When a buyer once offered Wim van der Kaaij a well-meaning suggestion he snapped, “you think you understand something of building a bike, but you don’t—like so many people who only search for information on the web.”

Ouch. Almost all the information here has been gathered over many years from the internet. Also, I don’t read or speak Dutch, although Google Translate is a friend. So I am no RIH authority and neither is this site. Instead, check Bike Forums or RIH Verzamelaar.

As a distant relative of Willem and Joop, our shared lineage goes back to neighboring Zeeland villages. There the nineteenth century economy was hard. The fietsenbouwers’ grandparents left rural Zuid Beveland for Amsterdam. A few decades later my family left for New York. I visited the Westerstraat shop before it closed and briefly met Mr. van der Kaaij. I own two RIHs: one built in the Jordaan and one from Cové in Venlo.

Within the foregoing paragraphs there are certainly grievous errors asserted and important facts omitted. Help me get it right.

Keith Bustraan

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