maandag 21 december 2015

Randonneur christmas teaser

As mentioned earlier this month I have decided that December isn't a very good month for exercising so I will not mention my kilometers from last week.
But December is also the month where the little elves are busy in the Vrijwiel workshop. And busy they should be, even though the Winterfietselfstedentocht is next year, it only takes 8 weeks until the race and I decided that it would be nice to once compete in a race with a tried and tested bike.
Since the holidays are about to begin I won't have all the 8 weeks to finish. And besides the frame there is so much more to do. Components have to be ordered, the bike needs some mad powder coating, it needs to be build up, tested, changed, tested again and then I would even like to train a bit with my new bike. So much to do so little time left.

If you want to support me on my quest you can participate in the Action "Help Vrijwiel through the winter!" where you can get enormous bargains on new Vrijwiel bikes. Please feel free to support. This way you can say that you where supporting Vrijwiel from the start, at least from the start of the year 2016 that is.

And for those of you who can't wait, for whatever reason, I have a teaser photo of the frame. Mind you, it's just a teaser, so the actual measurements will be a little different, but this way you can get an idea of what the Vrijwiel elves are busy with.

I wish all of you a merry Christmas and a happy new year 2016 with a lot of safe and fun kilometers!


maandag 14 december 2015

second week of december

Last week I was able to cycle 132 km which is more than last week, but less than I was planning to do. And I'm afraid that the coming two weeks won't be very sportive either. I think it's in the month. December just isn't very fitting for intensive outdoor training. You have to meet friends and family in this weeks, you will eat a lot of good food and drink a lot of alcoholic beverages. Some people complain that December is such a busy month where in reality it is very lazy. I even heared somebody singing that it's the most wonderful time of the year. Let's just agree on the fact that December isn't as bad as a lot of people claim it to be but still isn't the best month to train.
So even though I was lazy in some ways, I was busy enough to prepare a little information stall for the local Christmas market. 
My main goal was to let people know about the brand Vrijwiel as you might see due to a little "sign overload". I got some positive reactions on it so I can book this experience as a good investment for the future. Yes, the bike on the table is the Vrijwiel MBB racing bike which still is a one off, so if you are interested, be quick before somebody else gets it.

Thanks for the informative and nice reactions on my question last week. This week I would like to know how you guys manage to train in December. I am very interested in your answers to this one. And please don't forget the action: "Help Vrijwiel through the winter", you can still get a lot off the price of a new bike. Just spread the word!

maandag 7 december 2015

december training and christmas market

First of all, Vrijwiel will try out how it is to show bicycles on a Christmas market. For this experiment I didn't choose any market but the prestigious Christmas market of Kockengen. If you want to see recumbent bikes on a Christmas market, maybe for the first time ever, come to the Kockengen Christmas market on Friday 11th of december 2015.

So, how about the training? Last week wasn't my best week, in fact I only managed to train once and that was on Sunday. In total that makes up for a "whooping" 92km last week. My only excuse is that I was away for three days and that my bike didn't fit in the car anymore.
But if it is any good to you, I suffered on Sunday. Strong head winds and, living in the so called "green heart" of the Netherlands, 210 minutes of almost absolute boredom. I figured out that "green heart" must be a euphemism for "green hell" or "nothing here what so ever to look at or to stop the wind from blowing". If you have any idea how I can make these long rides between boring fields bearable, please let me know in the contacts. Tomorrow starts a new training week for me so share your wisdom, wish me luck and be thankful if you live in a place where there are things to actually look at in the countryside.


zondag 29 november 2015

Friends of Vrijwiel, training update, racing bike form Afsluitrace

There are some new friends of Vrijwiel. My special thanks go out to Irene van Ditmarsch and Henry van der Leeden of Partyservice Van der Leeden for their support. Thank you guys, with your support I can develop a new bike and be able to participate at the Winterfietselfstedentocht 2016.

