It is Thursday morning, half past nine, Fatbikewinkel La Souris in The Hague is just open. The walls, the doors, the floor, everything is hip black. Fourteen customers form a row towards the counter with bright orange logo. It’s hot. A man from the early twenties is the first to turn. He wants a V20 Pro and now calls his father. “Yes, with an extra seat,” he says. “And a bag for your phone.” It is quiet for a while. “Yes, it is allowed,” he tells the seller excitedly. He says: “With a lock you reach 1,250 euros.”
A day later, the same store, now around four o’clock. There are more than fifty customers in the hall, in rows of two. It’s even warmer. Customers are getting bored at the tight rows of Fatbikes. Most are of Chinese origin, on one side of the case is the Ouxi V8, on the other the QMWHeels V20. You can recognize them by their thick tires, robust steel frame, extra long saddle and the large headlight with bars. A man – “I have been here for 45 minutes” – comes for a minifatbike. He points: “It says in the corner.” For children from 1 meter 40. “Nice in blue for my son.” He called this morning with customer service to order the thing, but there were thirty people waiting for him. “Apparently everyone wants one.”
The Fatbike is extremely popular. According to the RAI Association, more than 111,000 were sold last year, but not all sellers are affiliated with this interest group. According to fatbike traders who NRC Speaked, an estimated 300,000 are now driving around in the Netherlands. There is a lot of criticism of the behavior of mostly young fatbikers. They increase him, cracks at 50 kilometers per hour, drive antisocial, sometimes the three of them are on and many drivers are now also on their phone. The number of accidents therefore rose, doctors rang the bell several times. The police purchased 250 extra roller benches and seized 10,000 raised bicycles at the beginning of this year. Because it is so popular, the Fatbike is a popular object for thieves.
Road safety organizations argue for a helmet obligation and an age limit of fourteen years. But that’s not easy. Fatbikes fall under the regular e-bikes, they officially go a maximum of 25 kilometers per hour and have a engine power of 250 watts. A helmet obligation does not want to visit politics the ‘normal’ e-bikers. A separate vehicle category for the Fatbike, with its own rules, probably makes little sense. Manufacturers could easily adjust their models to bypass the rules, then said Minister Barry Madlener (Infrastructure and Water Management, PVV) at the beginning of this year. He was for strict enforcement. Nevertheless, a new study is now running into possible rules for the unprecedentedly popular fatbike.
And despite everything, the sale goes like a silly, says Armando Muis (34). He is the owner of La Souris, with 22 stores in the Netherlands and 3 in Belgium market leader. Two years ago, when the helmet obligation ensured that the scooter sale halved, he started selling 240 Fatbikes and that number grew rap. He shows all the figures at the head office in Doetinchem. The best -selling Fatbikes are the V20 and the V8. Last year, in total, of all models, 3,300 per month, now more than 6,000. And the growing continues. In 2024, turnover increased by 42 percent to 48.5 million euros. This year he is estimated at 70 million “and we sold around 100,000 fatbikes in a year.”
Muis says he has 60 percent of the market. The other 40 percent is spread over many small providers, who also focus primarily on the V8 and V20. There are entrepreneurs who sell Fatbikes via Marktplaats or Snapchat. Some only have a site, others a site and a physical sales place, such as a basement box, a shed, a call store or a stall on the market. There are a few larger entrepreneurs, with business premises and showrooms.
Striking: large regular bicycle shops often do not sell Fatbikes. A small tour shows that many doubt the quality of the electric bicycles and do not dare to burn their fingers. “We have tried it for a while,” says Bert Graaf (24), son of the owner of Berts Wielershop, a family business in The Hague that has been around for fifty years. “But it was not a success.” Graaf wanted to “go with the trend” and ordered thirty fatbikes from two different brands. The brakes were bad and the batteries broke quickly, he says. “Many customers came back with complaints. They were allowed to exchange their fatbikes for normal electric bicycles from us.”
Fifty Ukrainian refugees
People who buy a V20 or V8 through small traders can often choose whether they get it in the box and put them together themselves, or buy the bike ‘ready to go’. Armando Muis always delivers the Fatbikes ready-made. He shows the workshop in Doetinchem where 65 engineers, including fifty Ukrainian refugees, ‘be pounding’ in two teams from five to the evening. They put together about two hundred to three hundred fatbikes a day. Mechanics get half the bikes from huge boxes, hang on brackets and screws, trappers and mudguards. Others are busy with the wiring, displays and check the software. The men are surrounded by rows of Fatbikes, “5,800 pieces to be precise.”
Muis is tackling it professionally, but how is it possible that someone can, legally, sell a few copies from a garage of a product that you can normally only have directly from abroad in large quantities? That is because the Chinese producers of the V20 and the V8 tackle things differently: they produce in stock and ship themselves full containers to warehouses spread across Europe. From there they sell small numbers to small entrepreneurs.
