Singlespeed Rising

The Sawyer's sinewy top tubes

Fall is for singlespeed mountain bikes. Why? Well.......because I said so! <===HA! Not really, but I do think that and there is a good reason for it.

Fall is also twig, leaf, and dead weeds season. You know, the things that can clog up a drive train, or worse- rip off your derailleur. Singlespeed mountain bikes just chew right through that stuff. It doesn't faze them in the least. So instead of risking the dangly bits in Fall, I go with a single cog out back and it works great.

The thing is, I have a lot of single speed bicycles in the fleet. Somehow or another, I ended up with several more than I had intended to have. I've even decommissioned a few, relegating their bare frames to an existence on a hook in the darkened corners of the Guitar Ted Laboratories. I've sold off a couple too, but somehow, the critters keep popping up down there. Weird.

So, I've had to do a bit of upkeep of late, just getting them all tuned up and ready to ride. First up was the Pofahl, which honestly is a gravel rig these days. Next was the Singular Gryphon, another dedicated gravel bike for me. Those out of the way, I moved on to the Blackbuck. That one got ridden a few times within the last week.

Well.....howdy! Haven't seen you out and about for a while!

This weekend I resurrected two others that haven't been out and about for a while now. Especially the plum colored Salsa. Not because I don't care for those bikes, by the way.

The Salsa is an especially good bike for me. It's an odd duck. A 2007 El Mariachi that used to be Superior Blue and spent its early days as a demo rig in Salsa Cycle's fleet. Another guy picked it up from Salsa and I got it from him. I wasn't thinking it would be a "long term" relationship either. It was marked as a test sled for some TNI.com work in the beginning. I was going to flip it after a year, maybe two. Trouble is, I ended up liking this thing so much I decided not to part with it and stuck it into the corner while I got busy with other bicycles.

Then there is the Sawyer, which ended up in the stable and got switched over to a belt drive. I stuck a Fox fork on it and then....... So, I had to get that one out again for some actual work, which is good, and that just about covers all the working single speed rigs in the house now. There is one more though, on the DL right now due to a stuck bottom bracket. If I ever get that out, there will be one more added to the active list.

Good thing it's singlespeed season!