23 pounds

New Bike Kicks My Ass

Bought an Ibex Trophy Single Speed … here’s what it looks like before its maiden voyage.

ibex trophy single speed

Ibex Trophy Single Speed - clean

And here is what it looks like after the first ride.

ibex trophy ss

Ibex Trophy Single Speed - dirty

You might be wondering why in this day and age of mountain bikes with 27 plus gears would anyone spend good money on a single speed bike for mountain biking.

Let me explain by way of describing this morning’s mountain bike ride through the Boise foothills.

The ride started out innocently enough - just spinning and grinning on the way out to the Military Reserve. Then the first uphill occurred. It isn’t much of a hill, but on a single speed you obviously don’t have the luxury of downshifting to a more appropriate gear. Rather, you need to speed up as much as possible prior to the uphill. And that’s exactly what I did.

But - oh my goodness, I quickly lost my speed and needed to get out of the saddle and just start grinding. Which brings me to another point. With a single speed, there are three speeds - spinning, standing or walking (hehe).

By the time we made to the top of the first hill (about a mile into the ride), my legs were screaming. And on the way up, there were times when it felt like my bike was coming to a standstill and I would fall over. That’s just part of the joy of single speeding.

Suprisingly, I was able to do all of the ride without walking with the exception of one particularly steep section on Three Bears off of Rocky Canyon.

I guess what I liked the most was getting a killer workout in a short amount of time. Plus the pedaling was a nice smooth constant effort. It’s hard to get across how much I enjoyed this ride - especially if killer workouts don’t turn you on.

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1 Comment

  1. Hey,
    Ran across site by accident, due to doing bicycle research. Your diary is sure helpful for me. I just got a bike and rode it for the first time today.(20 min.) Any tips to offer will be very helpful. By the way, how are you doing in your weight loss venture?

    Comment by Kat — 31 March 2008 @ 9:27 pm

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