Mon-Fri the past month this is the only bike I've touched.
Darn ghetto, eh? I've had this 9.8 frame for maybe 5 years now and it's seen all sorts of use, but has never been set up for long at any one time. It's current lifeform is w/ the Surly singleator + SS conversion kit. About 3 days after Moab I knew I had to get this thing singled out...had the parts since '05 just hadn't done it yet. The surly instructions start out with "1. Take off all that gear crap and toss it in the trash..."
SS riding is so...different. Maybe it's the crappy old SID noodle I'm running, but it really seems to make me pay attention to lines more. Momentum is your friend, and losing it is costly. Then there's the matter of torque. Cadences range from near zero to as high as you can go. When cadences are super low, it takes a lot of torque to get over that next obstacle. This is unlike geared bikes where you can spin on up and keep torque fairly low. In other words, it just might be possible that strength can be a real limiter for SS climbing - and some strength training could be in order if I was to get serious about SS riding.
Which, BTW, I am. I'll do a Kokopelli trail ride on the SS in '08 - underground race style. I'm considering some other big events too on the SS but we'll see how a few small ones go first ;)
So that means the powertap is going on the SS. Some quadrant analysis will give good ideas about the amount of strength required ... once I see some of that data I'll thinker on whether or not time in the gym is going to get the nod. It's hard to imagine as when I stopped lifting in the winter I started to get a lot faster.
What's the consensus in the SS crowd? Y'all do any strength training? Looking at Dicky I'd guess not, but hey looking at Kenny Jones maybe so. 2 fast SS guys with opposite builds.
What started as a whim is sparking new interest - and that is a ton of fun. Something new to deconstruct/reconstruct.
Just hope the knees and elbows hold out.