Still waiting ....

Unfortunately, I'm still waiting for the right size spokes to arrive at my bike shop. I now have 2 broken spokes in my rear wheel that need to be replaced, so I'm not riding the XP at all. I checked with my bike shop last week and they contacted SAPIM again, but were told that the spokes would not arrive until January. Total milage this year will be 3100 miles, a lot less than I expected. Luckily, I still have my Zenetik Pro and my velomobile to keep riding. Hopefully, next year I'll spend some more time on the XP !

Rain, rain, rain ....

It has been raining a lot lately, which means I did not ride the XP much. I don't mind getting wet myself, but exposing the chain and drivetrain to water and mud, no thanks, not me. This means that I have been riding my velomobile only lately and the XP was parked inside the garage. A couple of weeks ago I ordered a front pannier rack from CORDO ,but they did not send me the adapter set for forks without eyelets. These arrived this week so I installed the front rack, as you can see in the picture. Still have to find a solution for the upper rack claw, because the rack does not open wide enough due to the beefy fork. It stays in place, but I don't want it to rattle while riding. Also haven't tried to ride the XP with a fully loaded set of panniers yet, that's somehting I'll have to try soon.


I also finally picked my Zenetik Pro bike from my friend's place. The bike was ready more than a week ago, but because of the neverending rain ... - right. I did not have the chance to ride it yet, but the rain'll have to stop someday, and then .... I can't imagine that the Zenetik Pro will ride as comfortable as the XP, but it should be faster though. Can't wait to find out !

Waiting ...

I'm still riding my XP with a broken spoke in the rear wheel. So far, the rest of the wheels seems fine as I'm waiting until my bicycle shop has received the stronger and thicker spokes. Apearantly, SAPIM is only producing spokes in a specific size and/or length by the thousands, but cannot tell which size will be available when, so it's a matter of waiting. Could be a matter of a couple of days, but also a matter of weeks (probably the latter). As long as I can keep riding, I do not worry about it much.
I submitted some pictures of my XP to the gallery of
recumbentblog and received a nice e-mail from Alan about them (seems not everybody's taking the time and/or the effort to read the submission guidelines). He has one of the finest and most beautiful blogs around (that I'm aware of anyway). I'm stil trying to get my picture right on top of this blog, but I still need to work on my html skills (and it shows, I know).
Not much riding lately, mainly because of the weather. Winter is coming and with temperatures dropping, I'm more comfortable riding my velomobile, which offers much better protection against the elements. Not that I mind the cold, it's the rain I dislike the most. Not for myself, I don't care to get wet at all, but to get my bike wet and dirty .... Yuk ! I really hate to clean up bikes after riding them in the rain, so I try to avoid this as much as possible. Luckily for me, my velomobile is the perfect bike for rainy days !

2940 miles so far on my XP and still loving it

Autumn has arrived.

My velomobile was ready and I picked it up last Thursday, so the XP isn't used for commuting anymore. Not that I did mind commuting on the XP, but my velomobile is faster and offers much more protection against the elements, especially during winter time.

After my night shift from last night, I took the XP for a 2-hour ride late this afternoon. It was cloudy and pretty windy, but with mild temperatures. So mild actually, that I used my SPD-sandals for the ride and did not put on the socks I had with me, just in case. Not many riders on the towpath, but a lot of pedestrians, all enjoying the changing of the colors. I did attrack a lot of attention with my shorts and sandals, compared to the other bicyclists, most of them dressed like it was already wintertime !
Especially after night shifts, the XP is my favorite ride. The seat is absolutely the most comfortable I ever sat on. No pressure points, no reaons to stop pedalling for any discomfort except when your legs get tired .... For me, it's the ultimate touring bike. Of course, all of my rides with the XP start at home. We only have a small car, so there's no possibility to transport the XP, but what the heck, there are so many beautiful rides around the place were I live, why bother ....

