At the end of March and into the beginning of April of this year, I traveled over to the Netherlands to spend a week and a half with Velomobiel.nl, Dutch manufacturers of the Quest velomobile. As part of the trip I helped to build my own Quest which I then shipped home. The text below is an adaptation of the notes that I took while on the trip.

3-23-05
My wife and daughter and our border collie Tess and I headed down to Portsmouth at 10:00 AM bound for Logan Airport where I am to catch a flight leaving for Amsterdam at 4:00. Along the way we stopped at Kittery Trading Post to pick up gifts for the Dutch folk. We stopped at Broiler and Crumb (?) in Kittery and picked up some turkey sandwiches for Lunch. We waited together at the C and J Trailways Terminal in Portsmouth where I purchased a roundtrip Ticket which was open ended to Logan Airport. As usual, the little one was a hit with several woman at the Trailways Station. I went back out to the car briefly to say bye to Tessie. El seemed to be holding up well as we said goodbye and several times at the station I made fervent wishes to myself that I make it back to see them all again. So I am currently on the C&J bus to Logan. The Bus Left Portsmouth at approx 1:00PM and we just picked up passengers at Newburyport (1:35PM)

3-23-05 5:22PM
On the plane to Newark, the flight I was supposed to be on was delayed a couple of hours so Continental put me on a flight originally scheduled for 2:00, but leaving at 4:00. Dunno if I'll make my flight to Amsterdam…The pilot just came on to say we'd get in at 5:50 PM and my flight is scheduled to leave at 6:10. Maybe it's delayed, too…we'll see

3-24-05 10:45AM Dutch Time = 4:45AM EST
. Well, the flight out of Newark was actually just scheduled for boarding at 6:10 - it was to take off at 7:00. I made it from the terminal to the C Terminal (for Continental) fine on the monorail and then onto the plane. While waiting on line to board I saw a Rasta Guy with a white, blond dreadlocked girlfriend. The Rasta had on a blue do-rag that I thought made him look like Marge Simpson…

It was snowing in Newark and it took until about 10:00 or 10:30 for the plane to finally get de-iced and take off, so the ETA in Amsterdam (7 hour flight) is some time after 11:00.

I slept through breakfast but was able to get a tray and some coffee. When I first sat down in my seat, an older woman started trying to push past me to get to her seat in the middle (I was on the aisle). I asked her if she was sitting there and pointed to the seat, but she didn't say anything and just nodded – no English I guess. I got up an let her in. Once she sat down she started with a nasty hacking cough! Oh Boy – I was thinking – seven hours of this – not only will I get sick, but I also won't sleep!. So I asked the stewardess to move me and she put me in a middle seat a few rows, up. The rest of the flight was largely uneventful, and we are now headed in for a landing in approx 15 minutes at 11:15 .

Later…
Once we landed, I caught a train to Zwolle, then transferred to the bus. After a second bus transfer, I finally arrived at the business park where Velomobiel.nl is located – which I was able to recognize by the signs for Kwintus Nova, the ice skating rink which is also located there. There are two other velomobile builders in the same business park – Ligfietsshop Tempelman has begun assembling the Versatile velomobile for Flevobike, and just next door to Velomobiel.nl is Alligt – manufacturer of the Dutch Alleweder. As soon as I got off the bus I saw Ligfietsshop, so I took a quick peek inside – just glancing around, I saw 3 Versatiles under construction! The woman proprietor of Ligfietsshop came around and after talking briefly with her, she gave me directions on how to get to Velomobiel.nl and so I walked on over. When I got there, I went to shake hands with Allert who was off to the side cleaning up. Ymte was talking with some guys from the northern part of the country who had come down to visit.

David Eggleston showed up shortly afterwards from the office upstairs – he was visiting the same week to gather more information related to manufacturing Alleweders.

