Wrong Bike

For some reason, even though friends have told me otherwise, I thought Orcas Island was flat. I had a picture in my mind of roads along dunes, like something that may or may not exist in New England, Cape Cod, perhaps.

So, I brought the singlespeed Quickbeam to ride which, since as it turns out, this place is all rolling hills and even a famous long climb up a peak called Mt. Constitution, is clearly the wrong bike for the road.

Its standard gearing is 40/18, which gives me about 60 gear inches, not Major Taylor’s sprint set-up, and really less than twice what racers use to climb Mt. Ventoux, but still way more than my preferred low of around 26/34, or in the range of 21 gear inches.

Due to Grant Peterson’s ingenuity, the Quickbeam can be switched, without adjusting the brakes, to its 32 tooth front chainring, which would yield a gearing more like those Tour de France lows, but I’d have to remove my fender to get the proper chain tension; too much trouble, and far from ideal in the rainy island weather.

So, I set off up the hill from the Doe Bay Resort huffing and puffing and thinking that his wouldn’t do at all, but I gave myself the task of just getting to that telephone pole up ahead, even if I had to get off and walk, which I didn’t, as slowly, very slowly, the cranks turned under my weight, and I inched up to the top of the first rise.

Silly to waste that effort, so I breezed own the next roller and used my momentum to start the following ascent, this one a little easier than the preceding.

As so, like this, up and down, I eventually covered half a dozen miles and then back. A lovely ride, which earned me a couple beers, proving that after all, there is no wrong bike, only the right bike you ride.