National HPV Championships

Yesterday the National HPV Championships took place in the outdoor cycle track in Hulshout. Weather conditions were excellent : blues skies all over and a brisk breeze, so I decided to ride my XP to the place. It took me almost 2 hours to get there, but I missed a few exits. Not that I did mind, it was a nice ride and since it was Sunday, not much motorized traffic along the way. Most of the route to Hulshout was either on the towpath near the canal or on seperate bicycle lanes, it doesn't get any better than that !
Only a total of 17 riders showed up for the two races : the first race was a 10-round race (2 riders competing against eachother) and the second race was a 1-hour race. It took some pictures of the event, which can be seen here

Today was another nice autumn day, so I took my XP for a ride this afternoon. I tried out something new with my compact camera and the result can be seen by clicking on the "play" icon below. The camera was held in my left hand while riding the XP. Made an account on YouTube, were I downloaded the clip and imported it to this site.

The resolution from the clip on this site is worse than when you watch the clip on YouTube' site, but I can't explain why. Maybe the software is designed to do so ....

Bummer .....

Yesterday, another spoke broke in the rear wheel. This is the 4th spoke so far and I'm getting tired of it ! I rode to the bicycle shop yesterday morning to have them check my rear wheel and they instantly told me the spokes are too thin and too weak for the hub I'm using. They ordered a set of stronger ones, since they did not have the length I need in stock ( I need shorter ones since I'm using the Nexus hub ). I also noticed yesterday night that the light sensor is not working anymore, at least not the atomatic function. I've had this problem with these Shimano sensors before, it's still under warranty, so I'll trade it in for a new one. Luckily, I could still manually switch it to the "on" function, so I did not have to ride home without any light. The front light has an auto switch mode too, but the rear light cannot be connected to it, so I'll have to use the Shimano sensor to turn them on/off both ....

Still alive and kicking ....

It's been a while since I posted something, but not much important happened these last few weeks. About three weeks ago, I had to have another spoke replaced in the rear wheel, since I broke another on. Used the XP mostly for commuting, since my velomobile has not been put together yet. Fortunately, the weather conditions were mostly good ( meaning : no rain or showers ), so I really enjoyed riding the XP to work.
I did change the rubber grips on the handlebar though. During summertime, I noticed that the regular ( straight ) grips I had before became very slippery once I started to ride and sweat and that it took some effort to keep my hands on the grips. I replaced them with curvy ones, which offer more grip to keep my hands from slipping off. They were cheap no-brand grips ( Scorpions ?),but they offer more grip and are more comfortable on longer rides. I also changed the angle of the handlebars, putting the ends more inward. Feels a bit more comfortable too, just have to see what it'll give on the long run. Weather was excellent today, so I took a 2 hour ride. Actually, I checked out a route today, 'cause I'm supposed to organise a recumbent group ride during the weekend of November 18. I took a 40 mile trip today, which I think is the perfect distance for a group ride, especially since the group ride will include some kids on their bents. It's a ride that will cross the borders with the Netherlands a couple of times ( no problem, I live less than 10 miles away from it ), but with very nice scenery and either seperate bicycle lanes or roads with almost no motorized traffic. The picture below was taken this afternoon just across the border, close to a place called ESBEEK. Rode a total of 2565 miles on my XP so far.

Indian Summer ....

The weather improved a lot in the last two weeks, it seems that summer's back again. Not that I mind though, au contraire !
I'm still using the XP for commuting, since my velomobile is not ready yet (still waiting for a new paint job, hopefully this week !). Compared to my velomobile the XP is slower, but since my route to work has changed and improved recently, I do not mind at all. I can now ride near the canal to work on the towpath for almost the complete route, which means no cars or other motorized traffic on my way. It is about 1,8 miles shorter one way compared with what I used to ride everyday, but the silence and the peace near the canal is pure luxury ! Especially when riding to or coming from work at sunrise or sunset has something magical sometimes, whith the mist just above the water and only the sound of birds .... Makes me realize how lucky I am to be living on this side of the planet, where I can just take my bike and ride wherever I want to, with no worries or troubles at all ....
The picture below was taken a couple of days ago, I think it's some kind of fungus, growing on the ground near the towpath. Around 2150 miles so far.

