Sparta thinks it is important to stand out from the competition. We are always looking for something new and striving to improve our bikes. It figures, then, that our pay-off is ‘Something Special’: a statement that challenges us to constantly monitor the quality and uses of Sparta bicycles; to look out for exciting ideas and refined solutions for special situations. Good examples are the ‘Father and Mother' bike, the transport bike and the many cycling solutions. And, of course, the Sparta ION. SPARTA is Number One in Europe when it comes to E-bikes. That’s because SPARTA uniquely invented the ultimate E-bike: the SPARTA ION.
 
Everyone who has ever ridden a bike (and that’s just about everyone in the Netherlands!) knows the SPARTA brand name. The company was founded on 1 September 1917 by Leendert Schakel together with his partners, Verbeek and Krijgsman. To start with, the company was named after the two founders: Verbeek & Schakel. Within a month of starting their company, the partners bought up a number of brand names from a competitor in Nijmegen. One of these was SPARTA. Initially, the company concentrated on selling bikes and parts wholesale.
 
After a number of years, Schakel came to be head of the company and in 1926 he began building a factory for assembling bicycles, milk carts, delivery bikes and cargo trikes. Schakel had a great talent for technology. It was therefore inevitable that he made the next step - designing a moped. The first one, equipped with a 78 cc Sachs engine, rolled off the production line in 1931.
 
The Second World War stopped production altogether. After the war, Schakel was able to start up again under the name of ‘SPARTA rijwielen- en motorenfabriek’ (SPARTA Bicycle and Motorcycle Factory). Schakel’s main interest was in mopeds, to such an extent that he even stopped producing bicycles altogether in 1958. The mopeds caught on in the Netherlands. By specialising in one product, the company even had the capacity to export to other European countries, Indonesia, Tahiti, Africa and America.
 
In 1967, the contours of the modern SPARTA started to take shape. The company started to produce bicycles again. Not a moment too soon, because in 1975 it became compulsory to wear a helmet when riding a moped and the market in mopeds collapsed. SPARTA managed to stay in this market until 1982, but then the mopeds disappeared from its product range.
 
In the early seventies the company developed a ‘one-piece frame’, a concept that reinforced SPARTA’s position as a quality brand. The bicycle once again became the basis for new developments. A good example from this period is the Spartamet, the famous motor-assisted bike. A company with an illustrious history: that sums up SPARTA.