Snagged a used medium Spot Honey Badger belt drive SS!
I haven't weighed it either.
I've had two real rides on it. I love it. It's quite different than any bike I've ever had.
Had to change some things, as if the previous owner was taller. Oddly the handlebars were really narrow.
I switched things around and it fits great. Had to put new tubeless tires on it.
The interrupted seat tube forced me to use an old 27.2 Gravity Dropper post in the garage. I greased it up and it actually works great, and quietly, even if it is ugly.
Of course the Honey Badger doesn't care.
Had a good surprise crash going uphill on a technical trail section. The shortish chainstays really help the manuals so much that I looped-out on a step-up and ended up upside down with one foot clipped in on the Manzanita below the trail edge. Got scratched up.
The belt drive is a trip. Luckily the bottom bracket is nice and quiet and tight so I can pedal in stealth. But the second I coast, the angry bees sound of Chris King shatters the peace.
It's dry and dusty. The belt made weird sizzle after I went through extended areas of brownie mix and moon dust. It goes away after squirting water on it. It doesn't take a lot of water. Still, I was chagrined today because water was hard to come by, and "lubing" a drivetrain with water is not going to happen when every drop is precious. The sound of a dusty belt is as annoying as a dry chain.
The belt drive topic has been dealt with in detail elsewhere on these boards. So I won't go into this in depth for now.
Today's ride was all about biting the bullet and attacking one of the hardest climbs in my area on this SS to prove its merit. So I cleaned it.
According to Strava it was my 3rd best effort. The others were a minute faster on my old titanium SS. The hard section is 1.07 miles 859 feet over a 15% grade.
It felt hard, and always does I guess, and I can't draw any conclusions about belt drive. All I know for sure is that climb is nuts on an SS and it's only sheer stubbornness that gets me up without dabbing. There were a few saves I had to pull off. Those would happen on the old SS too.
The Honey Badger climbs well considering the suspension fork, 26-27# (a geuss), and the 69.5 head angle. But it can wander if I don't pay enough attention.
The Honey Badger has a good pedigree being the offspring of Spot Brand. There's a lot of room for bigger tires if I want them. Still it's not the Boost single speed I may eventually find.
No conclusions since this is only the beginning of my relationship with this bike.
I will say I have no qualms about power transfer with it. For some it would be a downside not to be able to have an eccentric chainring. I've never tried them, so I don't know what I'm missing.
But I do have a hunch that chains are crisper feeling. I might over the next weeks try a standard small after work loop on the different single speeds I have and see what happens.
Anyway, I couldn't resist this bargain. The brakes on it are kind of sucky. They're SRAM Level brakes and they don't shine like the Shimano XT brakes I am accustomed to.
The 100mm Reba fork feels wonderful, and the lock out knob is easy to reach and operate when needed.
The original stem/bar didn't fit me. Bar was narrow, stem too high (tried flipping it, and other stems/bars in the garage, but no dice).
I found a retro steel Syncros hinged stem of the right proportion. It had a 25.4 clamp. It just looks good, vs a big droopy 31.8 stem. Then I had to quickly get a wide handlebar with moderate sweep for it. I found the Soma Odin in 25.4 at 715mm wide with no rise, and 15° sweep.
Wow, this really feels good.
One more impression to add. The bottom bracket is low on this bike as well. I had a few pedal strikes in rock gardens which I'm fairly certain wouldn't have happened on my other single speeds. Not a downer at all though. I will adapt.
I like cornering this bike at speed. I worked on leaning the bike and keeping my body more upright with this geometry, and it began to gel for me. At the same time looking ahead and squaring my shoulders towards the next bend, and being ready to respond when/if the tires drift.
Single speed cornering is so different. When you've got gears you can gas it DH. Instead, we have to carry speed and be smooth.
Check out my ride on Strava:
https://www.strava.com/activities/1..._source=com.lge.qmemoplus&utm_medium=referral
Sent from my LG-H910 using Tapatalk