The Limburg BBQ ride

Yesterday, Johan C. from the Limburgse Liggers organized a 75 km ride followed by a BBQ. Since we've been having hot summerdays these last few weeks and I wanted to meet some old riding friends again, I decided to join them for the ride. So in the early morning yesterday, I left with my XP. Rode along the towpath near the canal until I reached the bridge between Munsterbilzen and Zutendaal. There I followed the N730 to Wiemesmeer, the place where Johan C. lives.
Around 21 recumbent riders showed up, 2 of them even with a velomobile. I have to admit that it slipped my mind to take my own Strada for the ride, but with predicted temperatures of + 35° Celcius, I decided to go for the XP. Weather forcasts warned for heavy rain -and thunderstorms, but in the last few days, we did not see any of these, so I preferred an open bike.

It was hot, real hot. The route was beautiful as usual, the province of Limburg is like heaven for cyclist : lots of bike paths through beautiful sceneries, guided by their famous knooppunten-system. Anyway, we did several drink stops (thankfully, since it really was too hot for some riders) and a lunch stop where the most of us ate a plate of spaghetti. After lunch, a small group of riders decided to take a short route back to Wiemesmeer, where as most of the riders wanted to complete the ride as planned. So the last group with Johan C. was back in Wiemesmeer around 6.15 p.m., where everybody welcomed the garden hose to freshen up with open arms ;-).
BBQ was also terrific, Johan C. and his wife Elke are perfect hosts and nobody left with an empty stomach.

Around 09.15 p.m. I decided to ride back home. Jonathan A, who came with his rowing bike, accompanied me. As we decended the bridge and came on the towing path heading north, a strong head wind was blowing us right in the face. Wow, that would be no piece of cake ! Honestly said, I had hoped that the wind would go down in the evening -as it had the days before- but not this time. Looking at the skies, we knew that the weather was changing and that I would not get home without getting wet. We had to work hard to keep our riding speed around 25 km/h. When we reached the bridge between Beringen and Diest, Jonathan took off and I kept on fighting against the wind by my own. A couple of minutes later the first drops of rain started to fall. I stopped to cover my panniers with rain covers and put on my rain jacket. Within 15' the sky turned completely dark and I got caught in a real thunderstorm. I saw lighting wherever I looked and it rained heavily. Now I'm not really scared from lighting, but let met tell you that I was pretty nervous to say the least. I still had to ride about 50 km before I was home, so stopping was no option, I simply had to ride on.
I did stop about 3 times to hide underneath a bridge since rain was falling so heavily at that time that I could not see where I was going.

Somewhere halfway between Kwaadmechelen and Mol, I picked up Teun G. with his rowing bike. He was also on his way home, but did have no lights on his bike and was hiding for the storm. Since my headlight was strong enough for the both of us, he joined me until we reached the bridge between Ravels and Oud-Turnhout. I was home around 00.50 a.m., soaken wet but happy to be home. Total milage for yesterday was 245 km.

Picking up the XP

Yesterday I received a call from my bike shop that the XP was ready to be picked up. Harry had finished replacing the rear wheel with the new MAVIC rim. Harry had taken the damaged rim to MAVIC and returned with a new rim for free. It's not exactly the same rim, but very close. Once the stickers will be removed, I don't think anyone will see any difference ...

So today I picked up my beloved XP and rode it back home. Of course I did not take the shortest route back home, I was way too happy to be riding the XP again !

I only need to remove the Mavic stickers and replace them with new Scotchlite 3M reflective stickers. I will save that for a rainy day, as long as these hot summer days are lasting, I'd rather be riding my bike !

Torn rim ...

When I left for groceries this morning, I felt a small wobble coming from the rear of my XP, as if the rear tire had a small lump. When I touched the side walls of the tire with my fingers while freewheeling, I did not feel much, but I stopped to make sure anyway.
My intitial thought was that the tire had come from underneath the rims' edge. When I looked a bit closer, I ascertained that there was nothing wrong with the tire, but that the rim was torn laterally ! Damn ! I deflated the tire a bit to put less strain on the rim and carefully drove back home. The Mavic rims were installed almost 2 years ago, one would expect them to last longer than that. Okay, I realize that I was lucky that the rim got torn overnight in the garage instead of getting damaged while out riding miles away from home, but still .... Now the weather finally is improving, I'm going to have to miss my favorite bike for a couple of weeks !

