I’ve been trying to sort out the gearing on my MTB – a Kona Big Kahuna. It came with pretty standard MTB gearing – 11-34 tooth cassette, and 22/32/44 chain rings. The big chain ring was the first thing to go, replaced by a bash ring. I’d never use it, and I’d rather have better clearance and less holes in my right leg.

On my typical rides I don’t use the little chain ring much, if at all, so I thought about getting ride of it, as well as the front derailer and shifter, making the bike simpler and lighter, as well as less controls to clutter the bars. I had done this on my old 26″ bike, and the lighter I get, the easier it is to live without the granny ring. But I there are still some climbs that I can do better with the granny ring, and on some days my knees complain, and it’s nice to let them rest by spinning up hills.

The main problem with my two-ring set up is that the front derailer overlaps the tire, and since I’ve switched to 2.35 tires, it’s kind of annoying. Without the large ring, there’s no need for the overlap – this picture shows the gap between the bash ring and the outer part of the cage:

The cage has a rivet in exactly the wrong place (note the red dot in the above picture. Here’s how it lines up with the tire:

Either I needed to modify the cage somehow, or look for a smaller, double-chaining derailer. After a bit of looking, I noticed Shimano sells one to go with the two-ring (22/36) version of the SLX crank – The FD-M665/667. I found one for $36 delivered, and installed it today. Here’s how it looks. The cage matches the bash ring nicely:

And the tire clearance is all the way back to the chain stay. I’m betting I can get 2.4s or bigger on there now for the snow!

The only minor complication was that the clamp partially covers the lower water bottle mount. The top-swing might avoid this, but I don’t use the mount so I just removed the bolt.

I did 18.7 mph average – not bad considing the hills (425 ft vertical). I’d like to be able to keep this pace going for a whole hour.

I’ve been riding for a couple of weeks now, and it’s going well. I don’t think I lost much fitness, and the clutzy, rusty feeling was gone after a couple of rides. Now it’s just kind of difficult managing the cast on my left had as I ride, particularly when it gets bumpy. I’ve done a couple of road rides each week, and I’ve been hitting 18 mph averages. I’ll probably keep this up even after I can ride without the splint. Off road, I’ve been riding on the middle ring since I can’t shift with my left hand. This means cranking or standing on some climbs that I used to drop down into granny ring for. I’m not sure this is good for my knees.

The thumb is still pretty stiff and sore, and I’m guessing it’s got about 1/2 the strength it used to. I’m betting it will be six months to a year before it’s back to normal. After working though this, I find my self worried about more injury. Not sure what I can do about that, as it seems to come with the territory: age, activity, having fun.

The Doctor gave me the go-ahead to ride again today, though I have to wear the split when riding. I rode for about an hour out in Wilowdale. I have to go pretty slow, due to the split, but mostly due to the loss of strength (or confidence?) in my left hand. I also felt pretty rusty as far as general bike handling goes. That said, it was great to be riding again on such a perfect day.

For the next month I’m planing on doing a mix of trail running, trail and road riding. I think the running has been good, and I need to keep my cardio-vascular fitness up since going slow on the MTB isn’t nearly as solid a work-out.

I took an unremarkable fall on an unremarkable log crossing, and sprained my thumb, or so I thought. It turns out I did some damage that’s going to take the summer to heal up.

It’s called “skiers’ thumb”:

AKA Stener Lesion:

I go in for surgery and a cast Monday. The ligament that broke has moved up into my hand, so they have to pin it back on to the bone, on the other side of the first thumb joint. The doctor says there’s 2 months in a splint/cast, then another month recovery. So I’m out until September. It’s going to take a while to get my head around this. Mountain biking has been my major activity for a couple of years now, and I’m pretty much addicted to daily exercise. I’ll have to try trail running or something to keep me from loosing my mind.

They’re great, but I’m down one. I crashed on a log crossing, landed hard on my left hand and bent my thumb back farther than a 50 year-old thumb was meant to go. My plan of doing the 20 mi MTB race at Willowdale this Sunday seems doubtful. I’m feeling pretty good about my abilites, but I kind of need to hold on to the handlebars with both hands.

I did this Tuesday, took yesterday off, and rode on the road today. I did my 13.5 mi loop in 45 min – that’s 18 mph average. I felt really good (except for the thumb). I see the hand Doctor tomorrow – I suspect there’s no major damage, but then, I can’t lift a beer with my left hand any more, so it is something to be taken seriously.

I did the NSNEMBA’s Monday night “relaxed pace” ride. We had 16 riders – some regulars, and some new folks. I’m not sure how relaxed the pace was. I was riding as fast as I could the whole time. We did stop periodically to let folks catch up. I guess that’s the relaxed part. According to my gear, we did 9.7 mi in 1:47 – a loop catching most of the single-track around the perimeter of Willowdale. Adding in yesterday’s 2:05, 11 mi ride, that’s 4 hours at a good pace for the week, and its only Monday.

We had a great ride last night. It was clear and cool, with the trails nicely dried out. We kept up a pretty good pace, except for the flat tire that happened just before the end.

Some times a little pressure helps. On the Monday night ride Dan Streeter was taking pictures. I’d never made it across this log before – my best effort was about 3/4 of the way before I had to bail out. I came around the corner, saw Dan with camera ready, and gave it a whirl.