A guy who I'd seen from the bus – the only 'bentrider of MANY cyclists that I'd seen - was there. He'd been riding a metallic green Challenge Fujin. Apparently part of the steering assembly on his Alleweder had broken. While we were looking at the part Allert came over and pointed out what was likely to have caused the piece to fail and they sold the fellow a replacement part.

A little bit later Allert started working on my Quest - the body of the machine sat on one of their work stand tables that can be hydraulically raised up and down.. First he first did some work fitting the subframe to the body – this involved some cutting and TIG welding. Then he asked if I wanted to do the cutting into the body myself to make the wheel openings and foot holes. I decided not to on the first day, since I was feeling pretty tired from the traveling and didn't want to start cutting into the Quest and make a mistake, so he started by cutting out the front wheel openings. After watching how he did this for awhile, I took a few minutes to look around at the various parts of the shop - the storage racks for tubing, the welding station, various metal working machinery, body storage area up above, and the parts storage bins below the office which is up on the second level.

At 6:00 we started packing up to go. Ymte had adjusted a white demonstrator Quest for me, before leaving to cycle 77 km or so to a meeting. Just before he left, he made a joking comment about being a victim of his own image.

That evening I was to sleep in Lelystad where Allert and Theo live. It started raining just as we left and the rain increased in intensity as we rode. It was about 18 Km to Allert's place along fietspads and small secondary roads. While we cycled, just outside of Dronten I was very excited to see a line of huge windmills and thought to myself that David (who is a retired wind power engineering professor) must feel like he is in heaven cycling through a place like this. We passed lots of open fields, with many of them appearing to have just been turned in preparation for planting. When we got to Lelystad, we stopped by a food store and Allert picked up some dinner stuff. Then we pedaled the rest of the way back to his place.

For dinner we had leeks with cheese, potatoes and sausages – which I understand is typical Dutch food. During dinner, we talked about the velomobiles that they produce, and how they came to be in this business. We also talked about some of the other velomobiles that are in production.

3-25-05- 10:45 Dutch Time
Quests are fast – this morning on the way into the shop we maintained 25mph for quite awhile. Today I accomplished a few things on the Quest:
Wiring and switches were installed for the lights.
Holes were cut for the headlight and the lense was glued in place. The plan was to have a three headlight system like Allert's that would allow a bright 3rd light to be installed to that could be flicked on and off to signal oncoming traffic.
The closed cell foam used to support the seat was cut and shaped.
Shifters and cables were put on the steering joystick
Allert worked on assembling the mid-drive.
At the end of the day, Allert did some additional glass work on the body.

In the afternoon, just before we left for the day Ymte and I talked about plans for the upcoming week In the weeks before the trip, I'd been told about the Paastreffen which was to take place that weekend. Paastreffen is the annual Easter Weekend camping trip of the Dutch Human Powered Vehicle Association. Ymte told me that after Paastreffen this weekend, on Tuesday we'd got to Beyss to visit where the Quest and Mango bodies were made, and then on Wednesday I would continue working on building the Quest with Theo, who would be just getting back from vacation.

That evening, Ymte rode the 6 km back to his house in Dronten in his red experimental Quest with three 26 inch wheels, and I followed in the white Quest that they had loaned me.

That night I had dinner with Ymte and his partner Swanette and their two young boys. Dinner was slightly different than the night before, but also included leeks and potatoes – not at all bad . We stayed up until about 10:00 talking more about velomobiles.

Saturday, 3-26-05
The plan for today was to work until early afternoon, and then ride into town to try to change my travelers checks to Euros before pedaling the 60Km or so to the Paastreffen campsite. David had pedaled to Erik Wannee's place about an hour and a half away for the previous night and was to meet us at Paastreffen, where he and I had agreed we'd share my tent.

Some time around noon when we stopped at the bank, we were told that they couldn't convert my travelers checks there, but that it could be done in Lelystad – kind of bothersome.

