Hi! My name is Albert Wijnen and I am a velomobile ambassador from the Netherlands, Overijssel province, in a region a bit south of Wijhe village. Let me know how I can help you discover a fantastic alternative to a car that’s much faster and more comfortable than a bicycle! Let’s schedule a chat and maybe even a test drive!
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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 3,4,5: 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.
Road Trip 1 along the IJssel river
Will be updated soon…
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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.
● Fun to drive with little effort on long distances
● Environmental friendly transport
● Very suitable for commuting, shopping, holiday travels
● Comfortable to drive
● You are independent, needs only your force to work
● Good for training and sport, good for your health
If you live in the Netherlands, USA or Canada, please create an account, so you can order your velomobile (soon also in Europe). After you create your account on our website, you can access the configurator to create the velomobile after your needs, you will see also the final price and other details, if you follow the steps. Do you need help? Please contact me!
Werner Klomp, one of our clients, took some time to share with us his experience over the years with a few models of velomobiles.
I just want to write something positive as a customer of VelomobileWorld.com; In one year, I drove about 16.000 till 20.000 km with a velomobile made by VelomobileWorld.com in Romania, and that’s already over 10 years with a lot of fun and almost no problems.
The velomobiles are getting better and better, lighter and lighter, faster and faster. Therefore I thank the Romanian producers and off course the designer Daniel Fenn and also the distributor Ymte with whom I have also good connections. If there is a problem, what normally is small, the help from all three of them is very fast. I never had a problem that big in the last 8 years that I couldn’t drive on to the destination I want.
The first Velomobile was a Strada, which I drove in two years about 50.000 km and the only problem was the broken suspension on the back. This part made from aluminum was on the post after two days at my place to repair it. Strada was a little bit big for me, that is when Daniel came to Velomobiel.nl and started to work there. At that time he designed the DF, which is like a smaller Strada, with the complete team from Velomobiel.nl. The DF velomobile came and I drove it with a lot of fun and speed, over 50.000 km in two years. By driving so many kilometers you’ll always find something to make better. All those experiences I offered to the team to make it even better than already was. The time goes on, people want to do their business to work, not always together, so Ymte started Intercitybike and Daniel is working for himself in southern Germany.
Daniel designed a new model called Alpha 7, which is a bit bigger than DF but a bit smaller than DF XL. This velomobile is about 21 kg, which is 3 kg lighter than the normal DF, so as you can see, it is still getting better and better. This Velomobile is made in Romania of course, and at a really good quality. Also if the new velomobiles have some problems, they always fix them very fast and the customers are getting help. The Alpha is now also produced with tank steering, which is made from carbon fiber and very light.
At this moment I have an Alpha with tank steering at home and a DF that was specially made for me with special parts and special carbon fiber to make it lighter for me. This one made me happy and I drove 500 km already, with a lot of hill meters in it the last 5 days. The speed between Alpha and my special DF is almost the same, but for me the DF fits very well to my body, so I am very lucky to have this part built for me in Romania.
So I want to thank the whole team in Romania for their work, the good parts and the deliver … thanks a lot guys.
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