Pioneering experiences
The idea of an English-Dutch Trial (as it was originally billed) started to take shape when 10 Dutchmen rode their motorcycles to the Isle of Man to watch the TT in 1911. Paul Goossens knows all about it because 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 Ko met Abraham Citroen, secretary of the Nederlandsche Motorwielrijders Vereniging. There were about 3000 motorcyclists in Holland and 400 were members of the Dutch Motor Cyclist Association. Most of the NMV members lived around Amsterdam.
“The trip to the Isle of Man TT was initiated by Abraham,” continues Paul. “But months before they boarded the ferry he was writing letters to suggesting a reliability
