It was a short commute week this week. I rode to work all three days. I rode home in a light rain on Monday, but the heavy stuff didn’t show up until after I was home. It was 39 degrees with fog this morning, but warmed to a sunny 68 degrees with no wind this afternoon, a beautiful afternoon for a ride home.
2011 days ridden to work: 199
2011 commuting mileage: 4864.6
Work commute route
I took off on the Corsa this morning and did my Crowley Metric Century route. That has to be the slowest 63 miles I’ve ever ridden. I was riding at an easy pace anyway because of my bronchitis, and ended up doing the entire ride against the wind. I checked the forecast this morning, but saw no mention of a cold north wind blasting in at noon. So, my timing ended up perfect. I rode south against the south wind, then turned around and rode north against the north wind.
I ended up with 63 miles even. My average speed was: so slow I ain’t going to post it here.
Crowley Metric Century route
It wasn’t a good bike commute week for me. Last week’s severe head cold turned into the week’s severe bronchitis. I rode to work Monday, but wheezed and hacked so bad that I took 3 days off the bike. I missed really nice riding weather Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday evening, a front came in and it was chilly and windy yesterday. I rode to work today, still hacking pretty badly. Not much fun.
2011 days ridden to work: 196
2011 commuting mileage: 4791.1
Work commute route
I rode to work four days this week, Monday through Thursday, but drove today. I came down with a cold that just got worse as the week went, and felt bad enough this morning I decided that spending a hour pedaling in the 39 degree morning air wasn’t in my best interest.
This is the second year in a row that I’ve gotten a really bad cold that came on slowly, starting three days after I got my flu shot. It was the only cold I had last year. I may need to reconsider that flu shot next year.
Work commute route
I rode to work all five days this week. It was a windy week, and the 28 degree temperature on the ride to work this morning was the first freeze of the fall. I’m a bit faster on the Xstream than on the Stratus XP, but with this week’s wind, I certainly wasn’t setting any speed records. I’m getting the Xstream dialed in pretty well now, and am really enjoying commuting on it.
2011 days ridden to work: 190
2011 commuting mileage: 4643.8
The Xstream’s commuting setup.
Here was the old Xstream setup.
Work commute route
I didn’t ride to work this morning. I sat up much too late watching the Rangers keep blowing that game last night, so drove to work so I could sleep in a bit later. I did ride to work the rest of the week though, including yesterday, when they were calling for a 100 percent chance of rain in the afternoon, but it didn’t rain more than a few drops here until just after I got home.
2011 days ridden to work: 185
2011 commuting mileage: 4521.3
Work commute route
I have decided to give my Xstream a try as a lighter, faster commuter. I swapped my Hoagie seat for a Sling Mesh, moved my fairing and Aero Trunk to the Xstream, and have been riding it to work this week.
My favorite riding position is to be very reclined on a Euro style seat, with a tweener handlebar, like my Corsa setup. When the Xstream was created, I was intrigued by it, a dual big wheel long wheelbase bike that would allow that riding position. It has a much lower seat height than a high racer, meaning a fall from a lower height, appealing for someone my age. But I’ve never quite gotten an Xstream to work for me.
With the prototype that eventually became Rose’s bike, I really liked the handling, but not a handlebar that’s as wide as the one on that bike, plus the frame was too short to recline the seat as much as I wanted. Some people seem perfectly happy using less recline on a seat like the Hoagie, but not me. If I’m on a Euro style seat, I want it really reclined.
I bought an Xstream from Greg last year, and it was long enough to finally get some miles on one with the seat reclined where I wanted it, and with a tweener bar. But that brought a different set of problems for me. The riding position is too open for me, and a tweener bar on the bike gives it so much tiller that the slow speed handling is poor. For a slow climber like me, stable slow speed handling is important, and the Xstream hasn’t had it.
