When I first got my Rockhopper & built it up with mostly junk that I had lying around, with the motive for quality, but not too eye catching for town folk’s grubby mitts, it had to have a rack to do donkey duties & of course I had to have a go at it in single speed, though not sure why… …well cost if nothing else!
I also managed to land on a pair of original Z1 Bombers in need of a service but fine otherwise! They were a colour match made in heaven!
Red & Orange... ...beautiful don't you think!
Quickly I found that the forks were substantially too bouncy for slogging up the hilly roads, though took the edge off the pot holes, they were replaced with some Cromo Kona P2 forks. Not only that, but my choice of single speed gearing was pretty ambitious, running a 40 x 18. Ok for the flat but the usual run the bike had was far from it! It promptly became 40 x 24 & meant the journey back up Stonewall Hill from Presteigne could just about be ridden all the way.
Moving to Hereford spelled flatter ground! At Last! Terrain where a single speed would flourish! With the exception of Aylestone Hill, twice a day. But averaged out the gearing seamed ok, comfortably going at 16 mph on the flat & not dropping below 10 mph up either side of the hill. Though it did get my heart rate up first thing in the morning!
With that competitive edge somewhere in my head, I could rarely be beaten at the traffic lights in Hereford centre from a standing start, but would inevitably get caught again further along the road. Not only that but on a busy road heading to worcester 16 mph made me feel like a road block & very vunerable. If i could just go that bit faster but still be able to make it up Aylestone Hill…
And then there were gears!
The present incarnation
Cobling together a few gearing parts I’d gotten a full 7 speed drivetrain! Flying left, right and centre, ther’s no holding back! The first couple of days commuting to work reduced me to a puddle of sweat on arrival, from racing as many cars as I could! But it’s great fun!
Riding round some local lanes & bridleways tonight, it reminded me of the Grand Tour du Limousin I did last year with friend Steve Bennett. I rode my S-Works Epic, Steve his Stumpy Hardtail over some pretty serious terrain for 3 days back to back. Steve placed well overall (though I did beat him on the last stage!) at around 20th if my memory serves me well, but we were both beaten by a French rider on a rigid bike with V-Brakes, it takes some level of skill to ride a bike at those speeds over terrain like that. My teeth rattled tonight just on the bridleways in the picture above!
Dave
