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Well, I completed my SS build just after Thanksgiving and have managed to log a over a hundred miles on it already. The frame is a Niner SIR9 with a Fox 32 F29 fork and Industry Nine XC 29er wheels. Niner touts this frame as demonstrating that “Steel Is Real” and thereby the frame got its name. While I do jest with a bit about the weight of the frame, steel does tend to be a heavier than its aluminum counterparts. The build came out to just over 25 lbs for the size large frame, not that this was a weight-weenie build by any stretch.

I got my first taste of mountain SS’ing this summer when I borrowed one of the Animal’s SS’s. It definitely a good introduction in that it left me wanting more. Let me tell you the smoothness of the Renyolds 853 steel is most definitely real. I have been more than impressed so far with this bike in that I have taken it on rides and trails that I would have thought reserved for bikes with rear travel, and not only has it held its own, but excelled. Now I’m not advocating this for your next DH session, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised on rough XC trails with moderate drops and rock gardens. To describe the Industry 9 wheels succinctly is fairly easy, stiff! I feel the tires flexing under me when I stand, but definitely not the wheels. This stiffness is very evident when returning to the ground after a jump or drop. They just keep rolling forward. At this point I have to mention that I am coming from 26″in. wheels to the 29″in. platform. I’ve never been accused of being a weight-weenie, so any added weight from the bigger wheel does not make a big difference to me; however, I have felt the advantages of the larger wheel with added momentum and better traction which is from what I understand a larger contact patch from the tire to the ground. I have both tires set-up tubeless, although only one of them was designed for it.

For those of you who like model numbers and spec’s, here is the build in detail:
Frame: Niner SIR9 Large -Rootbeer
Fork: Fox F29 RLC 100mm -White
Headset: Cane Creek S8 -Black
Wheels: Industry Nine 29′er XC Silver w/ Red Spokes & Stans Arch Rims -White
Cranks: Truvativ Stylo 1.1 32t -Black
Cog: Niner Cogalicious 32t -Black
Bars: Niner Flattop 9 -Black
Post: Truvativ Stylo -Black
Saddle: SDG FXR -White
Brakes: Hayes Stroker Trail 180mm F/R -Gray
Grips: Ergon GX -Gray
Tires: F: Bontrager FR3 2.35, R: Maxxis Ardent 2.25
Pedals: Crank Brothers Candy -White

From long high elevation changing fire road climbs to short weeknight rides, this bike is quickly and unequivocally becoming my favorite steed. I never thought I would return again to a hard-tail frame, but in the short month worth of riding I already feel at home on this bike, and hopefully am ready for my rapidly approaching first SS race this weekend. Stay tuned for those results.

Popularity: 2% [?]

As many of you know, we recently added the Sette Razzo frame to our lineup of bikes here at mtnbikeriders.com WCH. The Sette Razzo was built up as a SS. I have to admit, I was, and still am, very tentative about riding a single speed. I probably got that way due to all the Moe & RL puke stories. I, like many of you, are not a fan of puking.

SS can be quite a workout, especially if you go rigid

I decided to hit my local test loop, the Fully loop, for my first ride on the Razzo SS. The loop starts off for almost flat with just a twinge of an incline. I immediately felt the desire to shift gears and go faster, so much so that my right thumb twitched. Of course, there was no gear to change into so I ended up spinning really fast here and there. But I wasn’t used to all the spinning and my legs quickly got tired of it. I’m going to have to work on that part of SS riding.

What I was really afraid of were the climbs. None of the loop climbs are particularly long, about the only thing the loop is missing, but some are on the steeper side. The first short quick steep after crossing Euclid was conquered without any issues. Rolling along the street after the climb was a bit annoying because again I couldn’t get my legs to spin up fast enough. But ahead lay the climbs and as much as I was annoyed by all the spinning out I was cognizant that the lower gearing would be greatly beneficial on the climbs.

Redline Mono 9 has 9 gears. This helped get me ready for Single Speed riding

The climb that really got me antsy begins with a mild fireroad ascent. It then rolls along a little before hitting a short rooty section followed by a short steeper section. The end of this is a little past the halfway point of the loop. No puking on this climb. I was close… but I held it down. One more climb which is made difficult with railroad ties was up next and only my pride plus the presence of a couple of hikers stopped me from letting it flow.

What I came to realize over my SS ride was that my body had built up a bit of a familiarity to sustained standing climbs which is really your only other “gear” when you’re riding a SS. The familiarity was achieved when I began riding the Redline Mono 9, a 1×9 geared 29er. Before the 1×9, I would sit and spin my way up but when I rode the 1×9 consistently I realized that if I sat and spun all the hills, I’d quickly run out of gears.

So I adopted a different approach to climbing that included a mixture of spinning for a while then climbing while staying in the same gear. For example, if I was in gear 4 on a seated climb and I felt I wanted to change gears, instead of choosing to shift I’d stand up and climb for a bit. This essentially doubled the number of “gears” I had available to me from 9 to 18 and also eased my transition from 27 gears down to one.

