I'm Back

Sorry for the lack of posts, but I've been out of town. At the end of May I retired from teaching physics at the University of Wisconsin-Manitowoc. Then my wife and I went to Texas to pick up our travel trailer which we had left there in January. We took our time returing, stopping in Tulsa, Oklahoma for two weeks. Tulsa has a great bike trail system along the Arkansas river called the River Parks trail system. The trail is blacktop and is about 30 miles in length. Parts of it have separate paths for walkers and bikers.

One of the neatest things is that the trail goes past Turkey Mountain which has some of the best technical singletrack in Oklahoma. Probably a good 15-20 miles of trail. We always stay at Cherry Creek Mobile Home Park which has spots for RV's. The River Parks system passes right by the trailer park and Turkey Mountain is just 2 miles down the trail. You can't get better than that.

I tried some singlespeeding at Turkey Mountain but just didn't have the gearing. The trails are very technical, lots of rocks, and for me slow, so I went back to the 1x9 setup. I tried a 34x19 but that was just too tall. For me I think a 32x20 would work but didn't have one.

Now I'm back in Wisconsin. Two days ago I went to the Northern Kettles and rode with the 1x9 setup. I plan on going back tomorrow with that setup again then switch to a singlespeed setup this weekend. I want to get some base data as a 1x9 then compare performance to the singlespeed. I think at the Kettles the singlespeed will be faster.

Mike