I don't know if it was what I did or didn't do but I"m sure it was my fault.
It's getting warmer. As a result, yesterday I decided to bike outside. A demon or daemon possessed me. So, before taking off, I ripped the large and small chain rings off the Giant ATX780. I put some short stack bolts in there. I yanked some cables. I removed a front der-thingy. None of this, of course, will make any significant difference in weight with that 'keep the nose on the ground" MAG 21 on the front. Yet still I did it. I left the back as is.. I wanted to figure out what back gear I want for single speeding.
Those of you that know me, might immediately wonder why JWM "absolutely needs" a geared cross bike, but somehow takes a perfectly good geared mountain bike and starts ripping parts off it.. It was something to do. What else can I say? It doesn't mean I won't still be in the market for a fine geared CX bike one day..
Left with a middle chain ring, some warmer yet oddly foul in a melting kinda way weather, I pushed outdoors and headed down the street. The middle chain ring ain't street gears. The tires were soft and ready to bump up and down some snowy trails. But there were not snowy trails to ride on.. There were melting, not frozen enough, not soft enough, trails. It was just the right consistency that you could go 5" then sink in again. Maybe the pros would have made light work of it, but I was unable to use the trails.
There I was stuck riding the local multi use path, with tires aired up for mud, shox ready to go, and a middle chain ring. Relegated to such, I decided it's a spin outdoors day. I took off for a typcial 15 miler. I'd say I made about 11 before my chain broke.. After that it was 4 miles of, lower the seat and run. It weren't pretty.
So, either I was working on it and broke the chain, or I had neglected to notice that the thing was so dang old that it was time to replace it. My bad.
Either way, it's all but fate saying I should replace it with a much shorter chain and no rear der-thingy.
Now, when do those trails dry up?
Sunday, January 06, 2008
A New First
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3 comments:
Sack up, 53x11 for a SS. Now that is some serious chain length. If you can push that, there is nowhere you can't go!
i would say you are an obvious natural SSer. being in the wrong gear all the time is the very idea with a 1x1. if you can pull it off with a 1X7 it is time.
OK, JWM, I always have your back but you lost me at those "short stack bolts"... and "MAG 21"? Woof - what was the IQ rating on this blog again? :)
Never fear, the snow will be gone soon enough. My skis are all dried out already.
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