Short holiday in Germany

Today one week ago my wife and I went to Kronenburg in Germany to spent a short holiday. Since my new 700X wasn't ready yet, I took my Z Pro with me. I'm quiet familiar with the region, I guess this was the 10th time we visited the area. So far all the bicycling I did over there was with my mountain bike, since there are miles and miles of trails to be discovered (and I know most of them by now). I was planning to take my mountain bike with me on this trip, so a couple of days before we left, I took my MB out of our garage and took it for a spin. It had exactly been 11 months since I last rode my MB so I just took it for a ride to see if everything was still okay. The bike was okay, but myself .... Oh boy, did I suffer during that ride !!!
My butt hurt, my hands and wrist were sore, my neck ached .... When I returned from my trip, I told my wife that no way I was going to ride that bike again !!! I put the MB back in the garage and that's were it's going to stay from now on ! Maybe some of you think I'm a baby, and maybe you're right, but I'd like to tell myself that I'm spoiled by riding recumbents and my Z Pro ;-) ! Anyway, when my 700X'll be ready, there will be plenty of time to ride dirt roads again !

Anyway, taking the Z Pro with me meant that I would only be riding on tarmac roads. No big deal eather, since most drivers are very polite towards bicyclists over there. During all my rides I never got cut off short or felt in any kind of danger when cars or trucks overhauled me. When arriving at the top of hills, they all stayed behind me and waited until the top before passing me leaving me plenty of room, something I can only wish for here in Belgium !!!

Just out of Duppach, going uphill again ....

After two weeks of rain, the weather was dry during our stay in Germany, but very cold ! I'm not a wuss when it comes to cold temperatures, but I could not stay longer that 3,5 hours on my bike. Temperatures never went over 20° F during daytime, with a mild, sometimes strong eastern wind, which always feels extra cold. On Saturday I managed to ride 45 miles but I was so cold afterwards, that I wasn't recovered on Sunday. When I rode again on Monday, I had less problems with the cold. I rode my Z Pro for a little over 180 miles during my stay and again enjoyed the CF concept in every ride : I never felt uncomfortable and the bike felt stable as a brick, even when going downhill at + 40mph. I even managed to ride the Z Pro on a gravel road, were the only worries I had was trying not to think of getting myself a flat tire. But the Z Pro handled just fine, no problems at all.

Riding the Z Pro on gravel never gave any problems (here somewhere between Stadkyll and Schönfeld )

New frame arrives ....

It has been raining a lot lately, which means that I did not ride my Z Pro much. To be honest, the only riding these last weeks has been with my velomobile, which is used for commuting. Let's hope it'll start freezing soon ;-)
Last week I received an e-mail from Spincyclz to inform me that the 700X were ready to ship. So I ordered one immediately and yesterday, a small pick-up from Fedex delivered the frame. Is this fast service or what ?! Today, I took the frameset to my bike shop and discussed the hardware with Harry, the owner. I already decided on most of the parts, the only thing that's still in discussion is the kind of brakes. I know that I want disc brakes, but I prefer mechanical. Harry tried to convince me to use hydraulic brakes from Shimano, according to him they are the most reliable at this time and he did not receive any complaints about them so far. Since he could not tell me the exact prices for both types of brakes, but he will contact a couple of distributors tomorrow and let me know. We'll see tomorrow ....

New Crank Forward ....

It has been rainy a lot lately, which means that I did not ride my Z Pro much. Only on a few occasions, the roads were dry enough to take a ride. I hope winter will finally kick in, so we'll have some really cold winter days ( I still prefer freezing temperatures over mild but humid days!). But anyway .... I just ordered the 700X frameset from Nanda Holz from spincyclz.com. I have been mailing him in the past and he offered me a fair price including shipping. The 700X will be built up by my local bike shop, which will be some kind of challenge for them. They've already know my Z Pro, but to actually build a CF bike up from the frame will be completely new for them. I've discusses the frame build up with them and agreed that the final decission on components will be made once the frame set arrives. Still have to figure out whether or not I want disc brakes or regular ones, hydraulic or mechanical, ....
The reason for ordering the 700X is exactly the same as why I decided to buy the Z Pro : to replace a bike I do not ride anymore. In this case it is my mountain bike. I used to ride a lot on trails, in forests etc. and I still love to do so, but lately I do not feel comfortable anymore on a regular bike. I have not touched my mountain bike since last year, and even then I took it on a short holiday, so .... The 700X will replace my mountain bike but will also be the bike I want to take with my on holidays. It'll the bike that can be ridden everywhere, and that is exactly what I'm planning to do ! Can hardly wait to get a ride on my new steed !!!

