Posted 2/8/03

Hi,

I thought you might like to hear a little about our holiday on the
Company of Cyclists Bike Culture Week complete with X2 towing a Trets
trailer bike. I have attached some photos, use any you like on the web site.

The Cotswolds are steep (wot a surprise), lots of people ended up
walking up hills although we managed to ride up them all. Hence, we did
spend a lot of the week in gear 1 of the 81 provided, not infrequently
wishing there was a lower gear.

The downhills were great, we were significantly faster then everyone
else (apart from one tandem piloted by much fitter people who once
managed to hang on after we overtook them).

On the flat and even uip slight inclines we could stay with the rest of
the group comfortably. Until our group thinned out so we had the only
children we were not last on the uphills either. I think we did around
26 miles on the longest day.

We had some excitement too with a huge blowout on the back tyre while
going down a twisty and bumpy 12% hill. I had been using the rear
v-brake to control the speed - it was lovely and controllable but
overheated the rim and the tube blew with a very big bang (a 5" split in
the tube). No other damage and I was able to stop very quickly and
without any drama. After watching the crashes in the Tour de France I
was very very relieved to have been on an X2, the consequences of a
blowout on anything else with 2 children on board would have been
horrible. We did win the puncture price for that one (and Jason Patient
has some photos of the tube afterwards).

I guess if buying new then I would be looking at options for a rear
brake that could be used for controlling speed without this problem on
long descents either drum or disk (especially if we were planning on
touring in hilly areas).

Lots of people tried the X2 and all liked it. The Trets was also much
admired and worked really well. The X2 is an ideal tow vehicle being so
stable at speed (only fingers of one hand needed even at 30mph with 2
children).

We were the only all trike family (Stephen on the Trets, Peter and I on
the X2, Andrew on the Kettweisel and Jane on my Road Shark). We all
enjoyed the holiday and all recommend it to others for next year.
Actually we left as not quite an all trike family cos I bought a 2nd
hand Birdy folder from the CoC at the end.

Regards

Dave