So I decided to set the Xstream up like the Stratus XP, with a more upright seat, and high, narrow tee handlebar to keep my hands behind a fairing, and try commuting with it. I’ve loved this setup on the Stratus XP, and wanted to see how it would work on the Xstream. I did the conversion last Saturday.
The first big surprise was the seat height. The frame where the seat mounts on the Xstream is over an inch lower than on the Stratus XP, so I expected the seat to end up lower, and was surprised to see that they’re the same height. The mounting and base part of the Sling Mesh are taller than the mounting and base part of the old style RANS seat I have on the Stratus XP, it turns out. Of course, with the higher bottom bracket on the Xstream, I ended up with its seat more reclined. Here’s a comparison of the Xstream and Stratus XP seats, set where I prefer them.
And below is a comparison of the riding positions. As the smaller rear wheel in each photo gives away, these weren’t taken from a perfect side view position. I’ve painted out the background to make a comparison easier. I’ve also rotated the photos to make the wheels level for an easier comparison, but that does skew the view somewhat. For example, the fairing isn’t as high as it appears in either photo. On the Stratus XP, it’s actually neck level, and on the Xstream, about mouth level. These photos were taken on Monday. Since then, I’ve lowered the fairing and handlebar on the Xstream about an inch, and pulled the handlebar back toward me about the same. I think I can lower the fairing another inch, but I’ll need to fabricate an adapter to do it. You can see the fairing is more upright on the Xstream. When I’m finished with my adjustments though, I think it will be about the same height and angle as on the Stratus XP. The Stratus XP is the top photo, the Xstream the bottom one.
This small photo actually makes for an easier comparison.
My head is slightly lower on the Xstream since I’m reclined more, but of course the biggest difference is the bottom bracket height. My feet are completely behind the fairing at all times on the Xstream, which will be nice in the winter.
The hills on my commute are short enough that I really don’t need to climb anything in the smallest chainring, but I tried it anyway on Tuesday, just to see how the bike handled. At 4.4 mph, it was easy to keep it steady and straight. It passes the handling test with flying colors. I still have a bit of tinkering to do, and only time will tell if I prefer it over the Stratus XP for commuting, but I have to say that so far, I’m really pleased with it.
I rode to work all five days this week. Between the wind, and a couple of cool mornings, it’s starting to feel like fall. It was summer-like though, almost 90 degrees, as I rode home against a 25 mph south wind Monday afternoon. Tuesday morning, it was 52 degrees as I rode to work against a north wind gusting to 30 mph. It took me over an hour to pedal the 12 miles to work, and my 10.8 mph average for the ride is my slowest ever in the two years I’ve been commuting by bike. It was a nice tailwind on the ride home that afternoon.
By Thursday morning, it was 39 degrees, easily the coolest morning so far this fall. After that hot afternoon Monday, it’s been 65 to 80 degrees in the afternoon since, really nice.
2011 days ridden to work: 181
2011 commuting mileage: 4423.3
Work commute route
I rode to work 4 of 5 work days this week. The storms came rolling in Wednesday morning just about the time I needed to leave on my bike for work, so for the first work day since August, I drove rather than rode to work. I’m headed to Oklahoma this weekend to visit family and friends, so the 98 miles from commuting will be all the riding I do this week.
Other than Wednesday morning’s storms, the weather was really nice this week. This morning, it was 51 degrees, and I rode to work in long sleeves and leg warmers. It’s still plenty warm in the afternoons, though.
2011 days ridden to work: 176
2011 commuting mileage: 4300.8
Work commute route
I took off from home on the Xstream and rode my Crowley Metric Century route this morning. It goes south from Crowley through Burleson, then east and south of Cleburne before looping around for a stop at a Tiger Mart in Cleburne on the way back. It was a short stop at the Tiger Mart today as I had forgotten my cash. I was carrying granola bars, so I just settled for a couple of those with water, and was on my way again. I ended up with 62.8 miles.
Crowley Metric Century route