mountain bike monday - single speeding is like golf how?

The woods were quiet. Not much moving around from the critters even though it was quite warm yesterday. We pulled out the shorts again for our ride, but couldn't believe that it's nearing Thanksgiving and we are still getting 70 degree days. We will take advantage because winter comes soon enough.



I took Spot, the SS, out again yesterday for a ride on the Lakeview Trails. Let's just say that we were rolling quite fast through LV 1 and 2. My average speed on LV 1 and 2 was awesome for me...at least .5 mph faster than on my geared bike. This does prove my point that I am so lazy with gears.



As we were riding along I was telling Dynamo that riding my single speed is like playing golf with one club. Years ago when I played a lot of golf, my friends and I would go out and play 9 holes with only one club. The rule was that you could choose any club, but only one club. I always chose a middle iron. It taught you how to use the club completely...to know its range. To use what you have, to hit it as hard as you could at some points, and even as easy as you could at other times. Sometimes using your surroundings to strategize and get extra yardage. So, my point is that single speeding is similar. You have one club, your current gearing, and you have to know when to use it, how to use it, and definitely how to use the hills. You make do with what you are given and it works. It just works. There is a simplicity to just riding with one gear. It's not the same process as having multiple gears, so it doesn't clog up my brain with lots of thoughts. But, it is a game of strategy...just like golf.



So, you just ride onward and pedal pedal. I feel like my gearing is about like a 5 iron right now.

And...as we were riding we saw this cool tree with a hole at the bottom. You could see right through it!



Could you see it? Pretty cool huh?







Of course I had to take a pic of us on the trail. I'm always trying to be silly! You can see that Spot makes me work really hard! Look at that red face!



When we got back to the trailhead there was a crazy squirrel up in the tree making lots of weird noises. We couldn't figure out what his problem was, but it was a noise we had never heard before. As he started down the tree we decided he wasn't a squirrel we wanted to see closely so we quickly got outta there!

We finished up our ride logging 14 miles. Not too bad! Even though I was tired, it was a good tired. We had a great ride with minimal drama and groaning!