Faster with Yavixa & Nazca Cruiser 2010

Was it because of the new tyres? Did the little addition to the seat make such a difference? Or was it that I had no head wind? The thing is that I was finally managed to do a decent average on my commute to Nazca yesterday. Even early in the morning it all felt faster than it felt for months. I'm always relatively slow in the morning and the temperature of 3 degrees C didn't really help either. Although that was considerably warmer than most of rides in the past months, the air still was cold. I think I can say that it takes until noon for me to built up some steam. And the real speed doesn't show up before 4 in the afternoon. If I had a tailwind in the morning and a headwind back home late in the afternoon, the ride back probably will be faster. I had that situation quite often on many commutes to school or work.

So yesterday I had a reasonable pace. Cruising at 31km/h gave an average of 28.4km/h. As I said, that was early on the day, before 9am. At the little international headquarter there was plenty of work to do. I did a quick full pre-ride check on a Cruiser and fully assembled an Explorer. I swapped some parts and was making headlight mount parts at the end of the day.

I also took a closer look at new developments. Last winter and autumn a lot of time was spent on further developing an 11 year old success story, the Cruiser. A bike well known in the European recumbent world. Together with the Explorer, the USS version of this bike, this was the first Nazca model available.

Henk van der Woerdt, one half of the well known duo 'Henk en Monique from Nazca' originally developed the Cruiser without an idler. The original idea was the keep the chain as much protected by chaintubes as possible. This keeps the chain clean and is very convenient on an every day bike. But through the years he found out that placing an idler can seriously improve a bike. If mounted in the right place, an idler can direct the chain in such a way that the effect of pedalling on the suspension is greatly reduced to close to none. This makes for a more direct feeling, a more efficient ride and much better climbing capabilities. All the other models already had an idler from their start, and now idlers have also found their way onto the models where it all started with.

Another addition for 2010 is the Flevobike seat. Not standard, but available as an option for the those who like mesh seats. I'm not familiar with all the details about when (not yet) and for how much. What I can say is that I like the looks and that, in my opinion, it's a welcome and special addition to the choice in seats. It's the same seat that's been in use on the €3700,- Greenmachine for a couple of years now. What you see on the left is the prototype, it misses a few little details, you'll probably won't notice them. As with all models, the list with options on gearing, tyres, colours, shifters and wheels is endless.

My ride home was fun. Wind from the side, high gears, high cadence (100+?) and, proper numbers on the speedo. One sixth faster than usual, 32.4km/h. The race home was rewarded a good meal of carrots mashed with potatoes. Fish with that and yoghurt for dessert. Swimming went surprisingly well after all that cycling, just over 1 kilometre in a little more than half an hour.