Feedback

You know the drill, send Bitch and Moan letters, love poems or recipes for your favorite chain lube to: riderx@singlespeedoutlaw.com

What you have put together is Super Greatest! Being a retro kind of guy, it is "far out", "groovy", a "gas". Enough complements. You have created something that I have always wanted to do, but didn't have the expertise or the time. Thank you for taking the burden off of me, now I can sleep at nights and I can move on to other projects almost as great!

Locknut a.k.a. Ken

Bitchin' letter man. I hope one of those projects is sending a case of homebrew to SSO HQ!

Nice rag gents. Hope to see more of you guys in the future. I live and ride in Jasper AB Canada. There's not a lot of SS freaks out in this neck of the woods (I think that I'm the only one). I'm hoping you can post this so that I can get in contact with more people who are doing this up north and would be interested in hooking up for some sort of SS shindig. Anybody out there can track me down at Lanesword1@yahoo.com

Peace,
Lane

Alright, send this guy some mail. Go ride with him, he's lonely. Share the brotherhood/sisterhood.

Excellent job! Nice job with the layout - clean and simple just like a single speed.

The feedback section was especially entertaining. I think your replies were well stated. Perhaps an editorial section is in order.

Check out our link when you have a chance and keep up the good work.

Paul Wilson
Team Frank Cycling

Thanks Paul. Now go check out the Team Frank Cycling site, they've got it going on.

Dear Single Speed Bad Ass,

I am a 24 speeder, I have been for many a year. I've been riding with some really fast guys for a long time, and always have killer rides that kick everyone's ass. I'm no racer (though I may join the ranks in the 24 hour job at seven springs this fall), but even when I'm off the back of my group, we're ZIPpin' by everyone else on the trails, kindly of course.

I also ride trials, and can truly appreciate that different kinds of bicycles are much better for some things than others. I had always thought single speed mountain bikes to be very cool as town bikes, but I never thought of them as serious trail bikes. The trails here in Northern Maryland are sometimes incredibly steep, with wet roots strewn about. The same trail has plenty of rolling s-turns and big fat berms, the kind you can get really big speed on. I always concluded that having gears was absolutely necessary if one was to have any fun at all on these trails. Until the other day.

My friend and fellow 24-speeder Aaron and I were meeting two friends, Tim and Joe at the church parking lot, a few hundred yards from the trailhead of the lower loop. I've ridden with Joe a handful of times before, and have been riding regularly with Tim for many years, but I've always seen both of them on multi-geared bikes (21 in the day). Today they both had their light, non-derailleur havin', 2-to-1 big mf gear sportin' beauties with them. For you fellow shifter-pushers, that's middle ring and one of your harder rear cogs. I honestly thought I was going to have to be waiting on Tim, he just got his single speed a week ago or so. I had heard that Joe had been riding his awhile, and was now a big fast bitch. But I just KNEW Tim would be struggling up the hills and whinin' like a spoiled private-school princess. Um, no. That's not what happened.

Those two and their steel hardtail single speeds ripped faster than I had ever seen either of them go. Up, down, mattered not. I was in awe. It's a totally different riding style; they were standing up and mashing the pedals way more than on a geared. I thought that would wear you down much faster, and that there was no way they were going to be able to hammer the entire loop like that. Mistaken again. It's an adjustment of thought, of the whole approach to riding the trail. It requires brand new vision, and a willingness to push the body to new limitations of ability. It forces one to give effort 100% of the time; there is no dumping to granny and 'spinning'; no easy way out. In a way, I think, it probably puts one closer to being one with the trail, with the land, because your body's effort and resulting pain are in direct proportion to the lay of the trail on a single speed bike. I couldn't catch those dudes that day to save my life, and I pushed trying. Their bikes, bodies, and minds had just grown too fast for me to keep up.

But not for long.

See you out there,
B

OK, B, if we can just get you on an SS, the conversion will be complete.

I've been racing bicycles for a pretty long time, and a few years ago, I decided to quit racing cross-country. See, the happy-go-lucky, out- there-for-fun attitude that brought me over from the road was gone. I started noticing guys eyeballing my bike and me, passing judgments. Seems that steel hardtails, with forks that weren't the latest technology, had fallen out of favor.

I remembered a time (uh oh, here it comes) when you'd just be psyched to be there racing, and everyone you raced with was an instant friend! I raced downhill for the last couple of years. A lot more eyeballing the bike, a lot less focus on me. And since I had new stuff (and since I was doing well) nobody said much. I was convinced that downhill wasn't for me right before the last race of the season. I found myself in the hospital after my first real downhilling crash.

Losing half of my left kidney was quite the wake up call! For recovery, I decided to start riding the single speed I had previously picked up. Man, good times! Jump forward to this spring. Fruita Fat Tire Festival, and the Vegetarian race. Cool guys in Fruita, and a bunch of one speeders. I was going to be one of them!

This had to be the best experience I've had racing bicycles! The friendliest folks, and a real camaraderie that I hadn't felt in years. At this point, I chose to race all season without the crutch of derailleurs. The race series at Winter Park Resort doesn't have a single speed class. Doesn't matter.

This last Sunday was the first race. 5.5 mile, 2,600 vertical foot hill climb. Didn't win or place or anything, but I finished in the middle of a pretty competitive Sport class riding a 36:18. If anyone's interested, I'll give updates on the season.

Carlos Matutes

First Carlos, hope the kidney is doing well. From the sounds of it, you've made a good recovery. Second, it's your kind of attitude that makes this little niche of the sport so great. Since when did mountain biking have to get so damn serious? Keep it up and keep us updated.

Hey,

I've never written in to anything before, but I was really impressed with the first issue. I stumbled upon it as I was passing over some of my fav SS pages/links. Great writing, simple layout, interesting interviews; I liked reading something different than the same old arguments. I wish I could be more specific, I ran out of reading time a bit and need to re-visit. Just thought I'd pass along the good vibe and say Nice Job.

Philip