I will kick your arse today so I can kick it again tomorrow and the day after that...

I'm sure there was a time when I could ride a singlespeed quite competently, but the newly built up one-cog Setavento seems to have its own bastardised motto: 'I will kick your arse today so I can kick it again tomorrow. And the day after. And the day after that too...'

The enemy in close-up vision - 32/17, almost a magic ratio.

Which is nice. For something relatively simple, it's been relentlessly complicated. Sticking the external eccentric BB on was fiddly and means slacking and re-tightening 12 set screws and the whole HT2 crank gubbins into the bargain.

And then there was the chainline, 10mm or so out, cue lots of interesting mechanical coffee grinder noises. Sorted after a thoughtful session with a steel rule and some spacer rehasing.

In profile with no relevant details even vaguely visible.

And then there was the creaking... the seatpost, silenced I think, with lashings of grease and some assertive clamp tightening. And the set up. The vento's basically a ti copy of a Rocky Ridge, which means a higher than average front end, fine with gears, not so clever when you're trying to muscle up some rubbly, steep local Peak horror with just the one. Ended up with a flipped stem and a set of On One Fleegles.

And at a dapper angle after leg collapse.

Seems to have done the trick though, weight forward and down, front end feels completely different - really planted even with the wide bars and no longer doing the pannicky, wandering thing on steep ups. I even quite like the Fleegle, sort of a no-rise riser with a fair bit of sweep, though need to mess around with the angles and the attitude in more ways than one.

Now if my legs would just get with the program... Normally takes them a couple of weeks, toes crossed.