Then we headed over to Ymte's house, and when were almost there I suddenly realized that I had left my tent and sleeping bag back at the shop. Not good. Well, Ymte gave me a map from the phonebook and I headed back towards the shop. When I got there, there were about 5 velomobiles of different types parked in front of the shop. – a light brown Limit, a Go-one, a couple of Alleweders, and a number of Quests – cool! There were a number of guys working on their velomobiles all around the shop – I wondered if this typical for a Saturday. After I got my gear packed in the Quest, I headed back towards Ymte's place but before too long I met him with his son Pieter sitting backwards on his lap in the red Quest coming towards the shop. The guys at the shop were all headed for Paastreffen and we were to ride up as a group – exciting!

Windmills in the Dutch countryside

On the road to Paastreffen

David (right) rides alongside Ymte and Pieter (left)

After dinner it was really raining hard, but after picking up my loaf of bread (As I understand it, ordering fresh baked bread of different types is a Paastreffen tradition) I walked back to the velomobile, got some clean clothes together and went off to the shower house to clean up. Then I read 'Digital Fortress' for a half hour or so before going to sleep.

Sunday, 3-27-04
In the morning it had stopped raining. After breakfast at the dining hall, I went back over to the tent to get some things together for the ride to the museum. Then I rode the Quest back to the dining hall where we were meeting before heading out to the museum. The ride to the museum was quite enjoyable with most of the riders in velomobiles and a few recumbent riders. We parked in a big group and Paulus locked his Quest to the Quest I was riding and the Mango that David was using by running a long cable lock through the cross bar behind the seat.

Gathering before Openlicht (sp?)

Pedaling to Openlicht

Locking up outside the Museum

A windmill at the museum

Eating with the group at a Museum Inn/Restaurant

Finally we pedaled back to camp as a group. The original plan had been to head back to Dronten that afternoon, but I decided to stay over another night.and ride with David the following day to Apeldoorn to visit Erik Wannee, a friend from the last visit that I'd made to the Netherlands in 2002. I'd hoped that Erik would make it to Paastreffen, but he had other commitments, so if I was to see him on this trip it would have to happen the following day.

Although I hadn't registered for camping or the meal that night, the NVHPV folks generously came up with some additional food for me. Ymte had spent the day visiting relatives, and had returned with some food which we mixed in with some leftovers and had a great feed.

Monday, 3-28-05
The following morning I walked around and took pictures of all the velomobiles that I'd missed previously.

It had been raining on and off during breakfast in the dining hall (bread, kaas and jelly). As soon as we could David and I broke down the tent, got our stuff packed up and got underway. David had a map, and had a good idea where we were going from last year, so I followed him. We got there, pedaling through pouring rain at time, but only having to stop and ask directions once. As it turned out, we found a shorter route that Erik hadn't tried before.

So we had a nice lunch with Erik and Saskia before heading on to Dronten .

We were a couple of kilometers outside of Dronten when I got a flat – it wasn't raining at that point but a few minutes later while we were working on fixing it, the skies opened up and it started pouring. David used his cell phone to call Ymte , and shortly afterwards we got the tube replaced. We were just starting up again when Ymte pedaled up in his Quest.

Well, we finally made it - just a bit wet. We found that Ymte, who had left for Dronten that morning about an hour earlier than us with his son Pieter on his lap had missed almost all of the rain.

Tuesday, 3-29-05 – Trip to Beyss
David, Ymte and I headed in to the shop at about 8:30 – David had some problems when his windbreaker got pulled into the chain, but he sorted it out and we continued on.

When we got to the shop, the three of us piled into Velomobiel.nl's blue van and headed out.

Ymte has a small greenhouse that he bought secondhand for which he is trying to locate glass. So on the way to Beyss we stopped at a place along the way that he thought might be able to provide the glass and were told that the manufacturer of his greenhouse is located in Lelystad.

We crossed into Germany, and when we got to Beyss, we spent time taking pictures and talking with one of the Beyss Brothers.

I also got to take a ride in a blue Go-One. It seemed to be a nice machine, although there isn't much cargo space inside.

