Full Assillymilation

Communication with Vassago Tom has begun this past Monday to get moving on a squishy 32" single speed faster than earlier anticipated.

A ride in Wilson Creek a couple weeks ago on my 29er got the wheels turning to buy a 32" suspension correct frame to be ready for the coming Fox fork as soon as it comes out.  This last ride in DuPont has me pushing all the chips to the middle of the table.

I was feeling like absolute dog shit.  All day long, my heart rate was just too high for the effort I was making, and I found myself looking for short cuts from the group ride and potential bailout points.  My head didn't feel all that right coming down Hickory Top, and I had to kinda check up a bit most of the day.  Things started to feel slightly better for me heading over to the final climb up Cedar, and then we finished with a descent down Big Rock.

For those that don't ride DuPont all that much, Big Rock is known for it's slabby granite slickrock sections, interspersed with little pockets of rooty chutes and ledges and whatnot.  About 2/3 of the way down, there's a ditch that I'm pretty sure was created by Helene that now has a big rock move (big for an XC guy) that I haven't done since the erosion happened.  I was on Bill Nye's capable wheel coming into it, and I thought, "Fuck it.  These wheels got this."

And they did.  There was a little butt scrub on the back wheel, but honestly, that's about the steepest roll down I'd be willing to do on a short travel hard tail... and I was on a rigid bike... so...

No photo evidence, but Bill Nye can confirm the shouting (mebbe screams?) he heard behind him, and I didn't lose his wheel (and I set a PR on the lower DH section).

The only things holding this bike back is the front tire (that will be fixed this week), and the lack of squishy bits up front.  I decided that just as I didn't want to wait for 32" bikes to be a readily available thing so I just sorta made it happen (thanks, Tom), I don't wanna wait on the new Fox fork for another damn minute.  My body is too old to do rigid all the time in the places I wanna go, and while I keep hearing the Fox fork will be here "this fall," that's anywhere between late September and early December.  I got so much riding I wanna do before then, so full send.

Due to some constraints of the design of the Wren fork, I'm only going to have 80mm of travel, but that's plenty for now.  The big wheels take some of the edge off, but a little relief will go a long way.  I'm assuming when I do get the Fox, I'll only be running 100-110 mebbe.  This fork has lockout, a floating piston instead of tokens, keyed stanchions to keep the legs from getting twisty, it's 160mm rotor native for a tiny man like me, and it has a quick release?

Huh?

Hopefully soon enough, it will make my everyday riding that much better.  I've been limiting my "off the ground" time in order to save my hands from landing in a pile of unseen garbage, and I'm missing the feels of a having some air under my wheels.  

I'm still not saying this is everyone's cup of tea.  Since I started riding and racing single speeds back in 2004, I've wanted what so many other mountain bikers want in a bike.  Higher speeds, more confidence, more control, more traction, more... more... more of all the things that make it so good.  Try being a single speeder hoping for single speed specific innovations in one hand while shitting in the other and see which one fills first.  Most of the things people say these wheels can't do, they totally can.

I'm still a stupid single speeder.  I still like hard tails.  This is exactly my cup of tea.