Anwyay, I'm going to bring it to my bike shop today or tomorrow, where the XP is gonna be on display. The bike shop is having an open house for the upcoming Pentecost weekend and the owner asked me permission to display the XP in his showroom together with my new Raptobike lowracer. Hopefully I'll be able to ride the XP to the shop without any trouble ....

Serious damage after less then 2 years ....

Update : I managed to get the XP safely to my bike shop yesterday and according to them, the rim was torn because of the tire's pressure, which appearantly is too high for this rim. Can't quiet understand this, since I run the Kojaks at the same pressure than I did with the Supremes (5 bar) and nothing ever happened while riding them.

Last week I received a call from my bike shop that Mavic will replace the rim at their expense. Mavic agreed that it is not normal for a rim to get damaged like this by a tire pressure of only 5 bar. Let's hope they still have the same rim in stock ....

Sunday Morning Ride

Initially I was planning on taking the XP just for a ride to the supermarket. We were out of bread and since some supermarkets are open on Sunday in the Netherlands, I rode to Baarle-Nassau. It was pretty windy and cloudy, but as I came closer to the border, the sky opened up and the sun came through. So instead of returning home after shopping, I decided to spend more time on my bike. Besides the bread I also bought an extra bottle of regular water and I was on my way. I had to start to work at 01.00 p.m.today, so I figured I might enjoy some riding time before going to work.

When I rode from Gilze to Tilburg, I encountered the following road sign :

Can't translate it litterally, but the sign warns bicyclists for a bumpy ride caused by tree roots pushing up the tiles ( wortel = root, opdruk = pressing upward). Haven't heard of read something like this anywhere yet, though it's nice to be warned before you actually feel how bad the road surface is, no ?

When I rode to Goirle, I was pleasantly suprised to discover that they actually have bicycle streets : a road reserved for bicycles. Other traffic is allowed to participate but have to give the right of way to bicyclists. I knew they existed in the Netherlands, but never actually had seen one before. No wonder the Netherlands is one of the leading countries when it comes to bicycling ! Can't imagine the same kind of treatment of bicyclists in my own country, but it's nice to actually see that things can be turned around in favor of the bicycle, instead of motorized traffic. And it made me realize how fortunate I am to be living close to such a bike-friendly country. Most of my bike riding takes place in the Netherlands, if I'm not riding the towing paths near the canal, that is ...

A bicycle street ....

When going through the centre of Goirle, I passed the Irene Street, which was completely turned into the color orange and was renamed Orange Street. As you know, the Dutch are really crazy when it comes to their national soccer team, this is just one of the many ways the Dutch show their support. Unbelievable !

Orange Crazyness ...

By the time I got home, I spent almost 4 hours on the XP, enjoying every minute of it. Let's hope the afternoon shift at work will not be to busy ;-)

New (summer) tires

The Schwalbe Supremes tires were due for replacement and since summer is supposed to be coming, I ordered 2 Schwalbe Kojak 26 x 2.00 tires. I wanted something completely different, not that the Supreme is not a good tire ( I did a little over 10,000 km with them without any flat), but it's rather heavy and not so fast. A friend of mine adviced me to pick the Kojak, which is lighter and supposed to be faster. So a couple of days ago, I replaced the XP's tires.

Tire size is the same, but the Kojak is treadless. It also lacks a reflective lining, but since my rims have 3M Scotchlite stickers on them, that'll be no real problem at night. And to be honest, I quite like the looks of the black sidewalls of the tires !

I will try the new tires as soon as the weather improves, for it has been pretty rainy these last few days.

Schwalbe's Kojak 26 x 2.00

Update : today I used the XP to get groceries just across the border. Wow, what a big difference ! Not only has acceleration improved, but speed too ! I noticed that with the same effort I can now ride between 2 and 3 km/h faster, not bad ! Can't tell anything about puncture proofness or durability, but time will surely tell. At less than half the price of the Supreme, the Kojak is defenitaly staying on the XP for now (thank you Jonathan A. for recommending this tire) !