Being comfortable with sustained standing climbs turned out to be a great help when I rode the single speed. I truly believe that if I went straight from 27 gears to just one, I probably would have joined RL & Moe with puke stories of my own.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Torsion BFD bars:

Model:                      Torsion Race
Center Diameter:        31.8mm
Bar Diameter:            22.2mm
Bar Width:                 800mm w/cut lines 790 to 680mm
Rise:                         0mm, 20mm, 35mm, or 50mm
Upsweep:                  5 degrees
Backsweep:               9 degrees
Material:                   al 2014 double butted
Finish:                      shot-peen+anodized black / + powder coat white
Logo:                       laser etched (anodized) or decals (powder coat)
Weight 0mm rise:      309 to 350g (680 to 800mm)
Weight 20mm rise:     315 to 356g (680 to 800mm)
Weight 35mm rise:     322 to 363g (680 to 800mm)
Weight 50mm rise:     330 to 371g (680 to 800mm)

The stem is a 65mm, 200g in shotpeen white paint.  This stem looks bomb proof!

                               

B52 Stem:

Model:                     New B52
Steerer diameter:      1 1/8” (28.6mm)
Bar diameter:           31.8mm 4-bolt face plate w/PC logo insert
Rise / length:           (0 degrees) 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80mm
Material:                 3D forged AL 6061
Stack height:           45mm
Finish:                    shot-peen black or white paint
Logo:                     laser+polycarbonate co-molded insert in face plate
Special Feature:       KORE 34 (K34) compatible
Weight:                  176g for 55mm, 200g for 65mm, 224 for 75mm

I love the white paint job! It just has sleek written all over it.   I’ll be swapping out my DH bars on my Intense Socom DH bike and replace with the Torsion bars.  The color will definitely match my bike!  Look for a full review in the near future. There’s a chance these may go on my SS build as well.  I’ll keep you all posted.

For more information visit www.kore-usa.com

Popularity: 11% [?]

Pricepoint.com stepped up and sent me the Sette Single Speed Conversion Kit. I received it Friday and I was riding on it on Saturday and Sunday.

I’m happy to report after riding with the Sette Single Speed kit, I didn’t experience skipping or any type of issues with the drive train. I used the 18t cog in the back, previous to that, I ran a 17 cassette cog that would occasionally skip. But with this new kit, I was riding smooth the whole time.

The Yess Pro Full Suspension Single Speed Chain Tensioner…phew..that’s a long name…it has been a dream. Though I had to McGyver the tensioner to make it work on my bike. I simply added some washers between the tensioner and the drop out. Due to my chain line, the tensioner would sit too far in and cause the chain to ride on top of the lip of the roller which would then skip and make tons of noise. Once the washers were in place, no issues. In fact it works REALLY well!

You can barely see the washers between the dropout/hanger and the tensioner.

As of today, I have NOT broke anything, the Sette single speed kit and the Yess Pro Tensioner have been working better than I expected.

Popularity: 12% [?]

It’s a rarity for me to be able to ride my bike on Saturday and Sunday. Since I had to work on Saturday, my buddy Joe from work and I decided to ride a short loop at Aliso Woods before we had to come into the office. We started super early and found that the conditions provided a nice cool ride…40 degrees and thick fog.

Here’s Joe after climbing up a trail called Cholla…its a wicked climb. The kind that makes you bitter about climbing.

Here’s some of the thick fog that I was talking about. Below is Laguna Canyon..passed those mountains is the Pacific Ocean.

We came from the bottom of Woods Canyon on the lower left corner of the photo.

As we’re going down Rock-it, we were greeted by a dozen riders climb up the trail. Now from what I understand, riders going down had the right of way. Meaning they should have pulled over for us…right? Or do I have it backwards?

Sunday
The next day Priscilla and I hit the Fullerton Loop. I was out testing my newly built project bike. As we’re going through the trail, we encountered this group. A dad and his two sons. Great Kodak moment right. Well you can’t really see this, but the dad didn’t have a helmet, and the kids had their helmets on their handle bars. Not the smartest move…So I roll up to the dad and say, “You’re boys should really be wearing their helmet.” He said thanks. Then I roll up to the kids and said…in a very nice manner, “You boys should wear your helmets, that way you don’t hurt your head if you crash.”

The good news was, we later saw them on the trail and the boys were both wearing their helmets.

We then ran across a group of what I call “Filipino Freeriders” who were trying to get back to the trailhead. I say freeriders because some of these guys had full face helmets, down hill bikes, pressure suits, pads…the whole nine yards! Here’s what’s cool about meeting them, one of the Pinoy fellas says…”hey, aren’t you the guy from that website…MTB…MTN…Bike…” I say yes and he even recognized Priscilla from the Birthday Ride we had for her. So he then introduces us to the rest of the guys.

Super cool fellas…I just wished I had gotten their info. But I did get a group shot of them. So if you are one of the FreeRiding Filipinos, then leave a comment with your contact info!

Popularity: 4% [?]