Talking about the upcoming event, training last week was a mix between absent and overwhelming. Beginning of the week I felt a bit under the weather so I skipped the Tuesday and Wednesday training. Thursday training was rescheduled to Friday because I had to work the whole day. Saturday was scheduled to run some sprints, but thanks to a whole day of appointments I wasn't able to do it. Which leaves me at today's training. I had to cycle 180 minutes in a more a less relaxed tempo. cycling in a relaxed tempo is a bit of a difficult thing for me to do, so training it couldn't do any harm. I went out and it was storming here in the Netherlands. After the bad start of this training week I didn't want "not to go outside and train" become a habit so I pulled myself together and faced the storm. Good practice for February anyway. I got pushed around by the wind in almost every direction possible and had some close encounters with ditches (not too close luckily). It says something about the strength of the wind when you really have to put your back into it to make 16 km/h with the wind in your face and cruse above 40 km/h with almost no effort with it blowing in your back. Due to the abundance of darkness this time of year I spend two thirds of my training in the dark which gave it an extra elfstedentocht feeling.

Maybe you remember the nice racing bike I built for the Afsluitrace a few weeks ago. I got it back from the powder coating and it sports a very cool sparkly white color now. It looks very cool and lives in the workshop now. If you are interested in a one-of-a-kind front wheel driven, moving bottom bracket racing bike you can contact me to have a look whether it is something for you. It's not in the way so don't expect me to give it away to you. if nobody is interested I might try it out at a recumbent race somewhere next year to see if the nice white paintjob gives it extra speediness.





That's it for this week, I will post some better pictures of the racing bike somewhere in the coming week, so have a look at the blog once in a while if you are interested.

dinsdag 17 november 2015

Vrijwiel Randonneur - Winterfietselfstedentocht - Help Vrijwiel de winter door!

Scroll down for an English version

Gisteren heb ik geschreven over de ontwikkelingen rond de Vrijwiel Randonneur. Hieronder vind je de beloofde extra informatie

De kenmerken van de Vrijwiel Randonneur zijn:
  • 28 inch wielen voor en achter
  • 3 x 9 versnellingen
  • sport naafdynamo voor minder weerstand
  • Busch & Müller LED verlichting
  • superlichte en stevige Tubus bagagedrager
  • kwaliteitszitje van Alligt
Geschatte verkoopprijs € 3750,00 incl BTW.
 
Om fit te worden voor de Winter Fiets Elfstedentocht moet ik elke week ca 200 km fietsen. Ook moet ik nog een hele nieuwe fiets bouwen. Hiernaast moet ik ook nog het bedrijf op gang houden en fietsen bouwen en repareren.
Om dit allemaal te kunnen halen heb ik jouw hulp nodig. "Help Vrijwiel de winter door" is een crowdfundingcampagne waarmee je Vrijwiel kunt steunen. Maar er is meer. Net als bij andere crowdfundingcampagnes is er een staffeling in het bedrag, hoe meer je geeft, hoe meer je ervoor terug krijgt. Maar buitenom de leuke extra's die je kunt krijgen geef ik je het sponsorbedrag weer terug, in de vorm van korting bij aankoop van een nieuwe fiets. En niet één op één, dat zou een beetje krenterig zijn, nee, je krijgt je sponsorbedrag twéé op één als korting.
Stel, je steunt Vrijwiel met € 50,00, dan krijg je bij aankoop van een nieuwe fiets € 100,00 korting. Geef je € 250,00, dan mag je je nieuwe fiets met een korting van € 500,00 meenemen, enz.
Je krijgt dus én de gadget die bij jouw sponsoring hoort én het bedrag als dubbele korting bij aankoop van een nieuwe Vrijwiel fiets. Deze actie gaat tot een maximumbedrag van € 1000,00 korting bij aankoop van een nieuwe Vrijwiel MBB.

Deze mooie dingen wachten op je bij een donatie:

