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@Dutch_Cheese
Rickert story.
Translated with Google from Dutch:
http://wielersport.slogblog.nl/post/1/3219
With great pleasure I read your stories about cycling and bike brands. Your shed / barn with old bikes must be a kind of Mecca for bike freaks, which I count myself also. Too bad the inspiration is not infinite. While reading, I wondered if you ever have the brand Rickert discussed. As far as I can remember not. I have had two Rickert bikes. Handmade by Hugo himself. It was in the seventies when we had a team in our region under the name Elite Salade. I.a. Joop, Fred, Reinier and Jos rode in those green jerseys. So do I. In our races in Germany I saw sometimes a Rickert. "Everything made to measure".
I went to Dortmund and then I ordered one and then another. Fine bikes made from Ishiwata tubing. And Hugo and his wife Doris are (were?) nice people. Only you could not really rely on when it was finished. Hugo was bad to say no and if you called it was just as unsuccessful. Until I was fed up and said: Next Saturday it must be ready. "Is allright Jupp," was the reply. When I got there around 11:00, there was built a frame to which the fork was missing. In the course of that day Hugo brazed one piece after another to each other. When it was finished, it was put into the primer and then painted, then Doris stickers pasted on it and the edges of the lugs hand of a line provided. Beautiful metallic white. It was very late when I came home that evening.
Very nice people and the bikes ran like a charm. What I also remember is the father of Doris or Hugo. An old German, who clearly had not yet moved away from 'that gute alte Zeit "He glorified" der Führer shameless. Often I heard that Saturday Doris Hugo or cry, "but Hör auf Vati, which redest Unsinn yes."
It was at the time the last war was in the news. The series 'Der Holocoust' was broadcast on German TV and it seemed only then (1978) the realization of what had happened began to sink filled with the German population. In any case, there were almost daily discussion programs on WDR or ARD TV. For "Vati" Rickert did not all that, he had his own truth. As a young man who rode and waited for a nice new frame, I flew in that discussion in full. The day was over before you realized it and in between I enjoyed Hugo's German craftsmanship and Dad's dark past. I keep a nice memory.
Regards,
Joep