Shafting Jeers

Man.  I said I'd blerhg about the whole "gears thing" today.  What a lame and redundant topic to talk about... again.

How convenient that FaceBook reminded me this morning that the last fail I had with gears was three years ago.

I feel very fortunate with how things turned out when I slipped my toe back into the pool to check the water temperature.  Fortunately, the Evil Following was way outta my price range for an experiment when I was ready to make a jump, and the Specialized Camber only just now started being available.  I saved myself a certain amount of grief and an uncertain amount of wasted money by the grace of timing and opportunity.

I think there's only about $300 wrapped up in this pile of stuff.  Maybe less.

And now it's mine.  I can keep it in a box and pull it out the next time I get a bug in my ass.  If I sold it to the highest bidder, the money I'd lose VS the money I'd get back in my pocket isn't enough for me to not just always have it on hand.  Shit, last year when I really messed up my back, I was lucky to have the loaner geared ROS9 so I could still do my job.  Now I have everything I need to make my own handicap enabler.

The Shimano XT 1X11 did work marvelously.  Combined with The 1 Ring from Endless Bike, I never dropped a chain once... on a bouncy hardtail... over some gnarly terrain.  It was definitely an interesting experience being able to climb up certain things in Pisgah that I'm used to walking, but some things that I had figured out on the SS were more troubling with all the options.

You'd have to know what trail I'm talking about, but the cut-through from Cove Creek to Daniel's Ridge is a great example.  I can ride the whole thing on a single speed.  I know how to do it.  I don't always make it, but normally it works for me.  On the geared bike, the timing to get up the tiny ledges, the sections for recovery... I dunno.  Not my cup of tea, I guess.

I'm still going to have to figure out if I'll use the gears to make a terrible road bike for the Tour de Burg (if I do the Tour de Burg).  I didn't mind sitting out one road stage to drink beer and be all Helpy Helperson last time, but I wouldn't wanna sit out two whole days.  It's gonna come down to effort and apathy.  It would be pretty easy to toss some borrowed cross wheels and a big single speed gear on the Stickle and that would be that.  Guh... and a rigid fork.

It's already sounding like a lot of work again.

Oh, yeah.  I still have this:

Speaking of a lot of work, I was too lazy to even take the bike off the hook to get a decent image.  Anyways, different wheels and tires and it's a road bike (enough).  More so than the first pile of shit I brought to my first Tour de Burg.