And another ride ....

Although the weather forecast predicted rain today, this afternoon the sun broke through the grey clouds and brought some color to an all grey day. Since I was off from work, I took my Z Pro for another ride. It is a strange thing, but the more I ride this bike, the more I seem to like it ! I cannot explain why, but lately it is the bike I'd like to grab first whenever I feel like riding.
I still have my Stratus XP and my velomobile, but it's a total different ride on the Z Pro. Anyway, I enjoyed another 2-hour ride, crossing the border and riding most of the time in the Netherlands.

The fall colors are wonderful and just before I returned home, I noticed some small kind of mushrooms between the bicycle path and the forest. I took some time to take some pictures, before riding home. It's the small things that makes life beautiful sometimes !

Don't know what kind they are, but they looked cute !

Early autumn ride

The last 5 weeks I had to take a course for work, which meant I was too busy to take a ride on my Z Pro. Luckily, last Friday was the last day and since I was off from work yesterday, I finally managed to take the Z Pro for a 2,5 hour ride. Weather conditions were almost excellent : clear blue skies with a breeze. Autumn has defenitely started, as could be seen by the beautiful colors of the trees and all the leaves on the ground. A lot of people were riding their bikes on the towpath near the canal, I'll bet it's gonna be more crowded today, because it's Sunday and weather conditions haven't changed. Too bad I have to go to work later this day ....

I finally found a small bag that I like ( more or less that is ) to attach to the Z Pro's handlebar. Most handlebar bags are too bulky for my liking, the one I found is originally a digital camera bag but it's still large enough to hold the essentials : a cell phone, a digital camera, tire levers, a spare inner tube and some patches ( I just realize right now that I forgot to include a multi tool, I'll put one in right after posting this ). I'm still not used to the position of it (behind the handlebar instead of in front of it), but since most CF-riders put it there, it's probably just a matter of time to get used to it.

After finishing my ride yesterday, my lower back told me that it's been a couple of weeks since I last rode my Z Pro. Not that I noticed some kind of pain, but my bakc told me that it wasn't used to the position anymore. Well, one more reason to ride my Z Pro some more !

And it's supposed to be weather proof too

New wheels

Yesterday I picked up my new set of wheels. I wanted the wheels to be completely black(meaning black rims, black spokes and black hubs) because I think the black goes well with the yellow frame. It did not turn out that way, since the Shimano 105 hubs are no longer available in black. Rims are PRO R50 Classics and the hubs are Shimano 105. But the wheels do look nice, 36 spokes both in front and back and I'm pretty sure that they'll be much stronger than those crappy Shimano's WH-R500 and WH-R535 wheels I had before.

On my last few rides, I swapped the short stem riser for the medium riser. I wanted to see how much it influences the speed, since your upper body should be more erect with the medium riser. So far, it does not make much of a difference, I can ride the same speeds without putting in more effort. I'm gonna leave the medium riser for a while to see how things will work out ....

I'm still looking for a small (and good looking, if possible) handle bar bag. So far, all my rides have been without taking any tire levers, pump or spare inner tubes with me. I've probably been lucky so far that I never had any problems so far, but just in case, I want to have something to put it in. Just haven't found one that I like so far .....

Ready again to put in some miles !

Short holiday

I just got back from a short week's holiday. Together with my wife I spent 5 days in Bareveld, a small town in the north of the Netherlands. Since it was only a short holiday and I had to take a bike with the car, the only bike that came into view was the Z Pro. Since I knew that Wijnandt, who owns a Rans' Cruz, lives less than 6 miles from this place, I sent him an e-mail letting him know I'd be there this week so we could meet. We met on Tuesday morning and it was very awkward to know that 2 out of the 4 CF bikes here in Europe were at one place at that time ! We switched bikes so I could try Wijnandt's Cruz while he tried my Z Pro. While both bikes are built up for completely different purposes, it was nice to ride another CF bike !
Wijnandt was so kind to invite me to his home, where he showed me his other bikes : he also owns a WAW velomobile, a Grasshopper from HP Velotechnik and a rowing bike .

Lots of nice sceneries near the canals (here in Oude Pekela)

During my first ride on Monday night, another spoke from my rear wheel broke (surprise, surprise !). Luckily, Wijnandt took me to a bike shop in his home town who replaced the spoke so I could keep riding my Z Pro. Until Tuesday afternoon that was, when another spoke broke ! I was so pissed that during my short holiday I broke 2 spokes in 2 days that I called my bike shop back home and ordered a very strong hand built wheel set. Funny thing though is that I kept riding with a broken spoke for the rest of the week without any significant problem. I could not use my back brake because I had to unlock it to keep my rear wheel running, but luckily the front brake worked okay.

