After whinging about singlespeeding in the mud then briefly rebuilding my Blood which proved no easier with 8 more gears I now have a little Cove Hooker on the way and am quite keen to give F/S S/S a go again (I’ve owned a couple of Kona Cowan DS bikes in the past) so just ordered a Zinger tensioner from Superstar. I’m guessing I’d need a top guide up front too.

Show me your set-ups please 😛

Loving that Killswitch 8) . What’s the bottom one?

it’s a lenz 29er SS fully. Uses the pivot bearings around the BB like the old Kona A, so chain tension stays constant.

solid flair

Damn you mama, i’ve got urges for a SS loony play bike now!!!!

crosses fingers and hopes this is an n+1 bike and you have not sold the blood?

He he, go on, you know you want to. Flair looks good – quite a bit of travel for an S/S though.

When I pressed ‘buy’ for the Hooker I’d not given a thought to singlespeeding it – just fancied getting rid of everything (BMX and Blood frame are now sold and the lovely Sanchez frame will be hitting a well-known auction site later tonight) and replacing the lot with a do-it-all frame – but took the Sanchez out for a farewell blast this morning and figured I’m gonna miss singlespeed too much 😕

Rusty, yes the Blood is now sold . . . but check this out 😛

Quite a few images online singlespeeded. I’m excited! Pimp my Hooker! 😆

Don’t get me wrong it is a lovely looking frame but i thought the blood may have been a bike for life for you…

Guess i should have known better!

i thought the blood may have been a bike for life for you…

Guess i should have known better!

Me too! Never say never, eh? 😆

All done and it’s rather blinkin’ nice 😛

Singlespeed too . . . gears are now sold . . . commitment or what?

One bike . . . one gear . . . what could possibly go wrong? 😆

Mine isn’t SS but it is alfine, I should get some pics of it up really

looks good that does, needs blue hubs though 😉 think your next upgrade should be some blue pro 2 evos on flow or arch ex rims.

Yep, pics please. Never ran my Absolut singlespeed – wish I’d given it a go now . . . so quiet.

Hmmmmm, gold hubs surely. I can feel more bling coming on 😛

I just know there are gonna be tears when this gets scuffed 😉 despite it being well helicopter-taped . . .

Very nice!

All hubs should be gold, as should all rims, spokes and nipples be black….

Kona Howler. Missed my old one so bought another to singlespeed and fit a shorter shock to slacken and lower it. Also had the seat tube reamed by18 Bikes to fit a dropper.

Kona Howler SS by Rick T., on Flickr

Untitled by Rick T., on Flickr

That looks great Rick – perfect do-it-all bike right there! I’ve never owned a Howler (actually that’s not true – I bought one off ebay once but it turned out to be a 15.5 not a 15 and was quite a long frame so sold it on). Had a couple of Cowan DS frames though and a Dudu, hence the interest in the Hooker.

I’ll try get some pics tomorrow.

You’ll have to report on how well that tensioner runs as I’m not a huge fan of horizontal dropouts so a tensioner is ideal but I’ve had problems with single arm ones before

Wot no DMR Bolts? Is disappoint 🙁

Love the idea of that salsa, but that’s just not a pretty execution of it. The seatstays/actuation rocker just dont look right.

The Bolt never comes up second hand

I’ve offered to buy the 853 sample off dmr as it is supposedly much lighter

Tensioner seems fine so far – I’m running a longer chain with not a massive amount of tension just to see how things go (looks like Rickos has his set up a little tighter) and I’ve run it all week without the front guide with no problems – seems pretty taut. I guess a top guide is a bit belt ‘n’ braces but hey, it keeps the oil off my furry Converses on the commute 😆

Sounds like it could be a good option then, annoyingly I only need to take up 3/4 of q link at most

I run a bash guard and a Raidium guide on the inside (like a skinny bash guard that mounts on the granny ring tabs) but that’s more for when I switch to the 10 speed set up.

Yes, I reckon the rear tensioner is probably more than enough but it’s good to have something up front for piece of mind. Mine is a Superstar branded model but yours looks identical Rick.