16 May 2000

A pretty obvious first thing to do if you want to start research into the origins of old Flevo Bikes is to send an e-mail to Flevobike@wxs.nl. In response to my questions:
1. was the monolever suspension of the rear wheel ever standard on a Bike, and if so, in which period?
2. were the telescopic front and rear suspension units ever standard on a Bike, and if so, in which period?
came the reply: '12 years ago a (few? FB) bikes were made with mono suspension and moped springs. regards Johan'. Pretty good for a start! Johan is of course the founder of the Flevo Bike works, Johan Vrielink.

3-4 June 2000

Early in June, 2000, I visited the recumbent cycling event 'Cycle Vision' in Lelystad, The Netherlands. The Flevo Bike with its moped suspension attracted quite some attention from Flevo-enthusiasts. In the Flevo Bike promotion stand I met Harm Tempelman, who has manufactured seats for Flevo Bike since the very beginning. He declared that around the year 1987, a series of yellow seats was made for the very early Bikes. The total could not have been more than a few dozens. On later models, the standard colour was white. After having admired the bike, his son, Tempelman jr., said that it was possibly a 'school-bike', dating back to the period before the Flevobike factory was founded. According to him, the original colour was white. Later that week-end I briefly met Johan Vrielink, the inventor and founder of Flevo Bike (unfortunately without having the bike with me...). From what I told him, he confirmed that I probably owned a 'school-bike', built by one of his students at the time when he was still teaching at a Technical School. After the final exams, he used to take his pupils on a biking trip through The Netherlands. According to Vrielink, the original colour scheme was: green frame, yellow seat, blue seat cushion (i.e. the official colours of the province of Flevoland).

10 June 2000

A week later, I was in the vicinity of Dronten and had the bike with me, in a luggage trailer behind my car. A rare opportunity to pay a visit to the Flevo Bike shop, of course! Johan Vrielink was present and was keen to see the bike at last. To my surprise, he immediately recognised the bike: as it turned out, it was built by his son, André, as an assignment for school. After the exams, he had indeed participated in the famous biking trip through the country on this particular bike. After that, he has used it for several years, before he sold it. Vrielink remembered that originally, the bike was equipped with a small mono-wheeled trailer. He confirmed that this was indeed one of the earliest bikes. And... the somewhat odd yellow/orange paint job is original...!

4 July 2000

Yes! Another piece of the puzzle... I received the following information from the previous owner of the bike:
'I bought the bike in 1991 from the son of our present neigbors (in Dronten, The Netherlands, FB). The son has moved since, but his parents and his brother remember that he bought the bike in 1988 from a son of Johan Vrielink. Vrielink jr built it together with his father, for his own use. This must have been the same year, or possibly a year earlier. The original colour of the bike was green, but yellow at the time I bought it'.
Consistent with previously obtained information is that the bike was built by a son of Johan Vrielink. Vrielink himself said (on 10 July 2000) that his son has used it for several years before selling it. Thus, counting back from 1988, the bike may have been built as early as 1986... De original green colour agrees with what Vrielink told me earlier (on 4 July 2000), i.e. that these early bikes had green frames, yellow seats and a blue cushion. However, I clearly remember that on July 10, Vrielink told me that this particular bike was never anything but orange/yellow... The search continues...!

24 August 2000

This week , I contacted Andé Vrielink. Obviously, I wanted to verify the information I collected with the Builder personally. Guess what? He confirmed that he had built such a bike and painted it orange/yellow, but ... it wasn't this one! On the basis of specific technical details (his bike had different hubs and cranks) he concluded that this must be a different bike. He considered that the bike was probably built by the Flevobike factory, and supposed that it could have been owned originally by a Swiss friend, who had painted a Bike in the same orange/yellow colours. The friend left The Netherlands some 9 years ago after having lived here for several years. According to André, the bike still looks pretty much original. He wrote further: 'I do not know whether he (the Swiss friend, FB) got the bike in unfinished metal, or if the original blue/white paint could still be preserved under the present colours'.

So, the paint could be the key to the mystery. OK then, let a piece of sand-paper reveal the truth! You know what? From under the yellow/orange spray job first came white (possibly a primer) and then green! A nice bright, fresh looking green, a shade darker than the colour of the seat cushion. Now, some pieces of the puzzle fall into place:
1. this agrees with the information provided by the previous owner, i.e. that the bike had originally been green in 1988 (see 4 july 2000);
2. it is also consistent with André Vrielink's conclusion that he probably did not build this particular Bike; it is clear that his bike was never green;
3. the chances that the bike used to belong to the Swiss friend seem remote, because in that case, under the orange/yellow paint could only be blue/white or bare steel;
4. the green colour is in agreement with Johan Vrielink's description of the very first Bikes (see 3-4 June 2000).

It seems that we have made another small step on our quest towards the origins of this Bike. However, the next questions to be solved are: could the rest of the information supplied by the previous owner be correct as well, and in that case, did one of the other Vrielink sons own a green Bike until 1988? The search continues....

26 September 2000

Even though not a great deal of new information has emerged over the past few weeks, some progress has still been made. For instance: suppose that indeed, the Bike originally had the official green/yellow/blue flevo colours, then you would expect it to have a blue cushion, not green. Moreover, Johan Vrielink mentioned a blue foam cushion; the one on this bike has a slab of gel inside. The green cover looks too well-made to be the work of an amateur, suggesting that it could be original. Regarding the colour of the seat itself: the yellow is painted, and may therefore not be the colour it originally had. A second archaeological colour-test revealed that under the yellow paint a layer of white emerges, while the colour of the polyester itself is orange. Orange?! That's a new aspect!

So, the question is now: who remembers a green bike with an orange seat and a green gel cushion, used in and around Dronten in 1988 or earlier?
 

General considerations

Well, the origin of the Flevo Bike still seems somewhat obscure. Johan Vrielink used to be a teacher at a Technical School, probably the LTS in Lelystad, The Netherlands. The first Bikes were built at this school. Building one used to be an examination assignment. As the concept caught on, the blue prints were bought by other schools. Dozens, perhaps even hundreds, have probably been built this way. I can imagine that, at the time, these bikes were considered quite revolutionary. Not the kind of bike that you would typically paint black, white, blue or another somewhat boring colour. Only after the factory was founded, the colours were standardised. Up to the present day, building you own Flevo Bike or Racer has remained an irresistible challenge to students in mechanical engineering and other handy people.

So, what shall I do with the bike? It is rather special, but just exactly how special? Erik Wannee considers it worth a place in his authoritative collection of remarkable Flevo-varieties. But will there ever be a recumbent bike museum in which it can be displayed? Will keen collectors start bidding irresistible sums of money? Just how important is it to keep the Bike completely original? Should I preserve it and keep it someplace safe? Should I restore it in green, or orange/yellow again? Or is red just as good, and can I replace the squeaking moped springs with modern, gas/oil dampened suspension units? It would certainly be in accordance with a long tradition to customize it radically!

If you have an opinion on what to do with the Bike, I'd like to know

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