"I've Made A Huge Mistake"

After closer inspection of the Madone I decided that the chip on the frame is purely cosmetic and not worth worrying about for the moment. I probably should have waited a little while before posting instead of writing about it in panic mode. I guess that I just expect the worse now since I seem to break all things bike that I touch, although there are people out there who break way more than I do. For those of you who didn't realize that the title for the previous post was a quote from Arrested Development, I apologize for misleading you. I was not trying to insinuate that the bike was definitely going to be returned. The only way I am going to go through Trek's warranty process again this soon is if they offered me a 2008 Madone 6.9 with Lance's autograph etched into the top tube using one of the syringes from his historic 7th Tour de France victory. If you also didn't realize that the title for this post was a quote from Arrested Development, then shame on you. You should watch more good TV.

The weather here has been really good lately. Yesterday morning I took out the 1x1 (this is a SS blog, right) and went to Garner for a ride. It was actually fairly cool when I left with temperatures in the mid sixties. That may not seem like a big deal to some of my west coast readers, but it is a welcome break from the heat around here. That cool fall weather is great for mountain biking and I look forward to the upcoming autumn months for more of these rides.

Ethan came to town on Saturday and showed me around some of his old road routes around North Raleigh. I was happy that I was able to keep up with him since he has been riding road for so much longer than me. I think that I surprised him a little bit with my climbing abilities, which I attribute to riding single on the trails. I think if I really try he may be my first SS convert..

Speaking of singlespeed induced climbing ability, Alta bikes has a series of pictures on their website showing the effects of riding their urban singlespeed bikes. Since I've got this fancy Mac, I decided to do some photo editing and show everyone that hasn't seen me in a while a glimpse of my current build.

Taking this recent photo of myself...

...and this Alta ad...

...gives you me after riding SS for a month and a half.
Also, I apparently got a tattoo and moved into an apartment with no funiture.

I was under the impression that singlespeeding is not that uncommon anymore but I may be a little off on that one. As I was leaving the parking lot for a ride a few weeks ago the guy parked next to me struck up a conversation about me riding single and rigid. Besides the usual chit chat, he asked if I knew Team Dicky, who is apparently a bit of a SS celebrity hailing from Charlotte. I have seen the name a couple of places around the internet but I have never met the guy and don't know of any reason that I should. The question just seemed a little weird to me;

That Guy: Hey, you're riding single and rigid.
Me: Yep
That Guy: I know another guy in this state that does that. Do you know him?
Me: Umm, what?

Maybe it is uncommon enough that we should all know each other or it could be that I am just missing out on the awesomeness of this guy and he was just trying to clue me in. Maybe he mistook me for someone who was actually a good rider and would have met all the other singlespeeders at various rides and races. I don't know but I definitely left the conversation a little confused.