Recommending what you have but – My old Kona is probably the most similar of my singlespeed bikes (to the conversion you seek), so:

I have an older MTB triple (it’s a mid-90’s Sugino 110BCD) on a ST BB, with a Surly chainring on the outside. Spa Cycles look to have a pretty similar crank available for almost no money. A XT 9sp rear hub with a Surly SS cog and some of the coloured spacers from a VeloSolo spacer kit to give me a decent chainline (you get a range of different widths in the pack). I’ve had no problems with Gebhardt rings on the front either. Don’t forget you’ll need shorter chainring bolts.

I now run a half-link chain, but have also used an old 8/9spd chain with a half-link with no problems in the past. I dunno if you can still get them, but I’ve found the DMR branded tensioners work reliably. I’ve got a stinger on a different bike, and that seems fine too.

I’m using 32 x 18 (given the short-steep hills hereabouts).

This photo is about the least-worst I have of the current transmission (even tho’ it’s a crap picture).

This bike gets ridden ~10x more than anything else I own, which is kinda ridiculous given what else is available, but the fun comes from heading out of the door for an hour or so knocking about on a bike with absolutely no fannying about whatsoever (remember that!). :P

Ordinarily, a smoothie made from: a banana, half a litre of unsweetened almond milk, a spoonful of peanut butter, and *some* Purition hemp powder (all organic, of course) work pretty well for me.

If I’ve been racing, I like a small bottle of tart cherry juice to help with [not] cramping. Might just be a placebo of course, but I find it helps.

3×8, 3×9 and 3×10 (given the hills and my tendency to poke about looking over hedges). I seem to prefer the location of the gaps in the 8spd stuff over the 9spd.

The 3×10 is indexed (as it was bought as a complete groupset, thus intended to work together), everything else is friction shifted, given the often rather odd mix of components used. (Ah, everything else that is, that hasn’t been single speed’d).

Very cool – thanks for all the info – there’s a lot of useful stuff therein.

Mr Slugwash, extra thanks for the offer of the loan wheel, that’s very kind of you, but … :roll:

… it seems I’m about to find out first hand, following a very tempting e-mail offer from earlier in the week that I found myself utterly compelled to take up (you may have had the same e-mail).

I kinda went all bunny-in-the-[dynamo]headlights and just went for it. It’ll be fine. (What’s the worst than can happen, et cetera).

On the maths, I won’t notice any difference, and as I’m getting on anyway, I can always fit a 34 on the back if I’m struggling.

:D

Best dressed / best colour coordination … I must be in the running (plus I’m on my Peregrine, which is also up there as the best bike ever).

(For completeness, I was also wearing a white helmet with a black peak, a blue and black cycle cap, and a bright green bandana). There is nothing unusual in my choice of riding attire either, it’s almost always deliberately random / clashing.
:wink:

I will grow a man bun and try again

Well …mine hasn’t helped me track a Deadwood down!

:wink:

With it’s multiple eyelets, the Marrakesh fork looks tempting for my Vaya, but I’m not going to gut a frameset for them tho’ (and I’m not holding my breath for the forks to come out as a separate item) …

Poking about in the backlanes of South Devon.

I’ve had one strapped to an assortment of different bars for a while (including today), and it’s always been fine – I’ve just upgraded a bit and now have a Joey in behind to stiffen things up, and that has usefully improved the stability / clampability of the bag.

There’s an element of ‘it depends’ tho’ I guess – mine only ever carries light-weight squishy stuff – extra insulation/discarded clothing, a poncho/bothy bag, odds and bits of food, that kinda thing.

Used on Midge (with cross-top levers), Mungos and Jones Loops.
I’ll rummage through my photos and see if I’ve got anything illustrative/useful.

This week saw two different front racks (for two different bikes), a packet of Alpkit Zip pullers to replace the (formerly missing) ones that I found on the very same day on which the new ones were delivered … and a copy of English Country Lanes by Gareth Lovett Jones (a [1988] book about just poking about in the countryside by bicycle).

Hard to say without the details, but unless it includes agriculture, the impacts will be somewhat diminished (against the potential).

This may be novel / controversial / surprising, but the figures are pretty telling (there are sources for the data on the site).

Cowspiracy.

8O

Bring tomorrows wood into the house today too, so it has a little while to loose some moisture before you use it (assuming it’s come in from a dry, well ventilated ‘shed’ anyway).

It does take time to learn your stove – I make a lot of use of my [chimney] top vent to really slow the draw down once it’s going, but then need to leave the bottom door vents >50% open. I live on the top of a hill, and have a big volume chimney which is uncapped, so get pretty ferocious draw in anything more than a breeze. My pal lives in a sheltered river valley, and needs to work hers in a completely different way.

