Archive for the ‘New gear’ Category

A bit crazy? Yeah a bit crazy. It’s not very common to use race rubber during a tour trip. But I’m going to do it anyway. So I bought the Schwalbe Koyak HS 358 tire.

The tire weights only 295 grammes and is a slick tire. What does this mean?

Normally tires have groves in them to make sure dirt, water and snow can leave the tire. The thicker rubber will make contact with the ground and thus you have more grip.

A slick tire however doesn’t do this. It’s harder, has more grip and the estimation is I’ll go 10% faster than usual. Yay.

What are the downsides? Well if it rains I’ll be doomed. Uh oh!

Anyway the tires came in today so I hope after worktime I can put them on my bike and prepare them for a testride. Nice.

I remember when I bought a recumbent bike for the first time of my life. It is still the only recumbent I ever bought.  It was the Optima Stinger in a light greenish blue edition combined with silver parts. No additional gadgets, one chainring on the front, no headrest and brakes that merely braked.

Times have changed. I’ve gained more experience and am demanding more and more every day from my bike. I couldn’t have it in the state as I bought it so I added additional components. From that awesome simple bike I went to the bike as it is today. Readers, fans, family and friends, I present to you my Optima Stinger in it’s current, awesome, shape:

What did I do today to it?

I’ve painted the rims and some other parts black. It now has a nice blue-black color scheme. Also I’ve added the GPS mount. This will hold my newest gadget of all.

The Garmin 60Cx

I knew it, I had to get a gadget. Something new, something that would make life easier. Something cool, something i could regularly use. Then I came across another recumbent bike fanatic and saw the GPS system on his bike. I was happy, I had a goal. My sweet female friend Emma stayed at my place and we’d be shopping on Saturday. What a great time to get the GARMIN 60Cx!!!

We went to the shopping center, visited all the shops who could possibly have it but alas, none had it. Until I had the great idea to call Bever Zwerfsport. They had one Garmin left, and we were on our way.

I saw it, fell in love, bought it, felt happy, bought a apple-cider-home-brew-set, went home, launched the GPS device and knew I bought something I wanted. This made my bicycle complete.

It not only made my bike complete, it works. I was delighted to see that I had the maps I wanted added to the device quite fast. The device itself is awesome. It’s water proof and since I once threw my camera under water, this is a feature I love. Also if the backlight is off, the visibility gets better when you hold it in the sun. Speaking of battery-saving-awesomeness! When it’s dark I’ll just put the backlight to 10%.

In no-time I had the whole route added to the device. Oh and don’t forget: there’s also games on it!

So just to round this post up, I really tweaked the bike. It’s nice now, I have a nice GPS unit and it rocks.

And finally, my bike is back. My recumbent has been away for a while but today I could finally pick it up. My dad, Joost and me went to Dronten to collect the bike. So here lemme show you some of the new parts. Enjoy!

Okay as you can see on this picture, the bike looks a bit more cooler. The front boom is now black. This is a new part so I could add a mechanism on the front so I can change gears. I’ve also added the derailleur. This will give me way more gears while driving, awesome!

Also the brakes are new. I have BB7 Avido discbrakes now. They are awesome! I think these 2 are the major changes. The rest is just replacement of old parts. The chainguard has been improved and replaced, the rear casette has been replaced giving me a wider gear choice. And some other awesome small fixes.

Here some pics of the other new parts:

That’s it for now!

Today I went for a nice 40 km bikeride to Dronten. During this ride I did an average of 30 km/h !! I was amazed myself. Just FYI, the wind was from the front so this made things far more difficult. And what would I have to find there? Ligfietsshop Tempelman. The nr 1. specialist for recumbents bike IMHO. But why you may ask? Let’s call it a small “pimp my ride”.

My bike was a secondhand bike when I bought it. The condition was quite okay but the price was indicating it already. Still without any replacement parts except for the rubber, I made it to Sweden plus a lot of other fun trips. Now I think it is time to get new parts. Since I will be going on this ridiculous journey to Poland I had to decide: a new bike or keep this one and have it fixed. I saw some awesome bikes second hand but I couldn’t make the decision. They would cost me a lot of money and I would have to sell the stinger. Was than an option for me? Well, no. I love my stinger and thus I decided to keep it and have it fixed.

