Legs drained. Back strained. Lungs contained. Neck veined. Energy waned. Pain ingrained. Pace sustained. Climb attained. Truth unfeigned.
Oh, heck. It’s a reality check.
Attribute. The perfect word to dually credit inspiration and assign blame. You aren’t going to find me duck-dodging my way up, down, and around North Vancouver on a pump-track bike. Yet, for whatever reason, after reading Cy’s happy column about Project P.Commuter, my own get-around-rig felt somehow significantly less fun.
I mean, I don’t think you’ll find nicer shifting than my ancient Shimano M970 XTR setup. My reused 11-26t small block (ditching the worn-out low gears on a used cassette) still required a proper amount of rider engagement to dance up hills. I was spinning out the 32x11t high gear often enough that I was happy to have it.
But I was suddenly starved by gearing choice. Hungry for less.
I went digging in my bin of #1FG fun and came up with a beautiful, long discontinued, stainless steel Chris King cog. I actually came up with three of them, 18t, 19t, and 20t, though the latter has limited life left in it. Then it was straight to the Sheldon Brown* Gear Calculator.
In the end, the 18t came out as a winner. For one, it’s not a cog I can foresee myself ever needing for single-speed mountain biking where there’s a chance that 19t or 20t could be called on if I throw some XC rubber on the V2 and sign up for a grassroots XC race (I’ve had a decade to forget the last one).
Also, in terms of a proper compromise, an 18t is the stiffest setup I figured I could get up the steepest gravel pitches I find on my commutes. Schwalbe G-Ones don’t fail me now! If it’s the stiffest setup I can pedal up those pitches, that makes it the best compromise everywhere else, right?
*[I wish I could have met Sheldon in his lifetime. I’ve spent so many hours on his site going back twenty-plus years.]
You’re Not As Fit, You’re Not As Fit, You’re Not As Fit, You’re Not As Fit... as you thought you were.
I’m chugging away like the Little Engine That Could’s reality check and I haven’t even arrived at my first hill. If you’d asked me on Friday I’d have said my cycling fitness was pretty good. I’m using third gear (walking) on my single-speed more than I would have at some points in years past, but by the late Spring, as long as I stayed on top of my stretching, I should be cranking up hills as well as I have at any point in the last decade.
Out of the saddle muscling and meandering my way up through single-track in the forest, it’s easy to forget charging out the miles on my Paddy Wagon or my one-speeded Jake The Snake. There’s nowhere to hide on the street. 32x18t I’m surging, coasting, surging, coasting, surging, coasting on the flats. I’m spun out on the slightest declines trying to keep momentum. As soon the road goes down properly steep I’m fully focused trying not to waste any momentum with unnecessary braking. I’m chasing the most efficient cadence on any uphill. And then when the going gets steep, I’m out of the saddle grinding.
My one and only positive revelation is how much I love having a dropper post on the ATB rig when it’s single-speeded. I liked having the BikeYoke when it was a multi-speed rig but being able to have the saddle out of the way on climbs when I’m using my whole body to find traction and make the cranks turn is awesome. I have no doubt that without it I would have walked the last pitch of my Salop Trail climb.
So I arrived at the top, stopped, and thought, “Ouch.” My bike kicked my ass on the way to work in the morning but the beating on the way home was twice as bad. And I loved it. Even if it did shine a light right in my face in terms of my relative strength and fitness compared to Andrews-past.
Reality Check.
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