Junk Drawer

Product Reviews

• Spot Brand Frame review by Brian Smart

  Single speed. Just the combination of two seemingly innocent words conjures up wild visions of pain and suffering. The kind only an aged Voodoo Queen can create. Using a wicked good combination of Columbus and Dedaccai tubing, Spot Brand has created a frame that, well, dances down and across the trail. What about up, you ask....I’ll get to that later.

  I have a few friends, ok, four, that ride single speeds. I always thought it was a joke to see them groaning and grunting up the trail. All red-faced, ready to burst their jugular. Then I rode the Spot. Sure it’s hard, but the thing that amazed me about single speeding is that my technique has actually improved. Lemme ‘splain.

  See, with single speeds all you think about is riding. Duh, it’s a bike. But think about it...One gear. You don’t have to worry about missed shifts or ‘am I in the right gear to get up this hill?’. You just ride. You either ride up the hill or walk. If you’re walking, then most of your geared friends are in such a low gear they’re moving as fast as you are on foot. You learn to use your momentum more, to read the trail, to anticipate. Kind of like Rocky did to Apollo.

  Back to the frame. With it’s tear dropped downtube and oddly shaped chainstays I didn’t notice a lot of flex in the bottom bracket area. A place that I would expect the frame to feel wobbly given the 175mm Raceface cranks and the 34x20 gearing. Long uphills on a single speed will tell you whether your frame is noodley or not. I’m thinking this Spot is not. Granted this is my first single speed, but still, I like it better than my geared titanium mountain bike. It feels stiffer, but yet compliant, which is how anyone describes high quality steel frames.

  Going down the trail is a real gas. Without any shifters, cassette, extra housings, anything that resembles more gears, the rear end is really light. Typically, with a geared bike the front shock balances the rear weight. Bunnyhopping the bike over curbs, roots, rocks, really takes a light touch since you can easily over lift the rear, bury the nose and end up grinding your face down the street, trail, stairs, etc.

  The frames are all hand built in Vancouver, BC with custom Spot dropouts. The welds are smooth and clean, no drippings or slag bits, very nice. Color options are matte black, red or blue or anything you want if you have the flow to make it so.

  You can do complete bikes, or buy the frame, wheel set and ring/guard combo and build it up yourself. They also have custom embroidered SDG BelAir saddles. Get one. Their customer service is second to none and they will do what they can to help you out.

  Final thought of the day.....I wouldn’t hesitate to buy one.

• Formula B4 Hydraulic Brake review by Joe Whitehair

  Some fools think its blasphemy to put disc brakes on a single speed. Others live and ride in conditions that make them think otherwise. Some people get ideas in their head that a disc brake is more maintenance than V-brakes or cantis. Couldn't be further from the truth. So, in the name of simplicity and having brakes in the winter when stream crossings glaze your rims, I decided to lay out some cash and add a front disc brake. My Surly doesn't have a rear disc mount (they'll be available in '03), so I was SOL there.

  First order of business was deciding on cable-actuated or hydraulic. The Avid cable setup was very appealing, nothing but great feedback and they could be had for $100 or less per wheel. However, once set up, hydraulics were less maintenance in my book. No cables to get dirty or stretch. I was looking for simplicity and lack of maintenance. I also was hoping not to gain any weight or break the bank. After a lot of searching, it looked like the Formula B4 met the criteria.

  The B4 is billed as the lightest cross country hydraulic disc brake, weighing in at a super light 352g for everything - lever, rotor, mounting bolts, fluid and caliper. I picked them up for $140. Lightweight and a good price for a hydraulic brake - what's wrong with them you might ask. In a nutshell, nothing.

  The setup came fully assembled, brake line pre-cut and bled. I pulled it out of the box and installed the whole thing in about fifteen minutes. Rotor bolts come with a Lock-tite type compound on them, install with a torx wrench and you are ready to go. Lever is a two-bolt mount that doesn't require removal of your grips, couldn't be simpler.

  Distance of the lever to the grip can be adjusted by a single screw. Break in was quick. Recommendation was 100 stop cycles, seemed like it took about half that. Once broken in, the brakes stopped on a dime, but offered enough modulation to allow you to slow down with out going over the bars. I've been running them for a year now in all conditions: stream crossings, mud, snow, and ice. Performance has never been an issue.

  Complaints: very few. A couple of screws and pieces are made of plastic to keep the weight down. I'd rather pick up a few grams with metal parts for the durability, but the plastic hasn't been an issue yet. The reservoir body cracked when I was at an SS rally in Philly, but I didn't find this out until I was back home. Too much beer I suppose. Didn't look typical to me, so I snapped a picture and sent it to the US distributor, ThorUSA, who sent me a new body ASAP for no charge.

  Replacing the reservoir meant bleeding the brakes. Again, ThorUSA to the rescue, with easy instructions on their web site. It was an easy painless job and the brakes were as good as new.

  Formula may not be the first name you think of when it comes to hydraulic discs, but they should be high on the list. The B4 is a good, light product for a price that's hard to beat.

• Dimension Rigid Disc Fork review by Joe Whitehair

  I was drawn to single speeding by it's simplicity and the fact that I had to work on my bike less. Of course, a rigid fork fit right into this philosophy. Problem was, I wanted to put a front disc on the Surly and rigid forks with disc mounts aren't exactly in abundance. Sure, you can get one made by a custom builder. Beauties, but they come at a price, usually near the $200 mark. Some people may call me cheap, but I'm really about value. Luckily, the Dimension disc fork exists. Fifty beans and 2.5 pounds, it screams value.

