Fast forward quite a bit and a chance meeting between a friend and another mountain biker. In their meeting, contact info was passed around and my name mentioned. After an email, we had plans to MTB together with a few others I have never met. I meet my new pen-pal Koh and the mystery rider who was borrowing a bike Cjell Monē. We meet two others and off we go! Making some small talk as we head to the trails. A couple hours into riding, the conversation goes to SS. I am chatting with Cjell and Koh and mention that I don't have the legs for a SS. Cjell rejects the notion and says it is all practice and anyone can do it. Koh agrees and mentions I should sign up for the SSWC. I laugh it off and we continue riding. Seed planted...
After a fun ride, we say our goodbyes and everyone heads home.
SO over the next couple days, the idea is catching traction in my head. I go out to my local trails with both my FS and hardtail. I pick a gear and stay there. Riding the entire trail in one gear trying to find a gear ratio I like and also get the feel for the compromise that is one gear ratio.
The Soma in her 20 speed glory on one of the first 'one gear only' rides!
After the first few rides, I settle on 33x22. Next step... buying the parts for conversion. Polling my friends on FB - I get feedback that leans toward EndlessBikeCo. I shoot Shanna an email and the conversation starts... after some questions and conversation - parts are ordered and the Soma is converted. Shanna is dead positive I will love it, I am not so sure.
Post Conversion:
SS riding take patience. I have none. Using strava, I see my speeds are down, but my effort is up. I spin out on downhills and push up more than my share of uphills. Faack. SSing sucks.
Months of back and forth between road and MTB. Spiders, heat, humidity, snakes, rain, and those bastard giant hornets, etc... It was tough to get motivated to ride, but even more so, it was tough to ride that bike... Lots of work with no notable gains over my multi-speed setup. I am serious when I pretty much thought this sucks, come October, the gears go back on the bike and I will be happier.
Then sometime in September after I made this mental revelation I would switch back - I got a weird change in my riding style and attitude. I gained a huge helping of 'I don't give a fuck' with a side helping of rage. I cussed the hills, the roots, the slick rocks. I rode until I no longer felt like riding and I stopped. I would grab a beer at the convenience store, take a moment to refocus, jump back on the bike and head home - and it felt therapeutic. Then I noticed via strava my speed was increasing... Now that my focus is NOT on riding, riding is actually getting a tad more enjoyable. Even on the road side of my riding, I started riding to conditions and stopped forcing the issue to run the speeds I know I can ride and just looked at the next pedal stroke vs the entire ride. Again... strava backs up my speeds getting faster.
The last two rainy rides on the SS, I found myself looking forward to the mess. I have a rain loop that is mostly on crushed rock to prevent me from damaging the trails that are muddy. I have ridden down a river and had a few crashes... The rain eliminates my desire to 'go fast' and turns up my fun meter. I look around more, take pictures and generally just enjoy the outdoors. After all - this is why I started mountain biking... it was a faster way to hike and enjoy removing myself from civilization for a moment.
So after 5 months or so - I finally have come to realize the Soma will stay a SS past SSWC. It seems to have taken me a while to figure it out, but the SS gets me back to the root of why I started riding my bikes off road. It didn't start about speed or big air. It started to just have some quality me & nature time.
SO this is the first place I will admit it... Shanna was right.
Now there is something I will allow someone to dick-punch me if I do...
If I ever talk about being a 'Single Speeder' as if it makes me cooler than you or yak and yak about SS riding like those blabbing crossfit people... seriously - beat the shit out of me. When it is all said and done, I am just riding a damn bike. I just chose a different tool to have fun.
The original post I had in this section can be found here.... why-single-speed-no-seriously-why
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