Ideal, says Hugo (21) of Basic Fatbikes (who does not use his last name due to privacy reasons NRC want to). “You don’t have to take a container full and you don’t need a large starting capital.” He started from his home a year and a half ago. “I purchased five and sold them through Marktplaats.” He then rented a garage box, now he sells the Fatbikes via a website and a business premises on an industrial estate in Voorburg. The roller shutter of his building is up. Inside are piles of boxes, on a workbench there is tools to assemble the Fatbikes. There is a small counter for the few customers (“most of them order online”) who come by. A row of V8 and V20 models is just around the corner. “Now I buy a whole container.” According to him, around 450 Fatbikes go out the door per month.
And yes, the question is still increasing, says Hugo. And the number of providers too. “And that presses the price.” Most sellers ask around 1,000 euros for a V8 or V20, so do he. But some traders, such as those on the Haagse Markt or the Bazaar in Beverwijk, offer the bikes for 650 euros. “They ruin the market. Everyone has to go down with the price and the margin is getting smaller and smaller.”
Few thousand euros
Other providers see that too. Take Tom van Dieren (27), owner of Fatbikeskopen.nl, who also got into the Fatbike industry a year and a half ago and now has a site and has ten showrooms. Because of the stunt prices of the V20 and V8, he focuses on another Fatbikes segment. More expensive variants, of more quality, says Van Dieren, from brands such as Knaap, Tough, Tomos and Ruff Cycles. They are fatbikes of sometimes a few thousand euros. His company also earns maintenance and service. “We can be reached day and night via WhatsApp and work together with 350 bicycle makers where customers can have their fatbike maintained.” He does not want to lose how many Fatbikes he sells. “But we have a great turnover.”
The low margins on the V8 and V20 have led Samir Bahida (32) to Sache Bikes to not only sell Fatbikes, but also parts. He also started in a basement box with five Fatbikes, now he runs two companies with a partner. From a small building in Zoetermeer they sell and repair Fatbikes. From a storage shed of 800 m2 in Zoeterwoude, they sell parts such as brake discs, tires, displays, chains and headlights. Bahida says it delivers to nearly four hundred shopkeepers and traders in the Netherlands and he has 48 customers abroad.
It is a gap in the market, says Bahida. “There are so many Fatbikes, but nobody has the right parts for the different models.” Last year around this time he sold 4,500 parts each month, now almost 15,000. In the meantime he also has parts made for Fatbikes. Such as the steering display that connects with your phone via Bluetooth, so that you can view and operate the screen of your smartphone while cycling.
What about the quality of the Fatbikes? That is quite fine, Bahida believes. “But young people kick off the bikes, they stunt and slip with it, the tires then quickly wear out or the brakes break. Or they sit on it to chill and then the side stand breaks down.”
Lungtail
The Fatbikemarkt also grows in width. There are fatbikes for young people, for children, for travelers (the folding fatbike) and parents (the family matbike with child seats). And, the prediction of the traders is: the ‘longtail’ is going to grow up. That bike has an extra long rear frame, handy for two child seats or extra luggage. “This will be the replacement for the cargo bike,” says Tom van Dieren from Fatbikeskopen.nl, “much more convenient with children and nice and narrow so that you can store the bike much easier. And ideal for meal deliverers and couriers.”
Whether the Fatbike remains so popular will partly depend on measures that politics takes to increase safety. The most important point of care is the speed, and that is why the RAI association argues for a quality mark for Fatbikes that are equipped with a non-composable controller-a box with software that controls the engine, battery, sensor and display.
The Fatbikes who entered the Netherlands two years ago were easy to increase and some bicycles had a engine power of 500 watts (then a bike can fifty kilometers per hour) instead of 250, the fatbike buyers confirm that NRC spoke. At the beginning of this year, the Public Prosecution Service took an episode of the program ANGRY from Tim Hofmanapproximately 1,100 fatbikes of mouse seized because of the speed. A criminal investigation followed. “The OM had put the bikes out of the box on the roller bench,” says Muis. “But we still had to limit the bikes, we have been doing that from day one. But other sellers are not, on the Bazaar in Beverwijk the bike comes out of the box.” The OM announced in May that the case was dismissed.
But the limited Fatbikes also proved to be immensable. First that was possible with a code, later with some threads and software. It also happened on a large scale, the entrepreneurs say. “Dangerous,” says Muis, “we saw that too.” So he has now adjusted the software in such a way that the Fatbikes really can’t be harder than 25, he says. “And I started a conversation with the Chinese suppliers, who now also deliver the bikes with the new software.” Look, says Muis, garage box holders may not be interested that children make accidents, “but me. I also have a company that I would like to keep for another twenty years.”
So the Fatbikes really can’t be increased anymore? “Yes, well, you could replace the controller,” says Muis. But according to him, that is not a simple job. Samir Bahida from Sache Bikes agrees. “Young people try. Then they order a new controller and display via Temu, then they have to release all threads under the saddle and attach everything with the right equipment and ensure that things do not burn.” That always goes wrong, he says. “And then they call me in panic. In the hope that I will have the right parts at home.”
To ensure that the controller is not replaced, Muis has sealed the plug connection to the controller. “If a customer starts cheating, we can see that and the warranty will expire.” Anyway, people will always try to feed Fatbikes, says Muis. His solution? “Bet on enforcement, and if that thing goes too fast, the Fatbike immediately throw through the shredder. Then people think three times before they perform it.”