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 aluminium with a 2 mm wide groove (pitch 2 mm) for a 2 mm steel cable. This fist attempt was a primitive version of the current revolver system. Back then Derk found it hard to get the revolving principle working and it was not the only problem he had to cope with. As there were more problems, he started with what appeared to be the most simple shifting system, by derailleur. Derk says that, in retrospect, it was one of the most stupid mistakes he ever made. “I should have sticked with that revolving system”.