Two completely different animals

It's mid April and I have realized that most of my miles this year have been on the paved or dirt road with very little time spent on the singletrack. My race in Arkansas found me riding my first singletrack of the year in a strange land during a race! Needless to say, my bike handling skills were not very sharp.

Today I loaded up the bikes and went to the Potawatomi trail to take in one of the best trails in Michigan. I decided to bring the geared and singlespeed bikes with the plan to ride one lap on each. With a similar workout planned for this Sunday in the Yankee Springs Time Trial I was hoping to replicate the conditions I would encounter. The time trial will be two 10 mile laps on the geared bike followed by one 10 mile lap on the singlespeed.

The first lap on the Poto was great! The Niner hardtail performed well. After riding this trail rigid for several years I was astonished at how the new Reba fork smoothed out the trail and I felt like I was taking better lines without the pounding. The 2 x 10 gearing and Kenda Karma's rounded out the ride and my lap felt good. Funny, Strava has difficulty with mileage in the singletrack and tracked each lap about 1.5 miles short of the actual distance.

Great! The trail was dialed, I was pumped and I quickly swapped out bikes. My singlespeed rig has been a solid ride for several years. It's a Redline Monocog Flight with a steel frame, White Brothers carbon fork, Avid Elixer hydro's and a heavy ass tubed wheelset. On the trail, I was reminded of how nimble a rigid fork can be and how responsive it can be when standing up on the climb. Very efficient. The Poto trail lends itself well to the forces of momentum and a rigid singlespeed is a great choice for this trail. I was also reminded of how quiet a single geared bike can be on the trail. I startled a few hikers along the way. Lap 2 took it's toll on me and my time was about 10 minutes slower than the geared bike lap.

I can now say that after today I feel much better about my off road skills and have a new found appreciation for the equipment that gets me from point A to point B.