  1. vanaf € 5,00 - Je krijgt je bedrag dubbel als korting bij aankoop van een nieuwe Vrijwiel fiets, mijn eeuwige dank en een vermelding op de website, jij bent een van de steunende handen aan Vrijwiels zitje.
  2. vanaf € 10,00 - Wat je voor € 5,00 krijgt, plus een handgeschreven kaartje dat ik tijdens één van mijn trainingen in de brievenbus zal gooien
  3. vanaf € 20,00 - Wat je voor € 10,00 krijgt, plus een handgemaakte originele Vrijwiel sleutelhanger.
  4. vanaf € 50,00 - Alles wat je voor € 20,00 krijgt, plus een servicebeurt voor je fiets: nakijken, afstellen, smeren en rijklaar maken excl. eventuele onderdelen. 
  5. vanaf € 100,00 - Alles wat je ook voor € 50,00 krijgt, plus een origineel Vrijwiel T-shirt; zo kun je ook aan anderen laten zien dat je Vrijwiel steunt.
  6. vanaf € 200,00 - Alles wat je voor € 100,00 krijgt, plus een middag ligfietsen inclusief lunch. Dan kun je alvast uitproberen hoe fijn het is om op een Vrijwiel te rijden. Want als je € 200,00 sponsort, krijg je straks € 400,00 korting bij aankoop van een nieuwe Vrijwiel fiets! Deze actie is geldig tot een sponsorbedrag van € 500,00, dus een korting van maar liefst € 1000,00 op een nieuwe Vrijwiel MBB.
  7. Je zat toch al een beetje te popelen om een nieuwe Vrijwiel MBB aan te schaffen? Dan is dit je kans. Jij geeft € 1600,00 en krijgt ervoor alles wat je ook voor € 200,00 krijgt. Maar inmiddels is je korting zo hoog opgelopen, dat je gewoon een Vrijwiel MBB mee naar huis mag nemen. En dan niet zomaar een standaard MBB maar het speciale model "Fryslân" met 26" wielen en extra's als naafdynamo, Busch & Müller LED verlichting, bagagedrager voor achter- en voortassen. Uiteraard wordt deze op jouw maat handgemaakt. Goedkoper krijg je ze niet. Deze optie is beperkt tot 2 fietsen, dus wees er snel bij!

Er is nog een extra optie om meer bekendheid aan je bedrijf of een goed doel naar jouw keuze te geven: Sponsor Vrijwiel tijdens de Winterfietselfstedentocht. Voor € 500,00 krijgt je logo een plek op mijn jas, de nieuwe fiets, de website, de blog, facebook en Twitter. Waar krijg je goedkopere reclame?
Omdat de ruimte op mijn borst en mouwen beperkt is is deze optie beperkt tot 4 plaatsen. Koop er één of koop ze allemaal!

Ik zal elke week een update geven over mijn training en de vordering van de Vrijwiel Randonneur. Je kunt me ook volgen op facebook "Vrijwiel" en op Twitter "@Vrijwiel".

Hoe werkt het?
Je stuurt me een e-mail met je naam en adresgegevens en met het bedrag dat je wilt sponsoren. Mijn hart gaat sneller kloppen van al de fijne mensen die mij willen steunen, daarom stuur ik je een e-mail terug met mijn dank en mijn rekeningnummer. Nadat je donatie is binnengekomen ga ik aan de slag met mijn beloftes tegenover jou. Deze campagne is gebaseerd op vertrouwen: geen bedrijven die ertussen zitten om hun percentage van de winst af te romen, alles komt direct terecht bij Vrijwiel. Vertrouw je het niet? Bel me dan even of kom even langs. Ik zal mijn best doen om alles z.s.m. te beantwoorden.
Korting is persoonlijk en niet overdraagbaar.


English version: 
 
Yesterday I wrote to you about the development of the Vrijwiel Randonneur. Below you will find the promised information.

The Vrijwiel Randonneur will have the following features:

  • 28 inch wheels front and back
  • 3 x 9 speed
  • sport hub dynamo for less friction
  • Busch & Müller LED lights front and back
  • super lightweight and durable Tubus rack
  • quality seat made by Alligt

Estimated sales price € 3750,00 incl VAT

To come in shape for the Winter Fiets Elfstedentocht I have to cycle about 200km per week. Besides that I will have to develop and build the new Vrijwiel Randonneur. And if that isn't enough already I have to keep the business running by building and repairing bicycles.
To manage all of the above mentioned, I am calling in your help. “Help Vrijwiel through the winter” is a crowd-funding campaign with which you can help Vrijwiel achieve the desired goals, but there is more. As you probably know from other crowd-funding campaigns, there are different amounts of funding for which you will get different goodies. The more you give, the more you will get. But besides this already known system I've decided to pay you back double the amount you give in bicycle. Imagine you finance Vrijwiel with € 50,00; that means that you will get all the goodies you get for € 50,00 but you will also get € 100,00 off the retail price when you buy a new Vrijwiel bicycle. If you finance us with € 250,00 you will get € 500,00 off you new Vrijwiel bike and so on. This way you can get up to € 1000,00 off the retail price when buying a new Vrijwiel bicycle.
But don't worry, if you where thinking of buying one anyway, there is even more on the list. These goodies are waiting for you:

