Today's "long" commute

The plan today was to simply ride the 5 miles to work, hitting a few trails and urban obstacles on the way in and back. Worked fine on the way in. Had plenty of time to tweek the saddle, and lever positions and get the cockpit feeling like home.

However, I had a cancellation this afternoon that left me free for several hours with a new bike, but no real gear except my commuter bag and garb. No water or any way to carry it, no spare anything.

What's a man to do but Carpe Diem.

I snagged an empty bottle from the hospital, made a quick run for the Border for munchies, and headed upt the road to the trails.

I did have my camera, however

Up newly redone Iron Springs:


Turn at Granite Basin Road:



Full Face shot for Padre:


The MM is very well behaved on the roads. In general, I liked the higher gearing than I usually run. With the shock locked out, bob is imperceptible; with it open, bob is present if you look, but basically still undetectable at the pedals. I found that if I was really mashing, the fork really tended to bob more than the frame.

After climbing roads for 6 miles or so, I finally hit the trails. I was still worried about the bigger gearing for the trails, so I selected one where I could back out to less steep trails if I was flogging, or continue to some really steep stuff if it was going okay.

332:


The bummer of having your water inside your commute bag is that you have to stop and enjoy the views every time you want a drink.

332 takes you back to Iron Springs. Rolling, loose off camber singletrack descent, then steep 1 mile climb to the road with a few sections that really make you grunt.

I fairly immediately found that the fork was outclassed by the frame. I also found that the Fox 100mm fork on my usual SS rig has totally spoiled me without me knowing it. The front end just felt squirrelly as all get out in the loose stuff. As I adapted to the fork, things got better, but I am definitely looking forward to the new Reba at this point.

The climb went better than expected, cleaning all the difficult loose parts. This gave me the go ahead in my mind to proceed to the ultimate test, so I headed up the road to trail 37.

Took a rest in the shade at the trail head for liquid refreshment.




Then up the trail:


This trail is a bear for me SS and a good fitness test, very loose, rises 900 feet in a mile, and has 55 water bars to get over in the process.

I was able to get through with three dabs each of which I cleaned on a second try. Amazingly the gearing did not seem to hurt me. I noticed a slight improvement in traction with the Motion Control off. Not dramatic, but real.



I got my just desserts for trusting a stick on cable guide. It pulled off and was getting sucked into the rear wheel. No zip ties or tape in this bag, so I rummaged around and found an address label. Luckily, the Aloe plant has many uses as well.



Finally, the big descent down 40. Not much to show, but this caught my eye.



At Granite Basin Lake, I finally refilled since I had been out of water for about 35 minutes. No fun in AZ for sure.



At this point, I needed to boogie to get home, so a parting shot of Granite Mountain and no more photos.



Climbed out of the Basin, down to road, and roads home.

I finally felt the extra work of the larger gears on the last few hills on the way home. I was worked over, but generally pleased with my performance. The great thing about SS is that it is what it is. Push it if you can, or get off and push. Sometimes you body can do things your mind does not think it can and the only way to find out is to try.

Sooooo, how does it ride? It generally feels like a single speed hardtail with a flat tire. I was constantly checking the rear pressure. It is more competent than a hardtail SS, and less competent than a FS bike with gears.

My only criticism thus far is that it feels flexy to me at higher speeds. I don't know if it uses all the same tubing as the Leviathan or what, but I have never heard anyone complain that a Lev was flexy. You can just feel that little bit of frame wind up as the speeds increase. It is not really coming from the pivots so much as if feels like the frame tubing. I can't put my finger on it.

Part of it is that I am used to riding the Uber Stiff Lunchbox, or my Fisher Rig with its massively large diameter and boxed TT-DT-HT interface. The other issue is that this is my weenie Arch wheelset, the Box runs Flow rims, the Rig: a DT TK front and flow rear. Too many variables to nail down, but the flex is there somewhere and bugs me a little.

Nothing I would really change at this point except maybe go to lower gearing.