MacBike

In 1988 MacBike was founded by Jos Louwman and Arnold Gruppen. Amsterdam was already number one cycling city, however, no one gave visitors the opportunity to discover Amsterdam by bike. Soon, Louwman and Gruppen opened their first branch in the old bicycle factory Burco. They also wanted to fulfil a function to the locals. So, apart from rental they also offered the service to repair bikes. After opening their first store, bike rental was an immediate hit. Partly because the visitors appreciated it, just like the inhabitants of Amsterdam, they were able to move quickly, clean and cheap through the city and the surrounding countryside. Two years later MacBike opened its second branch near Leidseplein and began to issue cycle routes to make the bike ride even more satisfying. Now-a-days, MacBike issues over ten bicycle routes, including a countryside route, an art route and a route through Jewish Amsterdam. In 1993 MacBike issued the first edition of "Guide for Safe Cycling" which gave the visitors helpful tips about cycling in a busy city like Amsterdam. Today, the municipality of Amsterdam has acknowledged the importance of informing the visitors about the traffic law and used our content to publish such a brochure. Amsterdam has positioned bicycle city bike capital of the world partly due to the stringent car parking policy. Because of that MacBike grown into a company with nearly a hundred employees, seven branches and 150,000 visitors a year that discover Amsterdam by bike.