And keeping them there ....

I stayed dry all night long, but when it was time to go home, it started to rain. It gave me the opportunity to test the mudflaps on wet surfaces and they seem to do their job : no more water and dirt spraying up anymore. Close to home, the front mudflap fell off and I heard a loud "ping!" coming from the back. I stopped to pick up the mudflap (the plastic pin connecting it to the fender was gone - as to be expected) and could not find anything else wrong with my bike, so I continued riding home. This afternoon I connected both mudflaps to the fenders with small nuts and bolts so they're supposed to stay in place this time.
While cleaning up my bike, I discoverd that 2 spokes in the rear wheel are broken -hence the "ping!" sound earlier this day ! Strange thing to brake 2 spokes at the same time, but anyway .... I'll bring my rear wheel to my bikeshop tomorrow morning and they promised to have the spokes replaced and the wheel trued by tomorrow night. I also checked the rear wheel sprocket, which turns out to be an 18 tooth cog. I want to replace it by a bigger cog, which will give me more lower gear. Still have to check with my bikeshop whether or not he has bigger cogs in stock ....

Adding mudflaps

I was finally able to take a longer ride today, a little over 2,5 hours. After days of rain it almost felt like spring : blue skies with white clouds and a lot of people of bicycles. Since my velomobile has been taken apart for a complete overhaul, I have been using my XP for commuting for the last week. I noticed that especially on wet surfaces, the water sprayed all underneath my legs and the seat. Also the top of the rear pannier rack got covered with a lot of dust and sand (part of my commuting trip includes a stretch of sand). A couple of months ago, I bought some mudflaps from SKS, but since they are black and my fenders are not, I did not install them. Today, before my ride, I finally installed them just to see if there' s any improvement. Can't tell anything about wet surfaces yet, but the mudflaps sure stop a lot of sand and dust from spraying all over the bike.
The fenders on the XP are SKS Bluemels and I originally wanted black ones, but according to my bike shop, they're only available in silver for 26" wheels. Bummer. Still looking for some nice black fenders though, with or without mudflaps ....
So far, I have ridden a little over 1840 miles on my XP.

mudflap with plastic pin (still needs to be cut)

Change of season ?

Did not ride much lately, mostly due to the bad weather. Since I got back from the Ecotrip, it has been raining most of the time and temperatures dropped quiet a bit. It feels more like autumn instead of summer the last days ... Whenever possible I tried to ride the XP between showers, which means no long rides at all. Hopefully the summer will not be completely gone and the sun will come back one of these days ....
Last week Sunday I took a ride to Lommel to visit the 2nd International Sand Sculpture Festival.
It was only a 20 mile ride one way and no signs of rain that day, so I took the XP to get there. It was my first time to visit sand sculptures and there were a few real nice sculptures I really liked/was impressed by. They charged an entry fee of 8 Euro's, which was way overpriced if you ask me. It only took you about half an hour to see every sculpture, so the exhibition was not that big. Anyway, it was a nice ride near the canal to Lommel and back and at least I took some pictures.

One of the most impressive sand sculptures

Tomorrow after my late shift at work I'll be off to Zutendaal. There will be a BBQ-ride for velomobiles on Tuesday ( 94 miles ), so I'll ride my Alleweder velomobile to get there and join the ride on Tuesday. My wife will take the car + trailer with her Kettwiesel tomorrow afternoon to get there, so the tent should be put up by the time I'll be there. She's planning to take part of the family ride on Tuesday, which is only around 25 miles. Let's hope the rain will stay away for a couple of days ....

