Commuting single speed…

… for roads and bridleways. Some smallish hills involved.

I’m thinking possible an On One Pompino or Marin Nicasio.

Views? Any others to think of (excluding the Charge Plug, which we’ve already done).

Kona Paddy Wagon?

I was looking to get a pompino but managed to get a paddy wagon for a great price 2nd hand. I really like it and keep meaning to take it out for a proper ride rather than just commuting.

Do genesis still do a singlespeed Day One?
Cotic still have a few of the original Escapade frames with the horizontal dropouts. Also, the Roadrat is good for ss.
Pinnacle Arkose ss?

The Arkose single speed is stupidly expensive for what it is.

The Paddy Wagon is an option.

The Arkose single speed is stupidly expensive for what it is.

You’re right there, just checked the website, £850 is silly money for that. Think I saw a 2016 at my local Evans the other week on sale, it definitely wasn’t £850!

EBC revolution cross zero?

Only £200…

I saw that earlier. Are they any good?

Kona Humuhumu, but swap out the mechanical brakes to hydraulics?

But what a difference a year makes, back in Jan 2016 sale you could buy these at ~£340 from Wiggle, now £535! 😯

I blame Wiggle Kona trying to fleece us for more money in the EOL sale due to Brexit being on the horizon.

Thanks goat but not my style.

Genesis are still doing a Day One SS. Got one a few weeks ago – really nice bike. Heavy, mind!

http://www.charliethebikemonger.com/marin-nicasio-ss-2017-11600-p.asp £449

Use a singlespeed converter kit on a Voodoo Marasa?

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/charge-cooker-0-2016/

https://www.merlincycles.com/transition-rapture-cyclocross-bike-2016-97529.html

https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-dolomite-singlespeed-2017-road-bike-EV264164

https://www.evanscycles.com/kona-unit-2017-singlespeed-bike-EV291746

https://www.evanscycles.com/genesis-day-one-10-2017-singlespeed-bike-EV289571

That’s what I was looking at goat.

I commute 8-9 miles each way on a combo of road, bridle way, gravel track and use a Genesis Day One Disc, yes it may be a little heavy but it is awesome for the commute, I have a rack and pannier as not a fan of a bag in my bag for the commute as I also feel it adds a little more visibly

Been using it for a little over two years now and I think it’s an awesome bit of kit

I do like the look forward the Dolomite SS goat. I’ll have a look at the Genesis as well.

The trouble with the Dolomite is it’s mainly a road bike: I’d like something I can use off road, on bridleways, as well.

I did about 5 years of 12 miles a day on a Pompino. Carrying anywhere between 1.5 and 5 kg on a rack. Initially it was a gravel track later made into a tarmac road.

The bike is great almost indestructible, I went through one chainring and 2 or 3 chains. Aside from that the bike just works.

It is heavy so it’s a bugger to get up to speed, but once you are there it cruises well.

I was also commuting in the Cambridge area so hills weren’t invited, even small ones.

What Toby1 Said except mine is now on its 11th Birthday and still going strong. Love my Pompino.

I’ve had a Genesis Day One and Cotic Escapade in SS guise. Both really good, but preferred the Day One. Brilliant bit of kit.

mate has a day one and i was impressed with the finish + disc too. i had a pompino and could never get comfy on it ( heavy bugger as well ). have a surly crosscheck now which is nice, but these days i’d get a straggler.

With the Pompino: the website says it’s a fixie and you have to select the SS option, but there doesn’t appear to be anything about single speed in the options list. What’s the deal with that?

Day one disk here too. The current versions don’t come with knobbly tyres, they’ve rebranded it a bit to be a city bike, but I’m sure they would still fit, under mudguards, upto 32mm possibly even 35 as mine runs 45mm SKS guards.

The frame defiantly got heavier when they moved away from the mini-vee brakes to the disk version.

£400 for the Pompino looks good value. I’ve the Pompetamine (the Alfine hub version) which I keep meaning to convert to SS. The chainring is 39T so might go with a 15T cog

Singlespeeds do seem to be in the decline, as are 3-speed hub gear bikes. Go back to ~2009 and you had bikes like the Specialized Centrum and Tricross.

I bought a singlespeed chainring, chain and 16T conversion kit from PX before Xmas for ~£15 to enable me to relive singlespeeding on my Wazoo at some point this year. The blurb for http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/CROOSS/on-one-stainless-chainring surprisingly suggests I could fit it instead of the Ringmaster I bought at the same time and switch between SS and 1×8 quite happily.

