Mountain Bike Reviews Forum banner

The "New" Post Your Singlespeed!

2M views 7K replies 2K participants last post by  JJx 
#1 · (Edited)

Attachments

See less See more
5
#6,773 ·
Here's the 2013 Jamis Dragon 1 853 steel bike I finished this morning.

For it's first ride, in a possibly foolish fashion, with no shake-down, I rode it 52 miles from home, over the Santa Cruz Mountains, to Santa Cruz, and will have to ride home tomorrow.

Okay the bike is definitely odd.

The alt-handlebars are chrome Soma Eagles; a take off on the Jones H-Bar.

The drive is kind of whack using a 40x24. The cog is an Endless. It does run really smooth, but I will have to retension it for the longer ride planned for tomorrow (with more dirt).

The tires are temporary. I didn't have time to install tubeless last night, and I didn't want to do a long ride without testing a new tubeless set-up first either. So i rode a pair of really hard inflated 2.1 Conti Race Kings.

The H-Bar is pretty nice, and as good as can be expected. There are four hand positions I used quite a bit. But there's only the main one which allows the use of the brakes.

It felt great descending paved roads, LOL, but going down the single track it was just okay. Definitely a more laid back riding style as opposed to the "battle stations ready" feel of a normal bar.

The big heavy black Voodoo steel fork maybe the most rigid steel fork I've ever had the pleasure, or displeasure, to ride. Tubeless tires with low pressure are going to be a God send for this rig.

Most of the parts are from boxes in the garage. There's a mechanical disc brake out rear with full housing. The front brake is a recent XT job with a new caliper.

The seatpost is a Thompson lay back. Now I had the choice of a silver straight Thompson or the black lay back. I put the black one on because I thought it might look better. And then during last night's test run, I found out that it makes the bike fit better, which was a surprise.



Sent from my LG-H910 using Tapatalk
 
#6,774 ·
It's a satisfactory build, and in fact I'm elated by the utility of this bike. But looking at the drivetrain, even though it pedals so nice and smooth, the 40t chainring just looks too damg big! I'll probably be scaling it down soon. Obviously it will shed a little weight too. This bike was not built to be a lightweight though.


Sent from my LG-H910 using Tapatalk
 
#6,778 ·
My Kona Unit 2012.

Been riding it for 5 years now. Still love it.
Practically everything is new.

Stans crest SS wheelset
DT Swiss 470 rigid fork
33/18
XT crank
Thomson seatpost, stem and bar
Maxxis icon

Brakes are still the Avid BB7. For the terrain I ride they brake enough for me.

Thinking about poedercoating the frame since the paint t is coming of on some places. Not sure which colour I should choose...


Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk
 
#6,787 ·
2018 Kona Honzo XL

I finally updated from a 2011 XL Karate Monkey to a 2018 XL Honzo.

180mm XT cranks, 180F/160R XT brakes, XT pedals
32T OneUp oval chainring, 22T Surly Cog
Stan's Arch Wheeleset
2018 Pike RCT3 120mm
Salsa Rustler Deluxe Bar 800mm
Race Face Turbine 60mm stem
2.4 Ardents front and rear

29-ish pounds as pictured

I wish I could get it out to ride, but the smoke from the NorCal wildfires is too thick, so I'll have to wait. I'll need to shorten the brake lines too, I think. And maybe fuss with the gearing/chain length.

As far as weight is concerned, this bike definitely weighs more than my old KM, but it seems like all of the weight gain is in the frame, whereas the new parts weigh considerably less than the ones on my old rig.
 

Attachments

#6,797 ·
I finally updated from a 2011 XL Karate Monkey to a 2018 XL Honzo.

180mm XT cranks, 180F/160R XT brakes, XT pedals
32T OneUp oval chainring, 22T Surly Cog
Stan's Arch Wheeleset
2018 Pike RCT3 120mm
Salsa Rustler Deluxe Bar 800mm
Race Face Turbine 60mm stem
2.4 Ardents front and rear

29-ish pounds as pictured

I wish I could get it out to ride, but the smoke from the NorCal wildfires is too thick, so I'll have to wait. I'll need to shorten the brake lines too, I think. And maybe fuss with the gearing/chain length.

As far as weight is concerned, this bike definitely weighs more than my old KM, but it seems like all of the weight gain is in the frame, whereas the new parts weigh considerably less than the ones on my old rig.
I've been thinking about this category of new school MTB single speeds. The final build weight of these bikes does end up to be quite beefy, if they are steel, or even titanium. The big travel fork and the plus tires contribute significant mass as well.

Of course, the capability of these bikes has got to be worth it!

I'm going to to sit it out for a while and envision a single speed-able 27.5+ carbon boost hardtail manifesting in the future.