Sunday Touring

Today promised to be the most pleasant day of the week, with mild spring temperatures, perfect to make a tour. As it happened to be, the department of the provence of Limburg of the Gentse Liggers ( a Flemish discussion group for recumbents) organised a tour. Starting place was Tessenderlo, roughly only around 30 miles from home. Ideal to get there by XP, ride the tour and get back. So I left early this morning, took a bit of a detour by using the towing path to get there and arrived around 9.45 a.m. at the starting place. There, the riders were welcomed with fresh coffee, tea and croissoints, which was a nice way to meet some new faces and see some old friends again. 12 riders including myself showed up for the tour. The route we followed is called the 3 Provinciën Pad, because it goes through 3 different provinces. The nice thing of this route is that you actually ride through different landscapes, one of the provinces is a bit hilly, which is a nice change from the flat landscapes around where I live.

Around noon we made a lunch stop at a taverne and halfway the afternoon we made a second drink stop at a nice café.

Hmmm, spaghetti !

We finished the tour around 3.45 p.m., which gave me plenty of time to ride back home. Got home around 6.45 p.m. with 105 miles on my bicycle computer, enough for this old lad to spend the rest of the evening on the couch. All in all a nice way to spend a Sunday, if you ask me ;-)
A few more pictures can be found here

Somewhere along the route ....

New pedals

After that december ride last year, winter wasn't over at all and I had to keep the XP parked inside. I can' t actually remember when we had so much snow for such a long period of time, but I'm glad it's gone now. Both the roads and bicycle paths suffered from these past winter conditions, with salt and other kind of debris causing lots of holes and other damages.

After riding my velomobile for the last two months, I was more than happy to finally get the XP out of the garage. After checking the tires (they were still okay, no need to inflate them) and the chain (needed a quick wipe and a drop of lube) I was on the road again. Man, it felt good being on an "open" bent again after all these weeks ! I liked it so much, that I rode my XP already 4 times this week, just enjoying riding a bike again. The last days were sunny, but pretty cold and windy, making the rides not fast at all. I also think that the cold slows down the Dual Drive II hub a bit, I notice the same thing on my bike with the Nexus hub.

The Shimano SPD A520 pedals came stock with my velomobile. These are fine touring pedals, but did not work for me in the velomobile. Since they only have a one side entrance, I often tried to click in on the wrong side, which resulted in some scratches and bruses on my legs. So I took them out and switched them with the SPD's that were on the XP. The A520's work well on the XP, giving your shoes a wider platform.

The new A520 pedals

Another year has passed ....

Another year has passed, a new one has arrived. Last year I managed to ride a measly 1,705 miles with my XP. Although I was convinced that I spent a fair amount of time on my XP, the stats show otherwise. Strange .... I did not ride any bike at all during the first three months of 2009, which explains that my total bike riding distance is also a little over 2,000 miles less than the previous year, but still ... Need to ride more, that's for sure.
So, what's new ? Actually, not much. The last few weeks we've had snow, we even had a white christmas for the first time in 23 years ! While the snow sure makes nice sceneries, it's pure misery for those who ride their bikes. Since the snow/ice on most bike lanes is not properly removed, it's pretty risky to ride your bike. There's no cleaning at all on the towing path near the canal, making it only available for mountain bikes with fat tires (which I do not own). So for the last weeks, I was condemmed to use my regular bike to commute (yuck!). Just waiting for the snow and ice to melt, but it's supposed to stay for at least another week ....

On my last ride I noticed that the Marathon Supreme tires on the XP are showing little cracks on the sidewalls and contact surface. I've ridden them both for almost 6,250 miles, so it might be time to replace them. Schwalbe has a new model in their Marathon line that looks interesting, the Dureme, but according to their stats, it's a bit slower than the Supreme. So far, I'm very happy with the Supremes; I did not have one flat tire since I put them on the XP in 2007, their grip is pretty good even on wet surfaces and they seem to last quiet a while. Maybe I"ll stick to them as long as the cracks are not getting worse ....