On Thursday I rode my Z Pro to Memorial Center Camp Westerbork , which was only 26 miles from the place we stayed. This is a place were there used to be a camp during WWII. From 1942 to 1945 no less than 107.000 Jews stayed in this place waiting to be deported to Germany. Only 5.000 of them survived. We took a guided tour around the camp. It was really impressive, to say the least ....

Just a small part of the 102.000 rememberance stones representing the one who died ....

The Bornem Bike Deathride

Yesterday I took part to the Bornem Bike Death Ride, an annual bike event organised in the provence Vlaams-Brabant. The reason for this name is that the 62,5 m ride has a hilly course (we have no mountains in my country), which makes it ideal to test your level of fitness. Although there's also a shorter more family friendly 22 m ride, most part of the riders show up for the 62,5 m ride on road bikes. In total, some 6.304 riders showed up this year.

Since it was the first time I participated and there was some kind of climbing involved, I decided to take my Z Pro to complete this ride.

I showed up at the registration line with my yellow Z Pro and wearing my SPD-sandals, which caused a lot of comments from the roadies. I think most of them considered me some kind of geek, seeing me on a bike they've never seen before and wearing sandals !

As soon as I started however, I passed everyone of them. I could easily maintain average speeds of +20 mph on the flats and especially on the climbs it was very easy to pass other riders. I only got passed once by 3 riders, but I overtook them on the first uphill. No one passed me after that !

At the first stop, several riders walked up to me to ask questions about the Z Pro like where I got it, did I make it myself (yeah, right !), does it ride easily, etc. Of course I answered all their questions patiently, referred to the Rans and CF website and even let some riders sit on my bike. I got the same questions at every stop and mostly the sarcasm they had at the start had turned into some kind of admiration (for the bike, that is ;-)

I finished the ride in 3h20" with an average speed of just above 19 mph, which is not bad at all, considering that I live in a very flat area.

The next time I'll take part of such an event with my Z Pro, I might take some small pieces of paper with the Rans and the CF website for further information !

The medal I got after finishing the ride

I've ridden my Z Pro a little over 1500 miles now and still like it very much. The only thing that still bothers me is the breaking of spokes in my rear wheel. I lost count of the numbers so far, but it's getting to a point that I'm considering getting myself a new pair of wheels (that would be my third !). I'm certainly not overweight, I'm well within the Z Pro's weight limit, but still ....
Although my bicycle repair shop told me it's the wheels and not the bike that is causing all these breaking of spokes, I still have my doubts. According to them, all wheel sets that look fast and have a small number of spokes, are having the same problem. Gee, if so, why are there so many nice looking wheelsets being made ?
Yesterday I was riding my Z Pro and after 15' I heard that dreadful "ping" sound again coming from the back. And yup, another spoke gone. While I was halfway between home and my bicycle shop I decided to ride to the bike shop since I brought in my other rear wheel for a spoke replacement earlier this week. Unfortunately, they didn't fix it yet since they ran out of stock on the straight spokes for that model. But they replaced the broken spoke of my Shimano WH-R550 rear wheel in a couple of minutes, so I could continue riding. Guess I'll have to look for some stronger wheels, let's get surfing the internet ....

First metric century

Did not ride my Z Pro much during the last week, mostly because of the weather. It did rain a lot and since I do not wanna ride my Z Pro in the rain .... right !
Last Saturday morning, just before finishing my night shift at work, I read in the newspaper that the WILLY IN'T VEN CLASSIC took place that day. This is an event that is organised every year with all kinds of bicycle rides, from short family-kiddy rides to longer rides for die-hard roadies, named after Willy In't Ven, a roadie who was pretty famous in Belgium in the '70's. While I was supposed to go to sleep after I got home, I just rode home with my velomobile, had a snack and somehting to drink, filled up 2 waterbottles, changed my velomobile for my Z PRo and headed towards Oud-Turnhout, the place where the rides started. I checked and payed the entrance fee and off I went. There was no rain for the time being, but it was pretty windy, and because I did not get any sleep, I decided to ride the 53 mile tour. The only thing you had to do was follow small road signs that were painted on the bicycle paths and roads and pay attention to traffic. There were supposed to be 2 stops where you could grab something to eat and/or to drink, but I guess I missed one for I only encountered one. Most riders on the tour I chose rode regular road bikes and were riding together in small groups. Although I was riding all by myself, only 9 riders passed by me (I tried to follow the first small group of three that overtook me half an hour after I started, but they were just a little too fast for me).
I remember that after riding the Z Pro a little over 2 hours, I was thinking that no way I would be doing the same thing on a regular road bike, especially not after a night shift ! Most other riders noticed that I rode a different bike, but no one made any remarks about it towards me. Maybe they were even sleepier than myself ;-)
When I got home, I had finished riding almost 66 miles. Only then I realized that I had just finished my first metric century on my Z Pro. Average speed was around 18,5mph, which I think was not bad at all, concidering the lack of sleep and the windy conditions. And surprise, surprise .... a couple of miles from home, another spoke from my rear wheel broke ! Luckily for me I managed to ride my bike home. Swapped wheels again when I got there, took a shower and stayed on the couch for the rest of the day. I did feel my lower back a bit, not that it hurted, but it made me aware that I hadn't ridden my CF bike much lately. Needless to say I slept like a rose Saturday night !