  Black powder coat, suspension corrected to replace a 3" travel fork, its the Surly's twin fork. Hold it side by side to the Surly stock fork and they have the same curves, same powder coat, same dropouts, etc. No surprise as Surly and Dimension are both QBP productions. The only difference in the forks is tire clearance. The Dimension is slightly narrower at the top, but I'm running a 2.4 WTB Motoraptor with plenty of room, so the difference doesn't amount to much.

  The ride? Well, it's rigid steel, so it's stiff but takes a bit of the vibration off compared to an aluminum fork. It feels good on the Surly frame and it's had the shit beat out of it for a year now without any issues. It's a cheap disc fork that can take a beating and doesn't weight too much. What more can you ask for?

Press

• Get your pen out, the Bureau of Land Management is thinking about opening up some of the trails in Fruita, CO to motorized vehicles. If you don't want that to happen, let them know. IMBA has the full details. While you're are at it, sign up to be an IMBA member. These guys and girls work hard to keep the current trails open and to get access to new ones. Membership is about the price of a tire, so you've got no excuses.

• You think you're tough? Then head on over to 63xc.com, home of the fixed gear off-road riders. And you thought straight up single speed mountain biking was hard.

• Is it the end of single speeding when the big companies enter the picture? Of course not, but it remains to be seen if it will be a worthwhile endeavor from a financial standpoint. Cannodale enters the single speed picture with not one, but two single speeds. A fully rigid model and a Headshok model. According to the website, the 1FG comes with a hard fork, eccentric BB and Cannodale house V-brakes/levers, but it does have disc hubs. The sample picture on their site looks, well....roadie-ish. The way it's set up looks like minimum standover w/ only a couple of inches of seatpost exposed. Let's hope this thing was spec-ed a little better than it's represented here. On the otherhand, the 1FG HeadShok looks more like an MTB. It comes with, you guessed it, a Headshok, as well as Disc brakes. Both bikes look to be spec-ed with a decent mix of parts from Cane Creek to WTB to Easton.

• Kona comes out with what is probably the first production dual suspension single speed. Yep, you read it right, squishy on both ends and named simply the "A". They continue to offer the Unit, their dual rigid single speed, as well.

• Surly is coming out with what could be a do all ride. Named the Karate Monkey, it's billed as a 29 inch MTB. Disc mounts and canti mounts mean you can run whatever brake suits you. Track fork ends with a derailluer hanger means it can be fixed/single speed/geared as you see fit. Offered up in Campstove green it should be around $450 for a frame and rigid fork. Feb. '03 is the target date.

• Rivendell Bicycles, makers of fine lugged steel frames, is offering a single speed called the Quickbeam. Contact them directly for ordering info. Judging from their other work, they should be beautiful. Even if you are not in the market for one of their frames, check them out anyway. They put out a quarterly newsletter called the Rivendell Reader that is a great read. Articles you won't find in other bike mags and ongoing info about the frame building process. Interesting reading and their business philosophy is pretty cool too. And, if you have ever seen or heard of the infamous moustache bar, this is where you get them. A pair is living on my fixed gear bike right now and I've got to say they are one fun bar to ride.

• Dirt Rag, one of our favorite MTB magazines here at SSO HQ, offers up the following cover text on Issue #97: SINGLESPEEDS RULE. Now that's what I like to hear. This issue covers the SS Word Champs in Downieville and reviews the Vicious Cycles Monolith Spiderbike as well as the Brew Beaver Creek single speed frame. Plus, other non-SS goodies that make the thing worth every cent of the $3.95 cover price.

• If you want some good reading of the 'zine variety, check out Leapfrog. Bikes, culture, 'zine reviews. It is well written, laid out nice and clean and printed on some nice stock. You can tell a lot of time is spent putting together each issue. It's always a good read, highly recommended and well worth the $1 that will start being charged from Issue #8 on. Contact Scott at xpeoplespoetx@hotmail.com to get hooked up.

• Still on the 'zine front, Cars-R-Coffins Issue #12 is out with tales of Team Evil's RAGBRAI 2002 antics, a review of the new Bianchi S.I.S.S., and the tale of how one man got on the job training as a tour guide/bike shop operator in North Dakota. There's more too, all good stuff, so get an issue before they're gone.

• Get bike Magazine's 2002 Photo Annual before they are sold out. This magazine consistently has the best photography and this issue bursts at the seams with photos that make you want to get off the throne and on your bike.

• Speaking of bike Magazine, their own Mike Ferrentino put on this year's Single Speed World Championship race in Downieville, CA. Since our plans to make it out there splintered apart like a satellite re-entering the earth's atmosphere, you'll just have to read the coverage over at MTB Journal.

• The September 2002 issue of National Geographic Adventure Magazine has an article about single speeds. It's not written by some hack, but by writer/photographer Steve Casimiro who has contributed lots of those excellent shots you see in bike Magazine.

• The fellow conspirators at ABSSS.org - the Angry Bitter Single Speed Society - have a new look and feel and some new content too. Go check it out.

• Interbike has come and gone. So go check out that super friendly, ultra excellent shop Speedgoat for their words of wisdom on the event. They've got some cool pictures too for those of you who don't like to read.

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