Little cracks like these are appearing everywhere ...

Now that the rain has stopped ....

.... and winter finally arrived, I pulled my XP out of the garage today. It had been parked inside there for weeks, since all we got the last weeks was rain, lots of rain. No problem for my (new) velomobile, but not for the "naked" bikes like the XP. But today was different : last night temperatures dropped, wind had changed to N-N/E so yes, finally a day without rain. A bit on the cold side (below 5° Celsius) and a mild wind, but who cares ! I put on enough layers to last a couple of hours and off I went. Wow, I almost forgot how much fun it was riding a LWB, it had been that long ! I did not care that my feet turned cold after 1,5 hours, I did not mind that I had to stop for several Pinkelpauses (as the Germans call it), I did not mind that I was waaaaay slower than my velomobile, I simply enjoyed riding my XP again, every minute of it !
I did not meet many cyclists outside this afternoon, but the few I did cross, had the same grin on their faces that I propably had. Let's hope this weather lasts a couple of weeks, so I can crank up the milage on this wonderful bike for these last weeks of the year !

New XP-rider

At the last edition of Cycle Vision last july I was contacted by a few people who where very interested in the Stratus XP. Three of them took a short test ride and just last week I received an e-mail from Wim H. telling me he finally got his own XP. He got his bike completed by Tempelman. He also wrote me that Tempelman is likely to import some XP-frames and build them up as complete bikes. Now that would be interesting, seeing more people on XP's on the road !

Wim's XP's color is dark silver and he really loves his bike. Maybe it's time to start a LWB riding group over here ;-) !

Wim's new Stratus XP

And then some ....

Last weekend, I renewed the seat mesh back. I had a new mesh lying around for almost 2 years, but especially during the latest 100km ride, I noticed my back touched one of the braces of the seat frame during pedalling. And since the mesh had been tightened all up the way, it was time to replace it.

Putting the new mesh on was not easy. I had to use a big screw driver to get the 2 holes over the braces at the back of the seat frame to get it in place. And when I finally managed to get the mesh around the seats frame, I noticed that the mesh has not been put together symmetrical : the enforced side walls of the mesh are not the same width on each side, but I don't think that that'll be a problem . Anyway, the moment I took my next ride, I noticed the difference immediately, my back no longer touches the seats frame anymore.

This afternoon, after my early shift at work, I took the XP for another ride. I was riding on the bike path between Hoge Mierde en Poppel, when a SUV slowed down besides me and the driver asked me to stop. I'm used to cars slowing down to have a better look at the XP when I ride by, but this was the first time that a car actually stopped and wanted to know more about it. He asked me lots of questions about the XP and as usual, I referred to the RANS' website for more information. Maybe I should consider taking some pieces of paper with me with the RANS website on it for future rides ....

Nice wide bike lanes in the Netherlands ....

The 100km ride in Limburg

It's getting a tradition that one week after August 15 (which is a national holiday in my country) one of the members of our forum organises a 100km ride. Start and stop is always in Helchteren in the provence of Limburg. Last year I participated with my velomobile, but since yesterday promised to be an excellent summer day, I decided to take my XP this time. Since Helchteren is around 65km from where I live -and to avoid that everyone had to wait for me like last year, I left home early in the morning, around 06.30 am. I arrived in Helchteren around 09.30 am, where others were arriving and were greeted with fresh coffee and pastries. Around 10.00 am we started with a group of 16 riders on different kind of recumbents.

We had lunch in Schaffen around 01.00 pm, where most of us enjoyed spaghetti. After this break, we continued the tour. It was pretty hot, but luckily there was a breeze to cool you down while riding. After almost 70 km, 2 riders weren't able to ride with the group and headed straight to Helchteren to get home. Since we made 2 stops for icecream (okay, that's my fault, but hey, I cannot help that I'm addicted to icecream!), we arrived back in Helchteren around 07.15 pm. After saying goodbye to everyone I drove back home, where I arrived around 10.00pm with 240km on my bike computer. Not bad at all (did he say in all modesty :-)

Group picture at the second ice cream stop

Finding out the hard way ....

