Pioneering Experiences

There were 50 riders on pre-1915 motorcycles, competing over 500km in four days. At stake was victory in the 18th Anglo-Dutch Reliability Trial.

- Phillip Tooth

The idea of an English-Dutch Trial (as it was originally billed) started to take shape when10Dutchmen rode their motorcycles to the Isle of Mann to watch the TT in 1911. Paul Goossens knows all about it because of one of those men was his great-grandfather.

“His name was Jacobus Bergmans, but everyone called him Ko,” says Paul. “In July 1909 Ko bought his first motorcycle, a magnet Selbstfahrer – a contraption where you could steer and control the motorcycle from the sidecar – but by 1911 he had switched to a 500cc V-Twin Simplex that was built in Amsterdam.” Around that time Komet AbrahamCitroen, secretary of the Nederlandsche Motorwielrijders Vereniging. There were about 3000 motorcyclists in Holland and 400 were members of the DutchMotor Cyclist Association. Most of the NMV members lived around Amsterdam.

“The trip to the Isle of Mann TT was initiated by Abraham,” continues Paul. “But months before they boarded the ferry he was writing letters to the motor Cycle suggesting a reliability trial between England and Holland.”