On-One 456 Summer Season

Anonymous

work in progress threads seem to be the way to go these days so i thought i would start my own:

fork is a second hand recon 351 solo air 130mm. the wheels are from the older stumpy just to get a rolling chassis together but i have the mechs (x9/deore) shifters (x7) and brakes (old fashioned xt im taking from the stumpy and im going to fit some juicy 3s onto that instead). so i need wheels and some new cable outers and a seat clamp to get it rideable.

im thinking crossrides and eskar tyres run in a tubeless fashion and im good to go.

was intending to have bought everything and got it built by now but i decided to spend the bike fund on other stuff (might be a shotgun if my previous convictions wont preclude me from owning a certificate but it could be a bow or a competition type airgun). i reckon it will be all finished by the end of next month.

Duffer

i thought you were building it Singlespeed, with carbon forks...

BlackSpur

Duffer wrote:

i thought you were building it Singlespeed, with carbon forks...

thats bigbenj

Anonymous

i do have a rigid carbon forked hardtail but it has 30 gears:


i wouldnt ride a single speed even if it was free

ilovedirt

sheepsteeth wrote:

i do have a rigid carbon forked hardtail but it has 30 gears:


i wouldnt ride a single speed even if it was free

There's a lot to be said for running single speed, though i wouldn't do it on a road style bike, i only do it on my park/dirt bike for the simplicity and the fact that i don't need gears. If i was going to be road riding constantly i'd want gears.

Anonymous

no, there's NOTHING to be said about single speed or fixies.
BMX is the only place SS belongs.

The Big Cheese

yeehaamcgee wrote:

no, there's NOTHING to be said about single speed or fixies.
BMX is the only place SS belongs.

It has it's place, but as you said, BMX or DJ/parkbike, nothing else, fecking waste of energy, and you can never find the 'right' ratio, it's OK if you don't like speeeeeeeeeeed

boogercj

As the proud(ish) owner of a singlespeed I have to conceed that there have been times that I've wished I had at least 9 gears, and doubts have been cast in my mind about my choice.

Sometimes i really enjoy it; on twisty singltrack it's hard to beat, but up hills it would be nice to have the choice as grinding up them is really hard after a couple of hours' riding. :x

And yes, I like speeeeeeeeed and it's fair to say I sometime miss big-ringing it down fire-roads!

Anonymous

what, precisely, makes singlespeed "hard to beat" on twisty singletrack?
Is it the feeling of great luck that your chosen gear works with that particular bit of twisty singletrack?
:roll:

Seriously, keep it on the BMXs

ride_whenever

the absence of the noise of your chain smacking the chainstay, totally worth the inconvenience of limiting yourself to one gear.

Think of it as being in a relationship vs. having a harem. Yes the harem is awesome, but you can lack the connection of a good relationship with it's ups and downs.

That said, i wouldn't have a relationship without having a harem as well.


which is where the metaphor falls down

Da Mighty Chicken

Nice ugly bike there mate

Gotta love those frames, what size is that anyway, looks smallish?

Anonymous

ride_whenever wrote:

the absence of the noise of your chain smacking the chainstay, totally worth the inconvenience of limiting yourself to one gear.

Think of it as being in a relationship vs. having a harem. Yes the harem is awesome, but you can lack the connection of a good relationship with it's ups and downs.

That said, i wouldn't have a relationship without having a harem as well.


which is where the metaphor falls down

I've never actually had a hareem. I also don;t have chainstays on my main bikes. And I don't get too much clunking on the hardtail either.

I think you're just being silly/fashionable. Gears are where it's at.

Anonymous

its a 16 inch frame which should be too small for my six foot body but i finidhed the build earlier and have been for a quick spin, it fits fine. Im running a 400mm post though. It still feels quite long in the top tube dept so im glad i didnt go bigger.

It has been an unashamedly budget build which means once ive bought new wheels and brakes to replace the ones took from the old stumpy, it will have cost me about 500quid.

I'll get some pics up of the finished article as soon as my internet stops playing up

adb1006

boogercj wrote:

Sometimes i really enjoy it; on twisty singltrack it's hard to beat...

How is it any different to riding a geared bike in one gear?

boogercj

It's no different at all, but you wouldn't just ride a geared bike in one gear would you?

