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

Nightriding

In contrary to my previous road bike, I do feel comfortable riding my Z Pro at night. However, visability is an important issue when riding in the dark. I've always been a fan of bright blinking tail lights. I've been using the CATEYE TL-LD600 for years now. Since the seat post of CF bikes is bigger than conventional ones, we had to think of something different to mount this tail light to the Z Pro. My friend came up with a very simple idea : he drilled a small hole just underneath the seat pan to attach the tail light holder :

After that, it's as easy as on a conventional seat post to put the tail light in its holder (or take it out, if necessary). The light is positioned just underneath the seat and very visable !

In front, I use 2 5-LED head lights from PRO. They both got a steady and a flashing mode and provide plenty of light :

All of my lights run on rechargeable batteries, which is the right way to run them, if you care about the envirement ;-).

First ride !

Yesterday I finally made my first ride on the Z Pro. After almost 2 weeks of constant rain, skies were finally blue and even the sun was up, so in the late afternoon I took off for a ride.
I was comfortable on the bike from the very beginning : there was no adjusting time, at least not for me. Everything felt natural. The Z Pro felt as responsive as my Giant TCR, total weight of the bike should be around the same too, which is a very good thing. Personally I think the Z Pro is even a little more responsive than a regular racing bike, giving you more confidence when manouvering.One thing I noticed immediately when taking turns is that the Z Pro is as stable as a brick. Due to the longer wheel base, you can take sharp turns easily without any trouble. It sure is a blast to take turns at high speed on this bike !
The seat felt a little awkward in the beginning, but only took a couple of minutes to get used to. The nose of the seat points a little down and when you sit on the bike without riding it, it makes you slide off. This totally disappears when you start to pedal though, there's absolutely no sliding off forward. Although I did feel the edges of the seat pan with my upper legs, it never became an issue during my ride. The carbon is a little flexible, which is a big plus. Although I probably still need to find my sweet spot when it comes to adjusting the seat, I never had the urge to stop and change the angle of the seat during my ride. Everything felt just right and pretty comfortable. My bum did feel warm after a while, but not up to a point where it became a nuisance. It might have been caused by some friction but like I said : I just noticed it, nothing more. The seat is way more comfortable than any saddle I ever sat on, that's for sure !!!
What did trouble me though were the cracking sounds coming from the carbon seat. I never rode anything carbon before, so I don't know whether it's normal or not to produce some sound. When riding throuhg potholes or on rough spots, the seat sometimes produced loud cracking sounds. At one point during my ride, there was such a loud crack I was sure something was broken. So I stopped and checked the seat pan, but everything was stil okay. I don't know what causes these noises, since I'm well between the weight limitations for the bike, I don't think it's me. Sure would like to find out what causes the seat to be so noisy, 'cause it's a little bit irritating and does not make me feel very comfortable.
When it comes to the cockpit, only one thing was missing : bar ends. While the handle bars are pretty comfortable and natural, I missed the variety of putting my hands someplace else. I'm going to put the carbon handle bars from the Giant TCR on my Z Pro. This will alow me to vary my hand positions and look for an even more comfortable ride.
Speed. Hmm, can't say much about it yet. When I started to ride, I just woke up from a recovery sleep after a night shift at work. I know that I'm not that fast after I had a night shift and I don't really mind. I tried to maintain a speed of around 18 - 19 m/h on the Z Pro, which was a hard thing to do sometimes, especially since the wind was pretty strong yesterday. I expected that I'd be slower on the Z Pro than on my regular racing bike but now I think that in time, I'll be as fast on it. The Z Pro sure felt more responsive than my Giant TCR, making manouvering the bike very easy, even with the longer wheelbase. Even after only one ride, one thing is sure : I will not go back to a regular racing bike !!! The CF concept does work, thank God for Randy Schlitter ! He just developed another winning bike !

First pictures

Finally picked up my Z Pro at my friend's place yesterday, but unfortunately, no weather conditions yet to take it for a spin. This afternoon, it stopped raining for an hour, so I took the bike outside to take some pictures. Did send some of the pictures to Alan's recumbentblog as an entry for his Recumbent Gallery.
Can't tell much about it yet, although it does not seem to weigh much more than my previous Giant TCR. I did sit on it once and felt like the nose of the seat pointed down too much, like I was likely to slide off. Gonna read more on the
CF forum to get the seat height and angle ride before I start to ride it. According to the weather forecast, Sunday should be a great day for riding a bike, can hardly wait until then !

my new and shiny Zenetik Pro


the cockpit

Waiting for my first ride

I received a call from my friend last Saturday, saying that the bike was ready to be picked up. Unfortunately, it has been raining since last weekend, so I did not pick it up yet. Don't wanna ruin the bike by riding it in the rain -I'm a wussy, I know ;-) ! The weather should improve in the next days, so I'll pick it up as soon as possible.
He did take it for a short ride around the block and told me that it was not "his kind of bike", but he's a hardcore mountain biker. He also told me that the front wheel touches your feet while pedalling, so you have to be careful. Can't remember reading about this on the CF forum, but I might have missed that. Anyway, the next post on this blog will defenitely be about my first ride. To be continued !

My frame set

The frame set I ordered, arrived yesterday. Felt like a little kid at Christmastime again when I unpacked the box. To my big surprise, the frame set was yellow ! I was convinced that the Z Pro only came in silver, so I did not mention any color when I ordered my frameset. Even when I received the confirmation mail of my order, there was no question about any color, so it felt a bit awkward to find a yellow metallic frame in the box. Thank God it's not that ugly yellow like the Z Tour (sorry, don't wanna offend any Z Tour owners out there !), it has little sparkles all over, which makes it kinda funny looking. If I'd live in the USA I would swap the frame set for the silver one, but I already had to pay FEDEX 273 $ when they delivered the box, so it's out of the question to send the frame back.
The biggest surprise however was that the frame set was incomplete : the riser stem was missing ! I checked all the wrapped papers and plastic inside the box at least three times, but no riser stem. and you'll need one to ride a CF bike, so guess I'll have to call RANS next monday and ask them to ship me the missing riser.

little sparkles underneath

Why ?

Why would anyone order a different kind of bike without even trying it ? Well, just as in 1999, there was no possibility to try one out when I ordered my Stratus frame set back then. I did a lot (and a mean a lot !) of reading about that wonderful bike before I ordered it, and I haven't regretted it for a day ! It was (and still is) my most favorite touring bike. The same thing here with the CF concept : there are simply no CF bikes available here in Europe, so before ordering one, I did a lot of reading about it: mostly on the internet and some in publications (very limited, I know). But the main reason for going for it anyway was a ride on my road bike a couple of weeks ago : after riding almost for 2 hours, feeling uncomfortable almost all the time and having stared only right in front of the front wheel, I decided that that was my last ride on the road bike. Period. So I ordered myself a CF frame set. Why the Zenetik Pro ? Very simple : since the Z Pro is the only bike that accepts 700C wheels, I can swap the components from my road bike to the Z Pro.
What I'm expecting from the Zenetik Pro ? Well, most of all : more comfort and more fun. I'm not worried about the comfort part : anything will be better than a regular saddle ! So, I might be little slower (I'll propably be anyway, but I don't care) and it'll take some time to get adjusted to the new riding position, but hey : that sounds like some kind of challenge to me ! Why the heck not ???
I'll keep things posted on this blog. Feel free to comment anytime.