Bedrock & Paradox

I dream of a hard and brutal mysticism in which the naked self merges with a non-human world and yet somehow survives still intact, individual, separate. Paradox and bedrock.

Defeat

I gave up. Julie wins, and is back to a singlespeed. More filing the cog and messing with the chain yielded no results, and brought me up against my prolegomena to any future cycling: I am a poor mechanic with a limited tolerance for tinkering. A character flaw, yes, but so be it.

I’m going to kick around a 34:20 for a while, see how tall it feels out on the hills. A vague plan is to push in through some intensity work for the next month and see if I can push it through the Rim Ride and KTR. I want to concentrate on physical adaptation and not succumb to the singlespeed disease of gearing obsession. I should note here that not once during SSAZ was I asked what gear I was running.

So now I’ll be putting together the fixie as a town/pave/fire road bike. For a rear hub I’m looking at this:


Echo fixed cassette hub. Fits six nine-speed cogs, with no freewheel. Given my surplus of ss cogs and spacers, it would be cheaper than a Surly hub, track cog, and lockring. A trials hub seems like it would have no durability issues, either.

So, now that this is all done, I’m looking forward to heading out in the next three days and putting some nicks in that nice new Blackspire ring god.

Just registered for the Wahsatch Steeplechase in June, the weekend after the Kaibab and should be an excellent course for me, steep and technical up and down.

If anyone wants a 25t Endless cog that’s a bit modified but still I imagine perfectly useable, let me know.

DaveC

2 responses to “Defeat”

  1. Enel Avatar
    Enel

    After failing at a similar experiment, I just threw on a complete old, beat up 27 speed set of gears on the Crosscheck (with matching stretched chain). I only use about 3-5 of the gears, but it works great, adds a little weight, and I have gearing for every possibility and then some. I never have to screw with it…everI still dream about simplifying the drivetrain. Maybe three in front and one in back, but that still requires front and rear derailleurs, so why not have them all and not screw around as much.I’m just saying…..if you want to shift, just go whole hog (or at least 1X8 or 1X9.Your 1X3 would work with individual cassette hub cogs on it. Just go to Bikesmith, get something used from the parts bin and bust it up.

    Reply
  2. Dave Avatar
    Dave

    Yeah, a good multispeed setup with friction shifters is (baring mud) a pretty easy setup. I’m intentionally lazy with such things, and aesthetically like one gear.The new bike’ll be built fairly soon, anyway.

    Reply

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