  1. from € 5,00 – You get € 10,00 off the retailprice when buying a new Vrijwiel, my eternal thanks and you will be mentioned on my website. You are the back bone of Vrijwiel and I appreciate it.
  2. From € 10,00 – Everything you get for € 5,00 plus a handwritten postcard with my thanks. Brought to the postbox by myself on one of my training rides.
  3. From € 20,00 – Everything you get for € 10,00 plus an original handmade Vrijwiel bicycle key chain.
  4. From € 50,00 – Everything you will get for € 20,00 plus a service check up of your bicycle. This will have to take place at the Vrijwiel workshop in Utrecht and is excluding any materials.
  5. From € 100,00 – Everything you will get for € 50,00 plus an original Vrijwiel T-shirt. This way you can show others that you are supporting Vrijwiel.
  6. From € 200,00 tot € 500,00 – Everything you will get for € 100,00 plus an afternoon of recumbent cycling at the Vrijwiel workshop in Utrecht including lunch. That way you can already experience how nice it is to ride on a Vrijwiel. Don't forget, if you donate € 200,00 you will get € 400,00 off the retail price when buying your new dream Vrijwiel Bike. Just imagine how little you would have to pay if you would donate € 500,00...
  7. You have already made up your mind and decided that your future bike shall be a Vrijwiel? Then it is now or never because this option is limited to only 2 bikes! Pay € 1600,00 and get a whole bike of the special edition Vrijwiel MBB “Fryslân” with 26”wheels, hub dynamo, Busch & Müller LED lights front and back, racks for front and rear bags. Of course this bike will be handmade to your measurements. This offer is almost ridiculous, so what are you waiting for?
There is another option to promote your business or a good cause of your own choice: You can become an official Vrijwiel Sponsor. For € 500,00 your logo will get a prominent place on my jacket, the all new Vrijwiel “Randonneur”, my website, my blog and I will Twitter about you. Where else can you get such a good marketing deal? Show the world that your company cares for the sport. Because of the limited space on my not so small chest and arms, this offer is limited to only 4 spots. You can also buy more than one, just ask for the possibilities.

I will feed my blog with a weekly update about my training and the progress of the Vrijwiel “Randonneur”. You can also follow me on facebook “Vrijwiel” and on Twitter “@Vrijwiel”.

How does it work?
You send me an email with your name and address and the amount you want to donate. My heart will probably start pounding because of the attention of nice people and their appreciation of my cause. That is why I will send you back an email with my special thanks to you and an account number where you can donate. As soon as your donation has arrived on my account, I will start doing my part of the business. This campaign is based on trust: No company or websites in between that will take off their percentage of the money. Everything you donate will arrive at Vrijwiel and will help Vrijwiel through the winter. Do you have any questions? Don't hesitate to send me an e-mail or hop by at the workshop. I shall do my best to answer every e-mail as soon as possible.
Price reduction can not be transferred to other people.

maandag 16 november 2015

It giet oan!

Yesterday I've received a secret email with a personal code with which I was able to sign in for the best winter event on bicycles in 2016. It is now official that I, Olaf, will participate with Vrijwiel at the Winter Fiets Elfstedentocht 2016.

Of course one could choose any model of Vrijwiel and would be successful, but for "De tocht der tochten" a 28"/28" randonneur version of the already tried and tested Vrijwiel MBB is under construction.
If you want to know more about the Vrijwiel Randonneur keep an eye on this blog .

Let's just hope that the asphalt will be thick enough by then...

dinsdag 27 oktober 2015

Afsluitrace 2015 retrospective

Last Sunday the Afsluitrace took place again for the fifth time. I participated for the second time. It was a blast. Spending a day with a lot of good humored, bicycle loving people drinking beer and eating soup and, by the way, cycling, sounds like a good Sunday. Did I mention the weather? It was beautiful.
 