Ecotrip 2006

Just got back from a 5-day cycling trip, the Ecotrip 2006 (you can find more information about the Ecotrip here). I was planning to do the Ecotrip with my velomobile, but since the weather forecast looked good, I decided to take my wife's Kettwiesel + trailer instead. Turned out to be a good decission, wheather turned out to be excellent, we only had one hour of rain during our whole trip.
The group consisted of 30 people, riding all kinds of different bicycles : mostly 2 wheel recumbents, but also 3 trikes, 2 regular bikes, 1 freight bicycle, 1 velomobile and 1 rowing bike. We left on monday morning and I got back on friday night, with 310 miles on my cycling computer. For those who'd like to see more, you can find my pictures of the trip here.

Since the panniers I used to have on my XP are now on my wifes trike and are staying there, I went shopping for a new set yesterday. I did find an interesting one from FASTRIDER, which I mounted on my XP last night. It has reflecting stitching on all sides and has several smaller pockets, which is easy to put smaller stuff in. Now my cell phone and keys can be put in the smaller outside pockets, making it easier to access. It also has a plastic cover in case it starts raining.

my new panniers

New cranks

Have been riding with the new 153mm crankset for about a week now. Installing them was a piece of cake and didn't take long. Since the crankarms are shorter, I needed to move the seat backwards an inch (more or less). No problem either, since my frame size is an XL. Still haven't found my sweet spot, I still need to adjust the seat a little bit more. What is a problem though, is that the handle bars cannot be extended anymore. The grip tubes were already at maximum reach and cannot be adjusted in length anymore. Rans has recently announced that the XP will be available in 4 different framesizes (from S to XXL), but they all use the same chopper bars, which makes me wonder .... If they would make grip tubes with different lengths, now that would be something different, but .... Think I'm gonna send Rans a mail about this and see what they think of it.

the new 153mm crankset

Today was a beautiful day for riding a bike : blue skies all over and a little wind. Took a ride besides the canal and saw a strange very narrow boat that was docked near the side. Haven't seen anything like it before but it looked very cute. A little over 1300 miles so far ....

a very narrow little boat !

New front brake + bottle cage holders

A little over 1000 miles so far and still lovin' it ! Two days ago, I installed the new roller brake for the front wheel myself. I'm not a bike mechanic, but it only took me 20 minutes, so it cannot be complicated at all ;-). This brake actually uses the disc mounts on the front fork, so this one should be stronger than my previous one.


I also installed 2 water bottle cages on the XP. As you can see in the pictures, I attached the cages to the sprint braces of the seat. This position allows you to grab the bottles in a much easier way than if they were attached to the back of the seat, it feels more comfortable this way. I'll keep them there for a while ....


The short cranks have arrived, but since I do not have the tools, nor the knowledge to remove and install a BB, it'll have to wait until next week, when it'll be done in my bikeshop. The cranks came with 3 chainrings, but since I'm only going to use 1 , I already ordered a 38-tooth ring to go with the new cranks.

Stratus sold ....

Last Sunday, my old Stratus was sold. A bit of a emotional moment, because it was the bike I put the most miles on (17.190 to be exact). Well, at least it's sold to a friend of mine, so it'll be in good hands.
A little over 800 miles on the XP so far. Last weekend I ordered a set of 155mm cranks from Mark Stonich, they should be in the mail by now. I chose the Shimano M-440's, they look nice and will defenitely improve my cycling on the XP. I can't remember that crank length was such an issue on my old Stratus (which had 170mm cranks), but by then I did not have my velomobile yet, which has 150mm cranks. When I switch from my velomobile to the XP and vica versa, I feel the difference mostly in my knees. Now that summer finally has arrived, I'm looking forward to make more miles on the XP.
Only yesterday I discovered that the seat of the XP has bottle cage braze-ons. I was looking for a good place to mount some bottle cages on, when I suddenly discovered the braze-ons. Only thing is that you have pinch holes through the mesh of the seat, which I'm not that comfortable with. I'm afraid that the mesh will start to tear up once you pinch through it. I sent Rans a mail for advice on this topic yesterday.

