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