The history of this particular Flevo Racer bike begun back in 2003 when certain Luděk from Kyjov (CZ) became interested in recumbent bicycles. Being an ordinary man from Czech Republic he found his way to Azub bikes first. He tried them and liked them but a flevo-like concept was what he saw as the right choice for himself. He liked the short chain, low bottom bracket, big wheels and simple pogo-free rear suspension. He was confident to overcome any difficulties that might arise from the fact that he had never built a bike before or that flevos were known to be difficult to learn to ride.
The construction went quite quickly. Steel was chosen as the right material for durability and long life. The project required about 60 parts to be made from scratch. The bike reached rideable state in just few months. Luděk started learning how to ride on 1st December 2003. It took days of trying on empty back roads just to learn how to start and stop without falling after 5 metres. But he never gave up and soon he was confident enough to ride even on public roads. Everything looked promising and the next spring should have been filled with new riding experiences. But a life threatening disease came and put a stop to it. Luděk did not give up though. He was back on his Flevo Racer one and half year later after a long but successful fight with his own body. In summer 2005 he finished his bike including a blue paint and started riding again. This time the learning was a lot quicker. He found a way to buy and import the silentblock used to dampen steering in original flevos to try if it works better. He started making plans for building a Cruzbike to try that too. But the disease was not done with him yet. In 2007 it struck him down again and harder than before. And this time he never sat on his bike again. In the early 2008 he lost his last struggle.
Luděk’s spirit of always trying again lives on in the memory of his widow, his children and us – his friends. Those of us who had the privilidge of knowing him personally will never forget him. And his bike? That is catching dust in a garage. There are not many flevos out there and even among those this one is still quite unique. Although it follows the standard Flevo Racer layout it was built with precision and attention to detail no professional bike builder would be ashamed of. And furthermore it has a unique history that makes it a testament to human persistence. Finding it a buyer who would proudly call it his own and use it for what it was built for would be the best possible ending to this story.
After judging the quality by some Flevo enthusiasts the price was set to be 990 Euro. The truth is that Luděk’s wife and children could certainly use that money. In case you are interested or you know someone who is you can contact Jiri Hebeda who is coordinating the effort to find a new home for this bike. His email address is hebi@email.cz.
If you are reading this and you happen to be a blogger, please help us by posting a link to this article on your site. The number of potential buyers for a machine this special is limited and we can use all the help we can get finding them.