fremde Seite Flevobike
flevo bike 바퀴로 가는 세상
2007/04/18 18:39
복사 http://cjm6394.blog.me/70016568357
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center steering방식의 자전거로 핸들이 없거나 거의 필요치않은 전륜구동,전륜조향방식으로 제작방법등이 자세히 소개되어있다.
Introducti
The founder of the Flevobike company was Johan Vrielink (born 7th October 1944).
Johan Vrielink In the 1980's he had started a small windmill factory, but because of the decreasing oil prices at that time, it wasn't very successfull.
Apart from this, he was teacher mechanical technics in a school in Lelystad. One time, one of his pupils (who was an amateur cycle-racer) showed him a picture of a Vector recumbent trike. This was an inspiration for Johan to build some recumbent bikes. One of these was a Windcheetah copy, which he used on his commuting trips from Dronten to Lelystad. In 1984, the whole Vrielink family had such a bike.
It was at that time that the dutch HPV movement (NVHPV) was founded, and Johan joined the club.
ChaCha-bike
This way he met Wim van Wijnen, an ophthalmic surgeon who had many new ideas, and who had built the ChaCha bike (short for: Charming Chair Bike):
the Flevoland flag
This bike was pretty remarkable, with it's center steering and front wheel traction. In 1986, Johan designed his own version of this bike. He used smaller wheels in order to make suspension possible. The front frame had to be altered. The new frame went over the front wheel. He also made the bike separable.
These bikes had a green frame, a yellow seat and a blue cushion on it. (These colors were the colors of the flag of the dutch province Flevoland.)
School project
At the school where Johan was a teacher, he was very known because of that strange bike of him. Many people laughed at it, but some others were fascinated. Johan arranged a technical meeting of the dutch HPV club (NVHPV) at the school, and it was a great success. It was so successfull that he decided to start a bike building project on the school, for students who wanted to build their own one. This way, 25 students built their own FlevoBike as their piece of work.The bike on next picture must have been one of them:
Vintage Flevobike
After each one had finished his own bike, they made a 5 day biking trip through the country, and they caught much publicity.
School trip Newspaper article about the Flevobike trip
Start of serial production
Some more improvements were made (f.i. the motorbike springs were replaced by rubber blocks). In spring 1988 the serial production started, and in april 1989 the Flevobike company officially started.
FlevoBike The demand for Flevo's grew so much that soon all three sons of Johan: André, Erwin and Arjan joined the company. In 1992, Flevobike company had grown so much that Johan stopped his other job as a teacher.
The company that had started in the cellar of the Vrielinks' home, expanded gradually. Three times, an each time bigger building was added to the Flevobike factory.
In 1998, The company has grown to 13 employees.
In the meantime, the bike has been improved technically in small steps. F.i. sometimes the steering axle broke. It was replaced by a somewhat thicker one. For many years, the bike could be purchased in all colors, as long as it was white or black.
Other Flevo's
vintage FlevoTrike Shortly after the starting of the Flevobike company (autumn 1989), the Bike got a brother: The Trike. It had a small luggage box and a patented tilting mechanism: Duschar®. This made it possible to tilt in corners, and to keep upright on a tilted surface. duschar principle
FlevoTrike with large luggage boot Some years later, the luggage boot had proven to be much too small. It was replaced by a bigger one:
The rear frame stayed the same: The box was creased over the 'T'-shaped frame parts.
FlevoRacer In 1991, the FlevoRacer followed. It had two 26" or 28" wheels, no front spring and a more recumbent seat.
The racer has a somewhat smaller frontal area, and is slightly faster than the bike.
From this time, Flevobike company regarded the bike, trike and racer more or less finished.
Many other hpv's were designed: Easy Rider, Forens, Amigo, Greenmachine, Rapido, Basic, Fifty-fifty, Alleweder, C-alleweder (Carbon Alleweder).
But there were some improvements and variations. Most of them were made by technical students, cooperating with the Flevobike company.
Flevobike variations
design aluminium bike In 1990, an extremely lightweight show model was produced, and won a first prize in an aluminium construction contest. It was unsprung, and the seat was too narrow to be comfortable. But it looked amazingly beautiful!