price, or a low quality bike. This didn’t feel fair and we wanted to change this. We got in contact with the universities in Amsterdam and potential bike suppliers. We put everything together and started with a small pilot of only 30 bikes. This was 4 years ago and last year we sold 500 bikes and rented out 200!
During the peak days (when we have to hand out a lot of bikes) we ask all our friends to help us out meaning that we are with 15 students, helping out all the incoming exchange students. The incoming students tend to stick around during these days, because for them it’s the perfect timing to hear about the recommendations from the local students. For us it’s a lot of fun to learn about where they are from. In essence, The BikeBoys is a real student to student organization.
That being said, we value one thing above all others: safety. Cycling in Amsterdam can be quite intense as there are a lot of cyclists. Therefore we take the time to make you feel accustomed with the bike. Only when you are 100% confident, we are pleased and let you go. That is also why we get so many great feedback on our service!
