Grew a Tooth.

Navy Mike on his trial run.

It is no secret that I love riding single speed 29ers.  They are harsh and cruel mistresses, but aside from the whipping you get, there is a reward too.  Sometimes the reward wins and sometimes the whip wins, but there it is.  You get what you get.

The other day a fellow SS rider took his gearing from the somewhat typical for where we live 32x20 to a 32x18.  Big step up, that.  He did that to accommodate a local XC race series where the flats are long enough to be difficult with hill climbing gears.  And he found that he was surprised by how he was still able to ride most of the normal stuff too, it just took more effort, sometimes a LOT more, but in many cases he was going very fast uphill without a lot more stress on the body.  He is also a strong and determined rider by nature.

So he suggested I do the same...go to a taller gear, and he offered his 20T rear cog to try it out.  Now I run a 34x21 gearing as I find that, even though it is not much different that a 32x20, that I like the bigger chainwheels.  They feel smoother to me and smoother feels faster as well.  It may not be truly so, but I like it.

Let us look at some numbers.  Gear Inches is a way to represent the result of gear combinations.  It tells you how far in inches that one revolution of a crank gets ya'.  The bigger the number, the farther you will go per pedal stroke and the taller the gear makes it harder to pedal uphill too.

32x20 = 46.6

That is what Navy Mike had when he began.

32x18 = 51.8

This is what he has now.  He gained 5 gear inches.  When we went riding he would match my cadence and just pull away from me.  Hmmmm.

I was running...

34x21 = 47.2

Pretty close to a 32x20 actually.  Slightly taller.  Now I have...

34x20 = 49.5

That is still way off a 32x18 so maybe halfway there in relation to the change that Navy Mike made to his old gearing.  And I have been running this for two rides now.  They have been somewhat hard rides and routes that I am very familiar with.  It has been interesting as to how it has felt.  It felt harder in some cases.  When I was in a situation where I was really under a gear, grinding it out, it hurt a lot, maybe to the point where I could not make the hill or obstacle.  But when I was pedaling well, it was fast.  Quite a difference.

I could tell that, more than my cardio, it was stressing my leg strength.  It was squats at the gym more than running stairs.  Interesting.  As long as my knees hold up and I can rise to the occasion, I should grow stronger and get faster.  In short, I will adapt.

Guitar Ted says that you should go up one gear tooth at a time as the season brings your fitness up until the point where you simply cannot move that bigger gear, than go back one.  Your fitness will rise to the challenge.  Could be.  Wise person, that GT.  What I have not done yet was a long, grinding climb where it just beats you down over time.  That may be an issue as I will only get sooooo fit here but I also know I have lots of room to grow so we shall see.  We shall see.  And if nothing else, my walking gear is still the same. :)

But it was a lesson to me in being willing to push things a bit instead of letting the status quo keep me comfy.  If an SS is ever comfy for any time at all.

The long and short of it.

One of the oft debated topics for MTB set up is crank length.  Typical lengths range from 170mm long to 180mm long, but the huge majority of crank arm lengths on MTBs is an industry standard 175mm.  Why?  No idea, really.  I have no clue on how this length was picked out, but it is ubiquitous regardless or frame size (most of the time) and as a result, rider height/leg length.

The thought here is to match the length of the two levers...or maybe three levers...or maybe one lever and a fulcrum or two...heck, I am just as clueless to mechanical engineering and how it relates to the human body as the next guy, but often a longer leg length points to a longer bicycle crank arm, at least for MTB use where high RPMs are not the norm over long distances (unless you are Fixie Dave...but NO ONE else is Fixie Dave but Fixie Dave so that is silly).

I ran 180s for YEARS and years, maybe from the early 90s on.  We all were on geared bikes then, no SS, etc.  I even ran 177.5s on one road bike.  This came from a suggestion from Doug Curtiss of Curtlo Cycles, he being very tall (at least 6'4").  He ran 190s if he could find them.  I was having some knee pain and he looked at me and said, "run a longer crank".  Now I am not sure where that idea came from...too much welding fumes, perhaps, but he had way more experience on a bike then I did so I jumped up to 180mm XT cranks and never looked back.  No knee pain either, so there ya' go.

I found that it worked well with my 'diesel' approach to climbing where I would get in a taller gear, slide back on the saddle, and 'dig in'.  Chug chug chug.  I really never found an issue with spinning as we all had triples and we rarely spun out the gearing in those days unless you were under gravity's hold on you.  If that was the case, we were just holding on for dear life (pre-suspension, you know).

So when I got back into riding after taking some time off from Martial Arts, I was right back on 180s.  Then, the bike testing gig comes along and guess what?  No one specs 180mm cranks on a stock bike.  So I was spinning these 'tiny' cranks and I noticed the loss of torque right away.  I ended up riding in lower gears and at a higher RPM but that became the norm and I got used to it.  After a while, only the Lenzsport (hardly ridden) and my SS had 180s.

Then I got the first SS test bike in with 175s on it.  I was concerned about losing all that leverage.  So then one day I led a group ride that was a few hours of loops around our local trails and at the end I found the results to be intriguing.  I did notice more effort on steep climbs, but I also felt like I could get the crank 'over the top' easier and I even felt like I was less tired afterwards.  Huh.  How about that?

Another few years of 175 cranks and now I am on NO bike with 180s, even my SS.  I begin to wonder if I am missing something, so on a recent build up of the Blackbuck to test some wheels, I went back to an old, trusty set of XT Hollowtech II 180 cranks.  I also geared a bit lower by 2 teeth in the front to get this bike more set up for difficult trail rides, thinking that the combo of long crank and low gear should make steep climbs or slow trails a breeze. Normally I run 34/21 on an SS and this was now 32/21 and the 180s.