Yesterday, I took my XP to go to work. Nothing wrong with my velomobile, but since the temperatures are still rising (yes, we do have a good summer this year!) I preferred riding the XP. When I was riding home on the tow path near the canal, I noticed a man walking besides his road bike. I stopped and asked him what was wrong. Turned out he had a flat tire but nothing with him to fix it. Since I carry almost everything except an extra tire to fix flats, I offered him to help. With the tire levers I gave him, he got the inner tube out in no time, but neither one of us could find any puncture in it. We then checked the outer tire, but nothing there either. Put the inner tube back in and I handed out my compact SKS CYBER ZOOM pump. The pumps head has 2 positions, one for schrader valves and one for presta, the position of the lever at the pumps head decides which one you need. Although we pumped like madmen, we only managed to get a little bit of air into the inner tube, but nowhere near to be able to ride it. We tried both positions of the pump with the same result. Strange .... Could it be the valve itself ? When looking for what was going wrong, I noticed that during inflation, you could hear a faint hissing of air. I mentioned this to the other guy and he could hear it too. Seems that while pumping, air was getting back into the pump. Hmmm, so was there something wrong with the pump or with the valve ?

Although I've always carried the pump with the XP, I actually never had to use it before. We then stopped another rider passing by asking for a pump. Turned out he also had a SKS compact pump, but a newer version than mine (2 different openings in its head). But nevertheless, the result was the same. I felt sorry for the road bike guy, since he had to walk a couple of miles to get to the next bike shop, so I rode home, picked up my TOPEAK floor pump and returned to the tow path. But alas : the same thing happened, so it had to be the valve. I wished the guy good luck on his walk and returned home.

Back home I took the compact SKS pump and tried it on a couple of spare inner tubes lying around the garage. But no matter what kind of valves the inner tube had, the result was the same : I could not inflate them propperly. Whenever I started pumping, I heard a hissing sound of air getting back into the pump. The SKS pump is now where it belongs : in the trash. Have to get me a decent one that works !

Trash !

Getting the headlight right ....

As I wrote before : the sensor of the CYO is located right at the bottom (end) of it, so in order to let it do its job, there needs to be some space around it. The it was mounted at my bike, it did not work at all. So yesterday I visited the local DIY shop and bought 2 small metal plates for less than a buck and some black spray paint. Back home I painted the silver plates black and let them dry in the garage. Then I went through my collection of nuts and bolts until I found the right size and length. This morning I put everything together, so now the set-up looks like this :


I did not have time yet to see whether the automation on/off function is working correctly, but I'm pretty confident it'll work -no doubt since it's made in Germany ;-). I'll sure find out in the next days to come ...

Life is good ...

Start working early in the morning so you can stop around noon. Get into your velomobile and on your way home, receive a call from a friend asking you to accompany him on a maxiscooter ride. Get home, change into motorcycling gear, get the scooter out of the garage and leave for a nice 2 hour ride with a drink stop on a nice terrace. Get home again, enjoy dinner with your wife and then leave for another 2,5 hour bike ride. When returning home, you have this awsome view to enjoy :

Life is good !!!

New headlight

My recent pair of bike sandals are pretty much worn out and need replacement. I really like the Shimano SPD-sandals, but the latest version has 3 closing straps on each shoe, making it not as airy as the old model (which has only 2 straps). The latest issue of ACTIV RADFAHREN, a German Bike magazine, had an article comparing several bike sandals and one of the best to come out of this test was the Red X SS502 . This brand is not available in my country and can only be ordered online from Germany. Since it's almost impossible to find your correct size through the internet, my wife and I rode all the way to Bocholt in Germany, where the Bike Town of ROSE ( a big German online bike retailer) is located.

When you enter the shop, it's almost like entering bike heaven : only bike-related stuff on 3 floors/ 6,000m², wow !!! Thank God my wife was holding my credit card, or I might have bought way too many things !

After finding the correct size of sandals, I visited the bike light section. It's not that I'm not satisfied with my FLY IQ SENSO PLUS, but I need that light for my RANS 700X. So I went shopping for a new light. Finally I purchased another Busch + Müller LED headlight : the CYO SENSO PLUS. It has an output of 60 lux, which should be plenty enough to see where you're riding at night. Only minor thing is that the sensor of this light is placed right at the back of it, so in the position I put it on the XP right now, the sensor's pretty much useless. I'll need to figure out another way to attach the headlight to my bike.

