Overgeared

Thursday saw another attempt at the mountain, but this time with a single speed. I'll tell ya what, light weight rigs don't make up for poor gearing choices!

In the mayhem leading up to getting ready to leave on this trip, I thought long and hard about swapping out to a mountain climbing gear for the Lynskey. Then I realized it was a 32T front ring. I had thought it was a 34T, but I hadn't ever checked until before the trip.

The 18T cog in back seemed to me to be an easy gear mated to the 32 front, but oh no! I got to the mountain and it was immediately apparent that between my toasted limbs from Tuesday's ride and the overgeared Lynskey that I wasn't going to be scaling any hardscrabble steeps here. Nope! I should have gone with that 21T. Oh well......So I took a "plan B" attitude and went in search of something less tortuous to my limited fitness and stamina levels.

I remembered that the Franklin Mountain State Park had a beginners loop, so I figured what the heck. I took the left turn downwards from the trail head and went in search of whatever the loop had to offer me. I found out that it was actually a pretty fun loop! It took off downwards, as I said, so the gravitational pull was "fried leg friendly". Besides this, it was the best "flow" trail in the whole park! Swooping turn after swooping turn. Bermed turns, and you could go as fast as you dared. The trail was basically gravel laden, but that didn't deter me too much. I did the loop three times!

I did do a little more exploration and found one of the newer trails heading up to the top of Franklin Mountain, but that would have to wait for another bike, another year, and another crack at these awesome trails in El Paso, Texas.

I'll be headed home soon to Iowa, mud, cooler weather, and familiar sights and sounds. Not a bad thing at all, but I'll be anxious for the next ride down here all the same. It's really good stuff!