New kickstand

Last week on a very rainy and windy day, I accompanied my wife to the shopping mall. Unfortunately, many people had the same idea, so the place was very crowded. Luckily for me, there's a bike shop in the mall, so I took a look inside. Here I found a kickstand, which looked sturdy enough for the XP to me. I already forgot the brand (it was some German brand -HEBIE- I never heard of before), but it was only 16 euro's so I bought it. It is adjustable, fitting both 26" and 700c wheels. It only took some minor adjustment in length to fit the XP and is much more sturdy than the previous kickstand.
I also received a phone call from my bike shop informing me that the front roller brake I ordered, had arrived. I plan to have it installed later this week, if the weather improves, that is !

The HEBIE kickstand

Bye Bye C-bar

Okay, so this will be the last posting about the C-bar. Today I changed the chopper bar with the C-bar for the last time, only to find out it does not work. Besides looking straight forward into the cargo fairing, I also had to stretch my arms a bit more forward to reach the the C-bar handlebar. This did not feel comfortable at all, so the chopper bar was put back shortly, this time to stay. The C-bar will go back to my old Stratus, so it can be sold.

Yesterday, my XP fell over while it was parked outside the bike shop. It has been very windy the last couple of days and the wind must have blown it over, although it was parked on its kickstand. I already noticed that the XP is not very stable on the kickstand I have right now (it is brandless, no name is mentioned on it), so I need to find me another one. The only damage from the falling was the broken Mirrcycle mirror, which I replaced with a spare one. It has been cloudy and rainy all day, so I did not take a ride today. Let's hope the weather will be better tomorrow so I can put in some more miles !

Comparison so far ....

A little over 500 miles so far and still lovin' it ! I got rid of the front derailleur shifter since I'm only using the smallest chain ring in front, which is more than sufficient for me. The cranks are 175 mm ( I ordered the shortest version, the 165 mm but they are not available in my country ) and I do notice that they are a bit too long. I might replace them with a 155 mm crank soon. I notice that my knees are a bit sore after riding the XP although I try to spin in a high cadence. I also have 155 mm cranks in my velomobile and especially after switching from velomobile to the XP it takes some time to adjust ....
When I compare the XP to the Stratus, I have to agree that the XP it is a bit faster, climbs better and it is defenitely more comfortable, especially over rough terrain. The seat is also more comfortable, but this is due to the fact that the seat bottom is adjustable too ( where as on my Stratus, only the the back of the seat is adjustable ). When it comes to the steering ... well ... I think I still prefer the C-bar over the chopper bar, but I still ride the chopper bar. I did cut the new riser short ( not too short this time, I learned my lesson ! ) and feel more comfortable now, but still miss the C-bar. Especially when taking turns : with the C-bar, I did not have to worry about turning, the C-bar turned above my knees, no matter how sharp a corner I took. With the chopper bar it's different : when I ride straight forward, my knees go up and down between the grips. When I need to take a turn, I have to lower the knee and keep it there on the inside of the turn or I simply cannot take the turn. This still needs some thinking, although it might be a matter of time before it becomes second nature .... I have not completely given up on the C-bar yet, I'm only afraid that the C-bar will turn out to be too short. I will give a last and final try next week. Tomorrow, I'll be off for Cycle Vision in the Netherlands for the weekend. Unfortunately, the weather conditions will not be good at all, otherwise I would ride the XP all the way to Zandvoort. They predict lots of rain and heavy winds, not my kind of weather to ride a bike in ....

On the road again !

Yesterday Fedex delivered the parts I ordered from Rans, so I could install the chopper bar to the XP again. It only took me half an hour to take the C-bar off and install the chopper bar. As expected, taking off the C-bar took most of the time. Anyway, the original chopper bar is back on the XP so it's ready to roll again !
I'm still looking almost straight into the small chopper bar fairing, but at least I'm able to look underneath it to see where my front wheel is rolling. I still need to find my personal "sweet spot" to fine tune the bars, but I'm in no hurry.

