Trying to do a bit of an XC bike for racing and general singlespeed duties – today I randomly stumbled on the niner EBB for pf30 bottom bracket shells allowing non singlespeed bikes to be able to tension a chain without running a chaintensioner on the rear mech mount.

Is anyone aware of any rather nice 29er hardtails that use a PF30 bottom bracket apart from the obligatory niners? Alternatively, has anyone even tried these and if so, thoughts?

Intense Hard Eddie and Chinese frames spring to mind.

There are also EBB’s for BB30 so that opens up far more frames.

Only problems for me is that the EBB’s are relatively heavy and expensive.

The question is really, “how to SS my XC bike”? and the truthful answer is to either get a dedicated SS-able light XC frame like a Hard Eddie or Pivot Les or just get whatever frame you have/ can afford and run a tensioner- they aren’t that bad!

The Niner EBB’s nice but pricey. I used to use the Problem Solvers version on my Air 9 and it worked really well.

If you’re interested in a PF30 EBB, drop me a line as I’m no longer using mine so I’m going got be selling it 😀

Don’t get me wrong… I’d love an older air 9 – get that thing running singlespeed with the carbon forks… however budgetary constraints say otherwise. Didn’t realise there were EBB’s for BB30 but i’ll take a look around for that. A cannon dale F29 running SS with an EBB would be a pretty nice setup in my eyes, but others may say otherwise of course!

I’ve got a bit of a ‘versatile’ build in my head where I can chop and change bits fro whatever purpose – I had a bit of a plan to get some 27.5+ tyres/wheels into a race frame running SS for a plaything, then put the 29er and gears back on for race day/training – I like to faff!

What kind of price would you EBB be anyway? I’ve not got the frame so buying one seems maybe a little senseless at the min but good to know ballpark at least.

Intense Hard Eddie and Chinese frames spring to mind.

I know this probably has been discussed on here till the cows come ‘ome, but are those non-branded chinese frames actually any good? For the price of them there’s things like the on-one lurchers which I know are pretty much the same thing, but at least with those you know they’ve been through at least some testing/approvals process

Didn’t realise there were EBB’s for BB30

Around £100-150 IIRC for a decent one so it kind of defeats the purpose of a budget(ish) build (for me anyway)

I know this probably has been discussed on here till the cows come ‘ome, but are those non-branded chinese frames actually any good?

Yes, if buying from a reputable company of course. Here’s my 256-sl from Hongfu. 1060g frame (Large) built in to a 8.3kg/ 18.5lb budget(ish) XC bike. Frame is ~$550. Plenty of very quick guys and gals race these or the slightly older 056/057 frames (~$400) so they can’t be that bad 😀 I went for a BSA BB as prefer a reliable BB first and foremost (Hongfu can sell you a BSA adapter for BB30 but it adds unnecessary weight IMO) and am happy to stick on a tensioner when SSing.

Damn… that’s a good looking bike…

Any matching rigid forks for that by those guys? You know.. to get the weight of that ‘portly’ 8.3kg bike haha
Do they offer warranty’s I’m assuming? (Googling them now…)

Salsa El Mariachi – do away with the annoying PF30 crap and use the Alternator rear ends. Easy to swap between SS and geared if you wanted to, the Ti model is nice and light, the steel one is respectable.

FWIW, I’ve set mine up SS and have never bothered to run it geared as it is awesome as a SS

Rigid forks are usually ~$100-150. I don’t know why but my trust of the frames doesn’t extend to the forks and I have some Kinesis IX forks to throw on when the mood takes me 😀

Warranty is usually 1 year and the big sellers have a very good reputation for honoring them as soon as the frame is received back without quibbling. The only catch usually is the shipping fees back.

Salsa El Mariachi – do away with the annoying PF30 crap and use the Alternator rear ends.

I was very tempted when looking and something like this is a great option for a cheap, strong, function XC SS bike. As you can probably tell, the Weenie in me won out in the end. If you don’t care about weight tooo much then I’d definitely be giving the Salsa a look

Kinesis Sync Ti and Whyte 29C both fit the bill of being rather nice 29ers with a PF30 BB shell…

What kind of price would you EBB be anyway?

I’d be looking for £45 posted for the EBB.

If only Whyte sold frames on their own!

Anyone actually run a whyte carbon frame with a pf30 ebb?

Salsa Mamasita’s are PF30 bb and are aluminium so will be lighter than an El mariachi

True but not sold any more.

Unless you know of one in medium?

Sold my medium at the start of this year

Am pretty sure triton cycles may have one or a few left…?

Shand Bahookie

http://www.tritoncycles.co.uk/frames-forks-c6/mountain-bike-frames-c48/salsa-mamasita-29-mountain-bike-frame-2011-p1382

Only in 22″ frame size though…

Current Specialized stumpjumper carbon fibre 29’er hardtails use PF30 bb shells.

Tolerances can be hit and miss on the bb shell, I’ve used finish line fibre grip to stop my praxxis pf30 ht2 conversion bb from creaking as the bb shell seems slightly too large to allow the praxxis bb collet design to grip properly.

Yep 22″ definitely too big!

Oh well, there was always a chance…

I ran a Mamasita and the problem solvers EBB but had problems with chainstay/chainring clearance when adjusted rearwards and so could’nt run my favoured ratio.Something to bare in mind with any frame.

Fair point, thanks.