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.

Daley Ranch, 4.5mi loop, 28min. GPX  KML  TPO

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 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. :-)