While we were there, we picked up a Quest and a Mango body, and we also picked up the mold for the new version of the Quest with a 26 inch rear wheel and these were loaded into the back of the van.

On the way back towards the border we saw a guy in a Quest – he was really moving and as we pulled up even with him we shouted hello and snapped a couple pictures.

Wednesday, March 30, 2005
This morning, I offered to buy dinner for the guys, and Ymte suggested that I cook. So that is what I am doing tomorrow night. We got the stuff for it on the way back from the shop after Ymte picked up Pieter and Maarten (his two boys).

Today I worked with Theo:
Holes drilled in wheelwells to accept top of McPherson Struts. Wheels and struts put on.
Hole drilled for brake cables, housings threaded through.
Joystick and steering assembly put in place.
Wheels attached and steering adjusted.
Soldered up headlights and wiring. Ended up going with Sigma System which has a 5W low beam and 10 W high beam with separate switches. It is possible to covert this over to a 20 Watt system.. I've decided that instead of the third high beam, I'd use this line for a horn.

Thursday, 3-31-05
Made the wheel covers Got the deraillers and cables set up Got the chains put on. Holes drilled in preparation to attach top and bottom of Quest body. Installed the seat and took the Quest out for a test ride without the top attached.

At lunch I went next door to talk to Leo Vischer at Alligt – nice guy.

Various Velcro patches were attached, and miscellaneous detail work was done.

Friday, April 1, 2005
Last nights dinner at Ymte's place went well. I cooked up the chicken, (chicken breaded with a curried pannelle mix) and the noodles, mixing them together with motzarella and cottage cheese to make a goulash. Theo came over, but Allert couldn't make it since he only had last evening to get a part for his car and is taking it on vacation next Wednesday. We talked about various things – including traveling in the US, where AK is, where ME is relative to Texas, etc.

Earlier in the day (3:00), it was sunny out for coffee break, and we sat outside on the terrace. Mostly they talked Dutch, but at one point we got to talking about the Eastern Trail and Theo asked questions about funding trails and things.

Today I was going to go to Lelystad to convert my Travelers checks to Euros. I called the GWK tourist Center at the Lelystad train station. But as soon as I told the woman there that I had $8000 she said that the rules stated that she couldn't do that amount and that I'd have to go to the larger branch in Almere. What the hell! This is ridiculously difficult. In talking with Theo, I found that in Europe they don't typically use any types of checks anymore – not personal, bank, cashiers or travelers – it's all bank to bank transfers now. I had avoided wiring money for this trip because of how much trouble I had the first time when I bought the Alleweder. But David said he had also had some trouble the first time, but the second time he wired money to the NL it had worked much more smoothly – 3-4 days.

On the Quest:
Today I fastened the top and bottom half of the Quest together.
Decals were put on the Quest - I did the letters and the rear reflective orange decal, but Theo did the nose and side decals as this material is pretty unforgiving.
Mirrors were installed.
And the Quest was complete!

Before my trip I had arranged with a shipping company at the airport in Amsterdam to ship the Quest back to the States. I planned to ride the machine to their office at the airport before my flight home. Erik Wannee had helped to arrange for me to stay with Frans and Marjolein van Schoot in Almere which was about the half way point between Dronten and Amsterdam so I wouldn't have to do the whole distance in one day.

In the time that remained for me to be in Europe, I had hoped to visit a couple that are friends of mine from graduate school in Maine named Jack and Selen. They had recently moved to Brussels in Belgium where Jack had taken a new job. When I talked with Theo about my plans over the last couple of days, he offered to drop me in Amsterdam that evening. Almost every Friday night he traveled to Amsterdam to participate in Skate Night - a kind of organized festive mass ride for rollerbladers through the streets of the city. In Amsterdam I would have the opportunity to convert my travelers checks to Euros so that I could pay for the Quest rather than doing the conversion in Almere.

