Monday, March 02, 2009


Flight Test

What I probably should have done was have someone record all the crazy crap I said when I got back from my first ride on The Superfly yesterday. I do remember saying things like "It's like that thing where you throw a medicine ball up in the air a bunch of times and then someone throws you a basketball and you can't help but throw it through the roof".

That was the feeling I got when I went to hop a log by going "wheel to wheel", but instead of my front wheel bonking the log and then my rear wheel doing the same, I just lofted right over it, the bike snapped up underneath me. It seemed like the gravitational pull of the earth weakened momentarily.

All Net

I think I said something else about being used to driving a Prius and then getting behind the wheel of an Audi R8. You stomp on the gas going up the Highway on ramp and it goes BAM! Instead of going fzzz...ttt (Prius drivers don't mind the lack of pick up, they are too busy looking at their iphones and buying carbon credits online). That one is totally hypothetical, the closest I've come to driving an R8 is watching Jeremy do it on Top Gear. I have driven a Prius - my bike has better pick up.

I loved my two Rigs and I still love my Ferrous (called Dunderchee) but this bike is on another level entirely. The feeling when you stand up on the pedals is just so damn positive. I mean it GOES. You can feel that there is no energy being wasted. Let me put it this way; kind of by default I ended up running a big (to me, but my quads are a measly 20 3/8" in diameter) 34 X 17 gear with a large tire (2.25). This, I would consider a rather large race gear under normal circumstances. It did not feel like a big gear on this bike. It felt like a 32 X 18.

Human...nature. The Charles River. Millennium Park. On the Superfly adjustments

The area I was riding in, Cutler Park is generally pretty flat but the conditions were bizarre. A combination of super-muddiness, dry leaves, deep snow, deeper snow which was totally un-rideable, and vast expanses of solid ice covered in water which looked treacherous but due to the high temps, were completely traversable. Big tires with 25 Psi in them helped me stay upright.

In other non-Superfly-related news, I've picked up a great new sponsor; Tifosi Optics. The way I approach sponsors is like this. I look at the products I already use and pay good money for and then say "Hey, I wonder if I can get a deal on this stuff or maybe even get it for free?". Sometimes (but not often) folks return my emails and I get hooked up. I've been using Tifosi glasses for a couple years and I think they're awesome.

As a huge added bonus Tifosi and my other sponsors, International Bicycle Centers, Gary Fisher, and GU have joined together to broker a deal with Barack Obama to award me the 50 million dollar Dassault Falcon 7X private luxury jet which Citibank was planning to spend their bailout funds on. Obama thought it was not enough to pressure Citibank to cancel their order for the private jet. He felt that they should also be punished by having to watch as a pseudo-Pro Single Speed mountain bike racer jet sets around the world and New England, hopping from race to race in what was going to be their corporate plane, blaring Fu Manchu on the customizable entertainment center, while swilling PBR, blowing saltine crumbs out of the sides of his mouth, and throwing Dunkin Donuts wrappers all over the floor.


Sorry, I don't wake up early enough in the morning to compete with the Photoshopping mastery of The Dicky

5 comments:

Unknown said...

nice looking rig. i stopped in the shop sunday after riding otis with colin to see if you were working. too bad you didn't show for the ride. it was great.

have you ever done the 2*2 gearing on a single speed? i want to set mine up with a trail gear and a ride to the trail gear. with an ebb i'm hoping to find two combos with the same chain length so i can just loosen the rear wheel, swap the chain and continue riding. no allen adjustments of the ebb if i can help it.

i need some guidance before investing in 8 different ring combos. what say you?

jcox said...

It's amazing you can even sit astride a bicycle with 20 3/8" diameter quads, let alone pedal. But oh, the power!

Unless you meant circumference, in which case that's just pathetic.

Big Bikes said...

Rosey,
I am a gear geek but I can't hold a candle to my buddy Pete Verdone when it comes to this stuff. I will defer to him on this one:
PVD Two by Two. He's got all the info you need linked off that page.

jcox, you are 100% right, in my attempt to be self-deprecating I wound up being self-aggrandizing in a totally insane way.

-t

jeff said...

you forgot to include a pic of your massive quads on the side of your new leer jet!

rick is! said...

killer