Saturday, June 09, 2007

22T

Recently, I hit the 100 mile mark on my fetish fixation, and I have vowed to switch things up on the fixation. By that I mean, the first hundy was riding rigid, SS, and with a Surly Instigator fork and a 29er wheel up front. Hence, I was riding a 69er and I have to say it was an awesome configuration. Why change? I have the parts and its fun reconfiguring the bike.

While the Fetish is on the rack getting its make over, I dusted off the Qball last week, my first single speed and it's a 29er. I said I want to try something new, so its rigged with FUBars, which is mary-esque type bar, only more narrower. Additionally, I went to a 22T for the rear cog. Been riding 16T while using this bike for touring but a 16T on New England Singletrack is bound to open a case of the hike-a-bike.

First ride out on the Qball, after a 6 month hiatus from the trails (there were other medical reasons that kept me off as well) was great and I noticed that the 22T climbed much better then a 20T. After that first ride, I thought, maybe I should try the hill!

The hill is this fire road that the state took no time to plan, in fact I heard they graded the existing trail into a road and thus what you have is a fire road that unless you are in 4 low, you aint getting up the hill. Well, add to that list my 29er and 22T cog on the rear!

I don't know what it was, maybe the different positioning with the FUBars, maybe 2 additional teeth make that big a difference, or perhaps I am finally achieving Conan status in the leg department. What ever it is, I can't wait to do it again and then try it with a 20T and eventually an 18T.

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