Help all you single speed riders out there!!!!
I'm seriously thinking about building a single speed mountain bike and having never built a bike myself before I could do with all the help and advice people could give.
I ride a Genesis Altitude 30 at the moment and really love he steal frame so I've been looking at the Kinesis Decade Virsa which seems to get good ratings. But from there I'm strugling to decide on what other bits to get, to make the build.
I think I'm going to go down the rigid fork option as i'll be mostly riding it to work along a disused railway track. It's the Hubs, rims, crank set and brakes i'm strugling to decide on. So i'm basically asking you single speeders out there to let me know which combinations work and most importantly which don't!!! I'm considering carbon forks, bars and stem to soften the ride slightly. And oh ye I haven't got an endless budget, but want to buy kit which will last and be easliy servicable.....
Any advice would be greatfully appreciated,
Cheers Ant.......
stonites999 - Member
...It's the Hubs, rims, crank set and brakes i'm strugling to decide on.......but want to buy kit which will last and be easliy servicable.....
Bearing in mind the last line, Hope, Mavic, Middleburn, Avid BB7s.
Hope hoops for wheels (SS specific or 9/10 speed), Shimano SLX/XT cranks and Shimano disc brakes. Some good deals on 2011 Shimano XT stuff at the moment with the new 2012 stuff coming in over the next couple of months.
This'll only end up a parts list from my builds, but here goes.
I tend to overbuild a bit, but it makes for tough, reliable stuff.
BB7's - set up properly they work well, and aren't precious in any way whatsoever. Need decent rotors, levers and cables to get the best out of them, but after that, they just get on with it. I use Cane Creek levers with mine.
Mavic EX721 (26) and A719 (29) rims appear to last for ever. They build up nicely, and again, just get on with it. Tough and reliable (if a bit lardy perhaps).
Hub choice for me would be SS specific vs non-SS specific first. I use both SS specific Surly hubs (and a White Industries freewheel), which gives you a dishless wheel, [i]and[/i] on another SS, a set of 'conventional' XT hubs with a VeloSolo spacer kit and a Surly cog - that gives you choices later on - if you decide to reuse that wheel on a geared bike.
My next build will be on SLX cranks once again, hardly exciting as parts go, but they just 'work' - decent price, and mine have been faultless. For SS use, stick the ramped rings in store, shove a Surly / TA / Salsa / Renthal / Blackspire / whoever ring in the middle position and away you go.
Dunno how much use that is. Your riding sounds similar(ish) - I mostly ride a mix of back-country tarmac lanes, then green-lanes / farm-tracks / pony-lanes and the odd sneak down the woods. My SS are fully rigid too.
'Alt'-bars work well for me - H-bars are very comfortable when you get with them, unless you fancy doing it properly and building a fully rigid, SS, drop-bar'd 29er of course.
😉
Edit: Did I really take ~40 minutes to draft that?
Thanks very much for taking the time, its much appreciated....
Ant...
I'll not be telling you how to build your bike, but keep the weight down.
As Kingtut has said, a 'light SS is a thing of joy'.
Get TIm at Sideways cycles to lace some mavic rims to some white industries hubs and freewheel.
Goldtec chainrings from BETD seem good value.
Carbon forks - yes
Carbon bars - yes
carbon stem - no. Absolutely no point, often weigh more and a lot more risk and if anything built to be stiffer. The Superstar/On One/few others CNC one which is probably one of the lightest out there if you want to save weight.
If you go for the Virsa, bear in mind it can be changed (potentially) to 1x9 by swapping the rear wheel, dropouts, chain and adding a derailleur. 2 for (almost) the price of one!
I currently have mine set up for 1x9 but plan to get the required bits so I can swap back and forth.