Let me introduce myself

I am Louis Heijink.

On this page, I would like to introduce myself to you.I was born in Eindhoven, November 5th 1942.

I followed an electro mechanical study between 1956 and 1960.

Afterwards I studied electronics for 6 years, in addition to my day job.

In 1961 I bought my first Heinkel scooter. A 103A-2  license plate UH-44-94.

Sometimes I wonder if it is still out there.

          At home with my 103A-2                      On a holliday with friends in France

It didn’t take me long to begin servicing my own Heinkel scooter.
I was in military service, specialist, meaning 22 months of serving, and not much money to spend.
I had access to a large workshop, which worked to my benefit.
This was going so well, that before long my friends asked me to service and repair their Heinkel as well.
We also performed or own damage repairs, there were no environmental laws back then.

In 1965 I met a great girl with a beautiful Heinkel scooter, and as these things go:

we married in 1967 and have two beautiful girls.

 

The year 1964 was a dramatic year for the scooter industry.
Sales rapidly declined, everyone had to have a car.
For this reason, the Heinkel factory stopped manufacturing scooters, as did a lot of other brands back then.
(I defected to the car as well, and sold both of our Heinkels in 1975. )

However, true love lasts forever!! In 1978 I bought another Heinkel!!
Arguing daughters led to the purchase of a second Heinkel scooter.
We would drive everywhere by car with a trailer attached to it, carrying two scooters.

It didn’t take us long to purchase a third scooter, which served as our spare unit.


Big mistake of course, since after that, I only wanted more. I wanted all models ever produced by Heinkel.

After a couple of years, my collection was complete.

                                                My scooter collection.

In 1986 traveled across half the globe with a friend.

It was an amazing experience!!
3 months of travel – crossing 17 countries – 20.000 KM on the meter.

My collection of scooters and parts kept growing and I was forced to rent additional space in our village.

After much hesitation, we decided to move to a house to be newly built, that would include a 400m2 workshop / storage area.

In 1989, the time had come: after 2 years of construction, the new home of my Heinkels and the family had been completed.

http://www.heinkelservice.nl/images/IMG_1461.JPG

                            The service bus in front of our house.

 

There were less and less used parts in good condition available, while more and more people discovered how great a Heinkel hobby can be.

Again, this spiraled out of control and a lot of new parts had to be manufactured.

Sometimes you would be able to have them made by specialized companies, other times molds had to be created, such as for the rear light and bumper.

I can take these molds to aluminum foundries to have the products cast. In addition, I was forced to turn my hobby into a business,

since most businesses don’t want to do business with individuals and the tax department wants to receive VAT etc.
This is why I registered with the Chamber of Commerce.

I have been riding my Heinkels for over 50 years across more then 500 thousand kilometers.

You can imagine that, throughout these years, I have seen pretty much any possible malfunction.

IDespite my age, I  still work on my Heinkel hobby almost every day, which is much healthier than staying inside, watching time pass  me by.

 

If, by reading this, you have become curious about the Heinkel scooter that is great!

Feel free to contact me to talk about my hobby that, who knows, soon to be yours.

Louis Heijink