SSalicious

The One9 is a powerhouse. Or maybe it’s just the machine attached to the powerhouse. After almost a 5 month singlespeed layoff I think I have fully relapsed.  This might be the best feeling relapse you can imagine.  During my trip to the Utah desert my freshly built One9 stayed home.  Instead I took the Cannondale Flash and Norco Shinobi; XC race bike and big-boy bike.  I left feeling incredibly happy with the Flash.  It handled the rocky desert terrain with ease and beauty.  It really has never felt so good to ride.  When I came back I brought a renewed sense of ambition for riding, along with an excitement to get back to singlespeeding!  Since I built the One9 I had ridden it once.  

Now I finally have a couple of rides on the new rig, and never realized how much I was missing.  It doesn’t hurt matters that I went from an old dusty beat-down flexy and creaky steel bike with value-driven (aka janky) parts to a stiff, solid, and lightweight frame spec’d out with all the goods.  In an attempt to really put the hurt on my legs during my first ride after Utah, I bumped up the gearing from 32X19 to 32X17.  Then I headed up Flagstaff road which climbs over 2,000ft in 5 miles.  I was smiling and happy the entire time.  The stiffness of the frame matched to the new XX1 crankset just seemed to propel me forward with ease, seated or standing.  I actually stayed seated longer during certain parts of the climb than I would on the geared bike.  There was absolutely no flex that I could feel; a welcome feeling after being on the SIR9 for so long.  In general, it brought me back to why I love singlespeeding so much: simple, direct, efficient.  I can’t wait to have some more fun on this baby on some real trails.

Today the wind was whistling; making storm doors slam and tree branches bend and crackle, but it was sunny outside and I had the itch.  It was going to take one gear and a mountain to scratch that itch.  Nothing makes destination rides like mine last week in Utah more enjoyable than enduring hours of fierce wind on a singlespeed on the road!  Still smiling.  Eff you wind.  Maybe the wind was just the motivation I needed, or maybe it was the villain in my personal cartoon.  Maybe I was just validating this recent article:

Click to go to article.

OH f*ck you buddy!!  You don’t know sh*t about sh*t!!  F*ck it I’m grabbing a beer.

No Mas March!  Damn, and then my conscience has to come into play.  It turns out that my beer consumption as of the last two weeks has been almost non-existent.  Have I lost my mind?  Well, that’s debatable.  There are good reasons for this.  Drinking highly potent stout beers for a month straight is one.  Wanting to come into this season feeling good is another.  After feeling as good as I did in Utah last week at my first race of the season, I can say that something was working.  So for now I am on a bit of a hiatus.  In lieu of riding as much singlespeed this month as possible, I am calling it “Man Up March”, which also coincides with “No Mas March”.  But singlespeeds and beer go together, you say.  Here’s to being an outcast.

This coming weekend the temperatures on the western side of things, i.e. Fruita, Moab, St. George, etc., are looking quite fantastic.   

St. George is predicted near 80F.  There is also the NUE series opener there this weekend, the True Grit Epic.  Although I’m not ready for the full 100-miler, the 50-miler has my attention.  I was pretty set on making another trip out there until ride plans fell through.  At this point I’m keeping my ears open.  If I have a viable way of getting there (besides making the 10-hour drive alone) I’ll hop on it.  If not, I’ll have to find some riding somewhere else.  Fruita might be on deck.  I’d love to get another race under my belt this early in the season, and a singlespeed endurance one at that.  Sometimes you got to roll with the punches.

Recent stoke:

Dean Tennant - Higher Calling from Mind Spark Cinema on Vimeo.

The Pacific Northwest has been on my riding radar for quite some time now.  Hoping the Santa Cruz Mountains in April will provide some similarities.