Singlespeed frenzy
Ya'll....been busy riding single everything...29er singlespeed and most recently a fixed gear. Yea, yea, I know, I know, fixies are trendy and for hipsters and blah, blah, blah. But you know what! The first Tour De France was done on fixed gear bike and god damnit, I'm a cyclist and I'm frick'n taking the fixie back from the hipsters.
There is no doubt that riding a fixed gear changes the way you think about riding. If you're not paying attention for a second, bump, bump you get bucked. Even the most mundane things like whipping your nose, grabbing your water bottle or signaling a turn are a bit difference. 'Cause no matter how much you ride inevitably you coast. We'll see what it can add for my training regimen.
So on my cheapie 29er ss(raleigh XXIX) I recently changed my 20 tooth cog to a 18 tooth cog. With a 32 tooth chainring up front to a 2:1 ration, since I'm familiar and still think in the 26" world that is equivalent to a 32:16! ouch! I never run that stout of a gear before. And man, let me tell you, riding that shite at Skeggs is tuff. Especially when the ride looks like this(up, down, up down...)...
(oh yea, I got a new cyclocomputer thingy...it's called the Garmin Forerunner 305..purty sweet!)
The rest of my time has been spent riding on the road and racing on the road. No spectacular results yet, but I'm taking my time building my fitness this year. The road season is long (Feb-Sept) and mountain biking season is thrown in the middle. This weekend I'm doing the Ronde van Brisbeen: crit saturday, circuit race sunday and the bonus will be "goldsprints" on Saturday nite.
There is no doubt that riding a fixed gear changes the way you think about riding. If you're not paying attention for a second, bump, bump you get bucked. Even the most mundane things like whipping your nose, grabbing your water bottle or signaling a turn are a bit difference. 'Cause no matter how much you ride inevitably you coast. We'll see what it can add for my training regimen.
So on my cheapie 29er ss(raleigh XXIX) I recently changed my 20 tooth cog to a 18 tooth cog. With a 32 tooth chainring up front to a 2:1 ration, since I'm familiar and still think in the 26" world that is equivalent to a 32:16! ouch! I never run that stout of a gear before. And man, let me tell you, riding that shite at Skeggs is tuff. Especially when the ride looks like this(up, down, up down...)...
(oh yea, I got a new cyclocomputer thingy...it's called the Garmin Forerunner 305..purty sweet!)
The rest of my time has been spent riding on the road and racing on the road. No spectacular results yet, but I'm taking my time building my fitness this year. The road season is long (Feb-Sept) and mountain biking season is thrown in the middle. This weekend I'm doing the Ronde van Brisbeen: crit saturday, circuit race sunday and the bonus will be "goldsprints" on Saturday nite.
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