This story was used as "Kickoff" for the new weblog of www.zeenz.nl

Personal report bikeshow Utrecht.

Placed by Mathijs van der Kooi on February 21, 2006 at 10:47 She-bikermouse Betty Smit, steady visitor of Motorforum.nl will be writing for Zeenz about her life as a bikerwoman. She will be writing about events, nice tours and tips. Everything with a personal note from a passionate bike-lover. We kick off with one of the high-lights of the bike-season: the bikeshow in Utrecht.

The outward journey and meeting.
On motorforum.nl some forummembers had agreed to go to the show on friday. The deal was, to meet at the Mac D., get aquainted and have a coffee together. About sixteen members agreed to join in. My husband Roel had to work that morning, but if he was ready at a reasonable time, he would come as well. I agreed with Jelle to meet at Hotel Waanders in Staphorst. Who ever wanted to join us, we would leave at nine sharp. I had left home just after 07.30, so I had plenty of time to have a coffee and a sanitary stop. It was cloudy but dry. What a blessing after a week of rain.

Who ever turned up? Not a single member. At nine I left on my own into the direction of Zwolle. After Zwolle it started to drizzle and near Nunspeet it was pooring. I had put on my rain-overall underneath my nylon coat, out of precaution and because of the cold. My nylon coat is not waterproof anymore and the overall doesn't fit over. For leather it is still far too cold. So I arrived in Utrecht, following the signs of "Jaarbeurs". I took it easy and soon I was overtaken by other bikes who knew the road better than I did, so I followed them. That's how I ended up in the parking for bikes, without delay or a detour.

Finally aquaintances!
I placed my disc-lock and took my things from the side-paniers of my Honda Deauville. I took of my wet bikerboots and put on my short walking boots. Suddenly I heard a voice behind me saying: Hé that's Betty. So I turned around and stood eye to eye with Rinus, a member from Zeeland. I had met him in september on a long weekend with the local bikerclub, when we were on camping Perkpolder. He had combined my Deauville, with the Scottish flag up front and my braid and came to the right conclusion that it had to be me. Next to him stood Peter. He also had taken the trouble to meet me that weekend. Rinus, Peter and I walked into the Jaarbeurs and passed the ticket-control.

And then.....Well, where is the Mac D.? Outside the gate, in the hall. So we got ourselves a stamp on the hand and walked out again. In front of the Mac D. I found Herrie, Rakki Rauw, Fjokke and his wife and a friend. Hands were shaken, names were named, the first pictures were made. We waited for Rinus and Peter, because they stood in line to leave their things at the wardrobe. Together we found a place, with space for all of us. Coffee, capuchino and the nessesary stories and anecdotes were told, followed by a lot of laughter. I think we were the noisiest bunch in the whole Mac D. At 11.30 we decided to go and see the show. I walked ahead with Herrie. Had met him serveral times before. Just catching up with gossip. Soon we noticed we had lost the rest of the group. My cell-phone rang, my husband stood in Hall 8, at the entrance. So we returned and I introduced him to Herrie.

At the show.
Herrie moved on on his own and Roel and I started walking around to see the show. At a certain moment I noticed a Varadero and a Trans-Alp on a stand. That had to be the TCN and Jelle was supposed to stand there. All I knew about him was, that he was blond. So I waited untill the most blond guy had finished talking to some people and asked: Jelle? It was him indeed. He had overslept and since we had not exchanged phone-numbers, he could not reach me. Roel took a picture of us. Shortly after, my cell-phone rang again. Ronald was in the events-hall with his son. Told him to stay there, we were on our way. In the events-hall, we called him again and told him underneath what sign we stood. That's how we met. Nice to have a picture taken. Roel was the photographer again. Both with Ronalds and with my camera.

After a short chat, we split up to move on. There is a lot to see on a bikeshow. We were not there for a new bike, so those didn't really have our interest. But there were certainly a lot of nice ones shown. Time was ticking the afternoon away, when again my cell-phone rang. This time it was Peter. He had called Ninjawil, who was just parking his car in the carpark. We had agreed to meet him at the Mac D. So we left the halls once again. There we met Ninjawil for the very first time and we had a coffee together. After that we went for the stand of the magazine KicXstart. Ninjawil had lost a bet with the members of the editorial staff and was supposed to take a bottle of fire-water to them. I made serveral pictures of the event and sent them to Ninjawil that very evening.

Thrilling moments on the bike.
Shortly after that we decided it was about time to return home. On the parking I was adressed to as: motormeisje. Someone had recognised me, from my website. It was Arjan from Donkerbroek. A nice closure of the day, isn't it? We talked briefly. I changed my walking boots for the wet biker-boots and removed my disc-lock. Before we could leave the parking we were given an orange safety-vest. The parking-attendant helped us to put it on. Leaving Utrecht is quite a job at rush hour. On top of that it was drizzling. At the second trafficlight I yelled at Roel, who was leading: we can move in between can't we? Roel understood and so we manouvred between the rows of trafficjam. As soon as the cars started to move again, we got in lane. When they stopped, we followed the white lines. At the exit Hilversum, my Deauville suddenly lost power. I understood the hint and put the fuel on reserve.

Roel was leading and I had to get next to him in order to point my finger at the fuel-tank, to give him the hint that my bike was thirsty. At Eemnes we had a fuelstop and drove through the "polder". At Almere the rain stopped, at Lelystad it started again. At Emmeloord it was dry for a while, but the roads were wet and no matter how far I drove behind Roel, my visor was wet all the time. With a speed of nearly 90 mph we drove through the polders until Drachten, that made us get on nice and fast. At home, first we plugged in the deep-frying pan. The kids had used it already, so hot in no time at all.

Pictures on www.motormeisje.nl
After a snack I start up my computer, to see what the damage of a day out is. About a hundred contributions of the forum and a few other mails. Then I take the pictures out of the camera into the computer and make a selection. Compose a new page, in which I can place the pics and add the html-code. Then put it all online. All together it is already after midnight, before I go to bed. But with a good feeling. Thanks forummembers for taking the trouble to get aquainted.

Betty Smit.
Return to the index of the weblog.