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
On-One do a slotted drop out steel 29er frame IIRC and i think that the Niner SIR has an EBB, don't think either of them have the cable routing though.
Trek make some nice hybrids with a Nexus hub, you could probably upgrade one with fat tyres and have pretty much the same thing.
sir9 has ebb and cable guides.
Lash the shifter cable to the frame with zip ties. No problem, it's a continuous run.
convert - Member
...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...
The obvious place to start is with an On-One. Cheap, deservedly popular - so you can unload it if you don't like it.
Why not try single speed? Easier than it looks, less gear to destroy 🙂
The Niner sir9 certainly looks the part but the £799 frame only price tag might put it out of my league for this sort of bike. You are almost in on one ti29 league there. I found the karate monkey too at £350 odd with fork which is much more like it. Irrational dislike of the unused (in my case) canti mounts, puts me off it though.
Maybe I'll just have to put the project on hold until an 18inch 29er inbred and fork come up on classifieds or they are ever back in stock.
epicyclo - I rode a Pompino 20 miles each way to work for a few years and now I've moved it's been converted into a "gentleman's flatbar cruiser" for the paper and milk run so I'm not totally adverse to a single gear, fixed or otherwise. Sadly however whilst the South Downs might not be peak districtesque in terms of angles of inclination the fact that I live in a village called "Steep" gives away the local terrain out of the door. I know just one gear would ruin my fun and put me off which is kind of what I'm trying to avoid here.
Singular Swift SS - EBB, steel, cable guides of a fashion and they do their own rigid fork to go with it
Thanks Will - that might be a winner. Singular - not one I've come across before. Good rep?
The colour is a bit close to the trigger's mum's bathroom blue of my pompino but maybe that can get reprayed!
As far as I am aware they have a good rep. I certainly like mine!
While I'd not hesitate to say that Singular and On-One bikes are lovely (they are, I've had an On-one and I covet a Singular 😀 ) 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 🙂
I'm just off to South Wales with mine for a bit of trail-centre fun (SS MTB build on mine) but I know that you can Alfine them quite easily because I've just Alfined a Surly 1x1 and the dropouts are the same. They sometimes come up S/H like mine and you can pay £150ish instead of £400+ for a new one. I like mine, it's a bit "sturdy" but it just rides like a bike should, it's fun.
+1 on the Swift. Lush bike.
I've got a kona Unit 29 set up with an alfine that I use for commuting to work and back road thrashing (slicks,narrow bars,bar ends).I've also got a spare unit 29 frame...Steel, sliding dropouts ,19"-check out the geometry on konaworld and here http://www.flickr.com/photos/11430451@N06/3382322321/.
£100 frame only plus a bit for postage.
Or you can have my orange one which is a bit tatty and has no cable guides for £75.
I might be interested in one of those - send me some details (email in profile).
singular swift is a nice looking frame. might have got one myself if i'd been aware of them at the time i was buying. if cheap is necessary on-one are hard to beat.
Very interested in the orange kona, if you still have it please get in touch christoon (at) hotmail.co.uk
The Swift sounds just about perfect for your use (though I am a little biased...) they work very well with an Alfine, the cable guides are well placed for a full run of outer and the EBB keeps it all neat and tidy. Only trouble is that I am out of stock of M & L frames until the end of October.
