I had a solo ride last night on the dialled love/hate single speed. Bloody marvelous. Hammered up the hills. Spun like a spinning thing on the flats. Flowed as best I can downhill whilst dodging the world’s strongest stinging nettles. Mike definitely hit the spot when he designed and built this.

winter piccy

managed to snap the chain on thursday evening on a steep bit, unfortunately also walloped my knee so i’m hobbled at the moment 🙁

Too busy riding it to take photos so use your imagination.

Orange Scandal GX, almost stock except knuckleballs, dropper and all the danlgy bits have been removed and replaced by a gusset 1-xd and singulator.

I would but its in bits.

Inbred, pipedream forks, freshly powdercoated in raspberry cosmic sparkle.

Here you go, it’s being teased, left by the hosepipe despite never getting washed.

This is an old pic of my previous mk1 Switchback but my new one’s pretty much the same apart from it’s an awesome gunmetal colour-

We had a belter ride up to Whitburn to watch the cricket today, probs around 30 miles all in.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/193529985@N07/51331725627/in/dateposted-public

Apologise, I’m shit at this

I had a Mike Dialled Prince Albert in SS and I would love to say I kept it. Duck egg blue and floated over stuff really well.

My Trailstar

My Soloist

I do miss my old singlespeed(s).

This is long gone, but was great fun. I think my favourite was a Ti456 in 2010, but I don’t seem to have any pictures of that.

853 Inbred. Now being used as a “riding with MsBeej bike”.

Stan’s Olympic Rims, Pace RC31s, Middleburn, Juicy Ultimates… it’s quite light for a steel bike.

There can be only one.

Then again, maybe I shouldn’t be allowed to play with fire and hacksaws.

Transition Klunker – coaster brake

Please send help

Very jealous of all these rides! Makes me miss I old SS commuter.

If anyone has got an old XL frame with horizontal dropouts gathering dust at home, i’d be very keen to take it off your hands for cold hard cash!

Moved this on but a mate has it 🙂

My fave ever resto 🙂

In Spain now I believe

Current hack 🙂

There can be only one.

That’s, like, toadally rad deeeewd!

Mine also is in bits/awaiting build. It will be a L/H hardtail with a Bontrager Rhythm Pro 26er wheels.

Just need to source some bearings for the wheels and also (hopefully) get the EBB chased out or replaced – so not a massive task.

The L/H BB shell itself had previously been ovalised by over-tightening the set-screws. I was about to scrap the (otherwise as new) frame, and then had a brutalist brainwave which had the result of returning the shell to it’s former lovely roundness. Not for the faint-hearted but it involves a big wooden block set on concrete and then swinging the entire frame (gripping firmly by seatstays) downwards as a hammer, striking the block repeatedly and squarely with the flat heads of the (almost unscrewed) set-screws, with the EBB loosely in place to prevent over-correction. It took approx ten sharp strikes to reform approx 3mm ovalisation. Then a few lighter strikes to fine tune. Now the EBB is snug once more 🙂. Was slightly worried that the set screw inserts may break but no.

Steel is real!

My only bike, ridden all year round 3 or 4 times a week.

My Rooster when first built a few years ago. And yes the steerer wasn’t left like that, don’t worry.

My Pivot Les

Kerley at first glance I thought njs kieren bike.

What is it and the forks?

Well it is a single speed,

If anyone has got an old XL frame with horizontal dropouts gathering dust at home, i’d be very keen to take it off your hands for cold hard cash!

@callmebryce do you need horizontal or will sliders do? I’ve just retired my old voodoo Bokor in XL (I’m 6’4”) that I ran SS for 9 years. Sliders so the brake mount moves with the wheel, which is nice. Best SS dropouts I’ve ever used. In Bristol if it’s any use, only thing wrong with it is tatty paint and the downtube bottle bosses are a bit loose and I’ve already had to nip the rivnuts up once and don’t think they’d go again.

Replaced with something rather special I’ll post a pic of if I can host somewhere, tho meantime have an Instagram link

https://www.instagram.com/p/CRt8tSIBvDj/?utm_medium=copy_link

Right let’s see if this works:

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2mdc3yx]BLE[/url] by the accidental martini, on Flickr

^^^

That. Is. Lovely.

I is well jel, innit.

Doesn’t even look like the enormous gate it is. Longer than most XL enduro bikes, but just right for me. Nice to finally have a bike that’s a proper size for my height so I can run a nice short stem.

Beady little eye wins. Beautiful.

Will contribute a picture to this thread when I’ve finished the conversion (nothing exotic, just a brand-x ht-01).

BLE is gorgeous! How does it ride with air shock? I was reading Starling site yesterday- lots of talk about how cool better for their design.

Kerley at first glance I thought njs kieren bike.

It is a BLB Classic R frameset. Looking out for a slightly tighter 80s/90s track frame that will replace it sometime (also having brake holes annoys me!) but will no doubt miss the 30c tyre clearance that the BLB frame has.

BLE is gorgeous! How does it ride with air shock? I was reading Starling site yesterday- lots of talk about how cool better for their design.

The BLE is quite different suspension to the others. A coil would be no good.

Concentric BB pivot so you run very little sag, think “hardtail with a little give”, but when you hit something harder and it starts to move the rate is regressive so it moves more.

They probably write it better themselves https://www.starlingcycles.com/bikes/beady-little-eye/

My first singlespeed bike (other than a trials bike from which the trial-tech spacers used to be on). 32 x 17 (I think it’s 17). Will take some getting used to. Gearing is not easy up hill, needed to be much more dynamic with all over body weight to get that extra push forward in places where easier gears would have been the answer. Kept wanting to change into easer gears. And anywhere I’d try to roll up and over an obstacle with a low gear and a pedal push to get the front up – might as well forget about that. Or even pivoting the rear end around and a pedal push to get momentum going in the new direction: fail.