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Gravelish Test Ride: Strong Ti CX / Gravel • 12/22/17

Found this Strong Frames titanium bike on Craigslist, and the owner lives nearby in Portola Valley, so we were able to meet up at Woodside Town Center so I could try it out. it’s hand-built in Bozeman Montana, and has what I’ve been looking for in a gravelish bike: a good amount of tire clearance, snappy handling, disc brakes, and a not-harsh ride. It’s set up as a single speed, and beautifully so, with Paragon Machine Works sliding dropouts, but comes with the elements to set it up as a 1x11 with an 11-32 cassette. I rode it for about a mile and a half when I decided to bite the bullet. 

Single Speed Calistoga Climbing: I attempted the Old Lawley Toll Road climb. I'm not yet worthy • 12/28/17

I found a new (to me) climb just on the edge of Calistoga: The Old Lawley Toll Road. After warming up by riding around town a bit, I headed for the climb. It’s a beautiful, beat up old road, and I only made it about half way up. I’m just not manly enough for sustained 12% climbing with that gearing. Ow! I’ll look forward to trying this again, next time with some lower gears :-)

Installing & Testing the 1x11 • 12/31/17

Attempting to climb the Old Lawley Toll Road in Calistoga a few days ago made it clear that if I’m going to be doing events like Old Caz with significant steep climbing I’m not going to be able to do it on a single speed (not really that I had expected anything different, really). 

I have triple cranks on both my road bike and my mountain bike, so I’m used to having a bunch of gears. The largest spread cassette I can run with Sram Force with a long cage derailleur is 11x42 (I could do 10x42, but would need a rear hub with an XD driver; I’ll worry about that later if it seems like it would be useful). 

SunRace makes an 11x42 cassette that’s well-reviewed and significantly cheaper (and a bit lighter) than the Sram version. So, got one of those, removed the single speed rear cog and spacers, removed the single-speed specific sliding dropout and replaced it with one with a derailleur hanger (which the previous owner of the bike had passed along), and mounted a long-cage rear derailleur to that. Then I ran fresh shift cable and housing, and measured, cut, and installed a new chain. 

There was a bit of daylight left, so ran over to the Bay Trail and did a quick spin up and back to test it out. Shifts great! WIll need to try it on some hills to see how the ratios work out.

Gravelish: Equipment Testing — WTB Resolute 42c Tires & SunRace 11-42 Cassette • 1/10/18

These tires are pretty sweet, with 36# rear, 34# front. Much more sure-footed on the loose gravel than the 35c Specialized Tracer tires that came on the bike. And the extra volume helps soak up some of the stuttery stuff.

My single speed experiment was short lived, I need my gears, at least for now. But, having the Paragon Machine Works sliding rear dropouts turned out to be crucial to run these tires: I had to slam them all the way back, which increases the tire clearance at the front of the chain stays. Also makes the wheelbase just a touch longer, which I think makes it a bit more stable. Or that could be the effect of the tires, or heck, could be placebo, but works for me!

The Sun Race 11-42 cassette with the 42t Wolf Tooth chainring is close to being right; a smaller chainring might be a bit better for really steep stuff. The cassette shifts very nicely with the long-cage Sram Force derailleur. 

Very exciting, this is all finally coming together :-)

Gravelish: Oh My God! The sound the frogs make on lower Sheep Camp at dusk is deafening! • 1/12/18

Mixed terrain mini monster! Got out for a nice mixed terrain ride this afternoon: Some road, some fire road, some gravel road, some single track, and some more road. Finished just before sunset, and heard the most amazing ruckus made by the frogs croaking along Sheep Camp Trail. It was intense! Plus, there were stealth bunnies running along the path, and crossing in front of me. Beware the bunnies!