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Many of the old Dutch
brands are not remembered any more, which doesn't necessarily mean that they didn't play
an important role in their time. However, in choosing which brands to describe in more
detail on the following pages, the most important criterion was that they still had to be
well-known and still could be seen in relevant numbers on the streets today. Even though
they may be a B-brand of some manufacturer now. It is remarkable that these 15 selected brands are not equally spread over the whole country. Most of these companies were originally based in one of the relatively lightly populated Northern and Eastern provinces. This is shown on the map at the bottom of this page. From there you can forward to a description of the brand of your choice. In the table shown below you find an overview of the beginning and the end of several relevant Dutch bicycle companies.
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| year of foundation (f) or the beginning of the bicycle production (p) | company, place | year of discontinuation of the (independant) bicycle production | reason of discontinuation |
| 1869 (f) | Burgers, Deventer | 1961 | take-over by Pon |
| 1871 (f) 1884 (p) |
Fongers, Groningen | 1961 | take-over by Phoenix |
| 1884 (f) | Cyrus, Venlo | 1971 | bankruptcy |
| 1886
(f) c. 1893 (p) |
Eysink, Amersfoort | 1953 | almost bankrupt, continuation as a sole builder and seller of motorized vehicles |
| 1887 (f) 1890 (p) |
Simplex, Amsterdam | 1965 | production moved to Juncker, Apeldoorn |
| 1897 (f) | Gruno, Winschoten | 1968 | closed, after being moved and mergered |
| 1898 (f) 1924 (p) |
Juncker, Apeldoorn | 1968 | take-over of Juncker, Locomotief and Simplex by Gazelle |
| 1898 (f) 191x (p) |
Durabo, Woudenberg | 1983 | liquidation |
| 1898 (f) 1930 (p) |
Pon, Amersfoort | 1985 | bankruptcy, take-over by Union |
| 1892 (f) 1902 (p) |
Gazelle, Dieren | - | - |
| 1894 (f) 1904 (p) |
Germaan, Meppel | 1963 | take-over by Phoenix |
| 1902 (f) 1929 (p) |
Locomotief, Amsterdam | 1952 | merger with Simplex |
| 1903 (f) 1913(?) (p) |
Bato, Tiel | 1958 | take-over by Batavus |
| 1904 (f) 1911 (p) |
Union, Dedemsvaart | 2005 | brand name is sold, production is separated from brand |
| 1904 (f) c. 1907 (p) |
Batavus, Heerenveen | - | - |
| 1904
(f) 1917 (p) |
Phoenix, Leeuwarden | 1970 | take-over of Phoenix, Fongers and Germaan (PFG) by Batavus |
| 1908 (f) | Veeno, Bedum | 1967 | bankruptcy |
| 1909 (p) / 1923 (p) |
Magneet, Weesp | 1969 | brand name and production sold to Batavus |
| 1910 (f) 192x (p) |
Mustang, Assen | 1985 | liquidation |
| 1913 (f) 1917 (p) |
Empo, Vorden | 1979 | bankruptcy, take-over by Pon |
| 1914 (f) | Maxwell, Amsterdam | 1961 | liquidation |
| 1917 (f) 1920 (p) |
Sparta, Apeldoorn | - | (1999 take-over by Accell) |
| 1918 (f) | Primarius, Meppel | 1962 | liquidation |
| c. 1920 (f) | Eroba, Echt | 2005 | company no longer exists after a series of insolvencies |
| 1921 (f) | RIH, Amsterdam | - | - |
| 1844
(f) c. 1930 (p) |
RS Stokvis, Rotterdam | 1968 | cycle works were closed down |
| 1922 (f) 1954 (p) |
Kaptein, Amsterdam/Arnhem | about 1963 | contracted out to PFG and in 1966 to Union (Unikap) |
| 1939 (f) | Burco, Amsterdam | 2004 | sold to Accell (Batavus) |
| 1945 (f) | Cové, Blerick | - | - |
| 1948 (f) | Rivel, Surhuisterveen | 1993 | take-over by Union |
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As a special you can find the history of the Thunderjet Cycleworks here. | |
Click in the map on the brand you are interested in. Please note that not all of the links are working yet! |
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Copyright by
Herbert Kuner, © 1999 ...
All rights reserved.
Last update: 09/02/2007
