F_king
On Sunday I went to Gambrill with JoeP. After I got to the parking lot, unloaded my bike, and hopped on for the mandatory ride around the parking lot to see if everything was ok. I pedaled and spun in place, and the bike didn't go forward. Effing ring drive of my highest-end rear hub froze up in the frigid temperatures again. Car dash temperature guage indicated 22 degrees, and it's usually right. Exasperated, I realize I have no other option and flip the wheel to the fixed gear side.
I ride fixie off road in places that are smoother: Schaeffer, Avalon, and Wakefield. I've never ridden anywhere as bumpy as Gambrill before so I'm a little apprehensive. In the end, my worry was unfounded. Fixie freeriding is extremely fun but a lot slower. I suck at judging distances, but suppose if you are riding a full suspension bike you can look ahead 50 feet. With rigid singlespeeding, you look ahead half that distance, but with fixie riding, your attention has to be a quarter of that distance. If you choose to forgo using your hand brakes, your concentration is only ten feet out. You have to time your pedals to smack the least number of rocks possible, but ratcheting is never an option. You have to either hopskid or trackskid to get your timing right -- and I did half the time. I surprised myself by how many rock gardens I made it through. The hardest thing for me that day was making it through technical uphill sections. If you trackskid, you lose momentum, then your really have to pour on the juice to make it through. However, I ain't gotta lotta juice.
One thing I noticed about fixie riding if you try to avoid using your brakes: it's really rough on the trails because of the trackskidding. Remove the first part of that word, "track", and you end up with "skidding". Primarily on downhills as you scrub some speed, you skid, you roll, skid, roll, repeat. Of course you are supposed to use your legs to power down some, but you eventually get tired on the long descents.
It never rose above 23 degrees up there. Standing around made you chilly almost immediately. Luckily, riding with JoeP, that is never a problem. At the end of the yellow loop we decided that we wanted to ride some more, but neither of us could manage another loop up there. We decided to hit Schaeffer after munching at Boston Market.
When we got to Schaeffer, it warmed up a little. I think it was in the upper twenties/ low thirties, just warm enough for my freewheel to work properly. I flipped the wheel back over because this place has a lot of logs. In my opinion, a bigger obstacle on the fixie than rock gardens. With rock gardens at Gambrill, there's a lot of loose rock around so it's easier to break the rear tire loose and position your pedals properly. Here, it's not as easy with the hardpacked soil.
Anyways, we ended up whipping out two fast laps then splitting for home back to our families. With at least three hours of riding under our belts, it's safe to say it was a good day.
I ride fixie off road in places that are smoother: Schaeffer, Avalon, and Wakefield. I've never ridden anywhere as bumpy as Gambrill before so I'm a little apprehensive. In the end, my worry was unfounded. Fixie freeriding is extremely fun but a lot slower. I suck at judging distances, but suppose if you are riding a full suspension bike you can look ahead 50 feet. With rigid singlespeeding, you look ahead half that distance, but with fixie riding, your attention has to be a quarter of that distance. If you choose to forgo using your hand brakes, your concentration is only ten feet out. You have to time your pedals to smack the least number of rocks possible, but ratcheting is never an option. You have to either hopskid or trackskid to get your timing right -- and I did half the time. I surprised myself by how many rock gardens I made it through. The hardest thing for me that day was making it through technical uphill sections. If you trackskid, you lose momentum, then your really have to pour on the juice to make it through. However, I ain't gotta lotta juice.
One thing I noticed about fixie riding if you try to avoid using your brakes: it's really rough on the trails because of the trackskidding. Remove the first part of that word, "track", and you end up with "skidding". Primarily on downhills as you scrub some speed, you skid, you roll, skid, roll, repeat. Of course you are supposed to use your legs to power down some, but you eventually get tired on the long descents.
It never rose above 23 degrees up there. Standing around made you chilly almost immediately. Luckily, riding with JoeP, that is never a problem. At the end of the yellow loop we decided that we wanted to ride some more, but neither of us could manage another loop up there. We decided to hit Schaeffer after munching at Boston Market.
When we got to Schaeffer, it warmed up a little. I think it was in the upper twenties/ low thirties, just warm enough for my freewheel to work properly. I flipped the wheel back over because this place has a lot of logs. In my opinion, a bigger obstacle on the fixie than rock gardens. With rock gardens at Gambrill, there's a lot of loose rock around so it's easier to break the rear tire loose and position your pedals properly. Here, it's not as easy with the hardpacked soil.
Anyways, we ended up whipping out two fast laps then splitting for home back to our families. With at least three hours of riding under our belts, it's safe to say it was a good day.
posted by rickyd 2 at
5:28 PM
1 Comments:
Sucks about your hub man, you really should look into changing oil/grease in there. I never seem to have those problems, but I've been riding fixie so much lately I wouldn't even notice it.
A suggestion on getting your pedals in the right place - use the hop. Just lift the rear wheel up ever so slightly and pedal faster. You can move your cranks into place and you don't tear up the trail by skidding. It's a little weird getting used to since your not bunny hopping or anything, just lifting the wheel enough to not be touching the ground anymore. Might help to work on it first by using your front brake to help shift your momentum forward, but watch out on the super steeps.
By
DT, at 12:30 PM
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