Here we go again. My alter ego has reared it's ugly head. I woke up today wondering if I could be better, stronger and faster on a geared mountain bike. The wondering only got worse when I got to work and my buddy Steve handed me the latest issue of some random mountain bike publication he FOT (railroad speak for found on train). As I was reading this mag (in between stops on the 6:04) lusting over Julian Absalon's carbon fiber Orbea I thought to myself maybe I should put my geared bike back together. You see I bought this frame and built it up in March and since then I only raced it at Hop Brook Dam. I know what your thinking. Wasn't Hop Brook muddy as shit? Wouldn't a single speed be better in those conditions? And my answer is yes and yes and the bike or the body or possibly both didn't perform well either. After my 20mph face plant in the muddy field on the 3rd lap I not only lost my impetus dropping from 3rd to 5th but my bike didn't seem to want to up shift. Maybe the derailleur was tweaked or maybe my cables were gunked up but it didn't matter because I was cracked anyway. I was hurting because chasing Tim Johnson and Andrew Freye is no easy task on any bike and that's the number one reason for my Superman like dive off the bike anyway.
Alright lets get back on topic. So I come home from work and today was a scheduled off day from riding anyway so I pull the shifter,cables, derailleur and a new chain out of the bike part box and I get to work. As I work I'm daydreaming of putting the hammer down on Sunday at William's Lake, Shifting into the big ring and showing everyone how to do it. On the opening climb I attack, putting all the top guys into oxygen debt early as they all beg for mercy I relentlessly hammer them into submission. Then somewhere around the installation of the chain I start to get the twangs of doubt. Brian Kelly is preregistered and it's his first pro open race. He will be on a single speed most likely trying to take a crack at me. Who am I to deny him that chance. What if Dougherty shows up? I can't ride gears against him. That would be sacrilegious. I would have passed up the chance to race mano y mano against one of the most achieved single geared guys out there. Not to mention Sean Cavanaugh, he may show up. We have had some epic single gear battles. But mostly I feel a obligation to the singlespeed crowd and would feel like somewhat of a sellout on a geared bike.
I guess I'm coming back to earth as Sybil goes to sleep for another day I put the geared bike back in the bike room. Its only 90% complete but I'm only 100% sure of one thing...... I'm a singlespeeder
This post started off like a horror story but finished with a fairy tale, everyone lived happily ever after ending.
ReplyDeleteItching to come down to the 40, but after meeting with docs and therapists about my jacked up back over the past couple days, it sounds like long car rides with very little recovery afterward are out for me.
There's probably some slide ruler that says your making a mistake, but you've been doing it wrong so well, why mess with a good thing?
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