email | WHS: Projects » WHS' projects from 2022 onwards: History and initial plans
I sold my house early June 2022. I had a look at houses in Poland and after that I travelled to Ukraine for business and to look for a house to buy. That's right, the actions of the insane psychopath Putin who decided to commit more war crimes didn't put me off. I have various business ideas and I visited a business in Poland (for a possible cooperation), after that I went to Ukraine. I had various problems and delays in 2022 and more delays in 2023 but things like deciding where to buy a house just take time and all in all things are progressing, slowly. The information on these projects will be updated when I can share more.
The things I have been interested in most of all are bicycle lighting and saddles. These are the 2 most important parts of cycling, saddles for riding at any time, lighting for riding at night. Handlebars, racks, bags, tyres, fenders, and so on, are far lower on the list of priorities.
In the case of leather saddles there are enough good choices esp. with Gilles Berthoud and Selle Anatomica making saddles with a good frame so that the entire saddle can be rebuilt. Berthoud makes saddles that are likely useful for slower touring without going to 21 cm wide saddles (the Brooks B67), namely the Vars which is 18 cm wide, just a little wider than the B17. The Berthoud saddles can be bought with or modified with cutout just as Brooks saddles, so that should take of the most important requirements in leather saddles. This means in saddles there is likely not that much to improve, at least in leather saddles. Although, there is one thing I am thinking of related to saddles...
In lighting there is a lot to improve, but there are some issues I had to deal with and so there are other projects that I may do first.
In 2022 it was mostly deciding about which of my ideas to pursue first and where (though it all changed a bit in 2024).
What I also wanted to do in 2022 is to see what can be done in Ukraine. I was thinking "help yourself by helping others" for people there, giving them say tools to fix/rebuild houses, in an Amish barn raising style cooperation. I stated in 2022: "Perhaps it won't work well, but I will see".
I had to put this aside in 2022 due to all the issues I had (a bicycle accident, pinched nerve meant I couildn't walk well for 6 months), and in 2023 I was too busy with preparations to buy a house, move, set up a business etc..
I saw that others were likely doing a better job anyway such as on Telegram, where there is a channel 'repair together' doing exactly what I envisioned, and so it seemed better to give up on this idea and that it would be better to donate to people doing such work.
In 2023 I set up an LLC in Lviv (Ukraine, for now it is registered in Lviv as the lawyer I knew from 2022 lives there) as I want to live in UA and my plan is to do part of the development in UA, either myself or with manufacturers in UA, and partly (esp. for panniers) with manufacturers in Poland and possibly Ukraine as well. I will be working on this with 2 friends from Poland and Taiwan.
I will keep an address (including for business) in the Netherlands.
| To email me go to the email page |
Last modified: 2025-3-3