When we last met I’d equipped my artisanal singlespeed mountain bike with a “dinglespeed” drivetrain, and shortly after doing so I headed out for a ride:
My testing ground for the new configuration was the so-called (by me) “Trails Behind the Mall.” To get there via the dirt I can use the Old Croton Aqueduct trail, but the slightly more direct way (or at least it feels more direct) is the paved South County Trailway, as pictured above. It’s also an ideal testing ground for the dingle, since a paved path with only minimal elevation gain is exactly the sort of place you wish you had a bigger goddamn gear.
As I mentioned yesterday, where I live is quite convenient for riding to the ride; the path that becomes the South County Trailway starts pretty much right across the street from me, and the Trails Behind the Mall are pretty close to the Trailway too, though it does involve a short stretch of bike-unfriendly road:
But at least there’s a bike repair stand:
Several years ago now the City of Yonkers put these things all over the place. Some of them were in sensible locations (along the South Country Trailway for example), but this one in particular makes no sense because I’m pretty sure I’m the only person who ever rides a bike through here. I like to think they were following my Strava, saw I often come this way, and put it there just for me, but it’s more likely the state gave them money for bike infrastructure, they bought a bunch of bike repair stands, and they ran out of ideas for where to put them–kind of like when you live in an apartment with a tiny kitchen and can’t find a place for all the roach traps:
Of course with the roach traps you take the surplus and move onto the bathroom, but with the bike repair stands you just stick them on random sidewalks and let them rust:
Money well spent.
Anyway, the mall behind which the Trails Behind the Mall lie itself lies atop a great ridge, or a hill, and is in fact called Ridge Hill. From the bike repair stand you start climbing, and before long you’re in retail Shangri-La:
The Dick’s Sporting Goods represents the mall’s northern frontier. Then behind it is a little sidewalk the city probably made the developers build:
This sidewalk leads to an unassuming gate, which is in fact a back door to Sprain Ridge Park, the formal name for the Trails Behind the Mall:
Obviously for the ride to the trails I’d been in my “big” gear. So was it an improvement? Well, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t still wishing for a bigger gear on the South County, but I was wishing for one less than I usually do, an that’s worth something. But now I was at the trails, so I undid the skewer and moved the chain over to the lower gear, which took around 10 seconds:
There was a little more slack in the chain than there had been in the bigger gear, but it certainly wasn’t excessive, and was probably a lot less than I usually have:
If anything I think people tend to over-tension their chains, and as long as it’s not falling off it’s usually just fine.
Temperatures have officially hit freezing around these parts so the trails are exactly where you want to be on a bike. The Trails Behind The Mall have plenty of challenging rocky sections, and if you like gears and suspension you can certainly justify them both here, but the portion of the park closest to the mall is conveniently single-speed friendly:
While the larger transit gear was only a modest improvement, the lower trail gear was a more appreciable one, especially on rocky rises:
And yes, I had to come back for the phone:
The chain didn’t shake itself off on the way down, either, so it officially passes the tension test.
As always, the bike was great, and the gearing had gone from “tiny bit high” to “just right:”
Exiting the park, I returned the chain to the larger combo:
Once again, it took just a handful of seconds:
While a slight improvement on the flats and gradual ascents, the transit gear was of course negligible when heading downhill:
In all though I’d say the dinglespeed is a success: it’s two gears for the price of one (assuming you already have the parts, which I did), and even if I never bother to move the chain I wouldn’t notice the additional cogs were there. Something like a 36×16 for the “road” gear would make a more meaningful difference, but I don’t think I have a 36-tooth chainring, and so there endeth the search for meaning. If I want more gears than this I’ll ride a bike with a derailleur, problem solved.