This afternoon I went out for a ride on my Nashbar rigid 29er in Patapsco State park. I have had this bike for about 3 years now, and it has always treated me well. It was my only bike for a while, so it's been on every type of trail I dared to tackle. It's been ridden in at least 6 states and on 3 IMBA Epic trails. Not too shabby for a mail order, made in Taiwan, single speed.
The frame is aluminum, the fork is chromoly steel. The front wheel is a Velocity p35 with WTB Exiwolf rubber. I'm a huge fan of that rim. The extra width gives the tire an even greater contact patch on the ground and makes it fairly stiff but its not too heavy. The rear wheel came with the bike and has lasted a long time, considering the loose bearing, no-name hub and no-name rim. The rest of the build is an Easton Havoc seatpost, WTB Silverado saddle, Easton EC70 MonkeyLite bars and FSA V-drive single speed crankset. The front brake is a Tektro IO and the back brake...
Tricked ya! I'm not sure what made me want to do this. Any new kind of riding is exciting to me and I'll try anything as long as the cost and "certain death risk factor" are not too high. I was thinking about the logistics of trying to ride a bike, unable to coast, over a log. I would never have been interested in a new wheel to try this, so I was wondering if I could use a standard mountain hub. It occurred to me that is you could bolt on a cog instead of the rotor, you would have an instant Fixie. Unfortunately, I was not the first one to come up with this idea. I missed out on a chance to make my millions! Hundreds? Dozens of dollars, at least!
However, it did mean that after a couple of quick Google searches and some phone calls, I discovered Tomicogs and was able to pick one up locally. 5 minutes to take off the brake and rotor, bolt on the cog, wax my mustache and I was bouncing around my driveway like an idiot, wondering what I had gotten myself into.
It really is an interesting feeling not being able to coast. If you forget, you could be in a world of hurt. I have ridden about a hundred miles on this bike with this set up, and have had my fair share of sketchy moments. I really like how the bike feels more connected to the trail, or perhaps I feel more connected to the bike. I think it makes it more fun to climb a root covered, rocky hill. But I haven't gotten the guts to ride over anything taller than about 6 in high. I also don't like the feeling of sitting down and trying to spin the cranks on a fast downhill section. But, in contrast, I love resisting the cranks while standing on something a little more technical or a switchback pointed down. It's a totally different muscle group and gives me that jelly feeling in my legs after a much shorter distance than if the bike were set up as a single speed.
In conclusion, I like riding fixed gear off road. I don't love it, but I will definitely do it again. I think it will be very useful over the winter when things get a little slippery.
Thanks for reading. Enjoy the ride.
Kyle
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