Rule of 3! 2026

Racing
21

No, I missed the front yard bash. Was it a good time?

22

It was. The group just kinda rode together for the first 15ish miles. Some attacked but were unable to work. Then we hit the first major climb, and any group work went out the window, and it turned into a race, free-for-all. The loop was kinda like the 50 Mile Big Sugar route. Except it went around Whistling Springs. Lots of fun. The wind hurt, but that was all.

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23

Has anyone here ever done this race Single Speed? Iā€™m signed up for the SS category and trying to determine my gearing. Iā€™ll be riding a 100mm XC Hardtail with 2.4 tires. I can also run a rigid carbon fork and make it more like a gravel bike, but I figure for 100+ miles Iā€™ll take the weight penalty of some squish.

24

I have not raced R03 single speed. But I have raced and done single speed in the general area. I would run a 34/18 or equivalent. I figure with the gravel and road it will be nice. Plus with that tire you should be fine to ride up most everything if you have skill. Which it seems you do. Only thing to consider is I run 175mm cranks and am known locally for running about or the same as the tallest gear at any single speed race I show up to. So take that into consideration. If you want to run a little safe, a 34/19 would be fine. I think 34/20 is overkill. I do most of the local hill climb races with that gear. (Raceā€™s where you just go straight up the hill. Then coast or do tech to the bottom).

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25

Awesome, great info! Iā€™ve ridden a fair bit in the area but not much SS so I appreciate the insight. Iā€™ll play around with what options Iā€™ve got and see how close I can get to 34/19.

Edit: Bike is currently set up 32/18 and it looks like that is actually a very close ratio to 34/19. Iā€™ll just keep running that, ha!

26

Iā€™m betting thatā€™s too small. Havenā€™t riden A ss there, but I do ride ss and have done ro3 3 times. There can be extensive flat sections (ie last year going to and from OK), or there could be a huge single track section (3 years ago had like the last 20+mile all single track at the very end . If itā€™s like last year, Iā€™d go bigger to be less spinny on the flats and realize that there may be some walking on the steep trail sections, and if itā€™s a huge single track chunk year, that may warrant the gearing above.

TLDR wait till the course comes out and see what you need