"But what about the cycling" you might want to ask? Well, I didn't win and I can't say that I didn't try. But nevertheless I am very happy about the new bike in general. It all started when we went up to the starting position. Due to a bad road and a lot of stop and go in combination with tight corners I had to get off the bike and push it to the start, this way I found myself quite in the back of the field before the race even started.
Luckily I rode a fast bike and I was able to overtake most of the riders in the beginning of the race. I was looking forward to rock the field together with Mick who also participated with his MBB bike. Unfortunately Mick had problems with his gears so that he couldn't keep up in the beginning. So I cycled on, trying to make the jump to the head group. I had passed the second group and prepared myself to soldier on. When I switched over to the 52 blade in front, my chain fell off. Odd, because I had adjusted everything before leaving the workshop. There are only two possible explanations here, either I just think that I did it right and instead I did a bad job or something got bumped on the way in the truck to Den Oever. One way or another, the chain went flying, but luckily got caught by my foot so that I could manage to switch it back on the small blade without having to stop. Due to the disturbance on the front dérailleur, something went wrong in the rear and for a brief moment I was afraid that I had to stop. With some pressing of
the buttons I was able to get the chain free. By the time I was able to speed up I was caught up by the second group. I settled in and rolled with the group. I think that not everybody was happy with a recumbent bike in the group because it didn't create enough disturbance to hide in the wind shadow, or so they thought. However, I had a blast in the group we managed to hold a decent pace and reach the checkpoint at the end of the dike in good time. At the checkpoint it was all about speed again. We left the checkpoint with a group of four people. After a few kilometers on the way back, the pace took its toll and the speed started to decrease. My plan was to stick with the group until about 5 kilometers before the end and try to make a run from there. In the middle of the dike, after a total of 48 km we had to cycle up a little slope. At that moment I was leading the group already for a little while and my plan was to fall back and relax for a minute after we had taken the slope. With that in mind I put a lot of energy into the "climb" not to slow down too much. By the time we where up I looked into the mirror, waiting for my group to overtake me but instead of rushing past me they became smaller and smaller in my mirror. I was already on the down slope again and above the 40 km/h so I didn't feel like breaking at all. I made a split second decision and went for it. Not that I wanted to get rid of my group so eagerly, I just didn't want to slow down. This way my big escape started a bit involuntary and prematurely about 16 km before the finish. My goal was to get as close as possible to the head group. Sometimes I thought that I could see them far in front of me. But I just wasn't able to close the gap.
The next time I saw the head group, was in the finish. I was able to hold up my speed for the most of the remaining 16 km, but in the end I was a bit empty.

I am looking back to a good race with ups and downs and beautiful weather conditions. Apart from the one glitch, the Vrijwiel racing bike held up very well and I was able to produce some nice speeds. My time of 1h 45min is 10 minutes better then two years ago. Nothing wrong with that. Thanks again to the organization and to all the nice people who sponsored me with their donation to Live Build. Thanks to you guys a lot of people can enjoy fresh water in Cameroon.
If you are interested in a test ride with this speedy prototype, don't be shy, just send me an email or call me.

donderdag 22 oktober 2015

Afsluitrace 2015, good cause, donate money!

Rather spontaneously I've decided to participate in the afsluitrace 2015. I want to try out a new type of racing set up for the Vrijwiel MBB. Because of the quick decision I made, the bike will look rather naked without any paintjob. I will post a picture later today.
However, behind the afsluitrace hides a good cause for a water project in Lobange. You can read all about it under this link. To help this cause (or to help me race the afsluitdijk, however you want to put it) you can donate money under my name on this link.

I will keep you updated on this subject. The race will take place on sunday 25th of october on the Afsluitdijk. I will post some pictures later.


woensdag 7 oktober 2015

New owner for Vrijwiel Solo

The Vrijwiel Solo has found a new owner. From now on it's making its kilometers in Germany. I wish a the new owner a lot of fun with this racy little velomobile. According to the new owner it will be used for Audax. So hopefully we will see each other again. If you see the Solo riding around, take a picture send it to me!


woensdag 30 september 2015

For Sale: Vrijwiel Solo prototype

To make some room in the workshop, the protoype of the Vrijwiel Solo has to go.

In 2013 this velomobile won the Afsluitrace!
  • steel frame construction with aluminum sub-frame and PP outer skin
  • 20" wheels all around
  • Schwalbe Big Apple all around
  • SRAM Dual Drive 3 x 24 
  • Sturmey Archer 70mm drum brakes
  • side lever steering "tank steering"
  • reflective stickers in front and back
  • two Busch & Müller rear view mirrors
  • Big luggage compartment accessible via the rear hood
  • needs some oil and a bit of love
  • Price: € 980,- 
  • Notice! Price is without seat. The old seat was used in a different project. I can put in a new seat including the hooks for € 100,-.
Please let me know if you have any questions.







dinsdag 22 september 2015

...and another Vrijwiel on the road

It's been a little bit silent again the last few month. I was busy developing the Vrijwiel MBB. By the way I also made one for a customer. On the pictures you can see the actual model of the Vrijwiel MBB. These TIG-welded and powder-coated beauties are made to your measurements and are starting from € 2100,00 for a single. I grant discounts for bigger orders.

