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!

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.

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.

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... ;)

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.

Vrijwiel in the news

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

Have a look!

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.