gears who needs em

A couple of months ago I built up a new ride, Mary with gears to help my back get fully healed. I've enjoyed the new ride quite a bit. I took it to Dupont and rode it around for a whole week. Some crazy thoughts started floating around in my head. Do I like riding a geared bike better than a Singlespeed?
Most of my riding here lately has been fairly tame nothing real technical. I hadn't ridden my local trails at Warrior's that much either.
Last Wednesday, I not only rode hard, I rode some of the more technical trails at Warrior's which were wet and I was chasing my buddy Anthony on his singlespeed. I quickly realized how much slower I've become since I injured my back. I know I've lost some fitness and there's nothing I can do about that. I'm just glad to be back on the bike.
Since I've started riding more technical trails again I realized how much different it is to ride them with gears as opposed to riding them on a singlespeed. I've found it's a little more difficult to spin through rocks and roots than to stand up and mash through on my singlespeed. I've found myself stalling out on sections that I would normally sail right through on the monkey.
Don't get me wrong I love riding the Mary but it is slower and heavier. I need the Mary to keep me in check right now with my back still on recovery. I've been riding quite a bit here lately without pain and I feel I'm ready to start running again as well.
I've got 3 months to get my ass back into racing form before our annual trip to the 12 Hours of the Hill of Truth in Knoxville. I'm sure I'll be ready when the time comes. The question is which bike will I be riding. I'll probably take both and see which one I'm faster on. Haw Ridge can favor the bikes with suspension. The monkey has none but damn she's fast. This year we'll be riding in the anything goes class, gears or none, you choose. We went this route to accommodate everyone on our team. Last year we took 3rd place in the single speed category and had a blast but my good buddy Brad has decided singlespeeds are not his bike of choice anymore which I can totally understand.

Alan aka Scooby has also decided to switch back to gears and go the solo route this year. He told me the other day he just can't handle all the attention and fame that's been thrown at him since his first race with "Granny's Rotten Teeth". I told him we understood and wished him luck in his new adventure. I guess everyone is not cut out for the big time.



click on pic to make bigger and see the cool stashes that brought us good luck

I've been pondering what I'll do with Mary once I'm fully healed up and back on the monkey. I'll probably hold onto her unless she starts collecting dust. It's a lot of fun to ride especially down rocky singletrack with the Reba up front.



Later