Anyway I ordered a lot of new parts and have most of them added to the bike. Well actually, all of them. I wanted to be sure that these parts are placed properly on the bike. Yes I can be quite a tech guy, but when I’m going to use my bicycle to reach high speeds and long distances, I want to be sure I can trust on my equipment. Especially with expensive new stuff.

So what I ordered was:

- Shimano Deore Rear Derailleur
- New casette with 11-34 gears (currently I was having 11-28 so this will help me in the mountains/hills)
- New front boom
- Front derailleur
- Avid BB7 discbrakes front and rear.
- New chain.

So to give a small bottomline:
THIS BIKE IS GOING TO ROCK!!!

Big thanks to my job by the way since they are my biggest “sponsor”. Hehe. Will post a very nice picture when the bike is ready, can’t wait!!!!

Well well well, there it is. Joost’ new bicycle! He bought it some days ago and already start pimping it. He paid like 75 euro’s for it and it’s in a very good condition right now. It’s a Giant bicycle with really good parts. It’s quite old but certainly not more than 10 years or so.

The tires need new ones, but those aren’t that expensive. Also Joost bought a light system for it and the arm support on the steer of the bike. We’ve tested it thoroughly and so far it really drives well.

Today we went for a small ride of about 40 kilometers and I have to say: Joost is quick on this ride. We did an average of about 25-26 km/h with tops of 30 km/h which we could perform for 10-15 minutes straight. OKAY I will admit the wind was nicely in the back, but still.

The weather was lovely and the sun was shining. The wind was quite strong but it was all good for training. We sat on the beach and had a drink there. Then we continued in more nature environments.

Last but not least I’ve also bought something for his bike: a speedometer. It doesn’t have a LOT of options but it shows the speed and trip/total distance very accurately, and that’s exactly what Joost wanted. I have some more options on my speedometer but to be honnest: I’ve never ever in the history of everything used it. Except for the light function maybe…

Either way it was a nice 40 km trip we did today and Joost is very happy with his bike. I have some adjustments to make to mine but I’m confident my ride will be in mint condition soon!

-Steven.

As some might know I’m currently working at Univé. And when I was at Profile to get a new bidon I saw that I had received my first paycheck. Nice! So wandering through the store with the new found money I decided to do some serious shopping. And let’s be honest if you think about shopping, what item does pop in your mind first? Yes. Shoes.

I’ve seen a lot of bicycles and recumbents mounted with SPD  pedals. At first I thought they where a bit scary and maybe people were being overenthusiastic about the use of them. But yesterday I was seriously considering them. Between all the carbon-made-EUR300-shoes that looked like they were designed by Nasa I saw this Shimano FN21 shoe. They said it was made for mountain-biking, but it is a LOT lighter than the shoes I’m currently working. So step one done, weight-profit. Also the material has a very open structure so it ventilates very good. Second step down, smelly and sweaty feet! And the third step that I found rather important was, that these shoes cost about a third of the rest they had there. THEY WERE ON SAIL! Whoopdeedoo, I love sale.

But if you buy these shoes, you won’t buy them for their ventilating powers or the weight. No they are SPD pedals. SPD stands for “Shimano Pedaling Dynamics” and it’s a system where the shoe is attached to the pedal by a clicking system. You just snap it in. What does this mean? Well if you ride a bike then there are only 3 things you need to do. Keep balance, steer and pedal. If you pedal then you use several muscles to push the pedal down (or to the front in my case). If your shoes are attached to the pedal you will have the ability to pull the pedals back and thus use a lot more muscles for the same movement. This will increase the amount of power you can put into the pedals. Especially if you’re doing hills these pedals are said to be very effective. I hope it will work.

Yesterday I did a small test ride with them, and so far I can only say I really have to get used to them. First impression is very positive though. No miracle workers, but the will definitely add their value to the trip.

The pedals that I bought with these shoes are from BBB (Bicycleparts for Bikers by Bikers… LOL!). It seems to be a decent brand even though I never heard of it before. Then again, I’m not much into bicycle brands hehe. They are dually usable which means that one side has a SPD system, and the other side doesn’t. So I can use this with my special new shoes, or just with regular shoes.

Today I’ve added the rear mudguard on my Optima Stinger. I still have to do the front but I’m not 100% sure how I should do it.. There seems to be no screw-treat in the frame and I have to bend some parts to get the suspension of the mudguard right.

Also I’ve got to say, the mudguard is awfully close to the wheel. Is this right? Ah well guess it’s all right. Just one minor hit and it might ruin the rubber.

