Cyclocross - Poprad trail ride

I finally had a first chance to take my 2005 Lemond Poprad off pavement. It was one of the best days cycling I've had in years, perhaps ever.

I started out on a fire road, up a long hill. Rode back down the hill on this for a bit, but soon eyed some singletrack that looked inviting. I ended up riding singletrack the rest of the day with some patches of steep hills and rock, roots and river beds. I was amazed at how well the bike handled thru these patches. No need to get off the bike even through some very rough rock areas, both uphill and down. I only dismounted at the near top of two very steep mini-hills as the gearing was just not low enough as expected.

Overall I went about 30miles, only about 5 of them on fireroad.

I am so glad I choose this bike and am amazed at how well it handled and held up to the rough trails. The rims, which sure took a beating, are as true as new.

I found that I rode almost all the time in the drops, it was the only way to have speed and control thru the rough downhills - so I could lean back and have hands on brakes. I never once used the bar tops, I just did not get a good sense of control on them.

Al

Nice ride! I think you have to be in drops for downhills which is tricky when steep technical. Did you climb steep technical in the drops? You might have got over those two climbs if you held on the forward part of bar tops (the position that is similar to mtb bar ends). Go back and try again!

Nice ride! I think you have to be in drops for downhills which is tricky when steep technical. Did you climb steep technical in the drops? You might have got over those two climbs if you held on the forward part of bar tops (the position that is similar to mtb bar ends). Go back and try again!
I can't wait to try again. Too bad weekends are so far apart.

Part of the difficulty in the two uphills was that there were loose rocks and embeded rock that needed to be negotiated, I built up good momentum going in, but at the tops of the climbs I just couldn't keep going while negotiating the rocks. On my mtb I would have dropped into a lower gear and been OK. I thought about the bar tops and need to give them another go, but I feel like I can lean back pretty far in the drops too. The drops just felt all around better and with more steering control, for uphill and downhill.
Part of the fun of the CX bike is that there are no lower gears, so its like riding a single gear freewheel for most of the uphills. So you don't even have to think about gear changing. But it is a learning for me. I am most comfortable at 110rpm cadence. So getting into the 60s was a whole new thing. I did often wish for lower gears- lowest on this bike is 38 to 26. Even with all the hard riding I did, none of my 'bike' leg muscles were sore, but my triceps and neck muscles certainly are.
The best part of the day was tearing down this rough incline and passing some stopped mtb'ers, one of who said, "holy sht, there's a roadie on the trail" ;)

Al

Sounds like an awesome jaunt.

I put a compact crank on my Poprad, which is a good thing for the steepness. Nice thing is 110 is standard for MTB so there are lots of choices for chainrings.