Last night I got out on the bike for the '20 Mile Loop'.  Ed The Tall was testing the carbon Stumpy SS for me, so I was on the SS Blackbuck with the180s and low gears.  Pretty much sucked, that set-up.  Part of this were the long paved road climbs to get to the trail head (and this bike was not built for that stuff).  But when I hit the dirt, I would have my revenge.  It begins with an ugly grunt up a rutted road that is a grind on a single geared bike.  I figured I would be pedaling in tall cotton here with all those wise choices I made in setting up this bike.  Watch out Ed The Tall...here comes the wind.  No wind.  Well maybe a headwind.  Slooooowww and well, slow.  Hard, too.  Whaaaahhh???

I think a couple of things went wrong.  One being the longer crank gave me the overall result of a lower effective gear AND, two, I geared down at the same time.  I should have just run a longer crank with the 'normal' gearing OR the shorter crank with the lower gearing...not both.  Both in combo  created a dead spot in the crank rotation that was so big and long lasting that I could check email and text someone while I pedaled through it.  'BAAA-LUUMP...BAAA-LUUMP' etc.  My legs were WORKED and I was going slower.

The last ride on the Super Stumpy 'S-S' for me was on that same route.  My legs were slightly fresher but I was just getting over being sick so I was hardly 'strong', yet I was moving faster EVERYWHERE on this loop.  Now the 'S-S' is a fast bike in its own right but I also had begun to experiment with and refine my standing pedal stroke to where I was making more of a 'circle', less of a 'piston' action and I was surprised to find how my climbing speed increased. I need to get better at this as it was bringing in different muscle groups but I think once I get this figured out it will be a big step ahead for me.

I could not do that last night on the 180mm cranks.  Too big a circle...too much dead stroke.  Well, I COULD do it but, it felt like I was walking though an ankle deep, muddy field..pick your feet waaaay up and step, etc.  Now another note of interest is the comments from my buddy, mentor, and editor Guitar Ted, who states that the 'old timers' of single speeding said that 170mm cranks were better for SS use.  Really? I do not know ANYONE that even HAS a set of 170s.  And that wisdom comes with no information behind it, only that it 'works better'.  But I can see a point where it might allow a quicker, smoother rotation getting over and past TDC on the crank position.  Interesting.  However, I would think that gearing would need to be adjusted down a bit too.  Dunno if tiny cranks are in my future but it is something to try.

So guess what I am going to do for now?  I am going back to 175s on this SS build and I am not looking back at all.  The 180s will be dust binned till a longer legged person comes along....so ends an era, in some ways.

And that is the long and short of it.

Blackbuck as Phoenix...rising from the ashes

The OS bikes Blackbuck single speed has been my fav steel SS that I have owned or even ridden, really.  It is not the stiffest or the most expensive or the lightest, etc, but it is smooth looking (el sueno, perhaps?...muy guapo?)...anyway, those 40's coupe' bend seat stays and elegant steel tubes are stitched together in angles and dimensions that make for a lively trail bike SS.  The EBB is solid and quiet.  I liked it very much.

But it was a casualty of newer and shinier frames as testing required me to get on a couple of other bikes for the last two seasons of riding.  So I had no use for the little dear and had pilfered some parts off of it leaving it like a half-picked over carcass.  Gruppo buzzards, as it were.  On the hook it languished, ribs all exposed.

So I thought about building it up, even began spinning wrenches, actually, to be a bike path SS cruiser but I came to realize that the old Karate Monkey was better suited for that.  So the languishing continued.  I thought about getting it back on trail but it had some things that were stopping me.  The wheels I had built were super solid and rolled great, pairing the White Industries SS hubs (freewheel type...old school) with Stan's Flow rims.  That was an over 2000g set of wheels with the freewheel on there.  Ooof!  It also had a non-tapered HT so I had no fork to replace the 80mm travel Manitou Pro with.  Not that the fork sucked...it was a great fork...but I wanted to go to a 100mm fork and I wanted to get to a 15mm axle dropout for future proof-ness.

So, I needed some parts and a plan and a reason to do it at all.  Not like I need another bike to ride, you know?  Then, while I was riding the new Stumpy carbon SS on a couple of more techy, winding trails, it came to me that it might be interesting to have a slightly tweaked SS option compared to the racy but very tasty Stumpy carbon.  What if I had a slightly slacker HT angle, maybe 70 degrees static?  Then keep the back end as short as the settings allow for, not really all that short, but just under 17.5".  I would also gear it down a bit as well and run a long 180mm crank to help in low and slow sections of trail.  That would give me a bike that would give up something in overall weight, but may be juuust a bit sweeter on steeper, more demanding trails.

Then some hubs and rims showed up and they needed a place to go.  The new build will drop some weight off the hoops.  I wrangled a fork, a new handlebar and stem, oh, and some brakes too.  So now I had a plan and a reason in some new wheels to test.  Ok then..off the hook it comes and into the work stand.  Stand by.  Should be fun.

Rain-out consolation ride

Well, since the road trip was a wash out, Ed the Tall and I headed out on a Sat morning to a trail a hour or so away that should bear the wet weather pretty well.  We ended up getting 3 hours or so of single track riding on our single speeds, Ed on his beloved Selma, and I on the SS Stumpy with the new SID World Cup fork on there.

Ed had never been there and so it was a treat to show off the trail and it's joys.  We seldom get the chance to ride as much singletrack as you can handle in a day.  Typically the trails in SO Cal are pretty short in length, but this one goes for miles and miles.  The soil is mostly decomposed granite so it bears up well in wet weather.  We were dressed for some soup but it never really was too bad at all.  I am sure glad that we had a rack for the bikes though instead of shoehorning two sloppy 29ers into the back of my trusty 3.  I was using the Kuat NV Core rack and that was solid and stable for the trip.  I did have to take off my tool bag from the saddle to eliminate some handlebar interference.  Super easy to get bikes on and off...very nice.

Ed had geared down for the cancelled trip and I never did, so I was jealous of his 32x21 gearing and 180mm cranks.  I need to regear when I come here again.  34x21 is not enough for this trail and my old legs.  And I think I am moving back to 180mm cranks to see what that feels like after being on 175s for a while now.  We shall see.

