The Single Speed Thread - Show Us Your Bike

[SCARE]

little ad, hope u dont mind..

I do

and. what?

[Lynskey]

Question for the single speeders out there:

I'm helping a friend look into buying a new rig. He's currently kicking round on an old rigid Specialized Hardrock, running 2:1 and rim brakes. Basically an SS hack. I've been watching him ride and he does fine on the 26inch wheels, even rigid he's got good technical intuition, but i've lent him my 9r for the weekend to see if he likes the wagon wheels. He's shy of 6-foot in height, so I reckon the 29inch wheels would be more of a preference thing than a geometry advantage. I'm thinking a HT with front forks, then convert to SS would be the ideal bike for him (yes, he wants to run SS and doesn't want FS) but in the case of him wanting to go 29'er, i'm interested to hear what you guys think on that too. Budget is flexible-ish, its only his 2nd bike so he doesn't want to spend thousands, but wants a good solid bike. Somewhere around $1500-$2000 or so, i'm not sure on his exact budget... So, please let me know your recommendations on:

1) HT 26'er. Single speed or geared. Front forks pref.
2) HT 29'er. Single speed or geared. Front forks / rigid.

Cheers guys

[Mel]

I'm not a guy, but I'll weigh in with my 10c.

Do you think he'd prefer an aluminium frame or cromo frame? Personally, I'm all for going cromo on a hardtail because I don't like the harsh feel of aluminium hardtail frames.

I ride a Haro Mary 29er and am short (by 29er standards), but love it. It's SS with Rockshox Rebas up front. It comes down to personal preference, but I just could not handle the rigid fork. The latest Haro Mary comes with a nice cromo 5 piece fork (not unicrown) too. I chose it because of the good quality crankset, and the EBB setup (no faffing with disc brakes when removing the rear wheel for a puncture, or adjusting chain length and gear ratios), and slightly better wheelset than other offerings at the time.

I've upgraded quite a few parts on my bike already - brakes, bars, grips, stem, seatpost, seat tyres. Brakes were a must, the Avid BB5s were awful. The rest was a mix of cosmetic and customising upgrades. It could be wise to reserve a bit of the budget for upgrades (unless you can find the perfect bike for the $2k limit).

There are a number of people running a 1x9 gearing setup on 29ers, with a front chain guide/retention device, but these don't seem to be available off the shelf. I'd go for this sort of setup if I was looking for a xc/trail hardtail.

As for front shocks, it seems that you can't go past the the Fox 29er forks if they fit within budget, but having said that I cannot fault my Rebas - a very nice fork and the latest versions are even better. If your mate is big, he might appreciate the 15mm QR on the Fox forks.

So, I guess to sum up I would say:
1) dunno
2) Haro Mary upgraded to suit personal preferences.

[FSR_Man]

KISS

[BrokenKonaRider]

1) HT 26'er. Single speed or geared. Front forks pref.
2) HT 29'er. Single speed or geared. Front forks / rigid.

Cheers guys

1. I thought you could make any 26" hard tail a ss, so guess it really depends on the ease of conversion. Howabout a nice steel Jamis?
2. The XXIX come in geared versions that can be switched over to ss easily.

[Lynskey]

Cheers all (gender non-specific )

I thought the Haro Marys were steel? I looked into them before buying my GT Peace 9r, but I didn't have the $ for the Mary, looked at the Ally too but didn't think the aluminium would be any good for a rigid SS. My GT is quite heavy being steel but holds momentum beautifully. I guess this weekend will tell whether he's a fan of the 29er movement, so will definitely keep the Mary in mind, it did look like a great bike.

And yeah, with the 26's, I figure just whack off the groupset and sell it, then SS it. Not a worry, so was just looking for any recommendations of HT XC bikes that would fit the bill nicely. Maybe an 09 Giant XTC1 ? Seem to be a few of them going cheap...

[Datsane]

Gary Fisher Rig, EBB, 29er Fox forks. Ride rather nice.
Not sure if you can put gears on them though.

[Mr_Bob]

Gary Fisher Rig, EBB, 29er Fox forks. Ride rather nice.
Not sure if you can put gears on them though.

from memory,they have a spacer in place of the hanger that bolts on, so in theory you should be able to get a Gary fisher hanger, and bolt it on.

[slidecontrol]

Gary Fisher Rig, EBB, 29er Fox forks. Ride rather nice.
Not sure if you can put gears on them though.

from memory,they have a spacer in place of the hanger that bolts on, so in theory you should be able to get a Gary fisher hanger, and bolt it on.

yup, a standard? trek/fisher hanger bolts in there nice, and the frame has cable stops fitted.

[Willey_Coyote]

Where abouts in Christchurch is the best place to buy stock SS cogs, tried LBS but they said they would have to order them in.
cheers

[pushbikerider]

Ring Basic Bikes?, or Probably Cycle Trading company, I'm sure others will be along shortly to recomend their LBS

[Mel]

Gary Fisher Rig, EBB, 29er Fox forks. Ride rather nice.
Not sure if you can put gears on them though.

from memory,they have a spacer in place of the hanger that bolts on, so in theory you should be able to get a Gary fisher hanger, and bolt it on.

Same deal with the Haro Mary, just bolt in the hanger from a Mary XC and change the rear wheel to one with a cassette hub big enough for gears (or see how many gears you can squeeze onto the SS cassette hub, maybe 4 or 5?).

AFAIK the XXIX is not suspension corrected, so it is not really suited to running suspension forks (although some people have). The Mary and GT bikes are suspension corrected.

[RussS]

[two beers]

Don't know how to post pictures... like this?

[two beers]

no....

http://fotos.mtb-news.de/photos/view/519509