Handlebar woes

A couple of weeks ago I ordered the deep V-bars from Rans to try out something new. I installed it with the short riser and took a couple of rides with it. I liked the position but found there's not enough room on the handlebar : I could hardly set up my shifters, brakes and grips on the straight parts of the handlebar. There was no more room for my bell and the bike computer. Also, putting bar ends on the V-bars simply looked ridiculous so the bar had to go.
I went back to the medium riser with a MB downhill bar. It's almost the same height as the V-bar set up but gives me plenty of room on the bar itself.
I have ridden a little over 1300 miles so far and still like the bike very much. I now have 2 wheelsets for my Z Pro, both from Shimano : the
WH-R550 in black and an older set (can't seem to find the number anymore, it has less spokes but really looks nice). When it comes to looks, I do prefer the older set of wheels, they really make the bike an eye catcher. Only issue with these wheels is that every couple of 100 miles, I break one spoke, mostly in the rear wheel. With these kind of wheels, when a spoke breakes, you can't ride anymore because the wheel's too out of true to continue riding. In order to keep riding while the wheel is back at the bike shop, I now have another set. Can't tell much difference in riding though, I'm not such a bike geek ;-)

The Z Pro with my favorite wheel set

Bottle cage holder part II

Riding with the bottle cage holder installed on the top tube did not work for me, because it touches the inside of my legs. So I put the cage holder to the seat post. Since the holder has two rubber straps, the size of the seatpost is no problem. It is only possible to use regular size waterbottles, which do not touch my tail light, a larger bottle would. At least I can take an extra bottle on my rides now (I always drink too little anyway).

Bottle cage holder in a more traditional place

I also replaced my regular bar ends with so called anatomic bar ends and really like them. They are less fatigueing and their position allows my back to stretch a little less. Also the discomfort of my neck, which occurs only when I look back over my right shoulder, is a little less this way. Still haven't found the perfect cockpit, but I'm getting there ;-) !

The handlebar set-up as it is right now ....

Yesterday afternoon I took another ride with my collegues. We were only six this time and just like last week, I was riding in front most of the time. I'm still getting a lot of comments on my bike, but also a lot more questions about it.
We did a total of 50 miles with an average of 19mph, which was not bad at all, considering there was a mild breeze. Most of my collegues are really surprised that I can ride my "weird bike" at the same speed as they do on their regular road bikes. And I do have to admit : it is nice to hear that you have to slow down, because some are having trouble keeping up the pace. Last week I got the same request, so I guess I'm getting there ....

Adding a bottle cage holder

Since the weather is getting better every week now (and since I'm not drinking enough anyway) I decided to add another bottle cage holder to my Z Pro. I do not like riding with a backpack on my back, so I found a rubber cage holder which easily straps to any kind of frame, no matter the size of the tubes. Only problem with the Z Pro is the finding the right place. Since the frame has some weird angles, there are not so many options. Forget the inside of the seat tube, there's no room to get a bottle in and out. The outside is possible, but cannot be reached while riding. So that leaves the top tube. I tried to put it on top of the tube, but than it is too wide for the inside of my legs. Only the inside of the tube is possible for me.

This is the position I'm going to test on my next rides


This position is possible but not practical at all

Changing the cockpit ....

