Testing, phase II.

I turned my attention to Rosaryville this weekend for part 2 testing of "Can I go single speed".

My buddy and sometimes mentor for the biking world told me that 32-20 would be a good gear for Rose. Sounded right to me. I ran Cedarville on 32-18 and Rose is alot harder than Cedarville.

Saturday night I'm in the garage putzing around with the bike . I gotta clean the cassette off so I can read the numbers which tell how many teeth a cog has.

Hmmmm, it goes from 18, number 5 to 21 number 6.

So, I gotta decide to go with the same gearing I ran Cedarville on or go easier than Pete said. We'll this is a test, so I decide to go the hard way.
If I can actually do it, evan the better.
If I can't , well nothing lost.

I get to Rose and start out. Trails are a little slimey from Saturdays rain. Not too bad but I've got to cut some speed off of the turns. Thats not going to help me in the momentum department.

Not 1/2 mile in a have to walk a hill but I knew I would before I started. Unless you've got a week of dry weather it stays slick. I can make it most of the time in granny gear but all I do is spin today.

The next test comes 1-1/2 miles later. Its not the steepest, but it is the longest hill out there. It does a good job of tightening the legs up with gears so I'm not sure if I can make it with what I'm running.

It comes up and I try to build as much momentum as possible, that only gets me 1/4 way up the hill and I have to stand and mash.
Mash, mash, mash.
I'm standing up and breathing like a freight train.

Than I reach the peak.
Yes!
My main obstacle is outta the way.

The last trial comes at the very end.
Its kinda the Roses way of saying your not done yet, take this and kiss my ass.
A short steep section that I usually granny up with my head practically resting on the handles bars.

By the time I get to it I'm beat and am accepting that I'll have to walk.
I give it my best shot anyways.
Stand up and start cranking away before I get to it.
Lose all momentum 1/2 up and am now mashing as hard as I can.
Please chain, don't break now.
And I manage to grunt it out to top.

Test complete.

So I'm feeling pretty good about myself.
Not my best lap time out there but for a first SS try in slimey conditions I'm damn proud of myself.

With the testing part of weather I'm capable of going SS out of the way I have to decide now which way I wanna go.

Cheap or moderately priced.
I'm thinking about a Redline Monocog.
Cheap and a good way to get intro'd to SSning.

Seeyall