Props to Brady for making me check myself, before I wrecked myself.
Backstory:
On the ride home after the truly fun and adventurous Cranksgiving race, I mentioned to Brady that I was thinking of converting my heavy Bianchi commuter to a single speed. He piped up right away, "Now why would you do that? What's wrong with the way it is now?" This reaction caught me off guard.
Usually when you tell a cyclist you're going to strip down to one gear, they shower you with accolades for being a bad-ass. I believe Brady was really just naively curious why limiting yourself to one gear would be a good idea. In the conversation, I tried to explain away how one gear is less maintenance in crappy weather, less possible equipment to fail, and a little lighter too. We changed subjects after that. But everytime I pondered what kind of fancy lightweight single speed specific wheel I could build up, or what gear I should use, Brady's question would again ring thru my mind. Then yesterday, I got the answer.
I decided to pick up a couple groceries on my way home from work, but made a little ride of it by heading out to the Hy-vee on Cass St and 70something-ith. My legs and back were sore from my fun mtb ride the evening before and there was a slight 30-40mph North wind. So when I turned north on the trail from Pacific street, I busted down to my 23 tooth cog in the back and spun easy. I was Sssssooooo glad to not have a 42 - 16 gear as my only choice. Plus, the side benefit is I won't spend any more money on stuff I really don't need.
So to Brady, Thank you sir for your astute observation of the glaringly obvious. One gear is not all you need all the time.
6 comments:
Brady Murphy - MITMON man of the year?
The SS statement was out of plain ignorance. I wondered why because your mtn bike is already a single. Hope that doesn't take some of the magic away.
By the way, what is MITMON?
I'm not sure I want to know, much less be the MITMON man of the year. I remember reading something somewhere about someone being MITMON-ed in a purple PT cruiser with a woody package.
Could somebody provide a clearer understanding or definition?
Dear Brady,
MITMON is a marvelous term taken from an extraordinary film by the name of King Pin...Don't wanna spoil it for you, but the main character's name is Roy Munson. Munson, being the "unique" -to say the least- name that it is, has a multi-definition status to it.
ie. In the movie, Ishmael gets dumped by the side of the road and tells Roy that he is being left there all alone- "Munsoned In The Middle Of Nowhere"... He then has flashbacks of a bad sex experience that he and his putrid landlord had together, thinking about how she even used the word "munson".
In colclusion...
To be MITMON'D is to be up shit creek w/o a paddle. To be left all alone after a nice screwing over, where all you have as a resource is yourself. And Munson being the neg-head that he is... Well, you get the point.
Thank you for your interest in MITMON!
-MITMON Street Team.
This just in...
Omaha does not have a velodrome, nor is it a velodrome!
SS =
a.)MTB'ing... if you're into that whole brevity thing.
b.) BMX bikes (sOoOoO hXc)
Fixie =
a.) Le Piste
b.) looking hard in tight black pants whilst rolling around town drinking coffee and spittin' your game over Saddle Creek's latest signing and THE War.*
c.) Early Spring training- all about da pedal efficiency.**
(Baseball cards compliment exhibit b.) quite nicely.)
* Only fo' dekko-rashunz!
**And Daz it n' daz all!
Thank you for the refresher, Peter. That is the key I was missing to appreciate the mind hurtling posts that occasionally appear here.
Sign me up. I'll accept the MITMON man of the year nomination and prepare for some good old fashion ass-kickings.
THANK YOU SIR MAY I HAVE ANOTHER!!
Munson: you're nuts. Why would you even suggest going lighter on that bianchi tank? Oh, I forgot. You do have a carbon seat post to offset the weight of that uranium-encased centrifuge hub on your front wheel. Yeah, you're probably right. There's a big difference b/t 39.9 and 38.8 lbs. Make the switch to single.
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