Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em
by Rob Blue on January 10th, 2007
Hat's off to Zach for making our rides better. Seeing this guy, who is new to the kind of rides we like to do, hang tough and grind out the climbs and bomb down the twisty stuff is inspirational. Last Sunday's ride was good old Los Robles. Check out the profile and Google Earth file:
We set out for a moderate ride since Mikel is just starting to ramp up for the season, I was on my single speed and we don't want to kill Zach just yet.
Awesome day for riding with our unusually warm weather in the 70's and bright and sunny.
We had a good laugh when we saw smoke coming off of Zach's rear brake at the bottom of a long and twisty single track downhill section. Seems that while lubing his drivetrain, Zach inadvertently got some oily stuff on his brake rotor. You could smell him coming at the bottom of every descent. Made for a memorable ride beyond the great day.
I must admit that I am really digging the single speed thing. The challenge of getting up the tough climbs and maximizing your efficiency to keep up with the geared bikes is a blast. I believe the 29er wheels make a significant difference too with regards to the single speeder setup. The bigger wheels feel like they carry more momentum on the flats. They also smooth out the rough downhills too. I feel like I am going faster on the technical downhill sections. So far so good.
