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.”

On Tuesday, June 27, the Dutchmen boarded the St Petersburg at the Hook of Holland and steamed off to Harwich. They were met by CambridgeMCCmember CWWilson, who was riding a P&M. He would accompany them on their tour toMan and back. Four days later, and after a night-time crossing of the Irish Sea, they were in Douglas. This would be the first year of the Snaefell Mountain Course, and also the first year for a Junior class. The TT was the center of the motorcycling world and they were able to meet people like J R Nisbet (head marshal of the TT, vice-president of the ACU, and managing director of the BowdenWire Company in London), Geoffrey Smith (editor of the motor