Eric's Ride Log

Yesterday after work Mike Rischitelli and I rode the Classic Laurel Mountain loop from the campground.

It was my first ever single-speed ride and hot damn did I have a good time. Last weekend my drivetrain decided it had seen its' last mile and replacing it is going to cost a bit of coin. I decided to gather the drivetrain from the cheapest sources possible and because of that I won't see the parts for about a month. Can I go a month without riding my mountain bike? No. Does Erinna have an extra bike in the basement with all the parts I need to go Single-Speed for the month? Yes. So here it is, the latest incarnation of Mr. Sparkle, Silver the 3rd, my bike, whatever I decide to call it today:

So, I'm running a 29er with a 32x23. That was a fine first timer gear for me. Mike and I met up at Mr. Pete's at 4pm. We didn't dilly-dally around and went right to the trailhead. We decided to do the classic Laurel loop from the bottom. We decided to start at the bottom so I could feel out the lack of equipment that I was bringing along. We hammered all the way to the top whick, I soon found out, is the only option when single-speeding. We turned onto Laurel Mountain after the 3 mile climb to Yellow Gap. Fireroad was one thing, but singletrack was a new beast with the singlespeed, all together. I cranked down hard and flew through the first section. I made it to the first creek crossing and had my first taste of doubt. I usually click down into granny when crossing there but I didn't have that choice. I pushed into it pretty hard and came out the backside with only one dab. Not bad! It was a very very hazy day with humidity at 200% and temps in the low 80's. It looked like it was going to rain all day and the trail looked like it had been rained on hard all the night before. Laurel was as slick as I have ever seen it. My equipment choice was turning out to be just fine though. If I wanted to ride, which is what I was there to do, I had to pedal. To pedal I had to turn over that big ass gear. To turn the gear I pushed hard, rested often, and tried my best to spin whenever possible. That there is a recipe for moving along quite fast. We made it to the meeting log, the rock overhang, the switchback, and the $2000 climb in what felt like record time.

I took a few photos along the way. Here is Mike setting up for a tech section of Laurel Mountain Trail:

and at the Larel Mountain / Pilot Rock Connector:

It was a slick and slimy day on the trail. Perfect! says this little guy:

I found out an important lesson regarding Shimano cranks: Always use the top-cap bearing pre-load thingie. Twice while cranking along, putting maximum torque down on the cranks, this happened:

I had to let off a little bit at the top because I was worried about killing my cranks. We turned onto the connector and I pedaled what I could (which ended up being most of it, despite my cranks) and then on to Pilot Rock. Mike's stomach was bothering him (damn IOBE meatballs) and wasn't on his 'A-game' so he let me go out front. Actually, Mike was having a 'jinxed' day. He had stomach issues.... and a flat.... and got stung by wasps.... and wrecked... twice. Well everyone has those days every-once-in-a-while and it was his day. I, however, was feeling great. The whole single-speed thing was making me see spots, sweat like mad, and ride like a madman. Here's a good madman shot:

I was wondering what the lack of gears would do on a big descent like Pilot Rock and I soon found out. We railed down Pilot, hammering the straight aways, carving the switchbacks, lifting over rocks and small gaps, doing everything we could to smash our way down the mountain. My hands were going pretty numb by the time we got to the lower overlook so we stopped there. I almost cleaned every switchback on the way down with the exception of one dab. Mike cleaned it all. He got in front after the overlook and took off. He must have entered the HumVee section (Now HumVee Creek) a bit too fast because when I arrived he was still wiping himself off after body-checking a boulder. Ouch! He walked that off and then got a flat. Doh! I didn't hear him yell out 'FLAT' so I didn't stop until the bottom. At the bottom there was a naked dude hanging out in the creek! I decided it would be best to wait at the road, not at the creek, for Mike. He had a world record fast tube change and was there in minutes. We had all fireroad to go after thatwhich went by pretty fast. All in all, a super fun, painfull ride. My first view of the world with my new single-speed eyes. Let's just see if the gears get put back on in a month or not.