access to visit object from a component

I have a visit object with a property String user and a setter and
getter method, and the visit class has a no argument constructor. But
when I specifiy my component (which extends BaseComponent):
 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- $Id: Border.jwc,v 1.12 2002/09/25 12:17:41 hship Exp $ -->
<!DOCTYPE component-specification PUBLIC 
            "-//Howard Lewis Ship//Tapestry Specification 1.3//EN"
            "http://tapestry.sf.net/dtd/Tapestry_1_3.dtd" [
 
<!ENTITY here "/tap">
            
]>
 
<component-specification class="tap.Navbar"
allow-informal-parameters="no">  
            <component id="username" type="Insert">
                <binding name="value" expression="visit.user"/>
            </component>
</component-specification>
 
I get the following Exception: Unable to resolve expression 'visit.user'
for tap.Navbar
 
I have no problem accessing the visit object from pages, only from
components. Why?
 
Regards, Bret
Plan b Solutions 
Applying technology to improve business performance 
714 433 1363 x 133