Albert Wijnen

My name is Albert Wijnen and I am proud to be the father of, among others, Jan Wijnen, the founder of Velomobile World. Years ago Jan, at the age of 15, aroused my interest for the world of velomobiles, when driving around on his fully self-built Alleweder (see the picture of him on his webpage). I was impressed of the beauty and the speed of this extraordinary bicycle and after a while I bought my first Alleweder. A very nice bicycle, sleekly painted in a metallic red color (night fire red from Rover), see photos below. I regularly used the bicycle for commuting to and from Dronten-Zwolle. After I started working in Amsterdam in 2002, the use of the Alleweder became more and more in the background and I sold my bicycle after some time. After a few years, Jan started his adventure with Velomobile World in Romania and he wanted to sell his Quest. I bought his bicycle from him for a father-son friendly price. The Quest had beautiful and characteristic signs of Jan’s heavily wear, which made it very special and authentic for me to cycle around in it. With great pleasure I mainly made recreational rides through the polder and along the beautiful Ketelmeer. In the meantime, the development of the velomobile bicycles has not stood still and I have many times enjoyed the beautiful sleek and streamlined new models in the factory from Romania. Recently we were visiting our children in Romania again and I took the plunge and ordered a beautiful new Bülk (photo soon) and hope to drive around with it soon in our new Salland living environment.

Picture 1: Me nearby home | Picture 2: Two Alleweders (Jan’s colorful painted and mine, the red one), ready for the “Oliebollentocht” | Pictures 3,4: Alleweder Race with Jan as the winner | Picture 6: My new Bülk MK1 (inside Velomobile World factory)

• January 2023 Update

(Pictures 7-11)

Bulk(ing) along the IJssel river

The IJssel river is one of the most beautiful rivers of the Netherlands and due to an attractive network of bike pathways along and around the river, easy to ride by a velomobile, like my Bülk. I am lucky to live in this area and I will take you with me on my Bülk trips along the IJssel. But first I have to introduce you to my Bülk.

Bülk 29 (B29)

In December 2022, last Christmas holiday I got my brand-new Bülk, no. 29, out of the hands of my son Jan Wijnen. After a 2 hours tailor-made installation procedure, which is longer than usual according to Jan’s opinion, but in mine opinion it did not look that long due to my long legs, my overall length of 1.93m and, surprisingly, my beginning senior (64) inflexibility, I finally made my first ride with B29. In no time I was very much excited about this bike: faster, very light handling and very nice shaped and performed. I am also very happy with my flashlight Smurf top, a must have on the secondary roads with fast driving farmer vehicles.
But honestly it takes some time to forget my good old Quest, now in the hands of my youngest son. Yes, my B29 is much faster but this means also harder. It’s like first driving in a soft and easy driving Cadillac followed by a race with a Maserati. Nevertheless, after some time I am becoming more and more satisfied and familiar with my B29.
A few tailor-made improvements will be made in the near future, such as a smaller size crank to create more room for legs and a dashboard to enable handling of the lights while driving.

After Eggert Bülk and Jens Buckbesch started the Milan project in 2005 (which is still running successfully today), they started a new velomobile project in 2021, the Bülk-MK1. It implements a new space utilization and aerodynamic concept. The findings from various wind tunnel tests were also taken into account. Jens documented every step of the Bülk-MK1 project, then he sent us very detailed info to create a page where you can discover the philosophy of the Bülk-MK1.

A velomobile is a human-powered vehicle related to the bicycle, for everyday use, with a body/shell that provides comfort, weather protection and luggage space. Due to the aerodynamically shaped bodywork, you can achieve a decent speed with little effort (30-50 km/h on flat road). Velomobiles are very suitable as commuter vehicles, for shopping or holidays, also are a good way to clear your mind while taking a tour or a road trip with your friends.

Do you want to discover the velomobile models? You are in the right place. Here you will find all the details about each model, reviews, how to order, velomobile price and all kind of useful information.