Another singlespeed ride in the dark. Even though my local loop isn’t blessed with great big hills all over the place (not devoid of climbs though), running a 34:16 makes it sufficiently challenging to make my legs feel like they’ve been out to play for a bit.

The mud wasn’t too bad considering this week’s rain, so I rode over the Nob End and the lovely singletrack and dirt jumps (to roll over) in the nature reserve.

There’s been a huge amount of tree felling recently, so I stopped in a clearing that last week was dense woodland. Someone’s been busy.

It didn’t rain either, despite some evil-looking clouds knocking around all threatening-like.

This Kona’s starting to creak a bit now and the chain tensioner’s starting to be problematic. It’s not really tensioning the chain any more and the adjustment bolt has rounded. I’ll add it to the “smack with hammer” list for this weekend along with the pesky Patriot bearings and that bloody white van that a bloke in the next street keeps leaving outside the house.

Time to sell the frame I reckon. It’s a shame really, cos this ancient, slightly-too-small-for-me  Kona has been my introduction to singlespeeding and frankly, I’ve loved every single frantic mile of it. Really. You should try it.

With a rigid fork.