"Dark, have been my dreams of late"

"Dark, have been my dreams of late" - King Theoden, Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers.

The Dark Side that is singlespeeding has been working its way into my thoughts whenever I think of long bike rides. For instance, the WRIAD; White Rim In A Day. It is a ride that means a long day in the saddle in the wilds near Moab, Utah. I would like to do that someday and it makes little sense to do that on a hardtail SS when I have a multi geared FS in the garage. So, why then, when I think of this type of ride do I envision it being done on an SS?

I think some of it may be romantic delusion cuz the reality is that I am no where near as fit and young as most of the SS riders who are doing long rides across the country. But, even though I know it would hurt...a...lot...it still fires me up to do it that way.

What is the deal?

For some reason I get a tremendous amount of satisfaction standing and pedaling that rolling stairmaster from hell, a satisfaction that I do not quite get on the FS. It is perplexing, is it not?

Yesterday I was riding a steep section of trail near me and I passed two riders at the beginning of the climb. Sections are ride able SS and others are granny ring, nose of the saddle steep, so that meant pushing. I would pull away from the geared rider and then get reeled back in on the uber steeps. At one point we rode side by side. He looked over and commented on the SS, saying that he had tried that and it was not for him. "I understood", I said and then pedaled up the trail, dropping him on the next climb. It sure felt good to do that.

I bet his dreams are different than mine.