A few minutes after the Quest was finished, Frans van Schoot arrived at the shop. As he told me a little later, – he was in town with his Challenge Hurricane to get it serviced at Ligfietsshop Tempelman in preparation for a long ride that he was doing with his son Hans (who worked at Ligfiettshop) from France to Santiago de Compostello in Spain the following week.

The plan was quickly modified so that I would follow Frans with the just completed Quest – that way he could show me the way and I wouldn't have to worry about getting lost. Theo would stop by Frans' place that evening with his car on the way to Amsterdam and pick me up. So I got my stuff together and loaded it into Quest 145. Then I said goodbye to Allert and Ymte and we were off.

At one point on the ride, we passed over a dike (the Knardijk) and suddenly I saw sheep right along side the bike path.

The sheep by Knardijk

Further along as we were coming into Almere, Frans pointed across the canal that the path paralleled and we saw Guus, Frans' son riding in his customized Alleweder known as the Apelweder. It was an odd sight to see him zipping along on the opposite side of the canal. Apparently he was on his way back from school. I'd met Guus previously, since he works Saturdays at Velomobiel.nl.

The rest of the evening went pretty much according to plan – we got to Frans' house, and got cleaned up before Theo arrived to pick me up up. Once Theo and I got to the train station in Amsterdam, it was a bit more time consuming, involved and expensive to convert my travelers checks than I had anticipated, and I had to do it at two different locations. But I finally got it taken care of and Theo and I went back out to his car to complete the transaction. It went down almost like the stereotypical drug deal, sitting in his car and counting out the cash for the Quest.

Then I collected my bags, said goodbye to Theo and went back into the station to buy my ticket to Brussels. After a 3 hour train ride, a transfer of trains and an additional half hour train ride I arrived at the station in the town where Jack and Selen live at about 11:30 PM. It seems that pay phones are no longer used over there – it is necessary to purchase a special Euro phone card, and all the stores were closed, so I had no way of communicating with Jack.

Since Jack had said that he lived about a minute from the train station, so I decided to walk it. After a walk of about a mile with a couple of stops to ask directions at bars that were still open at that hour, I finally arrived in the vicinity of his address – I found the next number higher and the next one lower, but his number was missing! After walking back and forth once or twice more to check the numbers, I saw what appeared to be a driveway extending back from the road, and could dimly make out more houses. I walked back past a couple houses and made out what looked to be his address on one of them. I just turned around trying to decide if I should go up and knock on the door, since the lights were out downstairs. At that moment the door opened and my friend stuck his head out! He said that he was just about to give up on my arriving that night and go to bed when he had heard me dragging my bag outside and figured that it couldn't be anyone else but me. What a lucky break! Selen came down, and after a quick snack and some brief catching up, we all turned in.

Saturday, April 2, 2005
When he was a teenager, Jack had been an amateur bike racer back in Ireland where he grew up. Recently, he and his new boss had started cycling together on the weekends and before my plans to visit had solidified he had agreed to going riding with his boss Saturday morning. When I woke up he was already out, and so I went downstairs and had some breakfast with Selen and Evren. When Jack and his boss got back from cycling, I was out in the yard playing with Evren so I walked over and introduced myself. One of the first questions asked by his boss was, “what in the world possessed you to get into riding recumbents?” I politely explained that actually what I chose to ride was called a velomobile, and explained some of the benefits of this type of machine. I don't think he was convinced, though. After lunch, Jack, Selen, Evren and I went into Brussels to walk around and see the sights. Time passed quickly, and before I knew it we'd returned home, had dinner and it was time for bed.

Sunday, April 3, 2005
Sunday morning I caught the train back to Amsterdam, where I poked around for a bit in the vicinity of the train station to see a little bit of the city before catching another train to Almere. Before I left, I purchased one of the Euro phone cards and gave the van Schoot's a call, speaking briefly to Guus When I arrived at the Almere station, I spent some time studying the bus map and was about to climb on the bus to ride closer to the van Schoot's place when I happened to look up and thought I saw Guus sitting on the railing up above on the train platform. I stepped out of line and called his name. It was him – another lucky break! He quickly came down and told me he had brought a spare city bike. So we pedaled back to his house – with me stretching to reach the pedals.

