3 rides in and I’m starting to get it. The spinning helps leg speed and the grinding leg strength. I was quite suprised by what hills you can get up. Currently riding a Singular Swift.

Questions

1. Will a straight pull normal geared 36 ratchet DT240 hub expect to do fine putting a SS load through it longer term. I’ve seen some of the cheap Giant wheelsets forsale and tempted. It will also allow me to put some gears on if I chose later.

2. Currently my Swift has a Formula SS hub giving me an undished rear wheel. The bike seems suprisingly balanced, compared to geared bikes I’ve had in the past. Is this the lack of rear wheel dish/ cassette etc or just some 29er/ Swift effect. Will I lose this with the dished DT240 rear wheel, as I quite like it.

3. I’m 5’11 and use a 175 crank. Given the slightly more spinning (currently 32-17 which seems right for New Forest) should I consider a shorter 170 for a SS bent? Make much difference or stay with length my body knows?

4. When max spinning (on the road back) – I do miss the top end a bit – I start to bounce a bit, with the leg movement. Is there subtle techinique to find here or just practice?

Any other tips?

1) it’ll be fine as long as the freehub isn’t made of too soft an alloy (the cog will dig in).

2) not rear wheel dish. the rim is still in the same position dished or not, its just there’s some strength advantage to non-dish.

3) I’d stick with 175 for the leverage.

4) Souplesse – you need to practice more.

1/2> yes it’ll be fine, stick with the wheels you have unless you really want a change. Dish will not be affecting ‘balance’
3> maybe, maybe not, your legs/knees and technique (spinner or grinder) may dictate, don’t over think it 😉
4> yes, smoother spin will come with practise, or coast!

re- point 1 – use a wide based cog, eg surly or a velosolo one to reduce the amount of ‘dig-in’ on an alloy freehub. Also use a spacer pack with lots of thin spacers to get the chainline just right. Those cheap packs with just 2 large spacers never seem to be right imo.

1. swifts are lovely, so good choice
2. keep the 175 crank
3. use an elliptical chainring to reduce pedal bounce at high revs, usual convention for single speeding with an oval ring is to go 2 Teeth up so if using a 32 go to a 34 elliptical front ring. Rotor are still the best ss oval ring, but if on a budget you can slap an absolute black, or superstar one on, but they are slightly more set for gears (only marginal difference, but noticeable if you ride back to back)
4. hub will be fine, but I prefer a proper SS hub without the offset spoke dishing and it looks far better 😀
5. Get yourself over to the hive of scum and villainy on face book that is one cog cycling as there are hundreds of SS gits all in one place to offer lots of help/encouragement/pisstaking/ all of the above

Any other tips?

Smile. It confuses them. 😉

Welcome, enjoy it. After a while you won’t miss gears.

1) freehub is aluminium, so make sure you’ve got a wide foot cog to spread the load
2) can’t imagine there’d be a problem. less strong with a dish, but no issues with balance
3) spinning would be easier, and you’d have more pedal clearance, (and possibly happier knees) but it does increase the gear slightly (harder) which might be fine, or you might want to change your sprockets
4) practice and a wobbly chainring.

Must read OP better before responding.

Thanks all for the advice.

I put a wide base 1/4″ Halo fat foot 17 on to replace the 20 the wheel came with, so I guess it should be fine on an alloy cassette. There looks to be a bearing right underneath a SS cog on a 240 which bodes well. It also got me a prime number cog in the mix, and added to the 32 (51) also a prime, I think that’s what I’m supposed to be doing to get even wear.

The chain in a KMC stainless 1/4″ Inox one.

I was looking at the chainrings, and it does wobble side to side. It’s a Race face Atlas chainset that has a 32/ Bash on it and it’s had a life before me. It looks slightly bent and the bash slightly catches the KMC chain, so I was thinking of swapping it out.

Should I

A. Get a thick Velo Solo 1/4″ 32 to match the chain and sprockets. And they come in gold.

B. Try a Absolute black oval 34 suggested above, but which will have a fair bit narrower width?

Interesting on the wheel front. When washing my bike down, I noticed I had a rear drive side spoke broken at the bend. Hadn’t noticed on the ride. There was a wheel wobble looking at the rim, but less than I would have expected. Without seeing the spoke it looked like it just needed truing.I guess because it’s symmetrical there needs to be less tension on the drive side so it affects the wheel less when a spoke goes? First broken spoke I’ve had.

For anyone looking for it, I found Triton had the freehub for the Formula SS hub for £12.99 and I put a new one on last week. Seems to be on alot of different SS bikes.

Do people generally go for a higher traction rear tyre, to help with the mashing and max traction in the gloop? I felt the 2.2 Race King Protection breaking traction slightly, so plan to swap it for a 2.4 X King.

1/4″ ? Do you mean 1/8″?
1/4″ is a whopper 😯

Anyway – I usually favour 3/32″ and match the chain, cog and chainring to avoid it having too much lateral movement. The only time I’ve thrown chains singlespeeding is running 1/8″ chains on thinner cogs.

Tyres – not really. Just whatever is fine for your local trails.

I’d go wobbly up front and a new 3/32″ rear

Charlie put it better than I could, so ripped from his site:

http://www.charliethebikemonger.com/faqs-4-w.asp

CHAINS: I reckon 3/32” width chains are the best option. Many people assume that 1/8” are stronger, which can be true… you see, 1/8 chains tend to be BMX chains and built tough. And 3/32 tend to be XC chains and less burly. However we sell KMC pro race chains in 3/32 and 1/8, they are both damned strong dedicated one speed chains. They are the exact same chain except one is wider.

