SSimplicity. It's what comes to mind after my first single speed mountain bike experience. I finished the conversion of my Dean Colonel Ti frame to singlespeed yesterday afternoon. The beauty of the Colonel is the modular dropout system and all I had to do was bolt on a set of track fork end dropouts and the rest was a piece of cake. After much reading, I went with a 32:17 setup, which according to Sheldon Brown's gear calculator, gives me about 49 gear inches. This seems to be what most people are running in my area. There's a cool blog by a guy in Santa Fe that I found particularly helpful (iheartsinglespeed). I also had a chance to meet and chat briefly with Matt from FOO whom I ran into in the foothills on a night ride one evening a while back. He looks, and from all reports is, an exceptionally strong rider and he had his SS set up at 34:18, which is also roughly 49 gear inches. The 32:17 will work well for me, I think, at least on the local rides. If I end up riding in much steeper terrain, I can make adjustments as necessary.

The ride consisted of my normal quick loop from the house. This is the loop I do when time is limited and I want a good 1-hour workout. I climb the one mile of pavement on Cedar Hill to the north Sandia Foothills Forest boundary, then continue up to just below the water tanks at the Tram. Then work my way south for 30 to 35 minutes and head home.

ImpreSSions: I felt so stealthy cruising along in the quietness of the setup. The bike felt much more nimble to me without the derailers, shifters, etc. Interestingly enough, my average speed for the loop was over 1 MPH faster than on my geared bike? Why? Sections of trail that I've gotten lazy on with the geared bike required me to work harder, and focus on conserving momentum and being more efficient through turns and staying off the brakes more. I think the SS will make me a better and stronger rider, which I'll need with the Wednesday night crew. More on the sickly fast Wednesday night crew in the next episode.....