Went a heckuva lot better than the first.
The pained muscle memories had faded, so it was time to take the Monocog out for another spin. This time out at the new Sweetwater Preserve. These are “Mark Flint” trails – contour, smooth (for southern AZ) and fun. Perfect rigid singlespeeding, for singlespeed wimps like me.
I really dig cranking around turns, standing. Great way to feel the flow vibes on normally “meh” climbs. But I soon realized that the fit on this bike is just ugly wrong. There were too many variables for me to even consider “fit” during SSAZ (and absolutely nothing I could do about any of them – the only choice was to survive). But today it became painfully obvious that even standing and pedaling, this bike was terrible. It’s a 17″ — too small, sure — but the stem is also upside down, and with a 4″ brake line, it can’t be flipped (or even raised by one spacer!).
What does this mean? I was crunched over while standing, and it pretty much sucked, even for a short ride. I don’t know how I survived SSAZ. I thought SS’ers liked high, wide, handlebars?! Oh well.
I’m getting a kick out of riding techy stuff on the rigid. I’m still slower than snot, but I’m riding, and with a smile on my face. Can’t complain there. I just can’t handle it for very long, which pretty much makes it a no-go for, well, almost all the riding I do.
Anywho, I’ll look forward to someday (over the rainbow…) when I have a SS that fits and has a suspension fork. It seems like it could lead to a good ride or two. True of any bike, though, so I’ll stick with the ones I’ve got.
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