So 3/32 is just as strong, and lighter too. You will also find that getting 1/8 cogs and rings is difficult, you will have much easier time if you stick to 3/32.

1/8 rings and cogs are wider and will last long than a 3/32. But again we have this covered. We sell the super burly Surly stainless chainrings that wear incredibly well, negating the need for 1/8 rings and cogs. You can run 1/8 chain on narrower cogs or rings, but you can’t run a 3/32 on a wider cog or ring.

You should always ensure your chain is a good condition. Get a fresh chain whenever you replace cogs or chainrings. Snapped chains lead to horrible crashes.

Do people generally go for a higher traction rear tyre, to help with the mashing and max traction in the gloop? I felt the 2.2 Race King Protection breaking traction slightly, so plan to swap it for a 2.4 X King.

I can’t work out whether you’re joking or not, so I’ll bite. Go with whatever conditions demand. I certainly have never put on a SS specific tyre. Personally I’ve gone for something that rolls well during the summer and something wintery during the winter to aid that that high torque, slow pedalling in slop and mud. Bigger tyres obviously cushion more, thinner tyres obviously cut through gloop to the hard stuff underneath better.

CHAINS: I reckon 3/32” width chains are the best option. Many people assume that 1/8” are stronger, which can be true… you see, 1/8 chains tend to be BMX chains and built tough. And 3/32 tend to be XC chains and less burly. However we sell KMC pro race chains in 3/32 and 1/8, they are both damned strong dedicated one speed chains. They are the exact same chain except one is wider.

I’ve always gone with the thought that is a 3/32 Dura Ace chain is good enough for top roadies grinding up the Alps, then it should laugh off the efforts of my pins struggling up the local downs.

Do people generally go for a higher traction rear tyre, to help with the mashing and max traction in the gloop? I felt the 2.2 Race King Protection breaking traction slightly, so plan to swap it for a 2.4 X King.

the answer is sort of yes, for most general rubber its not really a problem, but at the slinkier low tread weight weenie end of things, its more likely that a singlespeed will spin out under load, where with gears and finesse you can get up. John “fuzzy” mylne did some good interviews about SS racing and set up and it was one of things he identified. For normal SS folk, I doubt many would really notice, so as others have said just go with what feels right for you.

What taz said, sort of: I was surprised to get faster climbing times on a SS fatbike than a SS 29er – 4.6 bulldozer v 2.2 ardent.

I reckon most of the difference was lost energy on the 2.2 with higher pressure on rooty or pebbly sections where the tyre lost traction.

Get a fresh chain whenever you replace cogs or chainrings. Snapped chains lead to horrible crashes.

or teef…

Sorry yeah, I mean’t 1/8 “.

My chain and sproket are new, so it sounds like I’d better to go with the Velo Solo one this time. I ride on the beach a bit, so I went for the Inox KMC as a start point, when I picked a few bits.

After installing one, is an oval ring like a Blackspire feel like big step up on a SS, or a marginal gain?

Also every chain I’ve had so far is Shimano or Sram where you have pins inserted with a tool or the Sram link. The side plate of the KMC Inox chainlink snaps on with the chain bent in an arc.

Are my gonads as safe with this system, as the other two?

Sorry re the tyres I was being serious. I was also thinking that people must be better with high volume and roll over of 29+ to maintain bike momentum/ cadence on a SS over techinical sections. Kind of seing why the Stooge is the way it is.

Possibly a big difference, possibly marginal. depends how sensitive you are, I guess. There have been a fair few threads on them and

Some people claim they notice the difference immediately and they really like them.

Some people claim they didn’t notice when they put it on, but did notice when they went back to round and didn’t like the round.

Some people claim not to notice immediately, but grow to reckon it’s probably better – marginal difference on one climb is hard to isolate from legs/trail conditions since last time, but over lots of rides, things on balance seem to be better/smoother/faster/easier/better for the knees.

Not noticed many or any say they’ve tried one and didn’t like it.

4. This sounds like you are just applying force during the downstroke and when you get to the bottom your leg is still in tension so as the pedal starts its upstroke it’s pushing you up slightly. What you need to do is start a slight pull backwards when your foot gets to the 4 o’clock position (usually described as trying to scrape mud off the bottom of your shoe).

4. When max spinning (on the road back) – I do miss the top end a bit – I start to bounce a bit, with the leg movement. Is there subtle techinique to find here or just practice?

It is practice but there is a limit. Concentrate on moving the legs round in circles instead of up and down.

Running low off road SS gearing will always be a problem when on the road. I can spin well after 15 years of riding solely single speed (most of that fixed) but my sustained top speed on flat roads is still slow enough to have road bikes passing me (until we get to an uphill….)

I’m with the op, 1/8″ KMC all the way!

Stick with the current wheel, but use a wide base cog (I have halo cogs)
Try an oval chainring, to smooth out the pedalling.
51 isn’t a prime number

I love it that tazzy went to the trouble of numbering his responses but in a totally different order to the OPs questions 🙂

OP.

Don’t forget to gurn. Go and practice. In front of a mirror if necessary.

As Taz once so eloquently put it: “Gurn like you’re shitting a pineapple”

😉

😀 nice to know my genius is appreciated. Xx