2 May 2012
Last month I decided to try some off road riding for the first time in about eight years. For the last three years my mountain bike has been rigged for singlespeed commuting with slick road tyres and a 2.75:1 (44t/16t) ratio. Not wanting to spend a huge amount of money adding stuff and weight to the bike, I just added the alternative rear sprockets that came with the singlespeed conversion kit and stuck some knobbly tyres on it. The first problem became apparent when the tyres arrived: instead of XC (cross country) I'd ordered CX (cyclocross) rubber. Although I could reuse the tubes from the road tyres, it meant the tyres were only 1.35 inches wide. I convinced myself that this wouldn't be an issue after all, as 'cyclocross' style riding was what I would probably be doing; tarmac lanes, gravel tracks and a few bridleways. The gear ratio was now 2.44:1 (44t/18t) which felt like it would fine when I tested the bike on a commute to work. The problem with my commute is that it's in Portsmouth, and Portsmouth is largely flat. At least the bit I commute through is flat. So it's not really and adequate test of bike that's going to go off road.
Undeterred I headed off to the Gower peninsular with my trusty steed. My first ride off road was a 4 mile loop to a local shop in the village of Scurlage using tracks and bridleways instead of the roads. The ride out was slightly downhill for most of the distance and both the bike and I fared well on the hard packed gravel and the firm mud. All's well, I thought, this is going to work.
On the return ride to the caravan site I decided to change the route, getting away from the tarmac and gravel onto grass and mud bridleways. I left the hardpack and travelled about thirty feet before running out of momentum on the uneven mud, and falling sideways into a bush. I fell because I couldn't release my SPD shoes from the pedals in time.
After walking, stumbling and barging my way over the mud for about half a mile I found firmer ground and I set off again on a path I knew would take me back to the hardpack bridleways I'd followed on the way out. I just about made it back to the hardpack; the thin cyclocross tyres had clogged with thick, Gower mud, as had the brakes and the three-quarter length mudguards I'd left on the bike. All thus made it very hard to get moving even up the mildest incline.
Eventually I found the hardpack and things improved. Picking up a bit of speed cleared the tyres, brakes and guards of the worst of the mud. Even the firm mud I'd rode on early posed little problem as I approached it uphill this time.
Soon I was back on the tarmac lanes and not dissuaded by my crashing halt earlier, I forgot about the bread and milk in my rucksack and found another farm track. This one was also muddy, but largely flat with big puddles of brown water. I charged on, hammering through the puddles and mud with a fair turn of speed. A mile or so of this and the track turned stony and slightly down hill. Over this the bike coped quiet well, the tyres slipped a little but the front shocks soaked up some of the unevenness. Again, I was back on tarmac, this time riding toward the village of Oxwich. I took the next junction on the left, heading towards Penrice and after short distance on the flat and then sharp descent, I found another path heading back up to the road to the caravan site.
This path was roughly paved with concrete which I thought would make the ride uphill easier but the tyres were still clogged up with sticky mud and they slipped all over the wet concrete. But when I did find traction, the gear ratio way too high for that sort of incline. After struggling up the first hundred feet I came across a large fallen branch, so after I lifted the bike over the branch and pushed it until I found the slope more forgiving.
Another short ride over the mud and hardpack put me back on the roads once more, gently undulating lanes back to the caravan. My wife was a little concerned that I was an hour later than the 30 minutes I'd put aside to get the supplies in.
A couple of days later I headed out again and it was more of the same. Most road riding was perfectly fine, hardpack and soft but relatively smooth surfaces were passable. Anything involving uneven ground or an off road climb and the wheels came off the whole venture. On one track even the downhill became a problem as a three-quarter mile section of water and mud overloaded the old hydraulic rim brakes and it became ever harder to shed speed.
As I've said, the bike and I coped well, I thought, with the undulating lanes, along the mile or so on road climb from Penrice back to Horton. So I thought I'd try a steeper climb later in the day, up through Horton village. Our caravan site is about 300ft above sea level and the roads through the village ascend from the beach over a distance of about half a mile. The road up from the beach has a particularly steep first half and as I reached the halfway point on the road, but over two thirds in elevation, only the thought of a hard fall onto the tarmac was enough to stop me stalling.
I can honestly say that last part of the climb was one of the hardest physical trials I've out myself through. It really highlighted the problems with the gear ratio.
So, lessons learnt then: the modest terrain exceeded the capabilities of the brakes, the tyres, the gear ratio and most importantly the rider. It's eight years since I did any kind of off-roading. That was on the South Downs, with a full complement of 24 ratios and decent tyres. And I should probably have bled and serviced the rim brakes in the intervening years.
Although I still don't want to spend a heap of cash on 13 year old frame, some things are going to have to change if I'm going to go off-road. So this blog will be my record of building and riding a budget bike.
Singlespeed Mountain Biking, Part 1 • Opuss № I