“It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.” –
My Specialized Roubaix has two chainrings. For those not familiar with the jargon associated with cycling, the chainrings are the large gears on the front of the bike connected to your pedals through crank arms (more jargon…). My bike has a “big” chainring (50T) and a small chainring (34T). Going fast on my bike has always seemed like my primary goal and the big chainring had been my friend (or enemy) in pushing my speed. The only time I would even consider dropping to the small chainring was when I desperately needed to get up a hill that just seemed insurmountable with my big ring and big rear gear (on the rear cassette…yes more jargon…). Recently, however, I began to play more with the small chainring and it seems like I am spending a lot more time using this than I had in my past life on the bike. It just seems to provide a combination and gear ratio (yup…more of you know what…) that allows me to achieve a very comfortable, steady cadence and allows me to ride much more smoothly and with seemingly less effort. It always seems to be my friend…never my enemy… I guess I had ignored this possibility for so long that it just seemed like sort of an “ah ha” moment.
For me, the lesson seems to be that it is not always best to push so hard that you are constantly having to focus on the your ride mechanics versus the ability to settle in to a comfortable cadence that truly allows you to enjoy the ride. I think there is a lesson here for everything that I encounter in life…just need to continue to evolve to figure out how to take advantage of it and live more of my life in the small chainring.
azclippedin 