If you are interested send me an email or give me a call. I'm looking forward to talk to you.






dinsdag 30 juni 2015

Vrijwiel exhibition at "Ruimte voor Kunst"

Until now the Vrijwiel exhibition is a great success. Thanks to all the nice people who attended the opening I wasn't able to take a single picture. So you either just have to believe me that it was worth seeing or you have to have a look at it yourself. You have 6 days left to choose from!

"Ruimte voor Kunst" is open on the following dates:


Thursday 2nd and 9th of July 14:00 to 18:00
Friday 3rd and 10th of July 11:00 to 18:00
Saturday 4th and 11th of July 11:00 to 17:00

If you want to meet me there just let me know and I'll see what I can do.
For the interested collectors is still some of my original artwork available.  

Hope to see you there!



maandag 22 juni 2015

Vrijwiel on Television

On Saturday, 20th of June, RTV Utrecht aired an item about bicycle designer and builder, Olaf Glasmacher. Have a look under this link.


And don't forget to stop by "Ruimte voor Kunst" in De Bilt to have a look at the Vrijwiel exhibition.
The exhibition is open on Thursdays from 14:00 to 18:00, on Fridays from 11:00 tp 18:00 and on Saturdays from 11:00 to 17:00.  It still runs until 11th of Juli. So plenty of time to come and have a look. For more information check out the website from Ruimte voor Kunst


dinsdag 16 juni 2015

exhibition

This is the flyer for the exhibition. Hope to see you there!




woensdag 10 juni 2015

9 times sleeping until the exhibition

Only 9 more days until the exhibition! I hope you are as excited as I am. However, here is another picture of what is waiting for you there.




vrijdag 5 juni 2015

Only 14 days to go...

We only have to go to bed 14 times until the start of the exhibition. That is a good thing, so I've decided to give you all a little teaser about what's going to be there at the exhibition.
Enjoy the pictures and let me know if you think that you know what that could be...

Ruimte voor kunst

dinsdag 2 juni 2015

Meanwhile at the Vrijwiel sweatshop...

My mom is helping me with the preperations of protoypes for the exhibition. What would a grown up man do without his mom? Thanks a lot! :)


zondag 31 mei 2015

Vrijwiel Art Exhibiton

I am happy to announce the first Vrijwil art exhibition. If you want to get a glimpse of what's going on in the head of bicycle developer, filmmaker and professional dreamer Olaf Glasmacher come to Ruimte voor Kunst in Dorpsstraat 42, De Bilt. The official opening will be on Saturday 20th of June 2015. For more information have a look at their homepage www.ruimtevoorkunst.com .

The coming weeks this blog will give you a few ideas about what's going to happen in the exhibition, so stay tuned.

Hope to see you there!

dinsdag 19 mei 2015

back from vacation and right in the news!

Dear Vrijwiel followers,

thanks for stopping by to read about the nicest bikes of Utrecht. I have been away for a while.  Vacation was the purpose of my absence. I was in Japan, where I met old and new friends and had a look at how the Japanese experience cycling. However shortly after coming back I was interviewed for "100 Portretten van Utrechters". So now you can enjoy a picture of me looking rather serious in the workshop. Mind you, usually I look a bit happier.




The workshop is open again and I'm working hard on an exhibition. More about that will be posted soon.


vrijdag 27 maart 2015

weekend trip to Chaam

It's almost two weeks ago again when four Vrijwiel MBB's were cycling through the Netherlands to the actually quite boring village of Chaam. But the journey was our goal, at least as much as the trekkershut (small, basic cabin for four people) on a campsite in Chaam.

The way there was good, we met at a spot in the south of Utrecht to cycle together on a 86 km route which I plotted out earlier.

If you have built your own bike whether from scratch or from a kit or you just made some cool modifications yourself, then you know how proud one can be riding on your own creation, even more if it doesn't break down constantly. But now I wasn't riding alone on my self built bike, but with me were three beautiful Ladies on bikes built by my own hands. I guess that you

can only imagine how proud I was.

