Sock Guy

Harshman and I got out for a ride at Avalon on Sunday afternoon.

Much of the trail system at Avalon is on the steep slopes rising up out of the Patapsco River Valley. While there are some more gently rolling trails up over the ridge you're never far from a steep climb or a fast downhill. The terrain is varied and challenging. I love it.

Our ride on Sunday was pretty typical.

We rode up some trails that are usually reserved for riding down (see photo). This trail is steep & rocky, making it a ripper of a downhill and an ass-kicker of a climb. Ok, so we hiked up the worst part in the name of training for cyclocross.

Also typical was ChrisH having a mechanical. This time he destroyed his chain while powering up the steep water-bar climb. Lightweight SRAM 9-spd chains should not be run on singlespeeds. The spring on his single-ator also shit the bed. Basically, gravity became the bike's only source of locomotion.

I am going to take up a collection to encourage him to get a proper SS set-up (horizontal drops, no tensioner, and a beefy chain). If you would like to contribue parts or $ please contact me.

With his bike unridable we made a plan. I would ride an interval the 25 minutes back to my house to get my car. He would do a chainless downhill off the ridge and jog to the base of Lawyer's Hill Rd. His training plan has him running already so he went ahead and ran the length of Lawyer's Hill Rd. in his socks. Whoah!