The first alleweder design was made by Bart Verhees in the late 80's as a student mechanical engineering. With simple tools most people have around the house he made his first Alleweder. One year later he made a second one, with a bodywork that doesn’t need a framework. The Verhees prototype utilized two 20" wheels in front and a 26" wheel in back. He drove this bike for transport, and also attended hpv races with it (and even collected a European title in his class) After he finished his study in 1991 he decided that the Alleweder was ready for production and advertised to sell minimum 10 bikes to start production. Maybe ahead of his time, no orders followed.

It took one more year, Bart rode around in his Alleweder and visited Flevobike. Johan Vrielink, owner of the company was impressed by the design. Flevobike started working out a kit based on the design of Bart Verhees. Together with student engineers Titus van de Brink and Bart Massee Flevobike developed a kit. In 1992 the first batch of 25 kits found their way to buyers. The first kits were really a challenge to build. You had to cut out all the plates for the body yourself with the little scissors included in the kit and bend edges of the plates on the table edge. In 1993 the Alleweder came in the spotlight with the 365days bike contest organized by the Magazine Fiets and the technical university of Eindhoven. The Alleweder won the prize (hfl 25000, about usd 12.500) just before the Danish Leitra. (Ed. comment: I've been told that the second place winner was actually a vehicle built by the Jouta brothers: The Jouta ZX.) Important part was also the Hour race in which competitors had to prove their vehicles were practical and speedy. They had to travel at least 35 km/h with 60 liter/15 kg of luggage. Because driver Allert Jacobs rode an excellent 40 km he gained extra points on this part. The contest got a lot of attention on papers and national television.

So this was a good start for production. There was an agreement between Flevobike and Bart Verhees that Flevobike would sell kits and Bart his own design as ready to drive bikes. After Bart organized his workshop selling results were somewhat beyond expectation and in the same time he got a good offer for other engineering work which he accepted.

Allert Jacobs got a job at Flevobike and made some changes to the Alleweder on the drive train and the back part. Another big improvement was that all the plates were milled in the right shape (at the Fokker aircraft works) so it became easier to build the kit. The kit made a friendly price possible (in the start about € 1200, later on € 1350) which made the Alleweder very succesful. The most succesful year was 1995 with over 100 bikes sold. In 1996 Allert Jacobs started the C-Alleweder project, an Alleweder with less maintenance (closed drive train), better aerodynamics and less weight. The C-Alleweder was not meant for production, but after seeing Allerts prototype a number of people wanted to have one. Not designed for production the C-Alleweder was very complicated to build, it made it expensive. About 30 were sold by Flevobike.

In the meantime Flevobike suffered growing pains. The company (which made a whole range of recumbents) had grown from a small family business to a company with 11 employees (incl owners). More turnover but less profit and flexibility and much more paperwork and organization. This was not what founder Johan Vrielink wanted, so he decided to go back to the small family company he started with. They decided to sell out models, and only take engineering jobs and small production of prototypes for other businesses in the cycle industry. Production of the Alleweder stopped. Tempelman who already made the glass/carbon fibre bodies of the C-Alleweder took over that model and currently sells it as Limit. (Ed comment: the Limit is an interesting vehicle in that it has a stiff backbone of carbon fiber and a very tough hull made of aramid fiber [kevlar])

Former Flevobike staff members Allert Jacobs and Ymte Sijbrandij and later also Theo van Andel decided to go on making Velomobiles and founded Velomobiel.nl which resulted in the Quest and the Mango. They still make parts and do maintenance for the Alleweders. They also make parts for the Limit, german Cab-bike and Go-one and the new Alligt Alleweder.

Once infected with the velomobile virus it is hard to quit the business, and in 1997 Bart Verhees came back on the Market with an improved model of his Alleweder. Nice features on his bike were the aluminium disk wheels and the steering rod wich also could be used for braking. He sold a few dozen of the new model, but it turned out not profitable enough and after price increases he sold not enough to make a living out of it and returned to his old job. Nico Pluimers (NPC) took over the model and tried to restart production but quitted after a year for the same reasons. He sold his stuff to Leo Visscher from Alligt. Leo was already in the recumbent business and made a lot of improvements on the Alleweder and is more succesful. The Germany company Lohmeyer Leichtfahrzeuge makes an electric assisted powered Velomobile based on the Alligt Alleweder.

As said before, the velomobiel virus stays alive and Flevobike also started the development of a new velomobile, the Versatile. Protypes are already in use, but it is still not available for customers.(Ed. comment: Since this was written, the Versatile has become available to customers)

The Alleweder is currently the most common Velomobile in the World, and is still being produced and improved. What will be the next chapter in the Alleweder story? Who can say...

Edited annotated and arranged for the internet by Ethan Davis

last edited 11-5-03