The hero of the day wasn't me though, but one of my sisters in law who had just tried out the bike the day before we left and who took the bike home through traffic in the evening to join us the next morning on the rendezvous spot with luggage on her bike. Plus she was the first to arrive there.

We cycled south and followed the route that my new Teasi Pro was giving us. I had to get used to the speed of Teasi. Sometimes it was just a bit slower than I would have expected it and we had to turn around to get back on the route. Fortunatly it didn't happen too often and I got used to it after a while. A big advantage of cycling by GPS is that the annoying "let's-have-a-look-at-the-map"-breaks are becoming fewer and fewer. That helps you to keep going and also keeps the morale in the group up.


Enjoying the cold wind mostly in our backs we made good time until our first stop, the Hema in Leerdam where we could warm our self up and had a good breakfast. After breakfast the sun came out more often. Due to the rivers we had to take two ferries which helped us getting teh vacation feeling right and we even cycled along the Drunense Duinen. For those of you who wonder where that is, that's quite close to the Efteling.


We arrived at our campsite around 4 p.m. Where we were greeted by a closed reception. Luckily the well praised brasserie just opposite of the reception was open where the owner was so friendly to call someone from the campsite. We also got the information that the Brasserie would close at 7 p.m. which was a bummer since I was looking forward to have dinner there and to enjoy numerous of their special beers which I saw on their online advertisement. But since the season hadn't started yet and the owner didn't have a menu yet things were as they were.

The hut was very cozy and we enjoyed the heating very much. When we wanted to put on some tea I had to go to the campsite owner first to ask whether we would need an adapter for the gas bottle. It turned out that an adapter was usually installed on the bottle and that this one in particular had been nicked. But the problem got solved right away and we were able to make some tea.






We went to Chaam to get grocerys for breakfast and had diner at the local Chinese restaurant.
After that we went to our cabin, had some more tea, read the day's paper and went to bed for a good night of sleep.




After breakfast we went back on the road. We were heading North now and the wind blew in our faces. For the way back I had planned a very straight route and by planning I mean that I only entered the start- and finish points and let the machines do their work. This ended up in a very direct route with about 3 km of forest paths. After that we faced the cold winds and sometimes boring route along the A27. All trips have a moment when you think something in the way of: "Well, it has been very nice. But as far as I am concerned, I would rather be at home, on the sofa, under a blanket now."
Also thoughts like:"What a boring country" and: "!#*?ing wind!" passed my mind.

As an effect of that I can't tell you much more about the way back then this. Of course, I didn't have pain in my knees, my butt, my wrists or my neck. Actually I didn't have pain at all, so there is no reason to whine about. Just imagine how the trip would have been on a normal bicycle...







 


Besides the bad weather conditions it was a nice day of cycling and it was even nicer to arrive at our destination. Still I am very proud of traveling with four bikes made by my own hands and their riders. And just if you are wondering, I had a great weekend and I would do it again any time.

donderdag 5 maart 2015

portrait Vrijwiel

Vrijwiel got a visit from the talented young film maker Charlie Feld.
In my opinion he made a nice film, now we only have to work on the person in the picture... ;)


vrijdag 20 februari 2015

Vandaag waren er drie enthousiaste workshop deelnemers aan de slag om hun eigen stoel te bouwen. Een fijne dag gevuld met zagen, timmeren, koffie drinken en je met elkaar uitwisselen.
Ik heb erg genoten en kijk al uit naar een volgende workshop. Als je interesse hebt je eigen Italiaanse design stoel te bouwen, neem gerust contact met me op.




dinsdag 17 februari 2015

Vrijwiel in the news

Today there was an article about Vrijwiel in AD Utrechts Nieuwsblad.

Have a look!


maandag 9 februari 2015

production frame

Today I was able to put the new frame on some wheels to have a good look at it. I have to say that I am rather pleased with the outcome. Of course there are still some spots here and there a test frame may have. Otherwise it wouldn't be a test frame. As soon as it goes into production these little spots will be gone. As you can see on the picture the front tube is quite long and and therefore produces a little bit of flex. As soon as I can test ride the frame I can determine whether that is too much or just enough to provide a comfortable ride.
The seat height on this test frame is 42cm so the bike would be suitable for riders with shorter legs as well.
There will be a pre production run of five bikes. These will come at a better price to make the decision a bit easier for you.
If you are interested in one of the five pre-production bikes, please let me know so we can make an appointment for a test ride, without any obligations of course.