It’s a shame that the Pinnacle Arkose Singlespeed is so expensive now at ~£850, the previous model could be had for £600 towards the end of its shelf life, great value with Hylex hydraulics.

Personally, I would not want a new bike of any sort without hydraulic disc brakes (even if it was simply an upgrade), but so many drop bar SS come either with rim brakes or mechanical.

Specialized Tricross?

Hydraulics are quite a step up in price and beyond what I want to spend.

@noddythegoat – why the dislike of mechanical disk brakes? I’ve three bikes with mechanicals and they are fine. As far as I’m aware I haven’t died yet!

They aren’t fit and forget, depending on conditions you might have to adjust the calipers to allow for pad wear anywhere from every couple of months to weekly but it’s not a big job, if you’ve set them up correctly in the first place then a couple of minutes will do both ends.

My RTA just over three years ago was essentially down to lack of (rim) brake functionality once I realised I was heading towards a stationary refuse collection lorry rear at ~20mph, just after a sweeping bend (Bitterne side of Northam bridge). I had an alternative Xmas in Southampton General and the staff did a great job of fixing my maxilla on Xmas Day and my hand on New Years Eve and I have the constant reminder of a love/hate relationship with my denture since! 🙂

I’ve never owned mechanical disc brakes, but I want any bikes I own in the near future to be mostly “fit and forget,” which is something I don’t believe is the case with mechanical disc brakes

I had a pompetamine (with a hub gear, admittedly) and since then a mk1 roadrat which I’ve run singlespeed with flats and drops.

Either of them do the job of commuting reliably and perfectly well but the roadrat just rides a bit ‘nicer’ overall. That may be because it’s lighter thanks to only having one gear though.

Not sure if I’m remembering rightly but the pompino doesn’t have mtb rear hub spacing? Might be worth having a bike with that to let you use any mtb kit you have as spares/upgrades later on?

Also, if you really want hydro brakes and you want them cheap you should seriously look at flat bars to let you run mtb brakes. I did that for a long time until I upgraded the brakes on the cross bike and ‘trickled down’ the brakes from that to the roadrat

I saw that earlier. Are they any good?

the Revolution Cross zero?

TBH No idea, I just keep meaning to buy one as a replacement for my commuting fixie, Aluminium frame, basic parts, I’ve a spare Kaffenback disc fork I would probably fit (along with a deadly mechanical front disc, QR front wheel and some other parts from the spares bin)…

It just looks silly good VFM to me, £200 for a whole bike!?! considering the next cheapest thing suggested so far is ~2x that and has no more gears or widgets really…
Even if it’s a total knacker, you’d still probably get a year out of it, so you wouldn’t have wasted money IMO, it’s a basic commuting machine, not a full on Dandy-horse…

Why does my schoolboyish humour make me smile everytime I read “I had a pompino” or “I love a pompino”?!!?

As I said, I don’t want to pay hydraulic disc money, and don’t need to either, IMO (although it’s nice).

Same as toby1 and mickyfinn, I’ve been commuting on my Pompino daily for about 6 years and it’s almost zero-maintenance. In that time I think I’m on my 2nd chainring and maybe fourth chain, only other consumables are brake blocks and tyres.

I bought frame only and built up myself so have flat bars as I found them better than drops for commuting. It’s not light, but it’s pretty bombproof and cheap enough that I wouldn’t be too cut up if it got stolen.

Specialised Langster? I used to love commuting on my Langster Monaco when I lived in Hertfordshire, I found that Herts is too flat to really warrant the need for my geared road bike, just made everything too easy. But then I only had to cycle 9 miles (most of it on a mix of surfaced and unsurfaced cycle paths) to work, but still good for a few longer journeys.

Tom KP

I’m tempted just to grab one of those Revolution Cross Os: It’s going to left outside Uni for 3 hours-a-night, so something cheap and simple may be ideal.

I bought a Holdsworth La Quelda for £300 from Planet X.
It’s fun to ride, yes its heavy but not too heavy & cruises well once up to speed.
I went 42/18 & rapidly realised that was too low a gear, fitted a 16T freehub on the flip-flop hub it’s just right for my commute.
Thing is, it came with dual-pivot rim brakes & (stupidly) painted rims. Braking was fine in the dry, absolutely terrifying in the wet. Fitted new pads & it’s better, but next time I’ll be going for discs.

My road bike has rim brakes & they work fine in the wet, it’s these ridiculous painted rims that are the cause I suspect.

This is the answer – Genesis Day One Decade, should be cheapish 2nd hand & more fun than a pretty fun thing having fun.