Looks like it'll be a long night.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
My knee hurts...
I think my ride today was a little much. I hit Daley Ranch for just over 12mi, but charged up all of the big hills on the back side of the park. I did much better this time and cleared said climbs (ok... 95% of them...), so I'm definitely getting stronger from the riding. Strong or not, my left knee is pretty sore now. The right knee feels fine - like I never rode. But the left just hurts... on the 'inside'. I don't know how to describe it, but my wife thinks it may be cartilage damage. We'll see - it usually gets better when I lay off of it for a while. I probably just pushed it too hard for the 'ol knee on those climbs today.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Road Ride
I threw in a road ride today... trying to mix things up a bit. I'm noticing that the 'ol legs don't have as much endurance as they did last season. Even though I can crank up the hills on my SS, the strength I'm building doesn't transfer too well to pure endurance on the road bike. I think I'll split things up a bit and throw down a few long road rides each week to build the endurance base in addition to the strength training I get on the SS. Also, I think I'm going to start training in a 3/1 format: 3days riding, 1 day resting. That and make sure I get more consistent sleep... it all adds up.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
My next epic ride
In a few weeks I'll be "home alone" (wife and kids will be away) so I'm planning an all-day epic mountain bike trip up to the Santa Ana River Trail in the San Bernardino mountains. It's a 30-mile ride with about 28-miles of singletrack through the woods, giving me about 6,000' of total climbing! Starting at about 5,000' of elevation and running to about 6,500' at the highest point, it should give my sea-level lungs a good run. I've never ridden the SART (Santa Ana River Trail) before, but it comes highly recommended by some guys at the local bike shop (Bike Bling) and by Mountain Bike Bill. My biggest question is whether or not to hit it singlespeed... :-) I've been SS-ing for about 6 weeks now, but I haven't tackled that kind of distance or elevation gain in a SS setup yet; I'm not sure how the ol' legs will hold up yet. I have an 18-tooth cog on my standard cassette, so I think I may go with a 32-tooth chainring in a 1x9 setup just in case. (I'd feel horrible if I held up my riding buddies on the day of the "epic".)
So, here are some stats, courtesy of Mountain Bike Bill:
Elevation profile
TOPO! map (1.8mb)
Santa Ana winds and a 32/17
Probably not the best day to try out the 17-tooth cog... the Santa Ana winds were in full form this morning, blowing at ~25mph straight off of the desert. The dry wind made it a little harder to get oxygen on the hills because I continually felt like I was drying out my lungs. :-)
Anyway, the 17-tooth cog was actually pretty nice, despite the head/crosswinds. The change was noticeable on the climbs but equally noticed on the singletrack and flat sections. It's amazing how much difference a single tooth can make. Matched with my 32-tooth front chainring, I was running a 3.6 gain ratio. Not too bad - I think I'll like it.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Today's ride
I spun for about 50-min down at Lake Hodges today. I put in about 10.5mi on the 32/18 gearing. Interestingly, using the Schwable Racing Ralph's today, the ride was much faster than normal and I was definitely spinning out more on the flats. I think I'll try my 17-tooth cog next time - those Maxxis High Rollers have a lot more weight and rolling resistance than I originally thought.
More SS goodness from Surly
The Surly Singlespeed Spacer kit... infinite alignment possibilities (ok, I guess there's a limit, but it's way out there!). I use this on my converted Santa Cruz Chameleon SS. It allows me to run SS cogs on my normal Shimano-style freehub body and get perfect chainline alignment. There are several other alternatives out there, but those alternatives set the cog into a central position, leaving the chainline alignment to the bottombracket (if you have an EBB, you can get about 2.5 - 5mm of "adjustment") or the crankset that you're using. It's well worth the investment and comes with a nice set of instructions to help you find that perfect chainline the first time.
Made of CNC'd aluminum and engraved with a killer "SURLY" emblem for looks.
Image courtesy of Surly (www.surlybikes.com)
SS parts
I have been using the Surly cogs for a while now and have been quite impressed. They're made of SCM415 CroMoly steel and are beautifully machined to perfection (none of that stamped crap from China). They're 4.5mm wide and the teeth are offset to one side so you can flip it over to get a little better chain alignment. Tall teeth and super-strong steel mean long life and no slippage. It's a gorgeous addition to the beast.
The regular ride
The regular ride: Daley Ranch. It's 11.5mi and has almost 2,000' of climbing. If you add in Stanley Peak, you get another mile and 400+ feet of climbing.
View Larger Map
Here's a picture from the top of Stanley Peak
View Larger Map
Here's a picture from the top of Stanley Peak
...and a panorama from the top, looking south southeast.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Gearing
As a new singlespeeder, finding the right gear was a bit troublesome. I didn't have anyone to 'mentor' me and provide recommendations, I just had to figure it out on my own - which is half the fun anyway! I started kicking around in a 1x9 setup, just pedaling in the middle ring and trying the different cogs to see which seamed rideable for the whole course. (More on the regular ride in a later post.) I've been riding for the last decade and I love to tackle big hills, long courses and pretty much anything that friends think is unrideable or crazy. (Naturally, SS was simply a progression and bound to get me sooner or later.) I found that since I had a few front rings from old bikes lying around that I could swap out 32-, 34- and 36-tooth rings on the front and get the feel for several different gain ratios with the same cogs in the rear. (BTW, gear inches - though common - leave one crucial element out of the equation: the crankarm length... you can read all about it on Sheldon Brown's incredibly helpful page: http://sheldonbrown.com/gain.html.)
Anyway, I was able to see what various gain ratios would feel like under foot before buying a rear cog. Most people in the SS world seem to go with a 2:1 ratio - i.e.: a 32/16 or a 36/18 (which are the same gearing, anyway) or 3.8 gain ratio. However, here in SoCal where the hills are steep and often long, I have found more people recommending a 3.4 gain ratio. When it comes to SS, what you gain on the climb, you sacrifice on the flats. It's simple math: you can't have an easy gear going up that's also fast on the flats. So, the 3.4 seems to give me about 16+mph on the flats (in a dead-out spin) and yet let me climb 80% of the hills I encounter. Of course, over time I should be able to clear > 98% of these as my strength and endurance increase, but for now, I can get a darn good workout climbing until I'm about to pass out and then hike-a-bike the rest.
So for me, I've settled on the 32/18 as my gearing of choice for now. I'll be playing around with a 32/17 soon to see if the advantages on the flats can be coped with on the climbs. But regardless of the gearing, I just love SS. For me, it's simple, straightforward, get-out-and-ride fun.
The new blog
I've had a family-oriented blog (thenorwoodfamily.blogspot.com) for a while now, but it wasn't really the right place for posting blurbs about what "I" am doing and the things I enjoy... just a place for pics of the kids and keeping family in the loop. So, this new blog will be where I get to wax on about the things that make me go - the other side of my life (aka - the stuff I bore my wife with!).
Why One-Speed Life? Two reasons: my mom always said that I only had one speed (on) and because right now I'm really into singlespeed mountain biking. I love biking in general (road & mountain), but I love singlespeed. Sure, it's harder, but it's simpler, quieter and just more enjoyable all around. It's a rush flying up a hill to the point of passing out and totally rewarding at the end of a hard ride (they're all hard!). I don't hang with many people that really appreciate this, so I figured I can just blog about my fun times and at least the computer will listen. :-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