We both had on those Gore Phantom II jackets we bought on sale and those have been just great for this season's use.  I peeled the sleeves off to see how it was as a vest and sleeves or not, the jacket is a great balance of water shedding, warmth, breathability, and, most especially, wind-proof-ness.  Love it.

The carbon Stumpy is a very competent bike and although it is not a 'trailbike' SS by nature, it never held me back.  The SID fork with the RCT3 damper was stunningly good for SS use.  I ran it in the middle platform position with the low speed compression dial two clicks 'in'.  Fabulous for the way single speeds are ridden.  I had a stable fork with basically no bob out of the saddle but it would move when I needed it to with only a feeling of 'firmness' to the travel.  Super, super, super and the open setting was so much better than the old Fox it replaced.

Sweet bike for sure.

I think that trail requires more riding and soon.  You can make this into a dawn to dusk trail day if you have the moxie.

Clean bikes...for now.

Gore Phantom jacket with sleeves removed.

Red version of that Phantom soft-shell jacket.

Brothers of the knicker.

Carbon delivers the goods

This has been the longest time I have been on a carbon HT now, at least by a little bit, and the only time it has been a single speed bike and I am pretty darn impressed.  It is quite possibly the highest performing SS overall that I have ridden...light enough, stiff enough, very, very smooth riding, climbs like magic, aggressive handling but not over the top.  Great high performance all day bike.

Carbon is such a black box in many ways but if this is a good example of what it can be...and it looks to be exactly that...then we are living in a good time to be a bike rider in search of tall mountains and winding trails.

I still think that when you get right down to it that steel is still the best for value VS. performance in a hardtail bike but this Stumpjumper SS is amazing.  In fact, I think I need to go ride it again.

Be right back.

Batman Approved.

I have a theory that carbon fiber just might be the ultimate singlespeed frame...if there is such a thing.  This new carpet fiber molded beauty is 1600g/3.5lbs in an XL, has shapes and contours that no metal tubed frame can even hope to have, and it should pedal like crazy but they say that carbon has no soul.

We shall see.  First ride tonite.  Good looking frame...although thoroughly 'branded', it still has that Dark Knight kinda' thing going on.

Yep...it just came to me.  This is what Batman rides.

That is, when he's not on his Fat Bike.

One Trick Pony

New filly in the barn soon.  Let the build-up begin.

Specialized Stumpjumper Carbon 29 SS

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something shiny.

Parts, parts, parts.  Interbike is a bit of a time and energy sucker and, in turn, pays back very little. So I have been way less than interested in blogging.  And as far as riding goes, summer in SO Cal is hardly the pinnacle of trail conditions.  It is hot, dry, brown, and dusty, so epic rides are not really the deal.  So you make do with early and late rides and add in a few high country excursions to get out of the yuck.  Meh!

But I do have two things going on worthy of wordage...the Ti SS build and the upcoming bikepacking trip.  One at a time, here.

I was not really looking to make the Lynskey a ground-up, high zoot, damn the cost and the torpedoes build.  So it will be getting a bit of this and a bit of that.  The bars, headset and stem are really nice, new FSA goodies.  I have some Ergon GA-1 grips, the old ones and the good ones before they made them into a skinny DH grip, and the rest is a mixed bag.

As it is now:

• FSA cockpit as mentioned
• WTB Pure V saddle (what else?) and Syncros CF seat post from the stripped Blackbuck
• Old Shimano Hollowtech II 180mm XT cranks and BB with 34T CR and ring guard from the Blackbuck
• A Fox 110mm fork from the Camber.  110mm sounds tall, but a Fox 110 is still only the same height at the crown as a Manitou 100mm fork
• White Industries hubs from the Blackbuck but with a new rim laced to them
• Some Avid Elixir brakes I had sitting in a box
• Tires TBD

The wheels were a real puzzler.  I wanted to use the fast rolling and bomber drive system of the WI hubs.  The polished hub shells and the decently fast engagement, the bolt on rear axle, the true non-dish rear wheel...well, they are really sweet hubs, but they come with some compromises.  They have that odd offset...47.5mm...that is the old Shimano standard for a middle ring chain line.  But no new cranks from the 'big guys' have that chain line.  Bummer.  So, you either run an older crank like the XT HTIIs ( a great crank BTW) or you buy into the WI cranks they offer to match or run any square taper crank with a Phil Wood BB and swing the chain line to whatever you need.

That is acceptable to me, but not convenient.  But the other thing is weight.  That is hardly a light set-up, that WI hub and freewheel.  Bulletproof, yes.  But not light, at least not compared to a DT Swiss 240 SS hub or a American Classic SS hub.  And there is the expense of gearing changes too.

So the wheels as they sat were a build using Stan's Flows (the old versions) and DT Swiss Comp spokes and alloy nips.  Those wheels with valve stems and tape were 2184g all in, no rotors, but with the freewheel included (and 47g for the cog taken off).  Basically as close as I could get to what a 'normal' free hub wheel set would represent.  OOOfff!!!  2200 grams!  Wow.  The American Classic SS wheels on the Carve are 1600-ish grams.

Hmmmm...so I had some rims around that would be a bit more modern for the WI hubs and very wide and strong, but the same weight.  Not much of an improvement.  What would be absolutely fabulous would be carbon rims laced to the WI hubs...what a blend of classic and cutting end new...but no budget for that.  Besides, unless I go China carbon, the Enve hoops are too stiff for an XC hard tail from what I read.

So the folks from American Classic have a new rim that would drop 300gs off the wheel set and get in the ball park and the weight savings would be all at the rim where it counts the most.  the new 101 rim could be a Stan's Crest killer at 381g and 21mm internal width, the minimum for an SS rim (I would prefer 23mm or so, but...) and they way they build the rims, they give you a low rim sidewall height and that allows for more tire 'poofiness'.  

But are they strong enough?  They say they are.  But I was perplexed...lot of work (well, for JeffJ, anyway...I don't build wheels) for a 1900g wheel set.  I could run something like the Rovals I have from a few years ago or even a set of Eastons and get to 1800gs easy...maybe even under that.  And I would have chain line all over the place so i could run any crank/BB setup.

