It's August! Riding through the heat.

[Crankin]

I seem to be able to develop tolerance for this. I've had this happen to my right hand out of nothing. I rarely switch my hand position on the road bike, so I am trying to do that more, too.
I cannot withstand *any* padding in my gloves. In fact, I have to search far and wide to find unpadded gloves. I get extreme squeezing feeling and pain from just a tiny amount of padding, so that is out. Trek stopped making the gloves I had worn for years, so I finally found some from Giro.

[north woods gal]

Managed to get out and ride a bit between storms, but in some very humid air. Relative humidity was in the 70s with temps in the 80s. Did 14.8 miles on the single speed Gunnar, then came home and exchanged it for the new Pugsley fat bike for another couple of trail miles. Called it quits just before the next batch of rain hit.

Well, looks like another single speed coming my way. I wanted another Log Lady to set up as purely a trail bike. That would give me two Log Lady MTBs, one LL for gravel and pavement and one for the woods. No way, though, to get a complete bike, now. I actually got the last complete bike in medium and there's rumors that All City won't be making any more of these delightful single speed racing MTBs. I did manage to snag a new frame set, though, by trading off my ECR. Got enough for the ECR to pay for the new frame and get started on my new Log Lady build. This will be my first custom build, by the way, so definitely a learning experience.

Why another single speed steel MTB? Well, I'm finding that going single does all I want in a bicycle, for one thing, and I do have geared fat bikes when I need a lot of gears, anyway. For another, I want to stay steel and I want to stay under 25 pounds for the sake of handling and ride quality. About the only way to keep it under 25 pounds on a steel MTB is by going single speed. Lastly, since my trail riding now no longer includes log hopping, boulder climbing, barreling over roots and, especially, no longer includes any jumps (all the fun stuff), I no longer have a need for the current slack geometry trail bikes. Nope, the more upright and pedaling friendly traditional XC MTB geometry is a better fit for my riding, now, and the Log Lady, after all, is pure racing XC geometry. Also, XC MTB geometry makes for a decent gravel and road bike - basically a road bike with flat bars. Close enough, anyway.

[north woods gal]

Did manage to barely squeeze in a ride of 12 single speed miles of pavement riding between storms, yesterday, on the Log Lady. Had hoped for a break for another ride in the afternoon, but no such luck. Steady rain all afternoon.

I added up my miles for August and was surprised to see I have a chance of breaking 400 miles for the month. Basically about 80% pavement and gravel versus 20% trail and most of the miles, by far, on the single speeds. Was totally not expecting this, so I've made more progress than I thought in my recovery. Even if I don't break 400, though, I am pleased. I think riding the single speeds has helped build my strength a lot. Nothing like actually racing up a hill to get in shape.

[Crankin]

Talk about riding through the heat!
Went out with my friend who stayed over Mon/Tues, at about 8:00 AM today. It was already approaching 80 and very humid. We chose the shadiest route possible, mostly old familiar roads, and we ended up in her old neighborhood, where we stopped and visited with her old neighbor, who was shocked we were riding. At this point, it was about 9:45 and approaching 90. I really did not want to stop, but it was only another 4 miles or so home.
Riding was not as bad as I thought it might be, and again, I am glad of the total shady conditions. We went slowly, I didn't push it on the hills, and ended up doing just under 26 miles. We met another friend of mine for lunch after we cleaned up, and now it just feels hot, like AZ, and not so humid. School started in most of the towns around here, and we had to deal with stopping for school buses on the way out, and some apparently angry drivers as we got closer back to my house. It's more rural where my friend lives now and she always complains about this, but I think people were just pissed about being slowed by buses and more cars on the road. Most of the ride was quiet.
She and her DH will be back here Sunday afternoon and we will ride on Monday with them.

[north woods gal]

Sheila, the Log Lady is actually quite comparable to the much more expensive Gunnar in terms of ride quality and handling. Been extremely pleased at just how close it is to the Gunnar. That steel fork is exceptionally well designed. The Log Lady really is a steal for the price. Close enough, in fact, that the new Log Lady frame with fork at only half the price of a new Gunnar frame was a no brainer. The LL is light, agile, fast and nimble, just like the Gunnar. After all, it was designed to be a racing single speed MTB.

As much as I hate to say it, the Krampus is a tank compared to the other two. The Krampus geometry and build, though, is very different. The Krampus, like most Surly bikes is overbuilt, designed for slugging it out on nasty single track, not for racing like my two single speeds. It's a great bike in its own right, but it rides much slower than the single speeds. Of course, those big fat 3" wide tires and rims on the Krampus do slow you down a lot compared to the lighter wheels on the single speeds. Love plus and fat tires, but when it comes to pavement riding, there's just no way they can keep up with lighter, skinnier standard MTB wheels and tires. Not going to happen. For instance, on our morning rides with my husband and his fat bike, I can just keep up if I ride a fat bike. If I ride one of the single speeds with their light 2.25" tires and wheels setup, I ride circles around him, I really do. Never underestimate what going lighter with your wheels can do for your biking. I'd rate it as number one for a performance mod. Works on MTBs, just as it does on road bikes.

