Black cockpit at last !

A couple of weeks ago I discoverd that the seat cover of the Rans XP had a small hole in it. I presume it is caused by wear, since I did not fall with my bike or had any kind of accident. 

  
 When going through the SHOP-pages of the Rans' website, I came across the black 3-Way Chopper Handlebar. This was not available when I ordered my XP way back in 2005, but I've always wanted to replace the bare aluminum handlebars with black ones. The black handlebar also has the cross bar, which my original handlebar has not. Since I had to had to order the seat cover, this time I also ordered the black chopper handlebar.

The package arrived last Friday, but I only had time to replace the handlebar today. It took me about half an hour to remove the old and install the new handlebar, but wow : what a difference ! Although only the extendable parts are visible coming from underneat the chopper bar fairing, the whole cblack ockpit looks way nicer this way ! Now if only that fork came in a different color .... 

The ROHLOFF SPEED HUB had its first overhaul a couple of weeks ago and it runs even smoother since, or at least to me it feels as if it runs smoother. I'm still not completely used to the shifting, but so far, the ROHLOFF has turned out to be the best investment of the Stratus XP yet.

XP goes Rohloff

Today I picked up my Stratus XP from the local bike shop with a new rear hub : a Rohloff Speedhub.The Sram Dual Drive II I had was a little bit overkill, since all I ever used so far were 5 or 6 gears. The rear fender also had to be cut for the sideway movements of the chain. I'd rather see a comple fender on my bikes and I always wanted to ride a ROHLOFF SPEEDHUB. I couldn't decide on which bike though, but the Stratus XP seemed to be the logical choice. 

The Rohloff's shifters' direction is opposite compared with those of SHIMANO, which is a bit confusing. For going up in gears, you need to twist your hand forward and the other way around for downshifting. I also ride motorcycles and hence the SHIMANO shifting seems more logical. It'll probably take some time, but I'm pretty sure that I'll get used to it.

The new hub will have its first overhaul at around 1,000 miles, at which point the oil should be replaced. After that it only needs oil replacements every 3,125 miles. It's not a cheap hub, but it's supposed to last a lifetime. I would say : let's find out ;-) !

A New Tail Light + GPS mount

There was nothing wrong with the tail light I had on the XP, but last year PHILIPS (a Dutch company mainly known for the production of light bulbs) developed a bicycle LED set. The tail light of this set is called the SAFERIDE LUMIRING and is available in both battery and dynamo version. It is actually a big red reflector with a ring of 6 LED's around it. The moment I saw a picture of it, I knew I had to have one.

I ordered one last Monday at my local bike shop and could pick it up on Wednesday. Installation was very simple : I just had to disconnect the wires and replace the old tail light with the new one. It also has 2 bolts in the back but unlike my previous tail light which had fixed bolts, the LUMIRING has adjustable ones, so it'll fit almost any rack. A review of this light can be found here

 

I also bought a GPS device this week. I've been searching for one the last months, but could not decide which device to accuire. Spent numerous hours on the internet reading reviews and forums. I finally narowed it to the GARMIN MONTANA 600. Since it"ll be used both on our motorcycles as on the bikes, it was important that the GPS had a long battery life. Most outdoor GPS from GARMIN run on penlight batteries and have a +10 hour run time, but the small size of their screens and the poor visibility in sunlight made me choose the MONTANA 600. The biggest and therefore the most expensive of the GARMIN outdoor line, but hey, it should guide me for the next couple of years ! Together with the MONTANA 600 I bought a couple of mounting devices from RAM MOUNTS. They have mounts for all kind of vehicles, including bicycles and motorcycles.This one fits the chopper bar of the XP perfectly, so I'm not supposed to get lost on it ever again ;-)