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.