De Fietser Centre, Ede, The Netherlands

By Andrew on December 22, 2024 • ( Leave a comment )

A couple of weeks ago I published a post to the website about a route in France called La Régalante that linked Mont-Saint Michel with Nantes on a cross country route that was a more direct alternative to cycling along the Vélomaritime and then the Vélodyssée as I had done on my ‘Grand Tour’ back in 2022. It was promted by an email from Nick Gilford and indeed much of the article was written by him. I have linked to the orginal article at the foot of this post.

What I didn’t mention in that article was that Nick, a newly reired cycle tourist, had mentioned plans to travel to The Netherlands to visit something called the De Fietser Centre in Ede where, in the words of Nick “you can ride bikes from several brands including Van Nicholas & Koga – I am wanting to test a bike with a Pinion gear system along side regular derailleurs & Rolhoff speed hub & going to Holland seems to be the best way of achieving this“.

Well, he has now been there and reported back and this is what he has written:

“If you want to test ride bicycles with different gear systems such as Rohloff & Pinion alongside regular Derailleur systems & you live in England you are going to struggle to find somewhere to achieve this objective.

So I travelled to Ede in Holland to De Fietser Centre where I was able to nerd out on all the different systems on numerous different bikes on the indoor cycling track. Whilst familiar with derailleurs & Rohloff speed hubs I wanted to test the Pinion with a view to getting an adventure / bikepacking bike with the system.

De Fietser is run by the owners of cycle brands such as Koga, Van Nicholas, Lapierre, Batavus & Sparta. The indoor testing cycling tack is evidently the largest in Europe and there were several hundred different bikes on display, mosts of which could be tested. I had made an appointment and was assigned a Cycle Technician who stayed with me for nearly 2 hours while I tested numerous different bikes including the Van Nicholas Nootau, Devron & Pioneer plus several different versions of Koga World Travellers & while I was there a very interesting E Cargo bike that had 2 Child seats and enough additional space for a dog and a weeks shopping! (Great fun in Sport mode)

Conclusion: very positive & well worth the trip, better than going to a Christmas Market! The Pinion was much quieter than the Rohloff (both with Carbon belts) & the shifting slightly smoother. Both systems allow you to change gears while stationary, even from top to bottom gear. Both systems require you to not have any load on the pedals for a fraction of a second when changing gear. Both have the advantage of no exposed parts & the oil free longer lasting belt. But they do add some weight & initially are more expensive than Derailleur systems. I feel that for off road bike packing the central position of the Pinion system would be better for my needs.

As ever when visiting Holland I marvel at the transport infrastructure & how it all just seems to gel together in harmony.“

So if you fancy test riding before you invest, the De Fiester Centre seems to be the place to go… Thanks Nick. Here are some of his photos:

And the original article about La Régalante:

Cycling Mont-Saint Michel To Nantes Along La Régalante

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