Hot and relaxed is a good way of describing what you are aiming for.

Our Peugeot Partner van literally swallows bicycles, total number not tested, but you seem to just be able to keep putting them in, one after another.

My 110 ‘station wagon’ on the other hand … will take three, but only with some of the second row of seats out (which in my truck – is easier than messing about taking bicycle wheels off). I might be able to squeeze another one in, but couldn’t then carry it’s rider.

Ride #10 and a TNF Thermoball hoodie jacket (although strictly speaking, the jacket came via a courier company).

julians – Member
“The current FW (5.00) feels pretty mature”
You’re joking right? ‘ve had mine since launch too, and fw5.0 is the worst yet . absolutely massive battery drain at random times

From the reading the Garmin forum, I’m seeing that lots of people are having this issue, but once again, my particular F3 seems to be the exception. I’ve not noticed any real difference in battery use since installing V5.00 – nothing odd happens, it just ticks along, apparently drawing the same kinda power it seems to always use. The biggest thing I noticed with 5.00 is that activities are saved *much* quicker then they were before.

I assume I’m not seeing some of the reported issues, due to the way I have mine set up – I don’t run a BT or wifi connection from mine, only ANT+ sensors (HRM & Tempe), so there are no additional power-management issues for it to deal with, just the GPSr / data-logging side of things.

I’ve [almost] always found Garmin stuff to work ok, I’ve used their marine handhelds for years with no trouble, tho’ the exception is the Nuvi in the truck, which locks up constantly to the point that it’s pretty much useless…
:?

I love mine (earlier version). Mine gets ridden on everything you’d expect to find out in the countryside, the kinds stuff that would just be called mountain-biking back in the day. Back-country tarmac, farm tracks, in the woods, on the moors and it happily just rides along on all of it.

I am the “old git luddites”, old git luddite when it comes to bikes, so mine is fully rigid (although with a Salsa Enabler fork, giving me a 135mm OLN front end), and I run it a little bit chubby (2.4’s on 30mm rims).

Comfortable angles are comfortable, even if they are (small-c) ‘conservative’, and I find I can ride mine all day with no issues. I dunno about relative weight comparisons, all my bikes are steel, and stoutly put together, so that kinda thing, I leave to others. Other details include: Jones H-bars (with 20mm Cane Creek extensions), ergonomic grips, unfashionable 3 x 10 transmission, BB7 cable disks …

I strap luggage on rather than worry about rack eyelets on mine, but I can see how this could well be a bike to ride on a ’round-the-world tour. In an ideal world, I’d take a 29+ version of exactly the same bike around the world, but otherwise, it’s a bike for life (for me at least).

Here’s a kinda rubbish photo (from the middle of the moors):

I don’t think I’d expect a V4 for a while yet.
There’s a thread about it on the Garmin Forum, but it’s kinda wandered off into a wish list now.

I got my F3 pretty much at release, and I’ve never had any problems with it at all. The current FW (5.00) feels pretty mature – there’s also a rolling beta program alongside it for people who can live with potential issues vs getting the very latest FW – that seems to be working pretty well too.

Garmin have only just released a couple of new colours of the F3 too, a white carcass & kinda gold bezel version, and a grey and silver one on a heavy leather strap.

I mix-n’-match stuff (on ‘day’ rides only tho’, so just tools/spares/food/layers).

Seatpacks:
Small = Wildcat Tiger with 5l Alpkit Airlok Extra.
Larger = Bikepack.pl[/url] Repack.

Bars:
On the front I clip an Alpkit Dual on the bars, (and have just acquired a Joey, to give me a slightly firmer platform).

Anything I need to keep dry, goes in a drybag inside whichever ‘other’ bag it’s in. I also tend to augment the factory fitting options by the use of other webbing, just to improve the stability (or give me a better fit with the bike setup) – I’m not above modding stuff out directly either if it comes to it.

One of my LBS’s has Apidura in now, and it looks pretty good stuff (if a little small for winter perhaps?).

Nothing from Genesis?

I’m very much liking the shape of the bars in the Billie Fleming on a bike photo on the BBC site.

I [now] carry one of the bright yellow JDS 2-man bothy bags on my winter moorland expeditions, having got caught out in a hideous winter storm back along and thinking at the time what a great idea a bothy bag would have been … :roll:

I also have a SOL bivvy bag with me, but that’s tiny, so it kinda stays in my bag most of the time.

The bothy gets used sometimes in a non-emergency kinda way – just for providing a useful bit of shelter if there’s not much else around and you need a quick break out of the weather (albeit it gets a bit fuggy after a few minutes, but you can always lift the sheltered side a bit). Having sat out the wind / rain in it for a bit, I can see how it’d be welcome if you *really* needed it too.

