Mirror, mirror on the... |
September 6th, 2014 |  |
brake lever | ||
) Finally a mirror that's compact, thus inconspicuous, without vibrating bracket and with good looks: the Zephal Spin. thoroughly tested during the Viking Tour and this is a stayer!Naturally with some modifications, but this way it can be mounted directly on the brake lever. | ||
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Also looking forward to an extended weekend of bicycling? |
September 4th, 2014 | |
This weekend tour of 1000 km along the Belgian borders with 6000 metres of ascending | ||
) Our top randonneur Arthur van der Lee took two days extra time off to start Borders of Belgium. Well, if you have an efficient bike these tours are covered almost effortless. However, it's not really about setting the fastest time, but more the adventure along the way. You'll always experience something special. Camping is done with a hammock tent and you'll never know where you'll end up the next evening. And the best part: the day after the event you just go back to work, because recumbent riders do not have any trace of pain in the crotch, neck, wrists, back, etc. Follow Arthur here. And this is the website of the organisation | ||
Video Viking Tour 2014 |
August 22nd, 2014 | |
| Good video-impression by a Viking Tour 2014 participant on a road bike. Well cut footage of the mountains, the views, tunnels, descents and ascends. At 52 seconds a glimpse of an M5-Team member! | ||
"I think it goes faster" |
July 31st, 2014 | |
Final report Viking Tour 2014 | ||
) Cool down after finish: Herke Wendt, the fastest of the Viking Tour860 km, 11500 metres of ascending, five fjords, nine mountains, this is the setting of the beautiful, but tough route of the Viking Tour. Over 140 participants, young and old, among them four recumbent riders on their M5 Carbon High Racers. (the fifth, Robert Carlier, unfortunately couldn't participate for personal reasons). The weather was untypical for Norway: loads of sun and temperatures above thirty degrees centigrade. Only during the final stage dark clouds and thunderstorms dominated during part of the day. The positive attitude of the other participants with respect to the recumbents was striking. Lots of attention and admiration that we had the courage to go into the mountains... After the first few stages a road biker concluded: I think it goes faster. When Herke Wendt (40) had won two stages, astonishment really kicked in. What's happening here!?. But after the success of the recumbent still no sign of any envy, victory was fully acknowledged. Herke, in fact the "true Viking" due to the lack of a shirt, was mentioned separately during the award ceremony as the most rapid. Cheering seemed a little louder when his name was called. Around the parked M5 Carbon High Racers bystanders where often checking out the technique and all kinds of questions were asked at the M5 Team. Some even took a test ride. The M5 Team participated along a field of participants in which also a strong group of professionals took part. The leading group rode en climbed fast every day. Still Herke established the highest average stage speed twice with his M5 Carbon High Racer, 35.9 en 36.9 km/h. Both times in mountain stages with finish on top of the mountain. The whole M5-team passed the finish without technical malfunctions. This is given the circumstances not completely obvious. The road of the prologue was in such bad condition that you were almost thrown off your bike. Kind of ascending in a river bed. Wheels coming loose from the underground due to pot holes and grooves. In later legs the bikes also took heavy impacts. Speeding through gravel on 8 bar racing tyres seems a request for flats and for wrecked rims. En what about climbing: full power on the pedals, chain as tense as a string, 12 percent, 14 percent, every revolution maximal stress on the propulsion system. Subsequently down again: kilometres of intermittent braking, expecting the rim to get red hot. But at the end of the stage only the rider is wrecked: the bike is only dusty and ready to make a new start next day. En route road bikers could be seen struggling with their usual discomforts. But then, they have to, because "climbing on a recumbent is impossible"... In the past it has been demonstrated often then ascending on a light recumbent is fine, but thanks to Herke Wendt it has been emphasized again. Winning a stage twice with ample lead to well trained athletes shows that climbing is just no problem. And the superiority of the recumbent on flat terrain and during descends was already no longer a subject for debate. Ascending, preferably with a few percent slope on nice tarmac, is simply spectacular: the bike remains incredibly stable, everything feels save, under control. Carefree enjoyment on the M5 CHR's while racing down a mountain. Where road bikes ascended with 70 km/h, the recumbents went (while free-wheeling) 30 percent faster here, in this case up to 94 km/h. The Viking Tour was an endurance test for the participating M5's and their riders. Obviously, Herke was the undisputed star. In the classifications Bram was on average at a third from the top and in the top 5 of his age category. Despite his lack of training kilometres Wout was close to Bram. Daniel not only finished the whole tour, but also managed to leave about 50 of the 150 participants behind. Our muscle soreness has diminished again and the harshness of the Viking Tour proved to be insufficient to destroy our bikes. Bram is now considering to bring a spare rider next time instead of a spare bike :) | ||