It seems that the van Schoot's don't own a car, but in addition to Guus's Apelweder, they also own three Quests (one each for Frans, Marjolein and the older son, Hans) as well as at least two Challenge Hurricanes, and a number of upright city bikes. In Almere, there are at least two other Quests in use – in fact, Marcel, the organizer of Paastreffen owns a white Zebra striped one.

After dinner that evening, we went next door to celebrate the 18th birthday of Frans and Marjolein's daughter. Frans had offered to ride with me to the airport the next day, again saving me the worry of getting lost.

Monday, April 4, 2005
The next morning, while Frans went to a brief early morning appointment, I packed up the Quest. While we were waiting for Frans, Hans showed me the 12 volt electrical system on his Quest, which included a high intensity LED based headlight and a cigarette lighter style jack that he used to power his MP3 player. Pretty nice! After Frans got back we left at about 9:30 for the airport, passing though much scenic Dutch countryside – several of the older style windmills, canals, lots of farms and such.

Frans on the way to Schiphol airport

Frans van Schoot - Thanks Frans!

Finally, we arrived at the office of the shipping company at noon.

Frans and I said good bye and I gave him a small than-you gift before he left to pedal home. Then I went inside to complete the insurance, crating and shipping arrangements. I stayed at a hotel that evening before catching a morning flight back to the states, finally arriving home at 7:00 that night.

Most sincere thanks are extended to the guys at Velomobiel.nl for their tremendous hospitality and generosity in hosting my trip and spending the time with me to build my Quest.

Thanks also to Erik Wannee for helping to arrange the overnight with the van Schoots and especially to the van Schoots for all their hospitality and to Frans and Guus for helping me find my way on the last leg of my trip from Dronten to the Airport.

Getting the Quest from Boston to Maine

I picked up the Quest at the FEDEX office in Logan Airport on Thursday, April 14, completely dis-assembling its plywood crate (it had been packed very securely!) and building a platform for the Quest out of the wood on top of the roof racks on my Toyota Corolla station wagon. It took a number of hours, but after all the difficulty and expense of getting the Quest to the States, I wanted to be sure that it would stay on the roof and not be damaged on the last leg of its trip back to Maine.

At Logan Airport, Boston

Home!

Impressions of the Quest so far:
The Quest is considerably faster than I had been used to. Probably because I am not used to thinking in terms of Kilometers per hour, and possibly partly also because of the unfamiliarity of the paths and roads there the numbers that I was seeing on the computer of the loaner Quest , the speed of the Quest didn't make as much of an impression on me as once I started riding here at home.

It is fairly easy on my 7 mile commute into work to maintain speeds in the low to mid – 20's and on certain stretches I often have been getting up to 30+mph. The ride in has been consistently taking me about 20-25 minutes versus the 35+ minutes that it used to take. I've found that it is much more fun to ride in to work now and getting motivated to do so is not a problem – I actually look forward to it! Based on my previous velomobile experience, I had been thinking that an assisted velomobile would be just the ticket, but with this machine I think it is unnecessary.

Chuck and I went out for a ride, and where I previously had had a tough time keeping up with him when he was riding his Mango and I was in the Alleweder, now he had a tough time keeping up with me.

Two of my return trips from work have been in heavy rain and I have found that in conditions like that it is much more comfortable to wear a polypropylene balaclava. On the first of the two rides in the rain, there were high gusting winds and that was a bit scary, so I tried to keep my speed down – it still only took between 20 and 25 minutes to get home though.

This past weekend I went on a 28 mile ride in the pouring rain and gusting winds. On the return leg I found that it also better if I remove my glasses. When I got home I was warm except for my toes. My shirt was damp, but not soaked.

The large turning circle of the Quest so far has proved to be even less of an issue here than it was when riding in the Netherlands on the fietspads (cycle paths) there.

So I am quite pleased.