April 7, 2001
After having celebrated my sister's engagement the evening before we woke up early - but not so bright - to catch a train from Leiden to Middelburg. Finally, destination M5! We picked up the bikes a few hours later and made our first test ride. In the beautiful town of Veere we were treated to some very intense and unfortunately typically Dutch ‘rain’. Too much water coming from above, this was no fun at all. Luckily we were able to seek shelter in a candy store. Naturally we couldn’t resist temptation and - not so heroic – were munching away on chocolates and other goodies. How will we ever get to India?

The first impression of the Shockproofs was good. We rode over some bad roads and were impressed by the suspension. No more clattering teeth! The bikes appeared to be very fast. So, a good start, but really too early to write a fair review. Some minor adjustments were made once we got back to M5. The brake cables were rubbing against my knee when cycling. This was corrected with a tie-wrap. The new frames of the SP’s are supposed to correct this. Suzan’s gears were fine-tuned, and we were ready to go. M5’s youngest employee escorted us on to a nearby hotel, still too much rain to ride a bike (ODV).

April 8, 2001
We decided to cycle from Middelburg to Bergen op Zoom, maybe Roosendaal, instead of our initial plan to ride back to Amsterdam. Cycling 200km in this untrained shape would be the perfect way to get an injury severe enough to wave the recumbent goodbye for a long time. The route to Bergen op Zoom, that took around 80km, was nice, flat and -surprisingly- dry. The Zeeland landscape, we think, looks a lot like the West-Fries one, the area of the Netherlands where I am born. Perfect for a recumbent: flat, windy and excellent bicycle lanes. We told each other that it wouldn’t get better than this; we must prepare for circumstances less perfect during our journey.

The first stop was Goes, after 28km on our brand new companions. We couldn’t stop raving about them: good looks –almost even better with the banana bags and the top bag- good performance and nice seat. After Goes we drove directly to Bergen op Zoom and decided, very wise, to travel the remaining kilometres to Amsterdam by train.
Making that mature and almost overly wise decision now seems clairvoyant, knowing what happened at Hoofddorp, near Schiphol. The train stopped slowly and we were told it wouldn’t drive further because of a fire at Schiphol Airport. The choice between waiting for busses to transport us to Amsterdam and outfitting our Shockproofs for their second ride was made very easily. In the warm, soft evening sun, we drove 30 km back to Amsterdam, without any effort.
Okke will use the bike for driving to work and I am planning to do so. My work is in the city centre, it will take some experience to drive a recumbent in the chaos that Amsterdam is right now. A very good practice for visiting future cities. Training time has started! (SO)