I also finished the lighting on the XP. Both the front and rear light are LED's, so no more worries about blown lightbulbs anymore. Since only the front light has a built in sensor switch (the rear light doesn't have one), I connected both lights to a Shimano light sensor switch. Whenever it's getting dark, both lights switch on automatically. It doesn't get more practical than this !

Both lights have built in reflectors, since traffic regulations in my country require both front and rear reflectors on bikes. Both lights also have a safe stop function, meaning that the light keeps burning for a couple of minutes after you stop riding the bike.

The front light

The rear light

Learning the hard way ....

I rode my new XP a little over 300 miles so far and I like it more and more. The only thing that I can't seem to get used to, is the chopper bars. Not that they are bad (they offer a lot of positions and adjustments), but I miss the C-bar from my previous Stratus. So yesterday I decided to switch bars: I removed the chopper bar from the XP and the C-bar from my other Stratus. Compared to the C-bar on my old Stratus, the chopper bars are very easy to remove. The reason for this is that you can open up the handlebar stem from the XP, where as the stem on the old Stratus cannot be opened. After trying to open up the C-bar itself ( which allows you to remove the brake levers and the shifters ), you have to slide the handlebar through the stem.
Anyway, it took me about 20 minutes to remove both handlebars, so I could swap them. Turned out to be a bad idea : the C-bar with fairing did not work on the XP. Since the XP has a bigger front wheel, the bar ends up higher than with the 20" front wheel. I ended up looking straight into the C-bar fairing and could not look over it. It looked better than the chopper bar in my opinion, but it did not work. Damn !

It looks good, but it doesn't work ....

Well, the stem of the XP was already in its lowest position, but is a rather long stem, so why not cut off some of it, that would make the C-bar come down a bit. I took some measurements and concluded that if I cut off some of the stem, the C-bar could be lowered a few inches, probably enough to look over it once installed. Well, I was wrong ! After cutting the stem ( and the riser ) short, the C-bar still ended up too high and I was still looking straight into it ! It also turned out that I cut off too much of the riser, so the stem could not be attached firmly anymore ! So far for trying to fix somehting by myself (I should have known better, you're absolutely right !) ....

This is how short I cut the handlebar stem/riser .... too short !

I sent Rans an e-mail yesterday asking to send me a new stem and headtube pipe, so it'll take some time before I can ride the XP again...
And oh yes, somehting else I learned the hard way : now I understand why the XP's chopper bar fairing is so much smaller than the fairing on the C-bar, it allows you to look OVER the fairing while riding your bike !!!

Rear light

Yesterday, I took a ride across the border to the Netherlands, to visit a Profile bicycle shop ( which is a major chain of bicycle shops all across the Netherlands and some here in Belgium ) to try to buy a LED rear light with a safe stop function (meaning the light keeps burning for a couple of minutes after you stop riding). Unfortunately, they did not have any. It's weird, 'cause a lot of Dutch manufacturers such as AXA and SPANNINGA offer rear LED lights with a safe stop function, but I can't seem to find them in any bicycle shop anywhere ! Out of options, I ordered one through the internet (on a Dutch bicycle shop retailer!), that'll cost me more but at least I will have one by the end of this week.

I rode my new XP for only a couple of times so far (mainly because of the rain -don't wanna expose my brand new XP to the elements right away !), but I got the impression that the 8-speeds which I have right now, are adequate ( I live in a flat area and every ride I take starts at home ). Once up to speed I ride in 6th gear, meaning I ride at a speed of 15,5 -17 mph. I only rode in 7th gear once, at that time my speed was around 19 mph, which is more than fast enough for me, since the XP is not supposed to be a racing bike. I have not checked the rear cog yet, but I can change that one easily (range is from 16 cogs up to 23 cogs).

Starting after stopping is gettig a little bit better, but is still not as fluent as with my other Stratus. Practice makes perfect, I guess ....

