It Catches Up

One of my favorite bikes to ride is my Redline 925 singlespeed. I love the simplicity of it. No gears. One cog. One chainring.

It's the bike I use for rain commutes. All that rain can be hard on a drivetrain of a bike. It tends to make all the road grit stick and break down the moving parts. On a singlespeed, though, there aren't nearly as many moving parts.

Contrary to what one might expect, having only one gear isn't bad at all. It's actually nice to completely unplug your brain from things like shifting. It takes me the same amount of time to get to work on one gear, 18 gears or 27 gears.

So this bike is fun and simple to ride. There's not a lot of maintenance to do on it so it's virtually worry-free

Until yesterday... I had my first flat tire in over a year. I run nicer tires that are incredibly flat resistant. But it eventually catches up to all cyclists.

I was about 2 miles from work when it happened. I contemplated for a minute what I should do. Do I change the tire? Jog the bike to work? Wait for one of the 20 workers that pass me every morning to stop and help?

I decided to run for it. I was going to be late for a meeting and I figured someone would drive by and help. Thirty seconds didn't pass before a guy in a pick-up truck with a bike rack pulled up. It turns out he actually attends the church I work for and we actually knew each other. Pretty awesome.

I can't complain. One flat in a year or more isn't bad... no matter how simple and low maintenance your bike is.

And I did get to my meeting on time.

Get out there.