Makes sense.  But.

I really wanted to run those shiny, smooth yet odd and quirky WI hubs.  And although the Fox fork is just a 9mm lower for the axle config, the WI hubs are pretty big diameter at the axle flange surface, not as good as a 24mm Roval end cap, but pretty good.  And they convert to 15QR as a new fork comes along...if ever.  So, the AC 101 rims are on their way and a wheel building we will go.  We shall see.  There is always plan B.  

Meanwhile, the yet to be named Lynskey SS sits and waits.  Bigger fish are falling into the frying pan as we will talk about in the next blog.

C'mon big brown truck.

Good things come from brown trucks, or so it has been my experience.  YMMV.  And somewhere in North America one brown truck is bringing me my b-day present to myself, a nifty new and permanently shiny Ti 29er frame.  Yep.  I finally bit the bullet...jumped in with both feet...signed on the dotted line...walked down the aisle, as it were.

Limited edition M2923

It was not a rash decision though.  I really thought this out (about a year) and still I waited till an offer popped up that had the most going for it before I whipped out the plastic.  My goodness...I had not bought a bike in about 4 years.  I have horse traded for some and ridden a lot of review bikes, some that hang around a while and some that do not, but to buy one for my very own was kinda odd.

And I looked at a few more expensive frames.  I would love to have a Moots, mostly for emotional reasons going back almost umpteen years, but wow are those dearly priced.  There were others but either the fit was out of line or the cost was out of reach.  I came darn close to having a very reasonably priced custom built by Form Cycles, but I went for this Lynskey as it had a very good combo of fit, features, cost, and while it may not have the cache' of a Seven or a Moots, it has a high level of quality and a pretty good chance that they will be around long enough to honor the warranty.

So the plan is to have this forever, or at least till Armageddon happens and the frame will be recycled into Ti rocket tubing or something, but aside from that I plan on building this up with an eye to what I know works and what appeals to me, even if it is not the lightest or latest.  The build may be a bit static as I hope to have it be a consistent ride and not have to try new stuff on it all the time.  That will be reserved for other bikes.   I want there to be no guesswork when I ride this. I want to get to be old friends.  Like those jeans you have had since college or those Vans you just cannot get rid of.  No surprises, just welcome familiarity and comfort.

Oh yeah, and performance that will make me smile a lot.  This frame is a bit of a gamble in that I have never ridden one like it and even at that, this model is a limited run, unique all on its own, but it had a lot of things going for it that I thought made it worth trying out.  The fit is perfect for me.  Long in the TT and lower in the ST than most XL frames.  And I am shorter in the inseam and loooong in the torso/arms.  If I had been in the Custom frame ordering mode (and I came pretty close to doing just that) I would have picked those two measurements exactly, a 25" TT and a 20.5" ST.  Nice.  With a 73* ST angle I will have a roomy cockpit and more seat post extension for a nicer ride seated.  The 71.5* HT angle is not perfect for me...I would have slackened it a bit...but it will keep the front center in check and give sharp steering response without being over the top quick.

The CS length is a bit shorter and the stays wider at the BB so a 2.3" tire will fit and still be at 17.5" or shorter CS length.  Winner.  An oversize DT and TT are a gamble, as I do not want to lose that Ti ride, but a Singlespeed makes very high demands of a bike frame in that it has to be able to stand up to high BB loads and even TT loads as you reef on the bars with all that torque being fed into the frame.  Ti is not by nature that stiff, so I hope to get a bit of resolve here and not pay too high a price in ride.  If this had been a geared bike I would have not done that and would have gone for the more willowy frame build.  We shall see if I chose wisely.

The only thing that I am not crazy about is the extra braze-on bits that I will likely never use.  I would have preferred to have a pure SS frame, but ya never know.  Someday I may want to convert it to geared and it will be ready.  Not likely though, so there it is...a bit warty in that regard.

I am already planning parts...need a fork, got some wheels in the process, need some carbon flat bars too.  And maybe next B-day I will get one of those Moots Ti seat posts that are about the sexiest thing ever to go under a bike saddle.  Should be a fun build...not a weight weenie deal, just a solid but light all day SS ride.

Here's hopin'!

The stuff that dreams are made of.

No, not gold, but Ti, as in Titanium.  I have been wondering for a long time if Ti is not the perfect material for a hard tail mtn bike.  It is durable, subtle yet classy looking, still looks like a traditional 'tube' frame, should ride well and pedal really well.  It is so expensive that one has to be sure whether the jump in is worth it.

So right now I am on a fine example of a high end Ti single speed.  And it has been very interesting to say the least.  The geometry of this one is a bit unique and not perfectly to my liking and the fit is only 90% there, but the rest is overshadowed by the material the frame is made from and, of course, how they used it...tube selection, etc.  It has been an eye opening ride and brings some practical reality to the trail winding through my mind...the one I imagined a Ti SS cruising through.  Based on my time so far on this bike, If I had jumped in, would I have liked the swim?

So what was I expecting?  A magic carpet ride combined with pedaling performance and light weight.  Longevity and toughness.  Looks that make you go "Ooooo...Ti!"  Some thoughts then.

