Valdson on Paris-Brest-Paris

This is an e-mail we received from one of our customers Valdson. He ordered an AZUB MAX with Rohloff, SON hub dynamo, some carbon parts etc. just few weeks before the so known and respectful Paris-Brest-Paris race. The oldest bicycle race on the world which is still organised. But just once per four years.

Well, I think the Rohloff noise is a bit lower now, as you said, and I got used with it, so it is ok!

I have twisted my ankle 3 days before the PBP! I was getting out of the train, carrying the bike, and the doors were closing, then I run and I didn’t see the stair steps… My ankle got really swollen and purple, it was hard to walk, but no problem to pedal.

It was a little hard to find bicycle stores to buy the stuff I needed. Then, saturday and sunday, the day of the PBP start, I had yet some things to buy and then I could not sleep during all day, before the starting, as I wanted.

I started the PBP with the seat on lowest inclination angle. Then, after some time I started to feel pain on the buttocks and I started to increase the inclination angle. When I felt pain again, I have increased the angle a little bit more, until I put it on the highest inclination angle. Then I didn’t feel more pain!! It was really nice to pedal the Azub Max recumbent bike in this long distance travel! After I have put the seat inclination angle in the maximum (the most layed down position), I didn’t feel any pain on the buttocks, on the back, on the neck, or on the hands! The only pain I felt was on the legs, on the knees and on feet. Then I tried to find the best distance between the seat and the pedals, and the best height of the seat too. After a long time pedaling I have felt numbness on the feet. But the numbness could be solved only stopping for a couple of minutes and then I could start another long time pedaling before feeling the numbness again, so, it was not a big problem. I have liked to put seat on the higher height to have the pedals relatively lower.

On the last section before getting to the control point of 310 km, I was without battery on my Iphone, I think that because the recharge was not working properly probably due to some problem on my USB cable. Then I had not any information about time and distance. I had no clearance on the time, because I was a little slow on climbs, I think that mainly because I have not the muscles used on recumbent bikes well worked out. And I missed some time too at the seat adjustments. In that section I was very asleep, probably because I had not slept how much I wanted before the starting. And my initial plan was to sleep only on the control point close to 400 km. To complete, it rained a lot on that section, on a moment I stopped for some time because the rain was very strong with a lot of lightning. I think I don’t had good clothes to get protected from the rain on a recumbent. So, when I arrived on the control point of 310 km, I was delayed, asleep, soaked, with hungry. Looking to the time, I would have to continue on the same moment to try to recover the time. But I needed some time to be able to continue, mainly some time to sleep. Then I decided to abandon the proof there, to take a shower, to eat and to sleep, then return the 310 km enjoying the travel! It was really nice. In a moment I have got a better adjustment of the seat and then it was really confortable to pedal!

The bike calls so much attention in the streets! It is like a parade! For now I prefer to use my regular bike in the city and let the Azub for long distance travels.

Again, thank you very much for the effort you and everyone from Azub have made to prepare the bike as I wanted on time! It is a really nice bike!“