I guess it's more about getting used to constantly changing your cadence/amount of physical pedal power, as opposed to finding the right gear to give you your "optimum" cadence/power combo.

I fear we've wandered off course in this thread

adb1006

i would on some singletrack that didn't require a gear change

I don't just ride around changing gear for no reason, just because i can

boogercj

Fair enough...where's Bomberesque when you need him? I'm digging big singlespeed shaped hole here! :oops: :roll:

OK, things I've noticed with my setup are: chain never skips off, chain tension is kept to an absolute optimum, taking gears out of the equation makes me a bit more focused on where I'm going, the gear ratio I use (2:1) means I might not be in the optimum gear for all situations but I'm pretty close and don't get caught out by being in the totally wrong gear...I just have to pedal harder or faster.

Might seem lame to those completely opposed to it but it's quite good fun! And in the end, that's what it's all about, isn't it?

adb1006

I'm not totally opposed - a SS is actually on my future plans list. I was just interested really as to why people rave about it so much - it's obvioulsy much more simplistic in build and maintenance, but it must limit your riding to a certain extent.

boogercj

I see!

Well, it does limit your riding but maybe not as much as many people think. In my (in)experience:

Hills are a b*tch, but there should come a time when you get used to grinding up out of the saddle, and get really fit in the process (I hope!)

I can keep up with my main riding buddy who rides a geared HT and is a super-fit posty around any techy singletrack. He canes me in the open though, like on fireroads etc.

Maintainance is minimal, as is the risk of breaking anything.

Having said all that, I'm still undecided and when I have the money I'll be sticking a 9spd cassette etc on my bike to see if i like it better! :P

Anonymous

Thats quite enough hippy speak, feel free to start your own single speeding thread where i dont have to read about it thanks.

Single speed bikes are sh1t, i know this even though i have never ridden one. In the same way, i have never chopped a leg off before but i also know for a fact that this would definately be sh1t.

heres my bike:

BlackSpur

looks pretty schweet. black seatpost though please.

jay12

some people might like singlespeeds but personnaly even if i got one for free straight away i would put some gears on

Anonymous

sheepsteeth wrote:

Single speed bikes are sh1t, i know this even though i have never ridden one. In the same way, i have never chopped a leg off before but i also know for a fact that this would definately be sh1t.

uk_mr_brownstone

boogercj wrote:

I see!

Well, it does limit your riding but maybe not as much as many people think. In my (in)experience:

Hills are a b*tch, but there should come a time when you get used to grinding up out of the saddle, and get really fit in the process (I hope!)

I can keep up with my main riding buddy who rides a geared HT and is a super-fit posty around any techy singletrack. He canes me in the open though, like on fireroads etc.

Maintainance is minimal, as is the risk of breaking anything.

Having said all that, I'm still undecided and when I have the money I'll be sticking a 9spd cassette etc on my bike to see if i like it better! :P

Thing I liked best about SS is the direct feel. Instant forward motion when you hammer the pedals. No slack anywhere. I'm back to gears now though so I guess that says something (more about my fitness though if i'm honest!)

Anonymous

There shouldn't be any slac in a geared system either. The chain drives along the top of the cassette to the chainring, exactly the same as it does on a single speed BMX.

adb1006

Apologies Mr Teeth for the hijack/ss/hippy sh1t talk

Back OT - that is very nice - about time you ditched the rear suspension and rode a real bike

ravey1981

@ sheepsteeth

What size frame is this? And how tall are you? (and is that the worlds longest seatpost :shock:)

Im looking at getting one of these but not sure whether to go for the 16 or the 18.

Im 5'9"

ravey1981

@ sheepsteeth

What size frame is this? And how tall are you? (and is that the worlds longest seatpost :shock:)

Im looking at getting one of these but not sure whether to go for the 16 or the 18.

Im 5'9"

Anonymous

mine is a 16" and im a little over 6ft. The seat post is 400mm and gives ideal height for pedalling. In the position it is all laid out in at the moment, it feels spot on, most of my bikes are 'too small' but this is the way i prefer. If u look at all of my bikes, there has been a lot of seatpost on show.

If i had got the larger 'correct' sized version i would have felt too stretched out.

hoathy

that seatpost has gotta be over the saftey line, even though its 400mm...

Anonymous

nope