Mud, sweat and gears
October 5th, 2008 by Andy NicollBoth kids were at cub camp this weekend so did a 3 hour mountain bike ride this morning instead of watching junior footy. Not done a long MTB ride for a while and I really enjoyed the change.
The conditions were VERY wet after all the rain we had last night but the day itself was nice. Managed to keep up with my pals who are all regular MTB riders even though I’d trained all week so felt pretty good about myself.
By the way, I’ve ordered a singlespeed conversion kit for my old Kona rigid moutain bike. For those of you who’ve no idea what I’m talking about, after all the years of bike development, resulting in fantastic uber lightweight carbon fibre full suspension 27 geared mega bikes that hoover up rough tracks like you’re riding a magic carpet, there’s currently a real retro movement going on in mountain biking and folk are switching back to hardtail frames especially ones made from steel. There’s also a cult of ultra hardcore nutters known as singlespeeders who go even further often shunning any form of suspension (other than the tyres) and stripping off all the gears leaving just a single cog at the front and one at the rear - usually 32 up front and 16 on the back. I’ve been intrigued by this idea and have decided to give it a try. The idea is that you get back to the real grass roots of riding (like when you were a kid) and have nothing else to think about but what’s going on around you. It also lightens up the bike, makes maintenance almost non existant and makes you spin like a washing machine on the downs and work really hard on the hills developing good technique and leg strength (something I need!!) - I’ll let you know how I get on…….
Tags: mountain biking, MTB, singlespeed