Junk Drawer

Product Reviews

• Surly 1x1 frame review by Joe Whitehair

  Surly Bikes bring single speeds to the masses. Solid components for a reasonable price. Their 1x1 frame is probably the cheapest single speed mountain frame you can buy and still trust it to hold up to some pounding. The 18" medium frame weighs in at 4.96 pounds and includes a rigid fork that comes in at 2.46#. Not weight weenie light, but not a boat anchor either. Put together with 4130 Cro-Mo tubes (can you say old school BMX?), with a double-butted front triangle, it sports Sub-11 horizontal drop outs so you can ditch the chain tensioner and feel like the committed single speeder that outgrew his/her conversion frame. It's got a black powder coat finish and the welds look good. Hope you like the color, because that's all they've got. Rumor has it white will be available for 2002. Suggested retail is somewhere around $360 for the frame and fork. Enough of the bland technical mumbo-jumbo, what's the thing ride like? This thing has been ridden hard for 9 months. Big drops, rock pounding single track, deep stream crossings. It feels good, real good. Handles tight singletrack very, very well. Up and over giant log piles smooth as butter. The bike feels balanced and solid. I built it up with decent, sturdy parts, nothing special and the bike weighs around 23 pounds. The front end feels light without a suspension fork. A fat 2.4 WTB Motoraptor has plenty of clearance thanks to the Fatties Fit Fine design. Even after 9 months of riding, I'm still surprised at how well this bike handles, especially railing through turns at speed. For the price, it simply can't be beat. If I have to find anything negative to say it would be the chainring is mighty close to the chainstay. I'm running a 34 tooth and I don't think you could go bigger unless you went with a longer bottom bracket, which would probably throw off the perfect chainline. Yeah, forgot to mention that. Sent the Surly guys an email when I was building this up, told them what cranks I was using (old LXs) and what rear hub (Surly) and asked what BB I should use. Got back an answer ASAP, so customer service is on. The BB measurement they gave me insured a dead on straight chainline. Not much more to say except, if you want a dedicated SS frame and don't want to spend a lot of cash, you don't need to. The 1x1 is your ticket.

• Surly 1x1 hub review by Joe Whitehair

  So, you're ready to step up to a single speed hub but you don't have a lot of cash? Well, check out the Surly 1x1 hub. Comes in black or silver aluminum with laser etched graphics, 32 holes and only costs around 50 beans. Threaded on both sides for quick gear changes. Light weight? Not here, but I did a completely unscientific weight analysis by holding a 1x1 hub in one hand and an LX cassette hub in the other hand. Seemed about the same weight. Comes with a solid, bolt on axle and track nuts, you know, the ones with the built in washers so you don't shred your dropouts. Put a little oil in the washers if you plow through a lot of streams, otherwise they'll seize up. Rolls smooth and lets you worry about other things. Cartridge bearings for easy service. Just replaced them, cost $5 each. The driveside one was shot and was causing the wheel to have a bunch of play in it. The other one seemed to be in good shape, but I replaced them both. Goes to show you what all that drivetrain stress does. Bearings lasted 9 months, but if you ride dry trails, I suspect they will last much longer. Only suggestion for improvement would be to provide some external seal for the cartridge bearings to help protect them from the elements. Solid stuff at a good price and it comes in a paper lunch bag with entertaining instructions. Ready to ditch that converted cassette hub and build a dishless wheel? What more do you need?

• Dual Action Freewheel by ShitCo, LLC by Joe Whitehair

  Spins freely in both directions, no engagement necessary. Super speedy spinning action makes your friends think you can spin faster than Lance Armstrong. Great for those riders who think single speeding is really cool, but can't handle the pedaling. Gravity assistance (tm) makes the downhills as fast as coasting. Extra loud buzz let's everyone know you are coming. Available at all fine bike shops in the bin to the left of the mechanic's workbench.

Press

• Need daily updates about what's going on in the mountain bike world? Punch in MTBJournal.com for bite sized news bits. If you fancy yourself the Jimmy Olsen reporter type, they let you submit news. It's interactive, so spew your news, rumors, and views over there. And if for no other reason, check out the single speed column I'm writing for them.

• Elaine Tierney, former editor and co-founder of Dirt Rag magazine has moved on to other things. She's brought together mountain biking women for a sexy, but classy black and white 2002 calendar, featuring Aleisha Cline, Gale Dahlager, Susan Falvey, Leah Garcia, Susan Haywood, Deborah Shumway Herbold, Willow Koerber, Rachey Lloyd, Venessa Quin, Elaine Tierney, Lesley Tomlinson, and Shawna Ward. Order one up at FeminineFrames.com for $12 plus shipping.

• Interbike coverage: The annual bike industry orgy in Las Vegas took place in October. Apparently everybody but us was in attendance. Lots of coverage has been posted, so you can get a feel for what was going on from all different angles.
  • Primo coverage of Interbike from Pennsylvania shop Speed Goat. Lots of good pictures and words, so check it out.

  • Bike Mag's Interbike coverage: Well, computer meltdown inhibited some of their intended daily coverage, but they wrote a couple of columns about it afterward to make up for it. Check out the ramblings over here and here.

  • The Canadian Hucksters at PinkBike.com did a good job showing the new goods coming out for 2002.

  • Singletrack Magazine - These guys from the UK are single speed friendly and did up some Single Speed coverage of Interbike. Good site to get your bike news fix, especially if you are from the other side of the pond. That's what I like to see.

  • Want the down and dirty first person point of view Interbike coverage? Then head to Drunk Cyclist for Big Jonny's report. Good stuff. With a motto of bikes, boobs and beer, it's probably best not to check this one out at work. Don't you say you haven't been warned.

  • MTBR.com has a Virtual Trade Show with lots of pictures from the events, plus interactive booths for lots of vendors. Take a peek at all of the things you missed if you weren't there.

• You may remember Ronnie Pettit of the International Single Speed Association from Issue #1's regular rider interview. His site has some updates, so go check it out if you haven't been there lately. This nutcase is going to do the Iditarod Trail Invitational in Alaska in February of 2002, so show him some love and send over your pocket change or the company credit card to help finance the trip - or, buy one of the T-shirts he's selling to raise money. It's a long way to Alaska from Georgia.

• Well, someone got the name OneFuckingSpeed.com, so for that they get style points and a plug. Not to much going on the site as we go to press (sounds so professional, eh?), but they do have some coverage of SSWC 2K+1 that's a good read, so check them out. Why? Because I said so (use your mothers voice when you say this, it works much better)!

• Want to see a completely whacked looking single speed commuter? Look here. You can buy one for all of your urban transportation needs.

• If you haven't seen the Ibis Single Malt, I suggest you take a look. Smooth as aged scotch. If you happen to have the extra cash, we'd like one for Christmas, OK?

• The results are in from the Road Apple Rally, the longest running annual mountain bike race in the world. See who won the Veteran Men's Single Speed, Senior Men's Single Speed, Master Men's Single Speed, and Senior Women's Single Speed.

• Asimba.com has an old but good article on the 2000 SS Champs and SS in general.

• Trouble at the Track World Championships, you know, the race with those single speed bikes that don't coast. More doping problems? Read the article in Velo News.

• More fixed gear bicycle competition in a slightly less official format. The Cycle Messanger World Championships 2001 took place in Budapest. DC Courier has photos of the event, check it out.

• Issue #90 of Dirt Rag Magazine has a review of the sweet Seven Cycles Sola Single Speed. A beauty like this doesn't come cheap though.

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