Single Speed mania

Yesterday I went out and supported the 20 Hurts Cartel at the Tumbling Creek 6-hour endurance race. It was a fun time, and I spent a couple minutes in the saddle of Bob’s ‘goose, which was the first time I’ve been on a full suspension mountain bike, and the first time in ages I’ve been on any mountain bike. Tooling around in the grass left me thinking “man, it’s a lot of work to go anywhere, compared to a road bike.” The suspension left me feeling disconnected and unsure.

The single-speed mountain bike crew was representing largely at the race, and some of those folks were just killing it, putting in fast lap after fast lap. It was really impressive.

For a couple weeks now, I’ve been riding my 20-speed road bike as if it were a single-speed. I initially tried a few gears and after sticking with 53/19 for a bit, decided it was too high and switched to 53/21. I’ve been running that consistently for lazy jaunts around town, commutes to work, and “training” rides like today (not that I’m training for anything), and it gives me decent speed on the flats and enough torque to push up the hills pretty well. I love what it’s been doing for my legs, as I’m feeling notably stronger and faster.

Today I put in 20 miles, heading out towards Stone Mountain and looping back. I averaged 16mph, which is better than I usually average when changing gears. And I had a flat midway which kind of killed my momentum, plus it was softening up on me again on the way home. That’s the second time I’ve gotten a flat at the corner of Rays Rd and Central Dr. I ought to drive out there with a dustpan and broom and clean that spot up. My rear tire has a few slits in it now so I ordered some new Hutchinson Top Speed tires. Supposedly they’re more puncture resistant because they have a Kevlar lining.

new contributor

Hi, my name is Graham and I ride bikes.

My primary ride is a Scattante R-660 double, which is a few years old so it’s not exactly like what they’re showing there but close enough. Being the Performance Bike house brand, it doesn’t have much street cred, but I’m rather pleased with it. I don’t think you can beat it for the price.

I’m also building a fixie, which will get its own post sometime soon. I’m entertaining the idea of getting a mountain bike but I really don’t have time for all that right now. I don’t get on my road bike enough as it is. I ought to be riding to work but there are complications that prevent that at the moment.

My typical ride is to go from my house near Oakhurst out to Stone Mountain Park, which makes for a nice 25 mile round-trip, and of course more if I decide to loop around the mountain, which I have not been doing lately. I’ve mapped my typical routes here. Today, though, I changed it up and rode over to Piedmont Park instead, which made for a shorter and less hilly ride. I experimented with different gears, trying to work out what sort of gain ratio I want on my fixie.