bigwoo

Would anybody happen to have an idea of where the Batavus Tour de Europe fell in their heirarchy during the early 70's?? This is my size, coppertone/tangerine color is nice and, I cant stand to see a Dutch bike off to the dump....I'm keeping this one for me....

JunkYardBike

No such thing as too many Batavus threads!

In fact, the dearth of information online leaves your question a mystery to me as well. You might want to try contacting Batavus. The company transfered ownership in 1986, so much of their early history is lost (to the company employees at least), but they were able to email me some scans of catalogue pages from the mid 80s. Who knows, maybe they have catalogues from the 70s as well. Here's the thread with the contact info.

EDIT: Oops, I never included the contact info in that thread. Here it is:

Batavus B.V.
Industrieweg 4,
8444 AR Heerenveen
Postbus 515
8440 AM Heerenveen
E-mail: info@batavus.com

Serendipper 

You actually read my mind--word for word!

Psychics! *shudder*

bigwoo

Well, they sent me an email stating everybody's out of the office for New Years... if they send any info or vintage catalogs re: 70's hierarchy, I'll post it.....

sykerocker 

I'll second that - every time I see something here referring to a Batavus, I zero in on it immediately in the hopes of learning something new. Hard to believe that I actually worked for a shop (for a short time, anyway) that sold them, and yet know nothing about the line other than the $100.00 bike boom specials - which is all the shop carried.

JunkYardBike

Damn Europeans. They think everything is an occassion for holiday! What's next, unions?

Please do post your info. Anything archived on BF is a great resource for all.

s70rguy

Hey watch it! You're not adressing Europeans (when e-mailing Batavus), not even Dutchmen, you're contacting Friezen! (Frisians, from Friesland). If temperatures drop below zero, and the lakes and canals are frozen, they're out skating! Not good to bother them then with some old stuff ..

bigwoo

I just recieved this email and hope to hear from the retired expert! Maybe he'll have some of their old literature....that would be very cool indeed

"Dear Mark,

Thanks for your mail. Unfortunedly we do'nt have information about this bike anymore, but we'll ask our expert, who knows a lot about our older bikes.
He's retired, so it may take some time to get information. As soon as we get an answer, we'll inform you!

With kindest regards
Batavus BV
Customer Department...."


It's not like the TdE is a full blown race bike but, I'd still like to know more about several in the heiarchy as it's still a beautiful touring bike in it's own right... as are many of their old models....