By the way, Dark Horse is my strange creation. It's a Trek 8500 with a 26" switch blade rigid fork, a 29" front wheel and a power tap and it's a 2-speed manual. Yes, two speeds.
The derailleur, a.k.a. chain tensioner, has a flip lever from a road bike down tube and an inch of cable with the lead end where the adjuster goes. No.. I am not a purist. The two gears are handy for the dual sport rides. One gear for road, one gear for mountain. So, it is a single speed... kind of.
Anyhow.... I had been fighting off a cold since the Ice Man (go figure) and I decided to skip the downhill since it looked to be a cold rainy affair. I got the dumb idea to "Fix that which is not broke" as the saying so eloquently goes. I lucked out big time as Tomi, who makes the Tomi cog - a fixed cog that bolts onto the 6 bolt rotor mount of many a wheel, was in town. My chain was spot on, no need for a half link or eccentric hub. I figured I am weird enough with out it.
SO. I took to learning how to ride the thing on the way to the rock garden for the UNI's. It was strange, but I felt this strange connection to the bicycle that I have never felt before. It was like being PART OF IT. Strange.
Yikes. Riding trail on this thing was terrifying! I took a leap of faith as I approached a drop off and wheelie dropped it with both legs spinning in air. I was able to get the lock slide figured out but it wasn't pretty. Log hops were humorous, but not bad. It seems some of the skills cross over.
The race started and I got smoked on the first downhill! THESE GUYS ARE NUTS! Tomi, Tim Richardson and Thomas lead the charge with back wheels sliding side to side and bouncing off of rocks like bowling balls set loose down the trail!
A lap latter I was still getting the hang of it. After another lap though I was in the zone for about 30 seconds. "I got this!!" I went to make a move to pass Thomas. He was rocking the full body black velvet suit that would make Prince squeal with glee.
Needless to say I didn't see a rock that was positioned prior to the ledge I was jumping to cut the line. Our bikes collided and I fell to all fours! I jumped back on and realized the left brake lever was bent and my bars were skewed, but no injuries. I was back in the chase.
Riding a fixie, FYI, is about as hard as trail running on steep terrain with someone on your back. WHY? Well, because if you are on a rocky trail like this you have to time your every revolution like it was written on a calendar a week ahead of time! Also with no rear brake but your god given quads (and some other strange hip muscles I didn't know existed) you have to be super smooth with your back stroke.
I felt the burn deep in my legs. I was back in the zone the please don't crash again but I want to go fast zone. I made my way back up through the color clad group of Thomas, Trevor, and Chris Scott but the lead was no where in sight.
No worries though because the spectators where throwing beer and yelling profanities of encouragement. Man that was about twice as hard as I thought but about 10 times as much FUN!
I am sold. It's funny when I told Travis Brown about the Fixed Gear Unis he kinda chuckled "yeah, fixed gear is not so good on a trail". Perhaps by yourself it's not, but when you get a group on an undulating roller coaster with rocks... that's another story!
If it's broke you should fix it!
If it's not broke you should still fix it!
If it's fixed you should ride it!
My word... What's next?
Get some trail yo!
Jeremiah
Labels: Viva le Burg
