I know, I was born in Zwanenburg.

I took this bike to Jan de Reus' former shop when I bought it, where the current owner told me he was sure this was a Belgian frame. He couldn't tell me from which builder.

About a year ago I had a short but very interesting talk with Wout Verhoeven, who imported Belgian frames BITD for many reputable shops who wanted decent bikes for their customers at a reasonable price. For many shops they were the nicest bikes in the shop, and for those who built their own frames (like Jan Groot and Jan de Reus), they were their second tier offerings.

Verhoeven knew about frame building, and what he supplied was quite decent to very, very nice, from builders at DIJA and Derycke, to name a few.

I own a handfull of these frames, two of them from Jan de Reus' shop and they are branded as such. I have a frame built by Jan de Reus himself as well, and the difference is obvious.

The same goes for Jan and Frank Groot's Vittorio bikes. Their handbuilt Super Vittorios and Stradas are quite different from the Populair models that were supplied by Verhoeven, like the one in my previous post.