Machismo vs. counter-intuitive reality. What'd'you call me?!?!?!

I am a relative greenhorn in the world of cycling. I have been riding with purpose for a meager 4 years. I have been riding single-speed for less than 3 of those 4 years. I am still learning, but, I AM learning.



Since I built my first SS bike I have always thought that a bigger gear = faster. It seemed to prove true and I kept running bigger gears. When I purchased my first SS mountainbike I immediately replaced the 20t cog it came with. I scoffed at my more knowledgeable friends who said this was an adequate gearing. I laughed in the face of those who said I should think about what I was doing to my knees and didn't I want to be able to walk, much less ride, when I was an old man. In short: I installed a 16t cog on that bike and said to myself "Self, you are a bad, bad man. You have the legs to push this gear." And push that gear I did. I pushed it to blown up legs that wouldn't allow me to finish our local 12-hour-race. I pushed it until both of my knees sounded like gunshots when I squat. And presently I pushed it until I have apparently created an under-use injury in my IT-band.



Thats right not an overuse injury. I have trained my beer-baby having body back up to marginal fitness in a slow and calculated manner. I did workouts that seemed to be a compromise to the very fitness I was trying to usher myself into for months. Slowly building back up to a little more intensity each week. No, not an injury resulting from overuse of my body. This is an injury resulting directly from underusing my brain.



I started using my brain concerning this matter last Thursday when the trouble with my knee unveiled it's ugly face. I swapped down to an 18t. I rode 7 miles, on Friday, without much pain, focusing on the hamstring pull on the backside of the circular pedal-stroke. This will, I am told, help to draw fluid into the joint of the knee. While focusing on this I also paid attention to keeping my knees in towards the top tube of the bike. This lower gearing combined with the slightly more forward position of the rear wheel, and the recently shortened travel(100mm reduced to 80mm) of my suspension fork has definately made for a better handling bike.


On Saturday I took things a step further and installed a 20t cog on the bike. Not only did it keep the lightning bolts out of my knee but IT INCREASED MY AVERAGE SPEED. And this was not an insignifigant increase. I increased my average speed by .9 mph on the Long-leaf pine Greenway on Saturday, and by .5 mph on the Dutch-Tieman trail on Sunday. I don't know what else to say besides "I wanna go fast."