Got my butt kicked!
- Thread starter stinkyboy
- Start date
What trail did you take? I'm in no condition to SS a lot of the stuff on SoMo, but I would ride around the system near the water tank off Desert Classic and it was pretty flat and do-able. Were you on your dual chain thing-a-mabob?
I saw someone out there yesterday wearing a RideMonkey jersey but didn't get a chance to say anything.
I saw someone out there yesterday wearing a RideMonkey jersey but didn't get a chance to say anything.
you talking abot your dual drive "a"? I can't imagine that its a good climber, try sliding a 18tooth in the rear.
Therein lies the problem every SSer has. We all love to go fast on the flats, but we also need to be able to climb. The only solution I've found is a climbable gear and learning to spin the flats. For me the magic gearing is 32x17 for the local trails and 32x18 for areas with a bit more elevation gain.stinkyboy said:
Holy crap! A 35 pound SS? Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose?H8R said:
32x18 or 32x17 is probably the ratio that ill run on my 1x1 when i get it. i ran 32x19 last season but i need to sack up and run a tougher ratio to keep myself in better shape. climbing on a singlespeed is an acquired skill. you learn to start pedaling hard before you actually start going up and also you learn to really use as much of your bike as you can to help you finish the climb. i cant wait to get a singlespeed again and racing on it is going to be a blast. although i do need to train a bit if i hope to come in the top 10 for the ss class seeing as how some of the guys who race ss are machines.BikeGeek said:
macko said:
That was probably Peter6061, Douglas and myself doing a little riding after the 24 hours of Old Pueblo.
I found when I lived out there that the ratio you're running 34-16 (~2.1:1) was great for the rollers. I would think Desert Classic would be fine with that ratio. Now, you start talking about going up National/Mormon, and I'd drop it down to a 2:1 or slightly lower.stinkyboy said:I took my new SS on South Mountain in Phoenix saturday running 34:16. Very technical, very tiring. 6 miles in, and I was ready to be airlifted.
I love the gearing on the flats, but SS climbing may not be in my future...
Out here on the East Coast, I try to keep it about 2:1 but might drop it a tooth if heading up into the mountains. How's that dual drive handle trail? I rode Erik's original around the shop a year or so ago, and felt the difference, but I'm not sure I'd like that on the trail. Looking forward to a write up sometime.
I guess laying off the smokes would help too. And yeah, that was probably us you guys saw going up and down National. What a blast! Wish I still lived out there for that trail and Hawes.
For what it's worth I've been running 32-18 and doing a fair amount of climbing on Trail 100. I started with 32-16 which was great on flatter trails but ended up dropping it back a notch as the knees wouldn't support the climbs.
Desert Classic is a workout on the singlespeed, I made it end to end but I was pretty much toasted by the time I got back.
Desert Classic is a workout on the singlespeed, I made it end to end but I was pretty much toasted by the time I got back.
I would run 32:17 on the DC and that was much more do-able, though there were several hills I just couldn't get up. That's just from my lack of ability, though.