Singlespeed commuting on 42:15 isn't what it used to be

I have been riding 42:20 on the Qball for quite some time now but I found that while it's a great gear for climbing it really sucks in the flats.  Tuesday night I switched gears and went to 42:15 for Wednesday's bike commute.

Roads were a little wet Wednesday morning but I have fenders so there was no chickening out because the roads might be wet.  Still tights temps for the mining ride and in my pack I had shorts and another riding jersey because afternoon temps should be approaching 70 degrees.

In the flats, the gearing change was awesome but it sucked in the hills.  Maybe I am just getting older or haven't built up my base enough but I was really struggling on some hills.  So much so, that my average cadence for this ride, according to Strava was much lower. 

When I got to work I posted a few comments out on the interwebs and one of the responses I got was to try 42:17, especially since I will be riding in a charity event this weekend called the Rock 2 Rock in New Haven.  I will be riding the single speed of course because I am still trying to get ready for SSAP.

Lost in Stewart

Met up with the Dark Horse Cycles crew for the Mayor's Sunday morning shop ride.  Besides SSAP, this was one of the hugest gatherings of singlespeeders I have ever seen.

I nailed it today in the clothing department.  bib shorts. long sleeve, microfleece zippered running shirt and riding jersey.  It was a little chilly starting out but then it warmed up a bit and then it got cloudy and windy and cold again.  I never got too hot or too cold.

Even in the Sun, with the wind, it made it chilly.

Just over half way into the ride I lost the group.  I back tracked but still couldn't find where they went so I headed off on my own adventure.  My front wheel needs some spokes tightened so I three on the new wheel for the Spot on the Kona.

Came across this poor female single speeder who was in the midst of a Walk of Shame.  She took some zip ties from this other rider to anchor her chain down.  She lost her chain ring bolts.

This lines up with the runway at Stewart.

Awesome ride, 20 miles.  Plan on heading back next Sunday.

Climbing Tashua Hills

After the rail trail ride I asked Will if we wanted to get a real workout in and do some climbing.  I figured there must a Strava segment or two on this hill so we went to find it.  I think it's the highest point within 5 miles of the cost.  Pine mountain over in Ridgefield is the highest point on the east coast within 10 miles of the Sound.

I thought the climbing totals would have been a lot more but they weren't.

The Cannondale performed beautifully!

On the way down you can see Long Island and the sound.

Lending the tandem to relatives

My wife's sister's family was up from NYC on Saturday and we are planning on riding the Bloomin' Metric together.  Only this is the first year that my daughter, Katie, cannot ride due to a dancing showcase happening that weekend.  So I offered up my tandem and on Saturday to Will and Julia so they could test it out.

They got the hang of it pretty quickly

Katie was riding with us on her barely used but pristine Cannondale Chase.  Only, she was complaining that see needs a bigger range of gears now.

Julia learned quickly how to let her father do all the work

Katie had a great time and wants to ride more.

But now it's a matter of finding time to ride!

Monstercross Commuter

If you are a regular reader of Cycle Snack you will know that I am constantly re-configuring my bikes but most changes are to to try new things.  Before I got the Garmin Edge800 I had a pretty good mounting situation with the Garmin Edge705 where I had taken a few additional angled adapters and put them under the mount to make the screen flatter in relation to when I would be looking down at it.

My problem is that all the "bar-fly" like mounts are configured for 31.8 mm handlebars and I happen to really like riding with the FMe bars from Misfit Pyscles.  I tried mounting the Edge800 right on the bars but it didn't hold tight enough (and I was using the small rubber bands) and it took that hand position away.

I finally found something on Amazon, called the Evo Spacebar Bicycle Handlebar Computer Mount.  It's the only mount that I found that comes with adapters for 25.4mm and 22.2mm bars.

The ring mount is still a little flimsy set up this way but it's at the perfect position, right over the stem.  I guess if I wanted to get crazy, I could get the 22.2mm bar-fly mount that would fit on the mounting bar, however, I am not sure what would happen with the orientation because it's set up for TT Bars and sits perpendicular to the bar.  It would push the device further up, but then again, I could always move the EVO bar out to the front and mount the bar-fly backwards.  Or just buy the regular Bar-Fly and use the adapters from the EVO.  I could always put the EVO on the Gravel Grinder and take the light set off the bars, which could be interesting, too.