Home again ....

Last Fridaynight, my wife and I returned home from our trip. The weather turned out to be great, it rained all day on Monday but it got better every day. Total milage was around 280 miles, a little less than last year because the starting point was way closer to home. We also had the biggest group so far (28 riders), which is a pretty high number of riders. All kind of bicycles were present : regular bikes, LWB's (there were 2 XP's this year !), trikes, velomobiles etc., so we sure attracted a lot of attention when riding through cities.

The XP performed very well, as expected. Towing the trailer never caused any trouble and the only thing I had to keep in mind was the length of my bike (loooooooong), as you can see in the picture. The only thing I did not like was that when arriving last Friday, I had a bit of a sore butt. I don't know the reason for this, I've done more miles than last week last year without any discomfort, but still .... Maybe I have to look at the angle of my seat again and do some modifications .... Anyway, I'm still very happy with the XP and it is a very good and comfortable touring bike !

Somewhere near Oostmalle on day 2

More pictures of our trip can be seen here .

Checking bicycle routes ....

I've been riding the XP on several occasions lately. As long as the weather stayed dry, I preferred to sit on my XP instead on one of my CF bikes. The comfort of the seat is beyond comparison. The only one more comfortable is the ICE mesh seat in my velomobile, but that's another story. A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to test ride a aluminum XP wich is owned by Bruno (he's one of the guys who came over to my place to testride my XP and ordered one for himself after that). The complete bike is set up as a racing bike and that defenitely showed : I could ride that bike up to 26m/h so easily, wow ! Only thing I did not like was the Z-seat with narrow pan. The regular seat on my XP is by far more comfortable, something that even Bruno admitted and regretted. Anyway, I was quiet surprised that a XP could be that fast ! Whew !

Next week, I'm gonna be on a short bicycle trip. Just like last year, I'll take part of the Flanders Tour, a 5-day bike trip. Only difference is that this year, I'm part of the organisation. I'm responsible for the routes of the trip on day 1 and day 2. Just like last year, I'll probably take the XP, only this year I cannot take my BOB-trailer with me. The new SRAM Dual Drive hub also has 2 hub bolts, but only one is accessible because of the click-box on the right side. So this year, I'm gonna tow my BYKEBOOSE 2-wheel trailer. I used the same trailer 2 years ago with my wifes' trike, I'm not expecting any trouble with it behind my XP. Most of the scouting has been done, I only have to check 2 parts of the route before Sunday, so that's plenty of time. Sunday afternoon, both my wife (on her Kettwiesel trike) and I will ride our bikes to Hulshout, where the Flanders Tour will start on Monday. I'll write a report as soon as we're back from this short -hopefully very good weathered- bicycle holiday.