Meantime, I'd love to hear more about what I'm missing out on, not riding a plus size SS hardtail. Pics and words please!

I have a geared Stumpjumper plus bike which gets me down the rowdier trails for the time being. I'm a plus tire convert. My 6Fattie weighs about the same as a Honzo.

Sent from my LG-H910 using Tapatalk
 
#6,788 ·
Kona Unit For Duty In The Urban Jungle

Hey guys, great forum and resource here, I read a ton of posts before picking up my first SS, a new leftover 2016 Kona Unit that I couldn't be happier with. I swapped on a Jones H-Bar, steeper stem, a Brooks C-17, and 2.3 inch Schwalbe Big Apples, so its a bit roadier than most on here, but I'm looking forward to dragging it all over any terrain I can find. Cheers from the City of Brotherly Love!
 

Attachments

#6,796 ·
The Banjo Brothers bag is a nice accessory there. We use one on our road tandem for the stoker.

[emoji521] color Kona is sweet!
Hey guys, great forum and resource here, I read a ton of posts before picking up my first SS, a new leftover 2016 Kona Unit that I couldn't be happier with. I swapped on a Jones H-Bar, steeper stem, a Brooks C-17, and 2.3 inch Schwalbe Big Apples, so its a bit roadier than most on here, but I'm looking forward to dragging it all over any terrain I can find. Cheers from the City of Brotherly Love!
Sent from my LG-H910 using Tapatalk
 
#6,789 ·
Red/orange Crave R.I.P.

R.I.P. My indian-paintbrush colored Crave, which now (and probably at the time of the photo) has a crack in the rear right dropout. It almost made it 5000 miles.

Bicycle tire Tire Wheel Bicycle frame Bicycle wheel


$1350 new; 20.5 lb now, with the larger tires and rims.
i9 single-speed hubs (bzzzzz) and Stans Flow rims (29mm I.D.).
29" Nobby Nick 2.35 front and Rocket Ron 2.25 rear tires.
Absolute Black oval 30-34T chainring. Chris King 20T sprocket.
A sale-bin Deity T-Mo carbon handlebar (the best improvement I did).
N.O.S Quartz pedals. Most people hate them. They work for me.
Thompson seatpost.
A cheap stock saddle from a Giant MTB that no one liked. I tried it to see why people didn't like it (it was the long narrow width), and liked it, so it stayed.
4th place (against geared bikes) in beginner class at a local XC race.
The EBB, cranks, brakes, and that sweet carbon rigid fork are original.

The original wheels had Al spoke nipples which slowly popped one by one on the rear drive side. Eventually I replaced all the drive side with nickel nipples and things stopped breaking, but by then I'd also ordered the i9+stans wheels as a backup, and the backup was nicer.

BTW Specialized's frame warranty is pointless. They don't have any L or XL Crave frames (2 years after they stop making them!), and instead they offered a Chisel frame, which is 1) not single-speed capable, and 2) 12x148, thus incompatible with the wheels as well.

I'm on the search for a light XC-ish frame capable of single speed with a 135QR or 12x142 rear, and a 480mm rigid fork, and extra points for a 30.9 or larger seattube in order to run a dropper.
 
#6,799 ·
First SS MTB for me. First build from frame for me too. The build process was fun. Riding is a blast. 32x20 for now.

What surprises me about SS riding is you're always going fast. Uphill fast, downhill fast, technical fast. Whenever pedaling, you're going fast. (Long flat sections is not fast, but who cares.) I'm used to a lower gear for uphill or technical terrain. Now, I need much more awareness and faster response. No time to think.

Bicycle tire Bicycle frame Bicycle wheel Bicycle wheel rim Wheel
 
#6,801 ·
What surprises me about SS riding is you're always going fast. Uphill fast, downhill fast, technical fast. Whenever pedaling, you're going fast. (Long flat sections is not fast, but who cares.)
now try riding with some gearies in front of you. they shift down and spin slowly up every hill. you have to get in front of them to maintain your momentum and you usually get to the top first. when you don't, you stall out and often have to walk, causing a traffic jam behind you. so once you get in front of gearies, the pressure is on to prove that you're not just showing off.
 
#6,802 ·
I got out for my first ride on the new Honzo yesterday. Wow, different game from a KM.

First, I've got to say, I'd probably be fine still riding a more old-fashioned XC geo SS if I could find one that fit me. My old XL KM had a 120mm stem with 800mm bar just to give me enough room for standing climbing. I didn't really mind the older-school fork setup (straight steeerer, 32mm stanchion, 100mm travel), although at times, I would flex the front end a bit. But things could get dicey on descents, and I wanted a bike that I could ride pretty much everywhere I'd ride a geared machine. If I could have found a bike with the Honzo's reach (510mm), but at the KM's weight (about 25-26 lbs complete), I'd have bought it. But without investing in custom, I didn't see any options.