• The ride -  Smoooooth with a capitol 'smuu'.  Yeah, this thing is pretty darn amazing in that way, making any alu frame and really most of the steel ones feel pretty rough in comparison.  It is not just smooth though, it is a little dead too.  It still rings like any metal frame does when it is hitting bumps, in that I mean the vibrations still are transmitted through the frame, but they are dulled a lot.  That is good for comfort and it helps the bike track well, keeping wheels in contact with the ground.  But...
• Compliance is flex - And that smooth ride comes at a cost, that being a less than awesome snap forward when pedaled hard and a bit of vagueness when pushed hard.  Not bad really, but it is certainly not what many of the hydroformed alu or carbon bikes are.  And it does not quite have the 'pop' of steel...that great spring feeling...that feels like you are on a live bike, not a dead board with wheels.  Ti seems to be not as dead as alu, but not as lively as good steel, including one from the same maker as the Ti version.
• Weight - yeah, it is light, maybe a pound in the frame over steel.  Nice.  All good there, but really the wheels and fork matter more and a pound saved in the wheels is amazing.  Still, lighter is lighter.
• The inheritance factor - So Ti can be willed to your kids, it lasts so long.  Darn tough stuff.  And not just for pedaling fatigue, but impact resistance.  I had the bars swing around and smack the top tube once when I was moving the bike around and, if that had been carbon, I would have been concerned...alu too, maybe.  Dents suck just like cracks do.  This frame?  Never even gave it a second thought.  The brake lever would go first.  But think of this.  Ever had a bike get out of date?  Depending on when you bought (in the past, shall we say), 5 years could mean you have no disc brake tabs and out of date geometry.  Moving forward a bit, you might not have a 44mm HT...if that matters.  The point is this...time marches on and specs and such move with it.  Now some of that is important and some is not so much, but if, in the future, all the better forks are only in a 1.5 tapered motif, then what do you do with your "I will keep it forever so the cost is ok"  Ti bike?  Many folks get a new bike every 5 years or less, plenty of time for a good steel, alu or CF bike to remain intact.
• "You look marvelous, really you do" - Yeah, Ti will always have that Ti look that is dead sexy and the cache' of Ti is undeniable.

So I am still interested in a Ti SS frame, but I will tell ya this.  Two recent rides on carbon were eye  opening.  They rode really, really well, yet set standards for BB deflection.  On an SS, I want everything I can get to go into the ground so a stiff BB is ideal, but only carbon can give you that AND still ride really well, at least so far in my experience.  And alu is seeing some refinements that will make a beer can frame even better, longer lasting, and comfier...cheap too, at least comparatively.  

Then steel, of course...steel seems to get very, very close to Ti and seems to have a snappier feel, but at an increased weight.  

It has been revealing and a bit of a reality check.  I am looking to get on a carbon frame this next season for SS duty.  Honestly I am expecting it to be the best SS frame I have ever ridden as far as delivering it all...ride, pedaling, handling, and weight.  

I will watch out for swinging brake levers a bit more though.  You may not be able to have it all, but I am curious how close I can get.

Roses, chivalry, and a single gear.

I cannot come to grips with why, when I think of doing a long, wandering, hard ride into the horizon, that I see myself on the singlespeed.  How romantic of me or what?  How stupid of me or what?

I think of this as I go through a mental check list in preparation for a Memorial Day ride with FFW on his newly acquired SS Salsa scooter.  Not a killer route, but it gets our attention on a geared bike and I think it will be quite adequate to shatter our old legs that day.

I always love a good ride, right?  Who doesn't?  And although riding alone has great perks, good company is sweet indeed and having FFW along makes for something to look forward to.  But honestly, despite the fact that this ride really is not best with one gear at my command, it is the SS factor that excites me the most.

How odd.  How difficult.  How romantic.  Don Quixote would be proud of me. Regarding 'The Don' - "While mostly a rational man of sound reason, his reading of books of chivalry in excess has had a profound effect on him, leading to the distortion of his perception and the wavering of his mental faculties."  Wikipedia knows me all too well, it seems.  Too much chivalry in my diet, no doubt.

I think that, if I rode a bit less within the group dynamic of the angry pack of weekend warriors looking to KOM the trail on 5" travel, geared carbon wunderbikes, and spent more time on my own in the forest, that I would go SS 100% and just live with the downsides.

"Wait...there are downsides?", says the romantic in me?  Rocinante, tell me it aint so?

Then of course, there are bikes to be tested and evaluated and all that and so it goes.  No chance of a 'single' existence. 

I pondered this when I was armpit deep into WRIAD.  I was seriously considering this as an SS ride and the reality of that thought was a bit less appealing after about 8 hours of sandstone and wind.  I was glad to have both gears and squish on that day, but now I find myself thinking that "next time", if there is one, would I go purist and eschew all that fluffery?

I wonder if this is akin to childbirth?  During the delivery and for some time after, reality is right there smackin' you down and the experience leaves you a bit shattered, wary, and not eager to do it again, or so I imagine.  Then time goes by and there is that romantic notion and the pain seems distant and reasonable after all and soon enough you are planning another go 'round.

Maybe I should ride with a red rose in my teeth, dashing cavalier knight that I am.  "Hello, ladies...I ride with one gear, slaying dragons and all that."  But that would not do, no that would not do at all.  I would suck in that rose in some fit of oxygen deprived hoovering and that would be that...aphids and all.  An inglorious end to be sure.

But just a bit romantic, as it should be.

Me and FFW.  I am the taller one on the right. After all, it's my blog.

Blowin' In The Wind

I stuck my head out of the outer door of my hilltop work building and nearly lost what hair I have left.  Oh great...windy, eh?  The timing on this wind surfer's dream state was not in my favor as I had a reprieve from my normal Thursday night schedule that allowed me to get in a longer ride.  And I sure needed a longer ride. WRIAD, something I have on the calendar for the end of March, was looking like a bust as I had no partner in crime to do it with me.  Not a solo ride IMO, not for this guy anyway, I was thinking it would fall away to the end of the year but recently FFW, a local endurance rider, stuck his little hand in the air and volunteered his body for science.  WRIAD is back on.  In the words of that sage doggie Scooby Doo, "Ruh Roh!"  Time to get some miles in!

I know that FFW is stronger than I anyway and he has been logging some 60 miles loops lately.  Dang!  I am slacking.  So when I got home the winds were still jammin' right from the direction I would be pedaling for at least an hour...uphill.  Sigh.  Sure would have been easy to write it off, but I suited up, put my light onto the Carve Pro SS, packed some extra layers and clear glasses for post sundown work, and pedaled out.

The 20 Mile Loop is a great training ride and especially so on an SS as it is one big set of intervals from start to near finish.  Climb, drop, climb, drop, rinse, repeat.  This ride used to be my litmus test for fitness.  If I could ride it (geared) with out feeling like my legs were gone, I was doing OK and a 2 hour and 30 minute time was about right.  Phah!  Now I do it on the SS in two hours door to door.  Time marches on but sometimes the beat (or beat-down) changes.

