I can my mitts on a brand new alfine hub and shifter for free. I thought it might be fun to knock together ANOTHER bike as a bit of wheels on the ground mud plugging winter off road training bike for mincing around south downs bridle paths. I usually have a bit of a pathalogical hate of riding in winter off road (go back to the road) as I can't be arsed with all the kit destruction but a fully rigid with hub gear might be fun in a "you can't hurt me - wings of steel" kind of way.
As for the 29er bit - never tried one, but this would seem a good time to try - dunno.
I'm a bit out of the loop on nichy odd bod frames - what immediately springs to mind that fits this bill?
Ta
) you might want to consider the Surly Karate Monkey. It's heavier than both the On-one and the Singular, but it'll build into anything you could reasonably want from a frame, flat bars, riser bars, drop bars, gears, no gears, 23c tyres, 2.5in tyres with mudguards. It'll do it 
