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Greetings fellow gearless- ites,
I'm doing the North Umpqua this weekend with a group of non-singlespeed riders. I was wondering what gear to run since I'll be riding my SS. It's a pretty strong bunch of guys and girls, but I want to make sure I choose a smart ratio so I'm not either mashing and hating on the climbs or spinning like mad on the rolling terrain.
We're splitting the ride up into 3 sections over 3 days of riding, so changing out my rear cog is easy-peasy (... lemon squeezy... just to finish it). I could theoretically run something for Lemolo to Dread & Terror and then a different gear for the next day's ride, Deer Leap to Panther. The last day we'll ride Mott and then Tioga up over Bob's Butte.
I remember loads of climbing last year, lots of ups and downs typical of the great riding in the Oregon valley foothills.
I'm not a super strong rider but I've done a lot of SS'ing this year including McKenzie (32:18) and North Fork / Farewell (same) and a 50 mile ride up Mrazek and back to town via singletrack (32:17). Also countless short day rides.
I did the whole Umpqua trail last year on a gearie, it is truly a sick sick place to ride with not many riders (or hikers) at all. We only saw one other group of 2 riders last year.
Thanks for any insight.
-slim
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I'm doing the North Umpqua this weekend with a group of non-singlespeed riders. I was wondering what gear to run since I'll be riding my SS. It's a pretty strong bunch of guys and girls, but I want to make sure I choose a smart ratio so I'm not either mashing and hating on the climbs or spinning like mad on the rolling terrain.
We're splitting the ride up into 3 sections over 3 days of riding, so changing out my rear cog is easy-peasy (... lemon squeezy... just to finish it). I could theoretically run something for Lemolo to Dread & Terror and then a different gear for the next day's ride, Deer Leap to Panther. The last day we'll ride Mott and then Tioga up over Bob's Butte.
I remember loads of climbing last year, lots of ups and downs typical of the great riding in the Oregon valley foothills.
I'm not a super strong rider but I've done a lot of SS'ing this year including McKenzie (32:18) and North Fork / Farewell (same) and a 50 mile ride up Mrazek and back to town via singletrack (32:17). Also countless short day rides.
I did the whole Umpqua trail last year on a gearie, it is truly a sick sick place to ride with not many riders (or hikers) at all. We only saw one other group of 2 riders last year.
Thanks for any insight.
-slim
