Customer experience Fun2Go duo bike - Van der Heijden family

The Van der Heijden family from Erp, the Netherlands, provided 24-hour care to their father Martien for 5 years. Martien had multiple brain infarcts, became ill and passed away at the age of 94 in May 2020. Martien was a farmer and attached to his land. He didn't want to go to a nursing home and loved to be outside, the Fun2Go duo bike fitted in wonderfully well. The Van der Heijden family tells more about their experiences with Martien and his duo bike.

A real cyclist

"Martien used to cycle a lot on his previous bike, sometimes as much as 80 to 100 km in one day. He was able to keep up with the cyclists of the Elderly Association while he was the only one who didn't have an e-bike. But Martien suffered multiple brain attacks and couldn't cycle on his own anymore. By using the Fun2Go duo bike (or tandem bike) his range in the outside world increased. In the first years he was also very active with cycling along, which improved his condition very much. It was kind of therapeutic. Martien often made bike rides with us in the area, both summer and winter. Also socially the duo bike was a godsend, we've visited many family members and acquintances by bike during the trips."

Purchase of the Fun2Go duo bike

"In the early days of illness we were allowed to use the duo bike that was stationed in the retirement home, but especially when the weather was nice there were more enthusiasts and sometimes we had bad luck. That was the reason for us to buy our own Fun2Go. We were able to buy the duo bike from a family who hardly used the bike because their sick mother passed away."

Van der Heijden Fun2Go duo bike customer experience

Positive things about the tandem bike

"It was nice to sit next to each other on the tandem bike because we could talk a lot more and the bike was the only possibility for our father to go on the road. The possibility to choose active cycling or passive cycling with the disengagement hub as a co-driver was also ideal, it allowed Martien to use the tandem bike for a longer period of time. It is a very stable bike and therefore easy to use in case of balance problems, even for the main driver. The rotatable seat is perfect for people who have difficulty getting on and off the bike and we also had a cart on the back of the tandem bike which made it a family bike because the dogs also came along. That always had a lot of appreciation and attention. Our dad used to say: "They see the dogs before they see me!"

Many bike rides on the duo bike

"In winter we cycled about 50 km per week and in summer even about 150 km per week. We also had days we cycled even more, then we came to 40 to 50 km a day, but in Martien his last months he got more and more problems physically and it became more difficult for him to get on the duo bike. Then the cycling time got shorther and shorther."

Another destination for the duo bike

"We did have some maintenance on the Fun2Go and also fixed some things on the bike ourselves. Recently we had the bike repaired by Van Raam and we were pleasantly surprised with how it looked. Van Raam repaired or replaced more things on the bike than we expected! We still notice renewed parts that we hadn't noticed before and we can now see how the bike can get a further destination."

Article Martien with Fun2Go to final resting place

Earlier we shared an article about Martien who was taken away to his final resting place by his children on the Fun2Go duo bike. A beautiful farewell. Click on the button below to read the article.