Report of 7th and final stage of Viking Tour 2014 |
July 28th, 2014 | |
) By Bram MoensFriday July 25 was the final leg of 158 km in the Viking Tour from fjord village Stryn to mountain place Vagamo. This stretch had 1850 metres of ascending. Biggest part of these was the ascent to the Gamle Strynsvegen, going up from sea level to 1150 metres. After my more or less mandatory two day rest due to intestinal problems, I really wanted to participate in the final stage. A beautiful route through one of my favourite mountain areas, in which I also painted a lot. The morning start in Stryn coincided with the arrival of a massive thunderstorm, only to be outrun by riding really fast. That was my plan anyway, since I wanted to build up as much distance between me and the pursuing group, because of the long climb that would follow later. With twofold stage winner en M5 team member Herke Wendt behind me we speeded with 50 km/h to the mountains. Cooling was through large showers: I enjoyed them after all these 30-plus centigrade days!! I really noticed what two days of rest had done to my body. I raced at 95% of my maximal heart rate, realising I obviously wouldn't be able to maintain this for five hours Result of our fast take-off was that the much younger and stronger athletes didn't pass us until we were at 700 metres. The overtaking speed was clearly lower than at the beginning of the Viking Tour. Just imagine: younger (say 30 years), stronger (400 Watt in stead of 295 Watt) en lighter riders on M5 Carbon High Racers... Any difference would simply be eliminated!! On top of the mountain plateau a 23 km flat to 1 to 2% descending dirt road followed, featured with large potholes. And yes, in one of these I encountered a somewhat too sharp edge at 50 km/h which even my 9 bar rear tyre could not withstand. Repairing the snakebite took me 12 minutes and I had to continue with just 5 bar of pressure due to the limitations of the small hand pump. Moments later another pothole made my cellphone go airborne. The search for the four pieces of phone took me another 3 minutes. The 70 km hidden gradient/flat route plus 200 metre bump from Grotli to Vagamo was recumbent heaven and occasionally guaranteed high top speeds. At the end of the stage we were presented a climb of another 5 kilometres with gradients up to 14%. Eventually I finished with five hours of cycling at place 28 of 141 participants, of which 95% being younger than I. By the way, also this five hour ride was covered fully solo. However, why do we do all this??
In short: if a bike like the M5 Carbon High Racer survives all the challenges at the highest level of the Viking Tour with National Norwegian Triathlon Team members amongst them you can be sure that it will also meet all your requirements during commuting, bicycle holidays or long tours. | ||
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Herke does it again: after winning the 3th leg he now also wins the 6th leg of the Vikingtour!! |
July 24th, 2014 | |
Pursuing road bikes minutes behind | ||
) Herke Wendt again overall winner, this time of the 6th leg of the Viking Tour. After ascending for approximately 600 meters Herke maintained first position on his M5 Carbon High Racer, almost overtaken by the pursuing group of road bikes. However, directly after passing the highest point Herke plunged down the mountain again, leaving all other rider effectively behind. During the last, relatively flat part nobody managed to come even close to Herke and victory was sure. Picture: Herke returns after the race to the accommodation of the M5 Team. | ||
July 20: the first real leg of the Viking Tour |
July 20th, 2014 | |
Yesterday the prologue | ||
| After the prologue of yesterday along 6 km of gravel road with 12 percent average ascending we had the first long leg of the Viking Tour today. Today we had tropical circumstances: over 31 degrees centigrade. Circa 2200 metres of ascending. Bram finished after 5 hours, 11 minutes and 2 seconds. Could have been less than five hours, if Bram wouldn't have lost some time trying to find his glasses which fell out of his bag while passing a cattle grid. Herke missed a rather hidden sign and made an unwanted detour of 15 kilometres. Still, he finished about 15 minutes after Bram. Daniel was about an hour behind, suffering from the heat at Trollstigen. Harsh, beautiful route. See www.vikingtour.no for details and our our Facebook page for pictures. | ||
