Offroad Fixie

Watching the cross racing really put a bug in my head. Sunday's original plan was a mountain bike ride. But I was craving a bit more speed, so I yanked the Sunday Princess down from her hook, lubed the chain, and spun through the gears.

Then something TJ had said at the cross race popped into my head; "there's a service road that runs below the ridge from Tariffville to the res".

Hmm. Maybe instead of a road ride, I could do a fireroad ride? I kept getting flats with cross tires on the Fun Machine, but what if I rode the "non-race wheels" with their 27mm tubulars?

They aren't the ideal tires for the job, but "back in the day" they rode with far less.

Just to be on the safe side, I injected 30ml of sealant into them, and pumped them up to 70 psi front, 75 psi rear.
After riding a quick loop on the streets to test the theory that there are no tail winds (I forgot my pump at home), I was on the trails.
Everything starts off familiar as ever; fireroads I've ridden hundreds of times over the past 15+ years

Filtered out to an overgrown powerline utility road.

The slick tubulars are not the best on damp grass.
Old skool energy bar (pecan / pear bread, mmm)
The powerlines funnel down to this over grown single track through dried out reeds and briars
and abruptly end in these dried out wetlands.
Well, so much for my off tarmac adventure. I did ride about 13 miles on dirt though. Although the Challenge Paris-Roubaix tubulars were not the best on the damp grass the did surprisingly well on dirt and gravel. Twice I nailed my front rim on a rock and braced myself for the inevitable "psssst" of a flat, but it never came. Makes me think about a possible 2010 cross campaign (tubulars+sealant=Happy).
The 65" gear I was loving on the dirt, was now a hindrance on the paved roads. 20 mph required a cadence of 104 rpm.
But it was Sunday, and I was riding my bike, so what's few rpms between friends?