The bivvy / survival bag is only to make things more comfortable if I’ve made a serious mistake and need to stay put for a while – fingers crossed it’ll stay in it’s little bag (other than for my checking it from time to time).

I carry a whistle too on the moors …

Vaya? That said, I doubt it’s any lighter than a Straggler, but now that I’ve got my gearing right, I’m rather liking mine.

Rather annoyingly this thing won’t leave me alone.

Alpkit Joey.

2 months later …

I have one of the earlier Swifts, and (as you can clearly see in this photo :roll: ) … I’m using mine with a Salsa Enabler fork, but only with a 30mm rim (Salsa Semi)and 2.4 Conti MK (on a 135mm hub). The plan was to go semi-fat, but (subjectively) this is *such* a great set up I’ve never bothered, and probably won’t now.

I am 29+ Rooster/Deadwood curious tho’ … (and ‘being curious’ often leads to trouble).

I have a sense that the alternator dropouts might narrow your options down a bit – I don’t think they are super easy to use with ‘normal’ racks (like the Wunderlust).

Don’t hold me to that tho’ – I’ve got a Vaya, so it’s not come up directly, but I think I’ve read something on the Salsa site that makes me think it’s been an ‘issue’ for people.

:?

Working fine for me @ 2030, but that’s just uploading / editing last weeks data.

In my experience … creating routes appears to be the lest robust bit of coding on that site.

JRA on my Vaya.

Nice, traditional ‘MTB’ kinda outing on Saturday – through the woods, along some greenlanes / farm-tracks, back-country lanes, a bit of main road here and there.

Ha, screw you bike marketing industry!

I’m all for this kinda messing about, well done for going your own way, that’s great.

;-)

I can maybe see where they are going there, the backsweep on the ends makes sense, and I guess the ‘horns’ would be ok in a kinda aero-position, but I’d still miss the multiple options you’d otherwise get with a curved bar. They’d be ok for mounting a bag on tho’.

My instinct says you’ll be fine for the kinda riding that frame would ordinarily be fine for.

:-)

The bars on the Kona are the Titec versions of the Jones bars. I think Titec [also] refer to these as H versions, (they did a J too, which doesn’t have that bit of rise). You might struggle to find them now tho’ as they aren’t a current bar.

I do have Jones (fully looped) H-bars on my (rigid) Swift, and I am equally, if not more fond of them. The newer versions are a bit longer too, which gives a bit more versatility. ‘Alt’ bars come wholly recommended (for rigid bikes).

I can’t answer any of your questions directly, so this post is of no direct use whatsoever (it is the internet after all!), but …

I have a 29er PII fork on the front of my ’92 Kona Fire Mountain, with a 26″ wheel (a 29er wheel in there would be too much).

The original PII would have been ~425mm A-C, and the 29er version is 470mm A-C. I run a 2.3 x 26 Bonty mud tyre on a Mavic 721 rim, so I’ve got a bit more volume in the tyre (than I would have used with the original fork).

Frankly … it’s bloomin ‘awesome!

I wonder if the Big Dummy fork *might* be a tiny bit harsh (fatter tyre there too perhaps)? It *looks* pretty tough (in a good way), but that aside, and based on my experience only – what’s not to like?

As you’ve found, once you go up to / above 440mm A-C there is lots more choice (as that’s ~100mm suspension fork equivalence).

The Condor Fratello now comes in a disc version.

I’ve got the non-disc version, and having fiddled about with the fit, have come to regard it as actually, a rather nice bicycle.

Sorry, just re-read the criteria to make sure it ticked all the boxes, and completely missed the bit about price first time around.

I’d been on an unmetalled road and got mud on my tyres – how much more gnar can it get?

Steel framed, custom geo 29+, 135mm front end, versatile dropouts (ss / rohloff / r-mech).

Hmm, put like that, it’s sounding a bit dull really.

My old Kona from earlier this afternoon.
(Clearly a bit removed from original spec).

Almost all of my bikes are rigid, but several fall into that kinda broad gentleman’s-day-bike / dirt-road-sport-tourer / gravel /monstercross genre (so look a bit ‘road’ I guess).

Here’s my Swift from earlier this week, as this is probably the most MTB-like bike I own.

I know you’ve ordered now, but adding to the list for completeness, in case anyone else wonders the same kinda thing.

Salsa Cowchipper.

It’s a shame / annoyance it was pulled as it looked like a damned useful rack.
:?

It was pulled because of a couple of failures with the bracket – which would seem to be a pretty straight-forward fix?

Anyway … the only thing I’ve found that is kinda similar is the Nitto M18, (but I’ve not got around to getting one yet, so dunno what they are like in use).