HOLLAND ON AN AZUB ORIGAMI

This is our 3rd trip to Holland and it’s hard not to keep coming back as it is a car-free cycling paradise, the terrain is flat and the countryside beautiful. Our home in Western Australia has a bike path system which is insufficent, narrow and shared with walkers and dogs. It is also mainly limited to the metropolitan area with no extended touring opportunity.

Contributed by Lincoln

The Origami excels at this

Getting there. Well as I have pointed out in a previous blog, all my issues have been solved, with an Origami and a Hellium bag, it’s a 5 minute pack. What’s the best bike to take? Well I took my MAX Hardcore before and it was very comfortable but frankly, the suspension was overkill as the roads do not need suspension. The disassembly and packing was inconvenient and the potential for damage to the bike was a concern. The disadvantage of the hardcore is that it is not so manoeuvrable in tight areas of traffic and when going through towns. The Origami excels at this. Is there a downside to the Origami? I know some would say that it won’t ‘roll’ as well but I did not notice as I was racing no one and enjoyed the sight while eating and drinking on the bike. The Big Apples are comfortable and the Ortlieb bag set up made the carrying of luggage barely noticeable as the bike is so stable and the weight distribution of the luggage did not affect steering. The whole set up is difficult to improve on and I won’t change anything for future tours. It was pure enjoyment and 85 km a day was a joy to take in the sights. This is luxury touring. Not so much for my wife, as she was on the ‘dark side’ with a DF bike.

The way he attached the set of Ortlieb recumbent waterproof bags to the Origami

The only thing that you need to change to fit Ortlieb recumbent bags is to get a longer strap (that goes over the seat) that holds up the front of the pannier. This is because the recumbent pannier sits a little lower on the Origami which is a good thing. I hope this set up can be promoted for ‘light touring’.

That will need new tyres soon

We started in Amsterdam, took a train to Groningen, rode to Nijmegan over a few days (500 km) staying in hotels and then took the train back to Amsterdam. Azub make a fine selection of recumbents and I think that the Origami may yet be the most versatile recumbent made by anyone. I have 4 recumbents at present, including an Azub hardcore, Velokraft, M5 carbon hi-racer and Greenspeed trike and the only recumbent that will need new tyres soon is the Origami and it’s not because Big Apples wear out easily!

COMMENTS

<div id="disqus_thread"></div><script>/*** RECOMMENDED CONFIGURATION VARIABLES: EDIT AND UNCOMMENT THE SECTION BELOW TO INSERT DYNAMIC VALUES FROM YOUR PLATFORM OR CMS.* LEARN WHY DEFINING THESE VARIABLES IS IMPORTANT: https://disqus.com/admin/universalcode/#configuration-variables*//*var disqus_config = function () {this.page.url = PAGE_URL; // Replace PAGE_URL with your page's canonical URL variablethis.page.identifier = PAGE_IDENTIFIER; // Replace PAGE_IDENTIFIER with your page's unique identifier variable};*/(function() { // DON'T EDIT BELOW THIS LINEvar d = document, s = d.createElement('script');s.src = 'https://azub-eu.disqus.com/embed.js';s.setAttribute('data-timestamp', +new Date());(d.head || d.body).appendChild(s);})();</script><noscript>Please enable JavaScript to view the <a href="https://disqus.com/?ref_noscript">comments powered by Disqus.</a></noscript>