M5 due to vacation closed to August 23 rd |
July 1st, 2014 | |
| Due to participating in the Viking Tour and subsequent bicycle holiday, M5 will be closed from July 15 up to August 23. Receiving and sending packages will not be possible during this period. E-mail and telephone traffic continue uninterrupted. | ||
High ranking for Bram Moens at Cycle Vision 2014 races |
June 30th, 2014 | |
) After a nine year break Bram Moens took up racing again. As part of the preparation for the Viking Tour he participated in two races during Cycle Vision last weekend. Also to his own surprise he managed to get third in the final ranking in a strong field of participants. Bram did the 1 and 3-hour race on his lime green M5 Carbon High Racer. The distance covered during the 1-hour race was a superb 47.3 km, while the 3-hour race ended with 134,4 kilometres, resulting in an average speed of 45,66 km/h (bike computer: 137 km, 45.66 km/h average). Probably needless to mention that most of the other participants where 20 to 35 years younger. Striking detail was that that fully faired velomobiles couldn't really compete with unfaired, open recumbents during the one hour race. For example, Daniel Fenn did only 47 kilometres during the one hour, while racing a fully faired 3-wheeled recumbent of just 12.5 kilograms on a track which is highly suitable for velomobiles. The remarkable achievement by the 71 year old Mike Burrows must be mentioned too: with his partly faired two-wheeled Ratracer he covered 46.9 km in an hour and during the 3-hour race a full 131.4 km. Even without any electrical assistance there's still hope for us! Also check out www.ligfiets.net for all the results, pictures and video's. Especially the pictures of Droplimits are really worthwhile! | ||
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Viking Tour 2014 |
June 27th, 2014 | |
Introducing the M5 Racing Team | ||
 A short introduction of the M5 Team. All riders take part with their M5 Carbon High Racer which weighs around nine kilograms. Weight is certainly important during the Viking Tour: 13.000 metres of climbing in seven days. More on the Viking Tour on www.vikingtour.no. There's a list of participants, the route and a lot of practical information. Follow the efforts of the M5 Team at www.facebook.com/m5recumbents.The riders Robert Carlier, 39 years, studied mechanical engineering and physiotherapy and now has his own physiotherapy practice. Long distance specialist, currently among the fastest recumbent riders in the Netherlands. Globetrotter, hiked and cycled everywhere on the planet. Fastest Dutchman during Paris-Brest-Paris in 2011. His M5 Carbon High Racer is pretty standard according to Robert. He did shorten the handle bar and mounted bar-ends on it, thus enabling the use of thumb shifters. Wout Ruijter, 35 years, calculated the frame of the M5 Carbon High Racer for series production to obtain the ideal ratio between the use of material (weight) and strength. Tall and fast rider. Bram Moens, 57 years, apart from sports, photography and painting a long career in developing and producing efficient recumbents. Keeper of several world records. Picked up racing again for the first time in nine years last spring. Amongst busy working days Bram manages to cover quite a lot of training kilometres, like Luik-Bastenaken-Luik in Belgium. Daniel Siepman, 46 years, working in several IT-related projects and highly interested in ecological building methods. Participates in the Viking Tour with the M5 Carbon Medium Racer, the already ten years old prototype of the High Racer. To get a few extra training kilometres he wants to go by recumbent from the Netherlands to the starting point of the Viking Tour in Norway. Making kilometres in The Netherlands, Germany and Denmark and then some climbing in the mountains of Norway. Concerning the Viking Tour: he is somewhat nervous about the 13000 metres of ascending, but maybe even more about the steep, unpaved parts of the Viking Tour. Herke Wendt, 40 years, landscaper in daily life. Covering serious distances with his M5 Carbon High Racer: every Sunday morning a trip of about 150 km and during summer also a weekly evening ride. He's fond of his recumbent and would like to make more trips, but being an entrepreneur time is often an issue. To prepare for the Viking Tour he trains a lot in the Teutoburger Wald, because in the flat Emsland there are no mountains. He's considering to cover at least part of the way to Norway by recumbent to get a few extra training kilometres. | ||
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