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Old December 19th 06, 05:06 PM posted to alt.mountain-bike
GeeDubb
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Posts: 424
Default Riding Rigid, Riding One Gear

While in Palm Springs riding with probably the best group of riders I've
ridden with I managed to do 6 miles or more downhill with my rear shock
locked out. Needless to say I screwed it up and shipped it off to be
repaired. This left me w/o my dear boingy bike for a few weeks so.......

Since PS I've been busy working and didn't have time to ride (nearly two
weeks). I finished the job and decided it was time to dust off (lots of saw
dust) the rigid ss. Now every time I've been out on this thing I've flatted
on the rear which is a pain to fix. This time I use mucho air, close to 60
psi in these not so fat Kendas, to avoid the inevitable pinch flat that has
plagued my inadequate riding skill. Riding the ss has not been a fun
adventure until this ride.

The first mile of the ride was on blacktop to the trailhead. I'm thinking
this is great, full transfer of power to the bike, smooth....say what?
Yeah, on the blacktop the rigid is smooth as silk but........

I hit the trail and began an experience of jarring, bouncing, teeth
rattling, butt busting, hand numbing pleasure that I hadn't experience on my
previous rides. I thought I was going to take it easy but after meeting up
with my buddy John (riding a ht) we took off and never stopped (until
hitting the coffee shop). I made all but the steepest of climbs and
downhilled some stuff as fast as I could have done with my double boinger or
at least it seemed that fast. Who knows with my head and body vibrating
this much it sure seemed as fast.

There were sections I was doing the hamster dance trying to keep up with
John and did so to at least keep him in sight. No spin class could have
prepared me for that! It would have been fun to know what pedal rpm I was
actually managing!

After coffee we hit the canal for the smooth ride back to the trail. This
is a short section of trail with a steady climb up through a mtn saddle and
then slowly back to the start area. It's nice to push this climb and I did
leaving John gasping (well, he is 62 for craps sake) at the top but staying
within 20 yards or so.

The rest of the ride was uneventful.....no flats.

Tonight I ride the rss again, canal only, with one of my other riding buds
that just got a new 24" wheeled beach cruiser.

should be fun.

Gary

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