[pamba]

Yo all,

Nooob here.. well, noob to the forum, not riding..

Forgive me if this has been done to death elsewhere, a quick search yielded squat.. My old mountain bike sure is getting tired and I think it's time to try the SS thing.. My initial desire was to build a bike.. something lighter (than the 29#er I have now).. I'm no weight queen, but I like light an nimble (and easier to carry up stairs :thumbsup: ) So, as tempting as the off-the-shelf, cheapo 29ers are (like the Windsor Cliff 29.1), that's certainly not going to buy me any weight savings..

So what's the deal? Why are all of the SS mountain bikes 29ers? I get the big wheel thing and I'm sure they're great to ride, but that's a big ass bike with some big ass wheels.. why not a $400 off-the-shelf 26er?

Opinions or recommendations, por favor?

 

[AZ]

SS whatever you want to , 100.00 craigs list mtb , a couple of bucks for pvc spacers and a few bucks for a tensioner and your ridin one gear . Check out the FAQ's at the top of the page for more info .

 

[a528126]

For me it's like this:

Single speeding rewards and demands standing, rigid/hard tail is best for standing, big wheels smooth the ride better.

 

[banks]

If you fit and like the ride quality of a single ratio bike with 29" wheels, do it.

 

[Stumpy29er]

My 1996 Trek Mt Track 850 26er was upgradeable to threadless steerer, stayed full rigid, converted to 32 front and 18 back SS, added on some Avid single Digit 7 v-pulls, a WTB 26x2.55 Weirwolf up front and a 2.3 Exiwolf out back, both down around 28 psi. Of course, it doesn't ride as cushy as my FS 29er, but I don't expect it to. I can climb pretty much everything that I can get up on my FS, it handles very well, is a blast to ride, and has really made me a stronger rider/hill climber. I've thought about a 29er SS, someday probably, but there is nothing wrong today with the 26er, and it only cost me a couple hundred for the conversion. Riding lots of tech around Phoenix.

 

[pamba]

Well, that's exactly where I am I guess.. I could do that to my old Marin, or buy a POS and go cheap on it, but it would feel pretty silly to put $300 bucks in it (I've already filled up my shopping carts to find out), when I could buy that sparkly new bike for a hundred bucks more..

That's really what it is I think.. sparkly new bike syndrome. And if that's the case, I gotta pick from what's available.. Looks like I'll go 29er :crazy:

It just seems weird to me that the SS mountain bike thing has pretty much coincided with the 29er thing.. at least as far as new production goes..

 

[GTscoob]

I think its more of one of those trends that has been around for a while, its just been recently that the rest of us noticed that guys had been SSing for a while when we asked for advice.

I have no theory on why a lot of 29ers are SSing as well, I guess guys stepping up to the big wheels want a whole new ride. And the big wheels supposedly carry more momentum which is crucial to riding SS.

 

[Stumpy29er]

I bought my FS 29er for all of the benefits that a FS 29er offers, obviously. I have found though, that once I was very comfortable on the bike, I was having a tendency to use the bigger wheels to roll over stuff that I probably shouldn't have, I was dropping gears and spinning instead of really working, and generally being lazier/sloppier. Sure, this was me, and not the bike. I built the 26er SS, and all of a sudden I had to ride a lot smarter. I usually ride 3 or 4 days a week, a couple hours or more per ride, and about half are on the SS. When I ride the FS now, I pick way smarter lines, usually, and I am way faster/stronger than before I started SSing, and I can use the suspension and big wheels to soak up the rough stuff. Funny thing is, I'm turning into an up hill masher, and my FS is starting to feel to soft. Time for some suspension mods, or more likely eventually building a 29er SS, the best of both worlds.

 

[scyule]

I ride a 26" SS and love it, almost everyone I know who rides SS is riding a NINER or a MISFIT 29" To be honest, I have avoided riding any of my buddies 29'rs .... with a garage full of bikes the last thing I need is to start thinking I NEED a 29'r SS
From what I have read, the advantages of 29 are definately there, .... the only disadvantage I can see is WEIGHT, you just can't build a 29'r as light.....I know there are guys reading this that will jump right in with the fact that thrie NINER with INDUSTRY 9 wheels and all the lates bling is 18lbs... Yup, I know, but you could use eqivalent componentry and build a 16.5 lb 26" bike....

If you have a 26" bike, buy $30.00 worth of bits to convert it and when you know you are in love, ride some 26 and 29's and see who you really want to marry.

 

[mkrobin]

My experience:

I converted an old Rockhopper to a rigid 32-18 SS last winter (~$50) and rode it primarily this spring and summer. Once I got use to the standing up and pedaling through the tech stuff, I found the 26 easier to "throw around" than the heavier 29ers I had tried; I'm rather "stout" cool: ) at 6' 1" and 205lbs.

This fall, I retired the SS (I did replace the fully rigid with a 100mm travel front shock, I'm also an old guy!) and returned to my FS SC Blur; and as said earlier, what a difference! Mashing the uphills, lines that were once difficult were now simpler, riding much smarter.

I just purchased a Surly 1x1 frame set for short change through my LBS; this will allow me to swap all of the parts from the old SS to the new bike; also, I can remove the front shock and run fully rigid on 29 x 2.1 setup if desired (with a few other, minor tweaks).

As I get older (and wiser :thumbsup: ) I like simplicity and flexibility!

 

[Thor29]

I had a full suspension bike back in 1995 when they were still rare. Then I saw these crazy guys from the east coast riding single speeds in the very first 24 Hours of Moab race. I was intrigued and in 2000 I bought a Voodoo Nzumbi, one of the only 2 factory single speeds that I could find (the other was the Bianchi). I sold the full suspension bike. Then later when I moved from Colorado to California I wasn't riding as much and the single speed seemed like too much work. So I built a Voodoo Dambala with gears and sold the Nzumbi. It turned out that I didn't like the gears so I went back to single speed. So there I was with a single speed 29er. (I ended up having lots of problems with the Dambala and now I ride a SIR9).

So what's my point? I have no idea. But the answer to your question is that under most conditions 29er wheels work better for single speeds. It's that simple.

 

[danza]

I ride a Spot SS with 26" wheels i have owened a 29er SS with a rigid fork and i could
realy hammer on it for a rigid bike.
But for me it was to strange going from bike to bike my xc race bike is a Titus racer X 26" wheel and it felt tiny when i got back on it even getting on my road bike or cross bike felt strange.

So i will stick to 26" wheels also on climbs there not so hard to roll round and i have a suspention fork to hammer back down.

 

[Colo Springs E]

So what's my point? I have no idea. But the answer to your question is that under most conditions 29er wheels work better for single speeds. It's that simple.

It may go without saying (or perhaps it's been said many times before here--I'm a noob) but the rider's height is one condition you have to factor in. I'm 5'6" and 29-inch wheels just simply feel way too big for me--frankly, I'd be more inclined to go DOWN a wheel size before I'd go up from a 26" wheel.

I am in love with single-speed riding, but for me, it's never gonna be on a 29" wheel.