Taking Eric's experience as anything except a huge outlier is to doom oneself to despair. This is a guy who (IIRC) climbed the Rockies in an 80" gear.
On a much smaller scale -- cottage industry versus multinational, so to speak -- I had two quite diverse ss experiences this weekend. Yesterday, cruising along with a tailwind in the 75" gofast I was passed by an older man -- perhaps mid 50s -- on the usual racing bike. He pulled very slowly past me but didn't look at me or say a word. That, as much as being passed, annoyed me so for the next 5 miles I paced him until I had to turn off toward Rio Rancho (I turned off and, immediately I was out of sight, I fell off the bike and puked my lungs out. Just kidding.) He was riding in his big/small on the flat -- it looked like a 50/13 or so (I talked with him briefly; he had no idea what his gears were) -- and occasionally he'd stand and sprint. I was spinning fast in the 75, but I found I could easily whip up the r's pm and outaccelerate him while seated, so that I needed to brake to avoid running him over. The point of that anecdote is not my being a jerk so much as how fun it was to suddenly apply seated torque and very quickly spin the bike up another 5-8 mph. Just now, coming back, headed northwest, from church up the mesa to Rio Rancho, I faced a west-facing climb of several hundred feet in half a mile followed by 2-3 miles of gradual climbing to the west and then to the north. The wind was turning from the south to the west and gusting to 30, and I was on the 70" fixed. I can tell you that climbing a steep hill *against* a stiff wind in a single middle range gear is far, far harder than climbing the same hill with a stiff tailwind. Another cyclist, on the usual carbon fiber blah blah blah passed me going downhill as I was grunting up the steep part at 30 rpm, then passed me again uphill as I was pushing the bike for the final 2/10 mile, then passed me again back down. He called out cheerfully, "I brought the right gear" and I laughed. At any rate, my knees survived, but I've learned to stand for longish periods to save my left knee in particular, which has been more sensitive ever since I started climbing hills at altitude in a big gear as a 15 year old. Your oxygen processing physiology adapts to your pedaling style. I can stand for a mile on a steepish hill with no problem (MLK from Broadway to University) but sitting and trying to spin a small gear up a long hill quickly has me gasping. On Sun, May 11, 2014 at 10:32 AM, Eric Norris <[email protected]> wrote: > I rode the Davis Double Century workers ride yesterday on Patrick M's > former Motobecane, equipped with a three-speed hub. Only used the top two > gears. My legs today don't feel any worse than they would if I had used a > traditional multi-speed bike. > > Eric N > www.CampyOnly.com > CampyOnlyGuy.blogspot.com > Twitter: @CampyOnlyGuy > > On May 10, 2014, at 4:43 PM, Deacon Patrick <[email protected]> wrote: > > On today’s single track ride I used exactly two gears, shifting four times > for terrain going either up or down. What an amazing flow to the ride! > Contemplation is so easy to enter into, and that’s still with a derailure. > I am excited to see what no derailure brings to the party! > > I understand now why the explanations of why people love to ride mountain > trails single speed always fail to answer the question of why they love it > so. It is transcendent, wild, free and unable to be captured or contained > in words. It has a flow and rhythm that melt into the wind breathing > through the trees and the sound of tires on loose gravel and my breathing > and all the clay over which I ride. > > The “Wow!” continues. Grin. > Though these pictures are poor at conveying it: > https://www.flickr.com/photos/32311885@N07/sets/72157644198250827/ > > With abandon, > Patrick > > *www.MindYourHeadCoop.org <http://www.MindYourHeadCoop.org>* > *www.OurHolyConception.org <http://www.OurHolyConception.org>* > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- Resumes, LinkedIn profiles, and letters that get interviews. By-the-hour resume and LinkedIn coaching. Other professional writing services. http://www.resumespecialties.com/ Patrick Moore Albuquerque, Nouvelle Mexique, Etats Unis ************************************* "In yourself right now is all the place you've got." Flannery O'Connor -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
