New Year on a 29er
by Rob Blue on January 5th, 2007
So 2007 is here. A lot of people make resolutions for the new year and not wanting to be left out my resolution is to train a little differently over the winter from what I have done in the past. To do this I am going to be trying out something new. I have put together a bike for winter training that combines two of the latest movements in mountain biking, single speed and 29er wheels.
After a lot of research on the subject over the last few months I decided on a frameset that I liked that was designed specifically for both 29er wheels and single speeding. Being the weight weenie that I am it also had to be light.
The next decision was to go with a suspension fork or a truely hard core rigid fork. I must admit that I wimped out here and went with one of our sponsors and got the trick Rock Shox Reba with the PopLoc
Even though it was not the lightest option, it is a very solid design that works extremely well. Maybe I'll try something different later like a carbon rigid. I'll post it if I do.
Of course the next big thing was the 29er wheels. Once again my goto wheel source is Stan's. I got a set of the ZTR 355 29'er wheels built with the American Classichubs These wheels rival the weight of most light 26 inch wheels.
Being a single speed I needed some single speed cranks. What I discovered is that most single speed cranks are just triples running only the middle ring. The middle ring is a non-ramped version with either a bash guard or a set of shorter chain ring bolts to fix it to the standard 3 ring spider. Once I figured this out I sent off an e-mail to get a set of the FRM CU2-M27 Integral cranks, one of the lightest single speed crank setups that you can get. Actually one of the lightest triple cranks that you can get too! Check out the weight compared to the very nice Stylos:
The rest of the parts were mostly stuff I had sitting in my garage. I keep a lot of stuff for future projects and crash repairs. This comes in handy but takes up a lot of space. So the final ready to ride build came in at a just over 20 pounds. That's pretty light for a 26er let alone a 29er.
So a good shake down ride was in order. After doing a couple of shorter rides over the past week I decided to hit it pretty hard on New Year's Eve. Check out the profile versus the cadence and you will see where I had to get off and walk up some of the climbs.
127727_garmin_12_31_2006_1.kml
I gained a whole lot of respect for the guys that I have seen racing single speeds at events over the last few years. It is tougher than I expected. Hats off to you single speeders out there, you guys are animals!
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what frame is that? Maybe a Voodoo?
and where did you get those FRM cranks exactly?
cool bike.
Nice 29er. I had built up a Surly KM single speed with some similar comopnents. Boone TI cog, AM front hub. Went with the DT 7.1’s. Looks like you’ve got a pretty nice setup there, and a sick weight! Hopefully that rear AM hub holds up for ya
Looks like I have started a bit of a mystery game here. Maybe I should ask the Evomo guys to offer up a prize to whoever figures out exactly what the frame is. The cranks are available in the US only through Stan’s NoTubes: http://www.notubes.com/frm.php?cPath=23
Jason,
Thanks, so far the light weight has made the transition to single speeding a little easier. I have had pretty good luck with the Am Classics hubs in the past so I am hoping that they will be just fine. I do still hate their skewers though and can’t wait to swap those out for something that works better.
Meh, my $ is on an unbadged Niner frame. The GX2 scandium, the BB area. Thats my assessment anyway ! What do I win?
Jason
Hey Rob, lets ride bro. Sweet setup. I will take a stab at the bike for a… oh how about a sandwich. I say the bike is made by NINER and it is the ONE 9. CHA
IRC Notos?
tires look to be Stans Crows.
Crow?
Kenda Karma?
Congrats to Tom Tran of California for correctly guessing the tyres are Stans Crows…. We will be sending you an official Evomo Special Ops shirt.