The chainstays on this particular frame are also super short- something I’d never experienced in a frame.
The result is a metal frame that pedals like its made of carbon. Belt drive is super quiet and smooth, and the belt-compatible frames have to be extra stiff in the bottom bracket & chainstays because flex will derail your belt. They have not been granted access to SRAM’s Predictive Steering hub, though, and mismatching would make me itchy. Level Ultimate Brakes and a Whisky Parts Co flat bar… that sucker comes stock at 840mm wide. Gotta fly the WC Rainbow seat pack as a nod to winning Breck Epic that one time. It’s a bike with as many personalities as the weather in Colorado. It’s steel, belt-drive, RS-1, and Quarq equipped. Today, I finally got around to taking some nice photos… Last week, I put the finishing touches on the build up of my Spot Rocker singlespeed (of course, it snowed 10″ immediately after, so I’ve only ridden it once). So, for someone to actually take notice of my race results last year and reach out for this season with some really excellent team support literally brought me to tears. I did get some really solid, long-standing support from the likes of Gu and Industry Nine, but was generally pretty burnt out on the whole process. If you have been following since the beginning, you know I’ve worked really freaking hard to reach out to sponsors and potential sponsors and, more often than not, get rejected or not even answered. He wanted to know if I’d be interested in joining, we discussed some specifics, and I said something along the lines of “f*ckyeah, let’s do this.” In the not-too-distant past, I received an out-of-the-blue Facebook message from Mitch, the Manager of Team Gates Carbon Drive. If you listen to JRA, just scroll on down to the pics, because you know the rest already. I’m old enough to be cynical about having an optimistic outlook on new things, but I have a feeling it’s only going to get better from here.Īnd now, for something completely different… County Road 175 is my new Apex Valley Road (Apex Valley was the “road to adventures” in Black Hawk when I first moved out to work at 92Fifty).
I rode the bike path to Wal-Mart last night. I can ride prettymuch anywhere in town, which means that since I got here, I have driven a total of 5ish miles. I worked Wednesday and Thursday, then went for another ride up to the Cottonwood and S-Mountain Trails today. I almost can’t believe that I’m living here. Life in Salida so far is absolutely amazing. In lieu of driving Matt back to Denver (he’s working a Mountain Bike Radio job for the summer), our best Arkansas-transplant buddy Levi came over to ride a little and drive Matt back to Lakewood. After packing some stuff in to a storage unit, we dropped the rest of it over at the house where I’m staying for the next few months. Matt and I packed up a U-haul load of house and drove it over to Salida Monday afternoon. Luckily, I had the help of Matt and Levi. Moving is absolutely exhausting, both mentally and physically. Sunday following the race was time to pack in preparation for Monday-move-to-Salida day.
What the podium picture doesn’t show, and what went largely unnoticed (as far as I could tell), was that I was also second place overall in the women’s times (15 minutes slower than pro racer Megan Carrington).Īt least I won the podium jorts competition. I may have been a tiny bit conservative for a race-pace day, but I count it as a successful hard day of training. So, I figured I’d do my best to ride a steady and hard pace all day. I wasn’t surprised to be the only singlespeed lady lined up. On Saturday, I raced the Battle the Bear race of the Rocky Mountain Endurance Series. Whether you want to ride geared, chained SS, Gates Carbon Drive SS, or Carbon Drive with an internally geared rear hub, I’d highly recommend it. The Spot Rocker is, hands down, the most fun-to-ride hardtail I’ve ever owned.