Bring out your Batavus!
 

Batavus made some excellent high end racing machines in the seventies and eighties, but never really got the recognition it deserved, so I thought it would be a nice gesture to at least give the brand its own thread here in C&V.
Also, quite a few members here own a Batavus and might like an opportunity to show it.

More on Batavus and its history later, but let’s first get the picture show underway.

If you own a Batavus, please post it here!

I’ll kick off the proceedings with one of my own, a 1984 Professional:

https://myalbum.com/photo/gteyXQPd9YHG/1k0.jpg

http://eamelje.net/pics/projectfietsje-februari-c.jpg

My bog standard Batavus Champion, in its late 1980s design. Just an old bike, nothing vintage or classic about it. Posted, not to bring the tone down, but to show at least one example of what most Batavuses would look like.

Thanks, @ijsbrand. Yes, Batavus was mostly about bread and butter bikes. And the fact that a famous local comedian called Batavus "the Lada of bicycling" didn't help either.

OTOH, Gazelle, who were in the same business, somehow did manage to get their Champion Mondial into the hall of fame.

About Batavus

Batavus is “the other big Dutch brand”. The company history starts in 1904 with Andries Gaastra opening a shop in Heerenveen that sells clocks and sewing machines. In 1907 he starts importing German ‘Presto’ bicycles, followed by his own bicycle assembly under the brand name ‘Batavus’.
In 1917 he buys the Phoenix bicycle factory, sells the Phoenix brand, and keeps the factory for Batavus production. Until the end of WWII Batavus remains a rather small local operation, but Andries’ son Gerrit is a true entrepreneur and when he takes over the management of the company in the early fifties, he invests in two growing market segments: lightweight sports bicycles and mopeds.

In 1963 Batavus and Gazelle form a merger, but the Gaastras and Breukinks don’t get along, and the whole thing is called off in 1965. Batavus does need to grow to stay alive, and takes over Magneet in 1969 and in 1970 it buys the much bigger Phoenix-Fongers-Germaan conglomerate and Intercycle is formed as the umbrella brand.

In 1975 Gerrit Gaastra retires and his son and vice-president of sales Andries Gaastra leaves to company to start Koga-Miyata. Meanwhile Batavus is very successful until the early eighties, when sales start to slump, and in 1986 it collapses under the weight of its somewhat optimistic investments and files for bankruptcy.

However, they manage to find new investors quickly and get the company back on track. New owner Atag – known for their gas cookers – keeps buying more bicycle brands and in 1998 the Atag bike division is privatized and named Accell. These days Accell Group is one of the world’s leading bicycle manufacturers, with a turnover of more than a billion U$ in 2016.

The Batavus bicycle and skate factory in Heerenveen in 1943:

https://myalbum.com/photo/d4qGkqqHHUjD/540.jpg

Batavus and racing

In the sixties Batavus went racing. They started by sponsoring their first teams in 1966 and went on well into this century.

They started with the Dutch Televizier-Batavus team in 1966. The ‘Batavus’ team bikes were actually built by Jasper Bouma, as Batavus didn’t yet have the capabilities to build bikes at pro level. Later on, frame builder Sietze Drenth was asked to set up the Batavus racing department.

Most famous rider was probably Gerben Karstens:

https://myalbum.com/photo/45Jw9rFscvGN/1k0.jpg

After the Televizier-Batavus experience Batavus sponsored mainly amateur teams, and between 1986 and 1992 they provided the bikes for the Dutch national teams.

Many of the Batavus-sponsored teams were female, BTW. Some of you will remember these "world's fastest women":

https://myalbum.com/photo/GeowZS9lSSPv/1k0.jpg

calling @Wildwood...

Someone told me this is an old Polish joke =
Know how to double the price of your used Lada?
Fill it with gas.


Back to the thread.

I had assumed this was an '82, but someone corrected the date to be '78. Haven't researched it much at all, but the lack of TT cable guides might point to 70's, but IDK.
I swear, one of these weeks I'll post FINISHED pics of this bike, still planning Campy 9, on this Ishiwata 022 frame.
As received, and with some polish after frame/fork alignment at L' Atelier Gugie, who anointed it with an Italian blessing for the quality of the Dutch workmanship (or so I am told).


edit: for a 59cm ST (CtC), the TT of 56.0 was surprisingly short. I always knew the Dutch were often long legged, didn't realize they are so short-armed. (no baudy humor intended)

Ah, yes! One of the bikes I'd hoped to see here. Looking forward to that build, @Wildwood. :thumb:

I don't speak Italian, but here is the blessing for Dutch workmanship.

I helped bring some of these into the US in 1984. I visited the factory and the shop where they made both the Professional and Criterium models. They measured me and I ordered one 58 cm size with Columbus SP tubing.
http://i639.photobucket.com/albums/u...1/DSC_0122.jpg

Hey @Wulf, since you brought some in and visited the factory for a custom can we tug a paragraph or two on any related item?


Beautiful bike. After 34 years ownership it's set up to ride regularly


Short top tubes on larger frames?

I was on a vacation and I was asked by a friend-of-a-friend if I would represent him as he was intending to import the product line. I agreed, for the price of a bike frame. The Batavus factory at that time ws the worlds largest bike factory. Most of their offering were inexpensive mass-produced bikes. I saw all this including the automatic brazing line here tubes were clamped int a fixture, slugs of braze were inserted into the lugs and as the line moved, torches would descend and finish the joint.

The pro shop had about 6 people working there. They used sophisticated jigs to hold the tubes, mostly files for mitering and silver brazing material (I think). They had me sit on a fitting tool and worked with me to determine what size I needed. I placed the order for 20 frames, including mine.

The single flaw I found was that because we had not specified, the bikes came with Dura Ace shifter bosses. I adapted my NR shift levers by drilling and fitting a pin stop inside the lever.

Thanks, @Wulf! I like the yellow head tube on yours. Is that the original fork? It looks different from my '84.

Both of mine, actually. I have another '84, also with Columbus tubing. Old pic:

https://myalbum.com/photo/oYoxX1VGWacf/1k0.jpg

Yes its the original fork. Sometime after mine they started using the full sloping crown, IIRC the 531 frames got them first. (You could order the frame in either Columbus SL/SP or Reynolds 531)

The stay and fork ends for the 531 frames were bullet shaped and the Columbus ends were the chisel shape.

That's coming along nicely! Hope to see it on the road soon.

DD

That's a pretty bike - love the blue/yellow colorway.

DD

I didn't realize this befor but I think I have a older sibling to Non-Fixie's '84 Professional.

My "Blackout" '80 Professional or was it '81? I stumbled across this beautiful Stronglight'Speedlight' crank on Ebay and sort of planned the bike around it once I got the frame.

Nice to see that one again, BG! Wasn't expecting it, as I thought you'd sold it.

No I haven't sold it yet. now that I have a desktop again I need to repost it here and fleabay as well as the RIGI frame. Sadly like all my other bikes and everyone's here I am woefully upside down on it. It is a fabulous riding bike though as set up and that SP frame.

My 1986 Batavus

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...26b0639a56.png

It's in almost NOS condition. Cheap group with Huret Rival, Weinmann 500 brakes, SR handlebar and CLB brakes handles. 24" front wheel and fork. Finding a tire could be problematic. It's still on the original tires.
​​

Pic assist. OK, it's upside down. But at least I tried. :o

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4330/...32cfd685_o.jpg

BTW, interesting that it's a Champion, which was at least two levels from the top, IIRC.

It was giving me a headache

There's no way I can find the pic url on the phone. Now tinypic turns it upside down
Sigh...