The Magic is Gone.

A few months ago I posted with much pride about my new singlespeed and the discovery of a "magic" gear, 32x18. All worked swimmingly for a few months. But, after the night race at Southwestway a few weeks ago I thought the chain looked a little droopy. Soon after that while on a ride at Fort Ben Harrison I managed to drop my chain four times in 40 minutes, each time in a most embarrassing place, such as in front of trail runners, or while attempting to pass other mtbers.

The chain definitely looked a bit droopy so I installed a tensioner, although I modified it to push up. With the chain nice and tight I set off on a morning ride. While about to climb a hill behind the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the chain dropped again. I replaced it, and tried again on the hill, only to have it drop, AND break.

Well, it didn’t break, but the masterlink came apart. Unfortunately, being on a gravel road in the woods, in the dark, I was unable to find the back plate for the link. So, I had a hike home.

This was all leading up to a night race at Town Run on Saturday. After replacing the master link, I considered my options. The chain line looked good, and had been good for the past few months, so I figured the issue was still tension related. I had a half link to install, but with a busy work week, I chose to hold that experiment off for a few days and instead used a zip tie on my chain stay to pull the tensioner up even more. A short ride (bad idea) around the block and everything went well. Off I went to race in the dark.

Things did not go well. During my warm up the chain dropped again. In a panic, I applied additional zip ties. Less than two minutes into the race and in 3^rd place the chain dropped. I quickly got it back on, rode for a another minute before it happened again. This is how the first one a half miles went. At that point I decided I needed to bail. It was not going to be enjoyable even if I did forget about the race. When I came to section where the inbound and outbound trails were close together I cut over and struggled back to the parking lot.

So, what is the problem with the bike? It seems like when drops occur when under load, such as a hill, or powering over obstacles (like my warm up Saturday night). I assumed it was a tension issue, but even after placing several zip ties and getting the chain quite tight, I was still suffering drops.

I tweaked the chainline a bit and set about installing my half link. But, upon installation, I was still about half a centimeter off between the ends of the chain. I seem to have hit some sort of gray area with the gearing I have. So, as it stands now, I ordered a 17t rear cog to fit with that chain.

But, since I am impatient, I pulled out a new 20t cog and a new Sram PC-1 I had been holding for a possible hilly ride later this year (Gravel Grovel?) and installed them last night with a half link. Tension looks good, but I’m planning a test ride tomorrow to see how it plays out.  Hopefully it all works since I miss the almost care free single speed riding.

In other news, the final DINO race of the season comes to an end this Sunday at Southwestway Park here in Indianapolis. I did a group ride on the course last weekend and the race looks like it will be a blast. Lots of new trail, but still some tough climbing.