SS50

Dave and I rode out early this morning and got in a nice 50-miler through SW Jeff this morning. I rode the Quickbeam, and with like spirit, Dave decided to do the same, singlespeeding it on his commuter. We used Audobon Park to link up with Floyd, which put us in the Beechmont area and 3rd street. From there we went on New Cut out to the famous Penile Rd. Having used many of those roads, I was thinking of a variety of options for our 50, but Dave didn't care so we kept to plan, first doing Blevins Gap. Finally we got a taste of climbing a bit via singlespeed. I was pretty impressed that Dave stayed the course (I had to). We stopped by this by an area that looks like a new Metro Parks property off Blevins Gap, but also looks to be off limits for some reason or another. Nature Preserve perhaps? We continued to our store stop off Blevins Gap and then rolled on towards our first big encounter, Weaver's Run. Pauley's Gap, just before Weavers, gave us a warm-up climb and gave me an excuse to perform a first, in this case moving the QB from the big to small chainring. At first I was quite put off because it appeared that the chain was too long to make it happen. Duh! It wasn't mounted on the rear sprocket. With that adjusted, I was able to use the new combo, but 2 things presented problems. First was that the axle had to be tightened down right at the end of the dropout. I don't know if it's typical; perhaps the chain can lose a link? Perhaps that's how it works? I don't know, but I need to do a little research. The 2nd was more bothersome, in that the rim adjustment made the rear brake rub. Again, with more experience perhaps I can make things click a bit better. The gear change didn't help greatly as Weavers is a nasty short climb; LBC lists it as .38 at 9.8%. I made it most of the way up going SS but had to walk the last bit. Once at the top I readjusted the rear gear and prepared for our return loop. We ran into a nice sized peloton of racers that had just crested Pendleton, which is about the same % but longer. They commented that we had taken the "easy" way- very nicely- and I thought to myself that Weavers wasn't that easy, especially on a SS. Our descent down Pendleton told me yet again that after my near-wreck in the Knobs I have no taste for fast descents anymore. Hate 'em. I get clammy and the adrenaline pulses when the road goes supersteep. Oh well.

From there we returned via Bearcamp and Manslick, which put us in Iroquois Pk where we ran into another peloton, this time remnants, well, most of the Saturday Yellow Lot Slow-n-Easy with the LBC. I've done that route a few times and it's nice. Today's group looked to be near 30 or so. One pack of them headed out ahead of us on Southern Pkwy, another caught us by Cardinal Stadium and we never saw the rest. By the time we hit B'town we were both pretty leg tired after a nice batch of mileage on the SS, or my 2speed and Dave's makeshift 2speedsortofwith a couple extrashifts. It sure was a good day on the bike.