Drymer is going out of the business

It is always sad to hear that some recumbent company is going out of business. In recent years mainly those manufacturers without a trike in their range, closed the production. For example the German Tryotec, Dutch Optima (well, they had the Rhino trike, but…), Raptobike and others. It seems that times come when older business owners want to retire and look for new owners. Some find them, like in the Bacchetta or Metabikes case. Some don’t, like the Nazca or Drymer/Sinner. Yes, they have announced the end of operation from the beginning of February 2022. Here is a statement from their website: 

“To all customers and suppliers of Drymer BV

Drymer BV is going to stop business with manufacturing of velomobiles and recumbent bikes.

The owner has reached the retirement age and has no follow-up. 

The past year the management has tried to find a good candidate but did not succeed in finding a company to take over Drymer/Sinner.

The specialisation in building recumbent bikes and the knowledge to design differenttypes of velomobiles has, because of this decision, come to an end.

If you are interested in take over the company or the existing production facilities with the stocks of all bicycles parts, I would like to invite you. 

Drymer BV will stop her activities at February 1 2022.

On behalf of the managing board,

Bert de Graaf,

bert.degraaf@drymer.nl”

What does it mean?

Quite some recumbent models won’t be produced anymore. Drymer was a producer of the interesting tadpole tilting e-assisted trike with optional fairing. They also built a classic tadpole trike and a two-wheeler called Glider and Two. Drymer also bought the Sinner brand in 2014, so they also made the legendary Mango velomobile, Hilgo velomobile, and a delta trike called Sinner Comfort. 

The Drymer tilting concept was developed from 2005 to 2012 when the official production started. The flagship model – Drymer Business – was an innovative and futuristic concept with two tilting front wheels. The tilting mechanism gave the rider a unique experience when both front wheels tilted while making a turn.

The aerodynamic hood, in a trendy design, took care of the rider’s comfort when exposed to elements. The Drymer Business came standard with a 250 W pedelec motor in the rear wheel. It also had a lockable luggage compartment. Next to that, there were several options like iPad mount, navigation, USB charger for mobile devices, etc. The basic price was 9.000 EUR excl. VAT. 

Sinner Ligfietsen VOF was founded on July 1, 1993. The three-wheel model Comfort was the first to be launched on the market. Later, other models, including some two-wheelers, followed. In August 2007, Sinner bought the rights to produce the Mango velomobile from Velomobiel.nl. Mango was developed in Velomobiel.nl in 2002. Compared to the well-known Quest velomobile, it was more compact and had a smaller turning circle traded in for some loss of speed. 115 units of the Mango were produced in the Velomobiel.nl. It was later replaced by the Strada, which, unlike the Mango, has a 26 “rear wheel.

I hope we won’t see many other recumbent companies going out of the business. It would be better to inform you about new models, and even new brands which would survive their start-up phase. Fingers crossed.