For a little green, hairy muppet so much knowledge and wisdom was packed in the little green body that was Yoda. Probably most remembered for saying No! Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try. He took the young Luke from an innocent farm boy to one of the greatest Jedi by dispelling his little nuggets of witticisms on the young lad and forcing him to confront his self doubt and fears. At it's base though, by today's standards, their relationship would probably draw a lot of unwanted attention. I mean an old, weird guy who lives in a cave, befriends a young boy and convinces him to leave home and go live all alone with him in the swamp... sketchy! What does any of this have to do with anything, well, truthfully not much but I had to start this blog somehow.
Well, maybe it does have a little bit to do with things, while I don't have Yoda to talk me into lifting X-wing fighters out of bogs I can still listen to the teachings he bestowed on the young Jedi. Back in November of last year I was gifted a Salsa Stormchaser as an early Christmas present and so began the journey of me revisiting my love affair with the one speed bicycle.
There was a time not too long ago, and definitely in this galaxy, that all I rode was a single speed Redline Monocog. That bike and I went everywhere and rode almost every surface, I was a one bicycle dude and that bicycle had but one gear... and then along the way N+1 happened and the Cog found its way out of the rotation in favor of fat bikes and geared bicycles and I sort of forgot how simple and rewarding single speed travel was.
If you follow the gravel cycling world you'll know that this week is Gravel Worlds here in Lincoln and if you've followed the blog, you'll know that GW and I have had a rocky relationship as far as finishes go when it comes to the 150 mile version. I think I'm 2 for 4 on them, both finishes coming on the Pugsley and all failures on lighter, faster bicycles, it seems that perhaps I am better at suffering a slow agony rather than a fast one. To do well maybe I just need to embrace the suck as it were.
All of that lead me to sign up for the Gravel Worlds Privateer in the single speed category and unlike most of my previous endeavors in gravel events I actually plan to try, there's that word Yoda, and see what I can do as far as racing it goes. That's a pretty big statement for a self proclaimed non-racer and to be honest I'm not entirely sure if this is a great idea or a stupid idea. The Stormchaser and I have done pretty well this year which contributed immensely to this decision. Results have been there also... kind of. I finish first (out of one) at Stay Fired Up, which wasn't easy despite being the only participant in the single speed category as there is a ton of elevation out there around Leavenworth, Kansas and probably a good reason there weren't many single speeders. Then we went up to Michigan and I got a legit third place finish at the 100 mile Coast to Coast race. Our three person relay team took second at Solstice riding single speeds against geared competition and legitimately I just feel faster on the Stormchaser as odd as that might sound to some. For one you have to attack every climb and bomb every descent because in a world without shifting, momentum is king.
Gravel Worlds isn't exactly a single speed friendly course generally speaking but we are going to give a go and let the chips fall where they may... and if it doesn't work out well, Yoda has another profound statement. If no mistake you have made, losing you are. A different game you should play. Not that I would stop riding my bike, that's just silly but if you never try you'll never know what may be and if you try and fail... well, there are often great lessons to be learned in failure.
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