That being said, the Honzo climbed just as a well as the KM did, I think. In fact, the rearward distribution of weight helped me not lose traction as often as I used to when climbing. And on the way down, I felt less harried by a shorter wheelbase, steeper headtube angle, and the twitchy steering created by the long stem. So, I'll take the weight of the frame since the remaining parts weigh a little less than the old ones did on the KM.

One thing I've got to figure out, though, is the Pike's air pressures. I ran mine at the recommended settings (100psi, -8 clicks of rebound, 4 tokens). Whew. Way too firm. After reading around online, it sounds like in past years, many riders were running their Pikes well below the recommended psi levels for their weights. My friend, about my weight (170lbs), runs his at 50psi! But he's not SS-ing, so I'll experiment. All told, I felt like I would have needed to be smashing at twice my speed to use the fork well with 100psi in it.

Anyway, after one ride, I'll say that I'm excited to get the hang of the new rig. I love the low standover and the fact that I'm not all stooped over to get adequate reach for standing climbing. And, I love the stability I felt at speed. The grinding up climbs? Not that bad. Not light, but helped by the traction and the lighter wheels and such. We'll see.
 
#6,803 · (Edited)
Hey all. New singlespeeder here. I built up a Canfield Nimble 9 with used, leftover, and PinkBike parts to keep costs down while I decide how deep I want to dive in this game.

The bits:
FRAME: 2018 Canfield Nimble 9 (XL)
FORK: RockShox Lyrik RC Charger 2 DebonAir
CRANKS: SRAM X9
CHAINRING: 28t SRAM Steel (edited - original post had a typo and said 26t)
B/B: SRAM GXP
PEDALS: Ancient Shimano SPDs
CHAIN: KMC X-10
COG: Surly 21t steel
BRAKES: Shimano XT
BRAKE ROTORS: Shimano RT-18 (180mm)
HEADSET: Cane Creek 40 Series
HANDLEBAR: Raceface Aluminum 35mm
STEM: Raceface 50mm
SEATPOST: Rock Shox Reverb w/ Fox 1x Remote Lever
GRIPS: Sant Cruz Palmdale
SADDLE: Specialized Body Geometry
HUBS: Shimano XT
SPOKES: Yep
RIMS: Old Stan's Flow (23mm internal?)
TIRES: WTB Nine Line 29x2.25

Since MTBR doesn't like my photo upload attempts, here are some Imgur links:

 
#6,804 ·
Hey all. New singlespeeder here. I built up a Canfield Nimble 9 with used, leftover, and PinkBike parts to keep costs down while I decide how deep I want to dive in this game.

The bits:
FRAME: 2018 Canfield Nimble 9 (XL)
FORK: RockShox Lyrik RC Charger 2 DebonAir
CRANKS: SRAM X9
CHAINRING: 26t SRAM Steel
B/B: SRAM GXP
PEDALS: Ancient Shimano SPDs
CHAIN: KMC X-10
COG: Surly 21t steel
BRAKES: Shimano XT (
BRAKE ROTORS: Shimano RT-18 (180mm)
HEADSET: Cane Creek 40 Series
HANDLEBAR: Raceface Aluminum 35mm
STEM: Raceface 50mm
SEATPOST: Rock Shox Reverb w/ Fox 1x Remote Lever
GRIPS: Sant Cruz Palmdale
SADDLE: Specialized Body Geometry
HUBS: Shimano XT
SPOKES: Yep
RIMS: Old Stan's Flow (23mm internal?)
TIRES: WTB Nine Line 29x2.25

Since MTBR doesn't like my photo upload attempts, here are some Imgur links:

Looks pretty solid, tho that 26t will be very spinny 32t next time
 
#6,817 ·
Apparently I haven't shared it here yet but...

The build:

Surly Krampus frame with custom powder coat
Manitou Mattoc Pro 120mm fork
White Industries Hubs laced to Sun Ringle Durroc 50mm rims (powder coated too) with Sapim Lasers
Maxxis Minion DHF/DHR 3.0"
SQ Labs 30X Carbon 16 degree handlebar
WI Headset matches the hubs (not sure I'm going to keep it?)
OneUp 170mm dropper with Wolftooth lever
XT 180mm cranks
Wheels Manufacturing Angular Contact BB
Magura Trail Brakes: 4 piston/2 piston

So much fun! I missed those big wheels and tires! Running 14 psi, Ha!

Bicycle frame Tire Bicycle tire Bicycle wheel Wheel


Bicycle wheel Tire Wheel Bicycle tire Bicycle frame


Bicycle tire Tire Wheel Bicycle wheel rim Bicycle wheel
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top