A couple of weeks ago, I replaced the original handlebar with a straight one. The position of my hands on the bar ends is much better now and since the bar is straight, I have to reach more forward. It only took a few rides to get used to the new position and my speed is getting up to a point where I was on my regular road bike. And at the end of last week, I finally managed to get an average speed of 31 km/h after riding my Z Pro for 1,5 hour (only mild winds that day, but still .... ), I'm getting there !
Last weekend, I changed the medium handlebar riser with the curved riser. This way, the handlebar is positioned both up and forward a little. I rode my bike only 3 times so far in this set-up, but I like it so far. The curved riser allows me to ride the bike standing up, which I couldn't do in the past. It's still a strange feeling, riding this bike standing on the pedals, I guess it's gonna take quiet a few miles before I'll feel comfortable doing so .... The day before yesterday, I did a 50 mile ride with a friend of mine, who rides a regular road bike. It was pretty windy that day and since he's still recovering from a hernia and is building up, I took the lead with my Z Pro all the time. After 40 minutes he asked me to slow down, because I was riding too fast. Felt good though ;-) !
Almost every Friday, my collegues ( a group of die-hard roadies) ride together in the afternoon. I haven't participated with my Z Pro yet, since my speed wasn't up to my likings (meaning : tooooo slow). But next Friday, I think I'll join them again. There'll be plenty of commentaries on my CF bike, but at least I won't be the slowest of the pack !

Trying out the short stem riser

I received the short stem about 2 weeks ago and I immediately swapped the medium one with the new short one. As you can see on the pictures, it does make a difference ! While the cables certainly need adjusment, they never caused any problems. Since my wife had a week off from school, we spent some days on the seaside, so I took the Z Pro with me to try out this new combination.

the medium stem riser


the short stem riser

The lower position of the handlebars feels more natural to me. It's still not as aerodynamic as I would like it to be, but it's a start. I managed to do 3 rides with a total of 150 miles in the windy flat lands and I never got uncomfortable. However, I did found out that I'll never be as fast on a CF bike than I used to be on my regular road bike, mostly because of the position of the upper body. As soon as you have to ride against the wind, the body position of the CF bike slows you down, period. You can bend your upper body a bit forward, but it will not help much. To be honest, I tried all kinds of "aerodynamic" positions, only to find out that most of them create some discomfort and/or soreness in different body parts.
Personally, I do not think that anyone on a CF bike can be as fast as someone on a road bike, unless you ride in a pack. Does this bother me ? Not really, I've never been and never will be a speed freak and I prefer comfort over speed anytime.So when it comes to the Z Pro, I'm very happy to be able to ride this bike for over 3 hours and still not feel uncomfortable or sore afterwards !

Another thing I found out this week is that it is impossible for me to ride the bike standing up. Due to the shorter stem, my knees hit the handlebar when standing up. I don't know whether it really is necessary or not, but I can think of some conditions when you wanna ride your bike standing up. In order to do so, I need to try out something different, maybe go back to the medium riser or the curved riser and change the handlebar.

Miles and miles of open roads -and a lot of wind !

Riding time ....

Due to the bad weather these last weeks, I did not ride my Z Pro much lately. Not that I did not want to, but it rained a lot and the few days that it did not, the roads stayed wet with a lot of debris. I only managed to take a ride or three, that's all :-(
Last Sunday, I took my bike to a friend of mine, who rides a regular road bike and got a hernia from riding it. I told him about my "wonderbike" so I passed by his place to show it to him. He only took a short ride on it, but couldn't feel comfy because he wasn't used to it. Anyway, while riding to his place and back, I realized that I was sitting way too low. I checked the seat post, but could not find any signs that it had slipped. I noticed that it was extended 'till the 3" mark (it is marked by inches, right ?), but that still did not mean anything because I never payed any attention to it before. Anyway, I extended the seat tube a little bit, rode a few miles, extended it some more, rode another few miles, etc. The seat tube is now stuck at the 7" mark, where my riding position feels comfortable. The only change I feel now is that I have to adjust the seat pan angle, for I tend to get a kind of recumbent butt after more than an hour on the saddle.
I still do not feel aerodynamic enough with the medium handle bar riser, so I ordered the short 3" riser to try a more bent forward position. Might not work out as I hope for, just as it did with the 7" curved riser, but I'm willing to try it out anyway. To be continued ....

Swapping the riser

I received the curved riser I ordered yesterday and I put it on my bike this morning. Not only did the curved riser put the handle bars more forward, it also raised it a couple of inches (the curved riser is 2" taller than the 5" one that came with the frame set. When sitting on the bike, the only difference I noticed was this new height.
When taking the bike for a ride, I immeditely noticed that my upper body was more upright. It was pretty windy today and riding against the wind was harder than usual. Certainly not much of an improvent when it comes to aerodynamics. It just did not feel right, so I'm gonna put the straight riser back on tomorrow. I'm considering ordering the 3" riser, which would lower the handle bar, forcing the upper body to move down a bit, that should be a more aerodynamic position. Don't know if that'll be comfortable though, I guess I have to find out by trying ....

the original riser


the curved riser