Excuses voor het ongemak. | |||||
) 8 January 1986
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) May 1987 | |||||
) November 1988 | |||||
) With the streamline tent in the background. | |||||
) With the streamline tent in place. | |||||
1989: A full Stainless steel frame was used for this rowingbike which was Derk's first steel bike. The maintube turned out to be to light, it broke. After it was welded and reinforced this bike did some more mileage for Derk and was sold later on to the olympic windsurfer Bart Verschoor. | |||||
) Full carbon or kevlar wheels were used a lot end of the 80 ies. To cope with sidewinds the steering angle was made quite upright. That made this bike rather nervous. Nowadays rowingbikes have much more reclined steering angle which makes steering more stable and that brings the front wheel more forward. With the center of gravity further behind and lower nowadays rowingbikes can brake much more aggressive than these older high rowingbikes.
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) 1990 - 1998 production model THYS 220 | |||||
) very soon; around 1990, the first cable drive rowingbike showed the potential of steel cable in stead of the chain. | |||||
) 1993. With this very low tree wheeled rowingbike ( there is a skateboardwheel on the lowest part of the frame for traffic bumbs in the road) in faired version Derk won the 1994 edition of the Paris Amsterdam human power race.
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) A very low rowingbike, of which very few, 11 or so,were produced. Build from 1994. | |||||
) All 220 and 280 models were made by hand and welded in Derk's small workshop. This is one of the rare occasions with a lot of finished bikes on stock.
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) It is possible to add a fairing to this rowingbike. On the photo you can discern 6 water bottle of 0.75 litres each. According to Derk, this is not enough for a 6 hour race like the one on Cycle Vision in Lelystad, Netherlands. The Thys 240 is the precursor of the Thys 222, but was thought to be a little too extreme in terms of seat angle and height.
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) The Thys 240 (prototype) with fairing (rubber/carbon) during the 6-uurs race in 1998 (Cycle Vision, Lelystad). Thijs accomplished an average speed of 47.9 km/hour! He also did the one-hour race. Result: 53.8 kilometers. | |||||
) The concept of the Snek transmission was designed by brothers Bert and Derk Thijs around 1992. it took until 1997 before Derk bought his first lathe and he actually started to make prototypes. This very first Snek was made out of aluminum with a 2 mm wide groove ( pitch 2 mm) for 2 mm steel cable. This fist version was a primitive version of the nowadays revolversystem. At that moment I found it hard to get that revolving principle working and it was not the only problem I had to cope with. As there were more problems i started with what appeared to me than as the most simple shifting system; by derailleur.
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) Concentration at the start of Paris - Amsterdam (started at Eurodisney). Derk covered the distance of 510 km in 13 hours 53 minutes. | |||||
) The first 222 model was made in 1998 after the 240 model was thought of as a bit to extreme for the large public ; so a somewhat higher and less reclining model was made. That was a good choice for a change! This model was the first of which the frame would be produced in Taiwan ; in larger quantities.
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) This gold colored 222 was the first prototype for the RR version, A lot of modifications were made on the standard 222 frame to hold the asymetrical self made rear wheel that has the roller ramp freewheel clutch that improved the catch ( inpik) at the beginning of the stroke very much. | |||||
) The RR version of the 222 has the THYS design rear hub with roller ramp freewheel clutch. This- very expensive- clutch ensures A direct grip on the rear wheel in the beginning of the stroke. | |||||
) Derk Thijs climbing the Alp d' Huez An intermediate Snek was added to achieve the very necessary low gearing. | |||||
) After my tour de France experience with a very poorly working intermediate Snek it was clear to me that i had to principally change the gearing system.
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) The year 2002: the Thys 230 with 20" rear and 16" front wheel. This is one of the first CVT's. | |||||
) Sometimes tests of extremes can help you further.
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) There are over a dozen rowingbike riders that only use one leg to propel the rowingbike. It turned out that the rowingbike is a great solution for people that can only use one leg. It is hard to learn how to start but it pays off.
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) This picture shows the improved second version of the wedge housing of the CVT system . On the first round shaped wedgehousing you sometimes needed a hamer to unlock the wedges :-(
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) This was a nice try but it did not work; It was very unstable. | |||||
) Ed Komen climbing to Males, Crete on his 245 model a lowered 240 prototype with asymetrical frontwheel. | |||||
) The THYS 250 was a further going study for a follow up model for the 222.
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) After the 250 prototype was converted to a normal rear fork , the new one hour time trial record was set at Cyclevision 2003 to 45.1 km/h | |||||
 Martijn Mateman on Crete The year 2005: the THYS 222 Revolver with 2 x 20" wheels. A precursor of the 220 mm Snek was the 178 mm Snek on a 20" rear wheel. A desirable gear for really steep slopes like Calibier and L'Alpe d'Huez. | |||||
) You can see a nice video of this tandem in the Crete mountains at:
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) After the experiences with the low and long prototypes a more compact | |||||
) Another improved and lighter 209 prototype was made in 2007 ; 11 kgs. | |||||
) It is a low, light and fast tandem with 2 20'' wheels. | |||||
) After the 209 prototypes it was clear how the followup for the 222 model should look like. It took a lot of time to find the right production company and to study their production proces. Than the 209 design was adapted to this production process to enable production and improve stiffness of several carbon parts.
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) Winter 2008 /2009 the carbon tandem frame was designed in the old fashioned way: take a piece of balsa wood and foam and shape it as you want it to be.
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Precursors Rowingbike