Building up the XP

Main goal for building up the XP was to outfit it with reliable and maintenance free parts. The Stratus is a bike I use for almost anything : mostly touring, but also commuting, doing groceries, cycling holidays ... This means that the way I outfitted the XP will not make it the lightest or the fastest, but it is a bike that hardly needs any maintance and is trouble free. Therefore I chose to have a hub dynamo (Shimano DH-3D70) instead of battery powered lights, so no worries about running out of power. The hub dynamo might cause a little bit of friction, but the comfort of having light anytime and anywhere is more important to me.
For the same reason I chose the Shimano Nexus Premium 8-speed hub instead of a classic drivetrain. I have the same hub in my velomobile which I rode over 6000 miles so far, without any problems. I know the ROHLOFF hub has a wider gear, but I think it is simply too expensive. To make sure that my gear is wide enough, I put a double chainring in front. I put a short cage Shimano 105 rear derailleur on the rear hub, to allow switching chainrings in front.


On the front I put a new Shimano 105 road crank, simply because it is a beautiful one. On the steering I put 2 Shimano twist shifters. I use Shimano SPD-pedals on all my bikes, so the XP is no exception.


I chose Shimano rollerbrakes for my braking system, simply because they are more than powerfull enough and almost maintenance free. Only once a year you just squeeze some grease in them and that's it. In front I have a Shimano BR-IM70F rollerbrake combined with the dynamo hub. The front fork of the XP allows the mounting of disc brakes, but has no pat on it to mount the brake arm of the BR-IM70F propperly. Stopping power right now on the front wheel is not powerful enough, so I have ordered the BR-IM75F rollerbrake instead, which uses a small adapter so it can be mounted using the disk brake braze-ons.


I have SCHWALBE's Big Apples on both wheels, both size 26x2.00. They're big but comfortable and are supposed to be puncture proof. They ride light and I have the same tires on most of my other bikes.
For fenders I chose SKS. I did not know whether to choose the silver or the black ones, but since the XP already had a silver front fork and steering, I decided to go for the silver ones.

Problems so far is mainly the twist shifter for the front derailleur : it does not twist far enough to allow the derailleur to stay in place on the biggest chainring. I cannot ride the XP using the biggest chainring in front, unless I keep the twist chifter in place by gripping it firmly (not comfortable ). This means that now I "only" have 8 speeds instead of 16 available, so there's still some work to be done !

Why a Stratus ?

I own and ride Stratus since 2000, which is a LWB (Long Wheel Base) recumbent from RANS. This is a American company that has been making sports aeroplanes and recumbents for years now, so they do have a long time of experience. I think the Stratus was one of their first designes and goes way back to 1979. It took me several years before I ordered a Stratus frame in 1999 through the German dealer, mainly because I did not have the opportunity to testride one. I already knew that I wanted that kind of seat on a recumbent (I don't like hard shell seats at all!) and what convinced me most to go for a Stratus were reviews I read in Recumbent Cyclist News (a very fine American publication). So I ordered and bought a frame set in 1999 and had it built up to my specifications (SRAM Dual Drive drivetrain, MAGURA HS-33 brakes and a SHIMANO hub dynamo for lightning). What I had read before, seemed to be true : it is a remarkable and very comfy bike ! I rode it over 17.000 miles in 3,5 years, which says something about how much I like it !

Last year, Rans came up with a dual 26" Stratus, the XP. Everything I read about this new bike was very positive and some even claimed that it is the best Stratus so far. I had to find out myself, so I ordered a frame set at the end of last year, directly from RANS. I had to wait a long time until the bike was completed, but today I could finally pick it up from my friends' place. I just rode it from his place to mine, which is only about 10 miles. My first impression of the XP is that it is a HUGE bike ! Both my old Stratus as my new one are size XL, but still the XP feels longer and bigger. The steering seems to be a bit further away, so I had to reach a bit more forward. I also had the impression that the bike rides a little less nervous, which might be because of the 26" front wheel. I can't tell anything about speed yet, 'cause I still have to put bicycle computer on it , that will be somehting for tomorrow. To be continued !