Founded by Jan Rijkeboer, who began hand-assembling bikes with one partner; production is now based in Hoogeveen, Netherlands, and the company also runs cargo-bike brand Bakfiets.nl.
Best for Classic sturdy Dutch city bikes.
Azor Bikes was started by Jan Rijkeboer, who trained as a bicycle mechanic and worked in a bike factory before beginning his own operation with a single business partner, handling assembly by day and bookkeeping and orders in the evenings. The company takes its name from the Spanish word for goshawk, chosen after Rijkeboer wanted a bird-of-prey silhouette for the brand's logo. Production is based in Hoogeveen, in the northeastern Netherlands, where bikes are described as craftsman-assembled rather than mass-produced on an anonymous line. Azor's core range covers the classic Dutch 'Oma' (grandma) and 'Opa' (grandpa) step-through and diamond-frame city bikes, alongside work and transport models built for a multi-decade service life. Buyers can choose a ready-made bike from the Collection range or build one component-by-component through the MyAzor configurator, paying only for the parts they select — frame, gearing, brakes, and finish. The company also owns Bakfiets.nl, one of the best-known Dutch cargo-bike brands, extending the same Hoogeveen production base into two- and three-wheeled load-carrying bikes.
Amsterdam bicycle maker founded in 2011 by Tiemen ter Hoeven and Mark Groot Wassink, who rebuild new bikes from salvaged frames and forks pulled from the roughly one million bicycles abandoned in the Netherlands each year; staffed partly through a refurbishing-skills training program.
Best for Circular refurbished bicycles.
Roetz-Bikes was founded in 2011 in Amsterdam by Tiemen ter Hoeven and Mark Groot Wassink, who adapted remanufacturing practices borrowed from the automotive industry to bicycles. The founders' starting observation was structural: the Netherlands has a large surplus of discarded and abandoned bicycles — by some estimates roughly a million are abandoned each year — many of which still have usable steel frames and forks even when other components have failed or been stripped. Rather than melting that material down, Roetz salvages intact frames and forks and rebuilds them into new bicycles, pairing recovered steel with new components, including electric-assist drivetrains on its e-bike models. The company built a social dimension into that circular production model from early on: its workshop team includes people with limited job prospects, who are trained in bicycle refurbishing skills as part of the production process, tying environmental reuse to workforce reintegration. Roetz frames its mission around 'riding toward a better world,' combining the circular-economy angle with the social-enterprise structure, and has been documented by organizations including Circle Economy as an example of applying automotive-style remanufacturing to a different industry.
Amsterdam-founded e-bike brand that filed for bankruptcy in July 2023 and was acquired weeks later by Lavoie, the e-mobility unit of McLaren Applied, which now sells and services the bikes through third-party retailers.
Best for Sleek theft-proof e-bikes.
VanMoof built a following for sleek, connected, anti-theft electric bikes designed and engineered from Amsterdam, raising more than $180 million in venture funding since 2020. That growth outpaced the business: court-appointed administrators took over in July 2023, and the company was declared bankrupt in the Netherlands on July 18, 2023. Weeks later, in August 2023, Lavoie - the e-mobility unit of Formula One engineering firm McLaren Applied - acquired VanMoof out of bankruptcy. Under the new ownership, VanMoof retained some former staff but also cut jobs, and it abandoned its previous model of operating its own retail stores in favor of selling and servicing bikes through third-party bike shops. VanMoof continues to design and sell e-bikes today, but under different ownership and a different retail model than the one that built its original reputation.
Amsterdam city-bike brand founded in 2012 by Ferry Zonder, selling direct-to-consumer retro-modern bicycles; added e-bikes (Ivy, Ace) in 2021 and was acquired by Pon.Bike in 2022, with Zonder remaining in leadership.
Best for Minimalist Dutch city bikes
Veloretti was founded in Amsterdam in 2012 by Ferry Zonder, who started the brand after being unable to find a lightweight, stylish, timeless city bike for his own daily commute and decided to design one himself. The brand built its identity around minimalist, retro-modern city and children's bicycles sold direct-to-consumer. In 2021 Veloretti entered the e-bike category with its first-generation Ivy and Ace models. In September 2022 the company was acquired by Pon.Bike, the bicycle division of Dutch conglomerate Pon Holdings, though Zonder has continued to lead the brand.
WorkCycles has built Dutch transport bikes and cargo bikes from its Amsterdam workshop since 2003, designing and manufacturing models like the Fr8, Gr8, and Kr8 in-house. Customers can buy directly by visiting the flagship workshop and store in Amsterdam, ordering through the company's international dealer network, or having a bike shipped to their door.
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