The new CYO PLUS SENSO

2009 Sculpture Exhibition - Oisterwijk

A couple of days ago, while riding my motorcycle abroad, I noticed several adds besides the road for the Sculpture Exhibition in Oisterwijk (the Netherlands). Yesterday was a beautiful day and since Oisterwijk is not that far from my home town, I took the XP to get me there. It took me about 1,5 hour to get into the centre of Oisterwijk. I never visited this event before, but I was pleasantly surprised when I got there.
The sculptures were exhibited right in the middle of one of the main streets. Visitors could walk between them, viewing each of them in a green decor, on the grass and between the trees. Now I do not know much about art, but I sure like to look at nice things once in a while. Most of the sculptures were pretty nice and I sure had a good time over there. Although it was pretty crowded, I managed to take some pictures of the sculptures I really liked. If you're interested, you can find them here

Art in the middle of the street

New headset

Since I took the XP out of its wintersleep and started riding it, I noticed some drag in the rear disc wheel. Last week I stopped by at my bikeshop to have it checked out, only to find out that the Shimano discs are self centered and can't be adjusted. But they discovered that the spokes of my rear wheel needed to be tensioned, which probably caused the drag of the disc. Since the bike also needed a new head set, I brought it in earlier this week. Yesterday I received a call that the XP was ready. So yesterday afternoon my wife dropped off so I could pick it up. They installed a Shimano LX head set, 'cause that's the one that is the most reliable. The spokes of the rear wheel were tentioned so the wheel was true again, which means no more drag coming from the disc. And they removed some of the tension on the shifting cable, which caused the shifter to jump out of the highest gears. Since the weather was fine, I did not take the XP straight to home but made a wider tour. Really mild temperatures for this time of the year, so I put on my SPD-sandals and enjoyed the sun. Happy Easter to all of ya !

The new head set

Spring is here !

Last friday I took my XP out of the garage for the first time this year. It was the first mild sunny day of the year and instead of taking my old BMW motorcycle for a ride, I really longed to be on the XP again. Amazingly, tire pressure was still excellent, so besides getting rid of some dust and one cobb web, the bike was ready to ride. Although early in the year, the sun was strong enough to ride in shorts (still wearing a long sleeve jacket though) and I really enjoyed the scenery on the XP during my one hour ride. A lot of fellow bikers must have had the same feeling, 'cause I crossed lots of them on the towpath, with lots of happy faces that I looked into !

Since my velomobile had to be taken to my friends' place for adjusting, I even rode my XP to work yesterday. After finishing my early shift, I took it for another ride, this time for a 2,5 hour ride. Still pretty sunny with a mild wind. And even though it's been a couple of months since I last rode my XP, there was no discomfort at all. The only adjustment I had to make was at the rear brake disc, which started to make a screeching sound halfway into my ride. But that was easily fixed with a 5mm allen wrench. i really love this bike !!!

Spring !

Back again ....

Since our winter has been pretty wet these last months, I did not ride my XP very much. Only the last weeks have been really cold with sub-zero temperatures, making it too cold to be on the XP for long times (I'm a whussy, I know).
Anyway, when looking back on 2008, I managed to ride 2,625 miles with the XP, a little more than the previous year. Sure, I wish I did ride it some more, but there's still my velomobile, and my Zenetik Pro, and my 700X, and .... My total cycling distance in 2008 was more or less the same as in 2007, making it a total of 10,170 miles. Not bad, considering the fact that my commuting distance has been halved since January 2008. And it's still more than the motorized miles in my household, so that's pretty good !

So, what's next ? Well, not much. I do need a new headset though. On my latest rides I noticed that the front fork preferred to stay put and that it more or less popped back in a straight position after taking turns. I already had my headset tightened in the past because of this, so I guess it's time to replace it. It should be standard size, so that'll be no problem. I just need to decide which brand and type. Oh, the choices one has to make ...

Happy miles to all of you out there !