The wind was pretty bad and set me back a full ten minutes at the 10 mile point.  It did make for a better workout though.  I was the only one out there on an SS.  Shoot, I was the only one out there at all on ANYTHING without a motor and climate control.  Cold wind, too.  What to do?  Pull the Buff headwrap down over the ears and turn up the iPod shuffle a notch or two.  Pedal.  Pedal.  Pedal.

Hitting the dirt I was still well ahead of sundown so I stopped to stretch the hamstrings and quads.  I have been adding some body weight squats of different kinds, including one legged versions, and following with targeted stretching of those areas.  I have some thoughts as to my issues with leg cramping and tight muscles.  Will being more limber help there?  Not sure, but being well stretched is good for all living things so it can't hurt.

The first dirt climb is a real booger.  Steep, loose and steep, it is a real bummer on an SS.  However, a recent ride on Gridley Trail, a 90 minute granny ring climb, seemed to show that the leg squats have been building some leg power.  I felt this way again on this dirt climb.  Legs good.  Lungs/heart less so.  I recover very fast as far as cardio goes, but I just cannot hold those high heart rates like I used to in my younger years.  Oh well.  The Carve with the American Classic SS wheels and the Protection X Kings from Conti are a pretty awesome combo for getting up a steep rise in the trail.  Push hard, go up.  I am getting spoiled here with a lighter, faster SS ride.  Makes even old guys look good.

The wind had dropped off and the next 5 miles were bliss....tricky carving corners full of loose rock and ruts, fast drops that require a dropped outside pedal and a Clint Eastwood squint to commit to the line without flinching, then drawing the six shooter on the next rise in the trail, never sitting down, just shooting from the hip like Clint would.  Good, bad, ugly as applied to 29" wheels and one gear.

As the sun hung on by the fingernails on the horizon's edge, I turned right and dropped into Foreplay to G-Out.  This added some miles and more cimbing, something I typically do not do at this point, but FFW is taunting me with his thrown gauntlet to go bigger.  Ok then.  Hero dirt on a roller coaster of a trail was the reward.  No one else, just me.  I am really getting dialed into the Carve and it just ripped it up down there...flow happened.

Turn left and up...up...up...and just as the sun went to bed I topped out at The Towers.  No wind...huh...it was actually warmer now then when I began.  Nice.  Layered up, light on, dropping in.  Fast is as fast does and I can coast with the best of them....zoom zoom.  The new home made light is so darn good.  Bright enough to scare the zombies away and very rideable in beam pattern.  Total success so far.  I barely even need a headlamp now, but that is coming too...headlamp V 2.0.

Rolling home I passed a pizza place and the aromas coming from there were stunning.  I thought of how cool it would be to stop in, get a pizza, warm up my toes, and head out for another loop.  But family called and someone was waiting at home for me.

FFW, I am the guy behind you in the sarape, standing in the middle of the street next to the saloon.  See the squint?  The guns are next.

The perfect SS hub does not exist

Or so it would seem.  So I will build one in my mind.  It would have the classic look and bulletproof build of a White Industries ENO hub with a WI freewheel and coast like it does too.  It would have the light weight of an American Classic hub and the tall flanges too.  It would have the simple servicing of a DT Swiss 240 hub.  It would have the drive engagement and strength of a Chris King.  It would have the axle options and color choice + pricing of a Hope hub.  It would be quiet like a Shimano hub.

I am waiting.  Tick, tock.

Dancing with Cacti

It began with an email from KT the Man.  He was headed to Arizona for an endurance race and wanted to know if was interested.  I had followed some of the Arizona Endurance Series on the net for some time and I was eager to come down and do some grass roots racing through the prickly pear.  The Antelope Peak Challenge was a 115 or 65 mile loop on some new sections of the Arizona Trail.  I was not up to the long one, but I figured I could stretch and make the 65 mile version.  So, we were on!

The last two weeks leading up to the event were not friendly to me work schedule and weather wise.  Two straight weeks on call for work and the first rain of the season kept me to local loops, no long rides.  Still, it would have to do and I counted on all those recent hard SS rides to get me by.

I had to decide what bike to ride.  It was between the Epic 29er with the carbon wheels or the Carve SS I have been riding for a while now.  I was really liking the SS and since I was thinking about doing the WRIAD on an SS, I figured it would be good to see how this bike treated me over a longer, harder day.  So, the SS it was.  I had just received some new wheels that would have been sweet to roll on, but I did not have enough time to burn them in after installing them.  I have one rule above all when it comes to new gear/bike changes before a critical ride:  Never go into battle with an unproven weapon.  So I changed only one thing...the grips, stealing the most excellent Ergon GA-1 grips off the Blackbuck.  Those are the best I have found for SS work on long days.  I considered changing tires from the Geax TNT AKAs to some TNT Saguaros for extra grip in the desert conditions, but the pics I had seen of the trail made it look pretty smooth.  The AKAs are fast, good sized, and they were already on there.  SO, I went with the AKAs, something I regretted a bit later.

I also had a new hydration pack to try out.  It was much too big for the day's requirements, but it was light for its size and comfy to wear, so I figured I would give it a shot.  Osprey makes great stuff and I have loved owning the tried and true Talon 22.  This Escapist 30 was a bit bigger than the already big Talon 22 and was more suited for bike use, having tool organization features.

The morning came and we loaded the camping gear into KT the Man's adventure van and hit the road toward Tucson.  The drive is about 9 hours and we talked about bikes, clean diet changes, bikes, riding, job stuff, life issues, and bikes.  Soon enough we were across the border into AZ.

