Archive for June, 2009
Do you write about recumbents? Please help us…
If you write about recumbents, if you have your own blog or so, please help us with good thing. Please read following article about Flevo Racer for sale and post a note about it on your blog. We would really like to help this family sell such a nice bike.
Thanks very much.
No comments24 hours race in the Czech Republic
Last weekend there was a 24 hours race in Ujezd in Czech Republic called K24. About 20 recumbents were participating incl. some pretty interesting ones. You could see there a Duo Quest driven by Ymte Sijbrandij and Allert Jacobs from Velomobiel.nl as same as Natrix2 and its owner Evina Navratilova. Among others there was also a homebuilt streamliner called Vaniczka 1st from Honza Friedl (Nink) and some other bikes which he has built and at the moment they have different owners. You could see also pretty much AZUB recumbents inlc. AZUB Eco and two prototypes of their HighRacer project which is quite quiet at the moment.
Finally the winner among women was Evina Navratilova with almost 454,4 km and Ymte with Allert were recumbent winners with 624,8 km. The absolute winner did 681,6 km what is perfect result under such difficult conditions.
Duo Quest velomobile and streamliner Vaniczka 1st - more about Vaniczka in next post
Duo Quest with Ymte and Allert inside
Carbon fully suspended lowracer made by Nink
And its owner Petr
Another bike by Nink - steel semi low racer
And light built by current owner Jirka
It was raining almost all the time so during the night many racers slept and their bikes were parked outside. You can see many recumbents here.
Also beautiful red eHub was assembled on one AZUB recumbent for testing.
Some of the AZUB guys used slightly modified AZUB Eco with Schwalbe Kojak tyres.
Last recumbent built by Nink - lowracer with simple tailbox
A trailer which is used by Velomobiel.nl for transport of their Quests and even Duo Quest.
Probably the bravest guy at the race. Pavel had only common clothes even in the heaviest rain and he did almost 450 km with his AZUB Max. Expect the Duo Quest the fastest man on recumbent.
And his home made light...
After 18 hours many racers already finished due to steady rain.
Where you can continue:
- Duo Quest velomobile
- Velomobile for two – Finally!
- Dutch recumbent races between 1983 and 1987
- Worried about knee strain? Want to climb faster? e-Hub is answer
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Duo Quest velomobile
The duo quest from Velomobiel.nl was one of the most interesting machines on SPEZI. We come with couple more pictures of this unique velomobile.
To answer some possible questions: The huge hole behind the cockpit is an entrance to trunk and the velomobile is steered by single bar in the middle of the cockpit.
Under the gallery you can find also two videos with Duo Quest. The first one shows even some kind of air brake system like on shuttles. The other one shows that this version of Quest is able to transport even more than two persons.
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Flevo Racer Clone – Testament to human persistence
Flevo Racer from Ludek
The history of this particular Flevo Racer bike begun back in 2003 when certain Luděk from Kyjov (CZ) became interested in recumbent bicycles. Being an ordinary man from Czech Republic he found his way to Azub bikes first. He tried them and liked them but a flevo-like concept was what he saw as the right choice for himself. He liked the short chain, low bottom bracket, big wheels and simple pogo-free rear suspension. He was confident to overcome any difficulties that might arise from the fact that he had never built a bike before or that flevos were known to be difficult to learn to ride.
The construction went quite quickly. Steel was chosen as the right material for durability and long life. The project required about 60 parts to be made from scratch. The bike reached rideable state in just few months. Luděk started learning how to ride on 1st December 2003. It took days of trying on empty back roads just to learn how to start and stop without falling after 5 metres. But he never gave up and soon he was confident enough to ride even on public roads. Everything looked promising and the next spring should have been filled with new riding experiences. But a life threatening disease came and put a stop to it. Luděk did not give up though. He was back on his Flevo Racer one and half year later after a long but successful fight with his own body. In summer 2005 he finished his bike including a blue paint and started riding again. This time the learning was a lot quicker. He found a way to buy and import the silentblock used to dampen steering in original flevos to try if it works better. He started making plans for building a Cruzbike to try that too. But the disease was not done with him yet. In 2007 it struck him down again and harder than before. And this time he never sat on his bike again. In the early 2008 he lost his last struggle.
LudÄ›k’s spirit of always trying again lives on in the memory of his widow, his children and us – his friends. Those of us who had the privilidge of knowing him personally will never forget him. And his bike? That is catching dust in a garage. There are not many flevos out there and even among those this one is still quite unique. Although it follows the standard Flevo Racer layout it was built with precision and attention to detail no professional bike builder would be ashamed of. And furthermore it has a unique history that makes it a testament to human persistence. Finding it a buyer who would proudly call it his own and use it for what it was built for would be the best possible ending to this story.
After judging the quality by some Flevo enthusiasts the price was set to be 990 Euro. The truth is that LudÄ›k’s wife and children could certainly use that money. In case you are interested or you know someone who is you can contact Jiri Hebeda who is coordinating the effort to find a new home for this bike. His email address is hebi@email.cz.
If you are reading this and you happen to be a blogger, please help us by posting a link to this article on your site. The number of potential buyers for a machine this special is limited and we can use all the help we can get finding them.
- Flevo Racer from Ludek
