The Velobanjogent visits Velo friends In The Netherlands and Germany….September 2013

You know I'm rather ashamed to admit I haven't been back on a visit to Europe since the early 1990's...!!
I had been to the USA since that time yearly sometimes twice yearly where having perhaps read some of my previous posts you would know I regularly rode in the North American Velocette Owners Club's various events on loaned motorcycles, for some 15 years on a Velocette special I owned and left there, which the other year I imported into Sydney and ride locally.
My wife, Judy, The Best Pillion Passenger in the World...a term I unashamedly borrow from that great UK motorcycling journalist BMS..... was going on a European train trip with a group of retired friends from Sydney...a search of the internet and we added a river cruise on the river Rhine which we both went on and then my plans for a Velocette oriented oddessy, albeit short in time...unfolded.
Great Velocette friends with whom I keep up a regular email correspondence, Carl Drees, president of the Netherlands Velocette OC, Heinz Limbers and Gert Boll also members of the Dutch VOC and in retirement living close to each other provided me with a two day visit to the "Velocette Sheds" from Amsterdam where Judy and I were for 4 days...
So come with me, pictorially as we have a brief look at my journey....
The introduction photograph above, taken at Gert Boll's place shows, L to R.. Gert Boll, Carl Drees, The Velocbanjogent and Heinz Limbers with Gert's very rare KTT Mk.6 Velocette, the only surviving one of the three built by Velocette in 1936. Others are nice, but just replicas....
Let's look at some closer pics of the Mk.6....

 Gert has a very nice largely unrestored 1925 moel K Velocette...

We'll pop into Gert's workshop and take in his Mk.4 KTT and an interesting cylinder head and DOHC cambox that originally Gert hoped was Velocette but research revealed it was a home made setup, believed for an NSU....

Before we leave Gerts'...he's a windmill he is restoring close by, currently less the sail....

This photo above shows the windmill in winter..the name..?
I'll let Gert explain it to you....
"Called The Velodroom, because it's owned by a Velosoph. 
Velodrom with just one "o" is a bicycle racing stadium, droom means dream in Friesish, the local language of Northern Germany. 
So it's a Velocette dream."
Returning to Carls house we dropped Heinz to his home and had a brief peek at his Velocette's...
A Mk.2 KSS engine in an RS Velocette spring frame...a Mk.4 KTT and a Mk.8 KTT....

Heinz has built an intriguing test bench to take a variety of Velocette engines and allow him to make running adjustments while the engine is running....

Then we were off back to Carl and Julia's where I spent the night and had a brief tour through his shed and will share a little with you....

 Then I left Carl to make some notes for the next edition of the excellent Netherland Velo OC magazine "de Visstaart"....

 I must learn to read Dutch.... but the Velocette Clubs throughout the world actively collaborate and it's great to share photographs and articles...

 What was next for TheVelobanjogent??

Well I flew to Manchester, UK, caught a train to Derby, and caught up with THE Velocette guru....Ivan Rhodes...

More of this fascinating three days in future posts to this blog....