Last Friday, I finally picked up my XP from the bike shop. It has been there for almost 7 weeks, so it was about time ! The last couple of weeks had been really sunny and warm, but the XP was not available then. The problem turned out to be the brake hoses for the hydraulic disc brakes. Shimano's hoses are not long enough for the bike and it turned out that they only come in one (standard) size. The guy who runs the bike shop tried to look everywhere to get hoses that would fit the Shimano system and would be long enough for the rear brake. Finally, he found a dealer from Magura who could deliver hoses that are long enough (2m20). They only arrived last week at the bike shop and were installed immediately (after they cleaned the dust from my bike, that is). Turned out the hose was just long enough, a couple of cm's shorter and it would've been too short ! Anwyay, last Friday I received the long awaited phone call that my bike was ready to roll. I only rode it home so for, since I had to work this weekend.
So, what has changed : SRAM DUAL DRIVE 27 speed hub ( with the SRAM twist shifter), new rims (MAVIC X717 DISC's), new hydraulic brakes + brake levers (SHIMANO LX) and a new dynamo hub (SHIMANO DH-3D71) which is supposed to have less friction since it's a hub from the Sports series.
There's quiet a difference between the Dual Drive and the Nexus : there's less friction in the hub, so speed's up a bit. This is very noticable when you stop pedalling : the bike keeps on rolling longer before it comes to a stop. And although the Rollerbrakes were more than adequate, the of the hydraulic brakes are much stronger.
Looking forward to get some miles on the XP now !!!
The new hub with the disc brake
The new Dual Drive hub with disc brake
