Back in gear...

or back on gears that is.

Saturday morning before I met up with BikeWrench and F'in Gary (and once again no BBB) I took a trip down to the Bike Bat Cave. After the secret password and retina scan were done I entered the room like I have a thousand times over the Winter, but something was different about this trip.....I was walking passed the beer frig. That's was my first mistake of the day.

Even thou a tear came to my eye as I longing looked at the empty beer cases I knew true love in bottled form was only a pull on the frig handle away....and still I walked.

Then I saw it, hanging just where I'd put her four long months ago...the geared bike was coming off the hook. After the dust was cleaned off, tires topped off and my buns lubed up (yeah, I went there) I rolled out.

The 15 mile roll to the Wrench's house was odd, I felt both like Superman and Clark Kent at times. The flats and climbs was where Superman was rocking (felt great) but the couple of times I had to start from a stop or a long slight climb I felt like I was dragging a lead weight behind me...of then my ass that is.

After trying a few different gear ratios I was lost, and therefore my first question to the Wrench was a WTF? His reply? "Yeah, that's how it should feel." After he saw the lost look on my face his next words jumped started my lost/slow brain. "Remember, the fixie is a direct drive"...and with that the light came on.

I loved riding the fixie over the Winter, but it took me about half the ride to get over the flat spots in my pedal stroke that losing the direct drive brought on.

But with all that said it was a great ride, just under 70 miles with a couple really nice climbs throw in. Nutrition was a slight problem thou, nearly had to call the Wifey to come get me as I started to melt down in the last three miles before home. But I knew I'd never live it down......guess the night of drinking was not the pretty thing to do before a four hour ride?