Anyway the sun is shining so I guess I better test that rear mudguard… seems like lovely weather to do a small trip just for fun. So… see ya later!

Our team member Victor purchased a bicycle through “marktplaats”. Or so he thought…

They had a deal to get the bike for 240 euros. Victor would call on Sunday to say at what time he’d collect the bike on Monday.

So today, as was agreed upon, Victor called. Apparently some-one overbid Victor and would collect the bike on Monday too. GREAT!

The excuse this ’seller’ gave was that “usually 90% of the people don’t call back so when I got a different offer I just did that. So tough titty”.

Is that a way to treat customers?  We don’t think so. We called him too and after 2 minutes he just hung up on us.

And thus we strongly advise not to do business with this man. What a disappointment…

His webstore: http://www.fietsenvanbas.nl

His “marktplaats account“

Hey guys,

Here’s a revision of one of the more basic things one will need on a bicycle trip: A BIKE.
On our trip to Sweden last year Steven was gracious enough to let me fly his Kenosha, which was awesome. However, this year I would like a proper trekking bike of my own. I’ve been delving into the subject of bicycles over the last few weeks and it has become my little obsession. Since the possibilities are endless, I figuered: why not share my quest for the ultimate piece of machinery with all of you?

So here’s a list of things my future bike MUST have (apart from the obvious):
1. At least Deore front and rear derailleurs OR a Sram equivalent
2. A front fork that can be locked/adjusted OR a non-suspension fork
3. Straight handlebars
4. It can’t be over 18 kilos

And here’s some stuff I would LIKE to have on it:
1. A chainguard IF the chain is still accessable
2. A hub dynamo
3. No suspension in the seatpost
4. Quick release rims and seatpost
5. A rack at the rear (gotta put my stuff somewhere)

Ow and before I forget: my budget is about 700 euros. If some of this stuff doesn’t make any sense to you, don’t worry, I can still use your help. As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been at this for a couple of weeks now and I’ve made a little pre-selection of three bicycles that I like.

Option 1: Sensa Cross Travel

http://www.sensabikes.de/index.php?view=cms_334
LIKES: This is my number one choice at the moment. It looks awesome, is only 15 kilos, has a full deore groupset, and is only 600 euros. Plus I kinda like that Sensa is a Dutch manufacturer (ever heard of it? I hadn’t). I haven’t tested this one out yet but I intend to do that later this week.

DISLIKES: Minor things: no hub dynamo and the cheapest dealer is a long ways away.

Option 2: Felt (?)

Can’t find this one but it resembles: http://www.feltbicycles.com/Switzerland/2010-Product-Catalog/X-City/TREKKING-Series/LOMBARDIA-MAN.aspx

LIKES: A dealer in our little town centre recommended this bike. The fact that the dealer is a cool guy, customers-oriented and knowledgable (and around the corner) is a big plus for me. The bike is well-constructed, light as a feather, has a hub dynamo and goes really fast. Ow and since it’s the last of its kind, it’s only 600 euros.

DISLIKES: I don’t know if this is a like or dislike, but it has Sram Dual Drive, which means it has three gears in the rear hub and the rest on the outside. I’m not that familiar with this Sram so if anyone does, please let me know. A major dislike is that, as it is the last of the stock, it’s a small-ass unisex (IMO women’s) frame. It’s 54 cm, while I (being 1.90m) need 60/61 cm frames.

Option 3: Giant Ligero RS3

http://www.giant-bicycles.com/nl-nl/bikes/model/ligero.rs3.gts/4589/40012/

LIKES: It’s pretty minimalistic, so no excess fat, no parts I don’t need, which results in a light bike (14 kg). It has Deore front and rear derailleurs and a hub dynamo. I’ve been on one of these and it goes pretty fast.

DISLIKES: Somehow switching gears isn’t as smooth as it should be. Interesting difference with the other two bikes is that this one has no suspension, which is cool if you’re on one of Holland’s beautifully smooth roads, but less cool if you’re on deadly rocky gravel dunes in Eastern Europe.

Sooooo, that turned out to be alot longer than I had anticipated. Hope you made it through that OK. If you don’t know anything about parts, vote for the one you think is prettiest. If you have suggestions for other bikes, let me know.

Take care y’all

My bike has been repaired. So now I can bicycle again! It’s awesome news really since I couldn’t train on it. I’ll have my gears and brakes adjusted and checked just 1-2 weeks before the trip. So haven’t had that done yet…