Rolling in to the camp area, we set up and prepped for the next day.  The trick was finding a cactus free zone to set up a tent.  Man, this is an unfriendly country.  Wearing sandals would be crazy around here.  I had a new GPS that I was breaking in, although I had tested it a bit before I left.  I would have liked to have proven it further, but it was either go with it or not go at all.  So I played with that a bit, checked over my pack set-up, and then hung around a communal fire pit, talking with some of the racers that were camping here.  Friendly banter and talk of the route and past rides ran their course and then it was time to hit the tent, enjoying the new inflatable camping pad I had bought last year.  Super comfy and packs small too.

I was awoken by the noise of the 115 miler folks leaving at 05:00 in the cold and dark.  Brrrrr.  It was cold enough at 06:30 when I rose to meet the morning.  KT the Man fired up his antique Coleman stove, the kind you have to fill with Coleman fuel and prime before you light it...have not seen one of those since I was a kid...and tea with some trail mix got me ready to roll.

GPS on...check...pack ready....check...last minute clothing decisions and we were off on the 'neutral start'.  However, the neutral start was decidedly un-neutral to SS riders.  Too fast for me right off and I dropped off the back into the stragglers.  The 6.5 miles of dirt road led us to a highway and then about 10 miles of pavement, uphill into a cold wind.  I pulled a lone lady along for a while till she dropped out of the draft and I ended up riding with 2 other guys on SS bikes all the way to the next turn onto the dirt.

Clothing layers were adjusted as the sun was making the 40-ish degree temps fade away.  It felt good to be on dirt again and the Arizona Trail began here.  I posed for a pic in front of the sign and did not realize until later that Antelope Peak, the distant point on the horizon, was our 'maypole' that meant the turnaround point of the race.  If I had seen that at this stage of the race I would have been...oh what is the word...oh yeah, 'dismayed'.

Dropping onto the trail I was reminded of that tire choice again, and I was already wishing I had opted to swap for the more aggressive Geax Saguaros.  The trail was off camber, loose, and covered with small broken rocks and cactus pieces.  Tons of switchbacks required a bit of tip-toeing to stay rubber up, but I was still catching and passing folks on geared FS bikes.  It was warming up and the miles crept by.  It was slow going but I was happy to have chosen the SS.  I was riding a lot more than I would have expected, pushing on the steeper, loose hill sections.  The Carve SS Pro was treating me well so far and I just dig the way it turns pedal input into rolling up the trail.  Singlespeeds are so cool and great singlespeeds are even cooler.

The sweeping vistas were tough to appreciate unless you stopped.  The trail was lined with more kinds of cactus then I had ever seen and it took all your concentration just to color between the lines.  Going off trail would have been very bad.

I was in the back of the pack and alone most of the time, but I would leap frog with a few guys over the course of the day.  I was feeling really strong and riding a lot of the winding trail-ups.  I also noted a bit of pre-cramping feeling in my quads and that worried me, so I began to push a bit more, leaving some money in the leg-bank.  Unfortunately, before the day was over I would end up overdrawn.  This section of the trail was pretty new and anything but buff and I was not always clear on the route, getting off course twice until the GPS and a bit of poking around and backtracking got me back on trail.  At one point I was at a cattle gate crossing and met up with two riders.  I had been looking at a distant peak, thinking that it could not be Antelope Peak as it was very far away and it was already 01:00.  Just then one of the riders pointed to the peak in question and told his buddy, "That is where we are going".  REALLY?  Oh jeepers!!!!

The backside of Antelope Peak...finally.

About, oh, 40 miles into the ride the leg cramps began to hit me.  I could not push hard, so I would dance on the pedals until I felt the legs going south, then I would push for a while...pedal...push, etc.  The sucky part was I was feeling really strong other than that.  My energy was great, my back felt great, the SS was working sweet, but I could not hit the GO button.  Sucks to be me.  Leg cramps are my Waterloo...always have been.

At about 50 miles it was 5:00 and I had about 45 minutes of daylight.  I had a head light with me, but the last section of trail was described as very hard to follow and that was in the daylight.  By now there were times I was having issues even walking.  I never absolutely locked up solid, but the threat was always just under the surface.  I was also pretty much out of water, having about three good swallows left.  I had gone through 100oz in the Osprey pack plus 5 small water bottles.

That was enough to sway me into taking the bail-out option at mile 60 or so.  The trail turned right and I stayed straight ahead on the dirt road to camp.  I was very grateful for that smooth piece of road...not flat, but if I died there at least I would be found before the buzzards got me.

I rolled in to camp just at dusk, signed in, and headed for dinner.  What a day.  The rest of the night we hung around the fire in our camp, sharing time with the locals and the event organizers as they waited for all the riders to come in.  The last 115 milers, two guys on singlespeeds, one nursing knee issues, came in at 10:30 at night having left at 05:00 that morning.  Oh man...that is a long day. 

The next morning we set out to ride the 24 Hours of the Old Pueblo course as KT the Man and Nicette, our lady of the group, were set to race the team 24 hour in a few weeks.  We rode about 12 miles of some of the flowiest, funnest singletrack in the desert.  SO THIS is where they hide the fun trail out here...right next to our camp site!  What a contrast to the previous day's trail!  Still, it is all good.  The trip was great, the company sweet, the ride was hard, and the deed was done. 

The Carve had been a perfect companion.  The tough Geax TNT casings never flinched on the rocks and the Geax sealant inside kept me flat free...I KNOW I ran over cactus many times.  The new Osprey pack was too big for this trip, but was never uncomfortable and had a pocket for everything.  The GPS was awesome to have and the new eTrex series from Garmin looks ready made for endurance nuts with the AA batts and easy to use features.  The Fluid endurance drink mix in the bottles kept me very well energized but even with Elete in the water reservoir, I still battled cramps.  Bummer.  One of these days I will figure that out.  In the meantime, thanks to the organizers and to the hard working folks who cut that Arizona Trail out of the desert.

I will be back.

Hoops of joy.

Where have all the long cranks gone?

Mourn their passing.

Back in the day we used to have quite a few options in crank arm length and for us tall-ish guys and truly tall guys, a step up from a 'normal' 175mm crank arm to a 180mm crank arm was a fairly common deal.  It makes sense to me...longer legs can use longer cranks.  Shorter legs can use shorter cranks like 170mm ones.  They make more than one stem length or frame size, right?

