Last night I made my trail debut on my 29er singlespeed. Redstone Cyclery in Lyons does a Tuesday night shop ride every week that I try to catch from time to time, but this week the ride got bumped back to Wednesday night. The ride was taking place at the Boulder Res, which is one of very few trails that are currently rideable. Dave at Redstone is an ex-semi pro racer, and while he doesn't race anymore, he's still got some serious go in his legs. The Redstone rides tend to be lycra clad hammer fests that have my blown up before the first climbs. So sounds like the perfect situation to make your maiden SS voyage on right?
"The Punisher" had been planning to make the ride, but ultimately bailed at the last minute. So I showed up solo at the trail head and saw 2 other vehicles and 4 other bikes. After a quick scan of the parking lot I was at least pleased to see that all of us were rocking the singles, and 4 of the 5 bikes were fully rigid singles. The lone suspension fork belonged to the lone female of the group, which made me suspicious immediately. In Boulder you quickly learn to assume that every single person you meet is so much fast than you that they will ride you off their wheel without getting above Zone 2. I've been dropped by more 60 year old men (and a couple of 60 year old women) on bikes since moving to Boulder than my ego ever believed would be possible. So after a quick scan of the other riders, I knew I was about to get hammered.
As expected, we hit the trail and the pace was wicked up in a hurry. I sat on the back, but held on and was doing so without hurting too bad thus far. The trail was remarkably dry, but oh so rough, and was actually a bit dusty under the lights on the back of the 5 bike train. We hit random patches of mud in the low areas, but for the most part it was dry trail that had serious ruts from cows and hiker traffic over the last couple months. Despite being fully rigid, the Niner felt pretty good on the trail. My arms got a workout and the trail feedback (i.e. vibration) was making my arms itch in a strange fashion.
As we stopped to open a gate I chatted with the lone female, and I asked her about the Old Pueblo 24 hour race she had mentioned earlier. She then informed me that she had won the solo womens field two years in a row (she didn't race it this year). I picked my jaw up off the ground and then felt suddenly better about my conditioning and the past 3 months of trainer torture I've been enduring.
The ride went on, and we encountered a couple of climbs that felt a lot tougher on the SS then on a geared bike. I made it up them all, but it hurt at times. Getting used to the style of SS riding and needing to stand and hammer on climbs took some getting used to, but by the end of the night it felt pretty natural. I never once reached for the shifter last night, I wished for it once or twice but for the most part I didn't miss the gears. I definitely think you have to ride a SS to understand the attraction, as the idea of it just sounds like a step backwards, but the application of it is a really fun experience.
As we reached the turnaround point for the ride, I felt like I was getting stronger. As we headed back to the parking lot, I was moving up from back of the pack to middle of the pack and still not killing myself to do so. I guess base miles and time do pay off. Last year at approximately the same time, I took the maiden trail voyage on my Yeti on a Redstone Tuesday night ride and found myself limping back to the parking lot far off the back of the pack wondering. This year I debuted a bike and found myself charging at the end of the night. Progress is good.
So Nancy the Niner got christened in a dirty, muddy way. That's the great thing about this bike though, is I don't have to worry about pivots, suspension seals, shifting, etc, there just isn't much to worry about but turning the cranks. I'll give her a bath to knock some of the big chunks of mud off as I'm sure there are a couple extra pounds of mud on the bike right now, but I won't get too worried about it.
We rode about 13 miles (forgot to turn the GPS on for the first .5 mile or so) and climbed around 1,000 feet. I can't seem to find the numbers from my Yeti debut, but I'd be shocked if the speed/time/distance numbers for last night's ride weren't significantly better than the Yeti debut ride.
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