One of the easiest ways to lighten up a wheel on an MTB like the Krampus is to go tubeless with the tire. Really makes a big difference. Gets you a lighter wheel and better traction to boot. In fact, some bike companies are now going tubeless on their MTBs, right from the factory.

Crankin', would love to send some of our cool weather your way. Temp, up here, at ride time, this morning, was only in the 50s. Had to bundle up with leggings and a sweatshirt. Did my usual 12 miles of pavement on the Gunnar, but spent the rest of the day doing errands, so no trail riding.

[Crankin]

I rode this morning, at 5:15 AM. It was my first true "dark ride," in that the sun was just poking through the clouds when I got back. I only rode 9 miles, as when I started out, I was going to ride to the other side of town and back, but there were already so many cars out, on Main St., that it didn't feel peaceful at all. So, I turned off to do a somewhat hilly loop, which was nice and quiet. It wasn't too warm, about 75, but grippingly humid. A front comes through tonight and the next 2-3 days will be nice. Of course, by Labor Day, it will be conditions like yesterday. We have a ride planned, that will most likely be modified!

[north woods gal]

Sheila, most of their frames are more common steels like the 612 or the 4130, but they do offer a couple of pricier models in the 853. What I like about all of their frames, though, is that they are beautifully finished, not to mention nice and light and lively. Have been especially impressed with the steel fork on the LL. Does a great job of dampening and is also very stable. Really see no need to go with a carbon fork or a front shock, it's so good. My factory built Log Lady weighs a touch over 23 pounds and that is very light for a fully built steel MTB. It's actually right there with my Gunnar, as I've mentioned. In fact, the welds on the LL are as nice as the welds on my Gunnar frame and those welds are done by hand.

My guy at the bike shop tells me the Log Lady is no more, unless you want one in XS small size. Apparently, this is not unusual for a small company like All City. They do small runs of bikes, then move on to other models. They've had other models of single speed MTBs in the past and will probably have some new ones in the future. Kind of an unusual company in that they do offer several single speed models. These days, the big companies no longer offer single speeds for lack of sales. Thank heavens for small companies like Surly and All City (apparently, these two are associated with each, other by the way.)

Goof for you, Crankin, to get out early and ride. I remember in my commuting days, me hitting the road to work at 6 AM, every morning. The world is a very different place that early in the day or so it seemed. Remember seeing fox and coyotes, running right down our very busy main street, that early in the day.

[north woods gal]

Sheila, my first choice was that Nature Boy 853, but it was completely sold out with no indication when or even if it would be back in stock. As I have discovered, late summer/fall is a terrible time to buy a new bike. The smaller companies don't build up a lot of inventory. Had I bought the Nature Boy 853, I would have converted it to flat bar, which is very doable with All City bikes, since they use the same frames for both drop bar bikes and flat bar bikes. They did have the standard Nature Boy in stock, but I really do need tires wider than 37mm to safely ride our paved roads. For instance, this year we've already had a heavy acorn crop with lots of green acorns littering the roads. Gets a little dicey riding over them with really skinny tires. We also have lots and lots of sand and gravel washing out on our roads and I do not like riding kind tires in that stuff.

On to my next bit of news. Behold my new Krampus!
photo upload

If it looks like my old Krampus, it's because, well, it is my old Krampus, but with a new mod. Here it is. Nope, no derailleur and no gear cassette. My new Krampus single speed trail bike! Yipee!


I worked long and hard on getting the gear ratio just right for my intended use of the Krampus with its big 3" plus tires. Even figured in the tire pressure I wanted to use. It's now a strictly trail single speed. Just picked it up, this morning, from the bike shop and hit the trail with it. Did a full 8 miles worth of laps and pleased to report I got it just right. It's geared so that I can do 90% of my climbing sitting in the saddle, which is important for the sake of traction. It's also geared low enough that I can keep the spin rate up for the techy sections. It's geared way too low and slow for road work, but that's okay, because I won't be using it on the road. I have other single speeds for that. 8 miles of trail work, by the way is the most I've done since the accident and just a bit more than my usual pre-accident workout. The fact that I could go 8 miles and want more tells me I got the gear ratio just right.

This will get me more use for the Krampus. I really did not get along with the GX shifting when it had shifters and gears. Now I just jump on it and ride. Those 3" tires allow to ride all sections of trail, safely, too.

At this point, half of my bikes are now single speeds. I blame my local bike guy at the bike shop for this addiction, by the way. He tells me that 90% of his riding is with single speeds. Seriously, though, it's great to have a local guy that knows single speeds and how to build them. He's the one that will be building my new Log Lady over the next month or so. It's going to be a real education for me.

Oops! Almost forgot. I also did 5 miles of pavement work on my original Log Lady, this morning, on our daily morning ride. Beautiful weather, though cool enough to have to wear leggings, again. Fall really is knocking on our door. The ferns in our woods are already turning yellow and brown.