Now it was always assumed that a longer crank meant more power applied to the pedal stroke.  Scientific tests seem to point to this being un-true, but that is not really the point of using them.  Sometimes they just feel better or work better for the rider spinning them.  When I moved up to 180s about umpteen years ago, it took a while to get used to the increased pedal circle, but after that, and some sore legs, I liked how the longer crank allowed me to stay in a higher gear and turn a slower RPM.  I am a diesel by nature, not a gerbil, so I found that the slower cadence fit well with the demands of high torque-in search of traction-long climbs on bad roads mountain bike riding.

Then this testing gig comes along and NO ONE specs 180mm cranks on bikes off the showroom floor, not in any mainline brand anyway.  So I get used to spinning 175s on all the test bikes and only keep the 180s on the SS scoots.  Fine enough.  I adapt.  Just shift down a 1/2 gear or so and off you go.

And even I have some mixed feelings about longer cranks on an SS.  When the RPMs are high, the 175 is easier to spin and they are also easier to get around the TDC position and onto the next downstroke.  But here in the digital land of So Cal and its mountains, we spend so much time far underwater on a typical climb that the 180 crank comes into its own, giving me more leverage on that slow and torturous downstroke at 10 RPM.  Still, given the option, I would run long arms on the SS for sure.

But now, just try and find a big box brand crank for an SS in 180s.  Man that is getting hard.  Is there even still an XT version or just XTR?  And SRAM does not even offer a single MTB crank in 180s except the Stylo OCT SS crank and that, from what I have been told, is fading into obscurity too.  Forget about FSA or Raceface or such like.

So that leaves us with older stuff we scavenge from EBAY...sweet XTR or something...or the little guys like White Bros or Surly, E Thirteeen, etc.  And often that means running a square taper BB or putting up with someone's idea of the new mousetrap (like the Surly or E Thirteen) and discovering that it is not all that well thought out.

So why in the world can I not buy an SLX or X9 level or XT or XO level 180mm crank?  And beside that, why so few dedicated SS cranks?  Well, if you are a manufacturer or a product manager for a bike company, slapping a one size fits all crank on a bike, especially when no one is really likely to care anyway, is a slam dunk decision.  It is likely what I would do too, if that was my job. 

Then you add in the fact that the big guys seem to have no idea what to do with singlespeeders and any thoughts they might have for longer crank arm options, and you have a tiny, carbon wrapped over aluminum perfect storm of events that is stealing our easy options for a longer lever.

Now I like options and at least here, we have less than we used to.  At least, that is the way I see it.

It's a date

March 31st.  WRIAD.  One ride.  One gear.  One hundred miles or so.  Pedal little grannygear, pedal.

Back to the Canyon.

A while ago I was able to finally get to a semi-distant trail that promised miles of relatively unused singletrack, or at least uncrowded miles.  What we found was a great trail, limited in scope mostly by our time and leg limits.  So this time we came back with more hours in our pockets to dole out, but the same old legs to do it with.  Navy Mike on his SS Jabberwocky, FFW with his newly minted Superfly 100, and I on the Carve Pro SS.

This trail is a real stunner and is very singlespeed-able for a strong rider.  We ended up with 27 miles for the day, and we were pretty worked by the end.  In the last few climbs, I was actually cramping up in between my shoulder blades from pulling so much.  However funny that was to experience, it paled in comparison to the swoosh-fest that defined many sections of that trail.

For the beginning miles, I was struggling with line choice, bike control, mind control...flow was not happening.  But by the end, 5 hours later, the mind was well in hand and so was the bike.  Flow on!  The Carve is turning into a real contender for my heart.  The ride is very decent for an aluminum frame and the pedaling performance is top notch.  Handling is much better now with the short term Fox F100 set at 100mm, not 80mm, and it was all I could have asked for on that trail ride.

I am still fighting poor picture quality out of the iPhone 4 ever since the iOS upgrade, but that just makes me want a real camera even more.  But, here are a few shots of the day.

SS stands for Singletrack Singletrack

Three of us took off at 0-dark-Thirty and drove a couple hours North to a trail I had been told about for a couple of years now, but had never made it to.  The Kern River trail offers 20 miles of singletrack goodness as it follows the contours of the hillsides above the Kern River in the Kern Cyn.

Well, I finally dipped my toe in the stream of dirt and it was good.  We sampled about 15-16 miles of it as an out and back so we could plan a longer ride later in the Spring.  Wanna' do 40 miles of singletrack?  Wow.  That would be a good day.

We, myself, Navy Mike, and Tony the Tiger, all were riding singlespeeds.  I had a new scoot to break in, the Carve SS Pro, all 23.25 pounds of it.  Speedy, yes?  Yes.

When we began, it was in the mid thirties and frost was all on the grass.  After one hour of climbing, we caught up with the sunrise and things warmed up nicely.  The trail was really nice for singlespeeds, although the grades took a toll.  A bit of pushing took care of the real soft, steep sections....pushing, the other SS gear...and we moved along smartly.  Only one crash that I wish I had a pic of.  Navy Mike ended up upside down and mousetrapped by his bike like a big bear trap on his leg, keeping him nicely wedged into a rock pile.  I would have snapped a pic, but I though he was hurt since he was not moving and I ran back up the trail to recover the body.  Not dead...just laughing and needing a helping hand.  Oh good.  No place to land a helicopter on this trail for an airlift.

We ran into a group of riders about half way back to the truck, three of them on singlespeeds too.  One straggler rode up to us as we were talking, looked at me and said, "Hey, I watch your videos on You Tube!  You are Grannygear!".  Wow, that was kinda odd.  I declined an autograph or picture opportunity and rode on, living legend that I am. 

Great day despite the cold start and yeah, we will be back for more.  I may even sign an autograph next time. 

Roots

Ya gotta' know where you came from, so I present the original singlespeed rider.  We have not come so far after all.

Darwin got it pretty wrong, but in this case....well, I wonder?