singlespeed

In the days of old, the Shimano freehub body standard was universally used in most hubs (we are not counting Campagnolo; after all, this is a mountain bike magazine). SRAM’s XD driver threw that standard out the window with a new design that accommodates a 10 tooth cog. No more interchangeability between SRAM and Shimano ...

By Stevil Kinevil  The year was 2007. One person or another asked me if I’d planned on attending the first-ever Singlespeed Cyclocross World Championships, which were to be held a few weeks later in Portland, Oregon. Having been in the trenches both organizing and racing in some of the first Singlespeed World Championships of the ...

Ed. Note: This piece was originally published in Dirt Rag 106 in March 2004.  For the uninitiated, a fixed gear bicycle is a singlespeed without a freewheel—if the wheels are rolling, the cranks are turning. Rudy Nadler is one of the many people who have learned the joy of off-road fixed gear cycling, and when ...

Ed. Note: This review of the Kona A, the first ever production full-suspension singlespeed, was originally published in Dirt Rag 102 in August 2003.  Rider: Philip Keyes Height: 6’2” Weight: 196lbs. Inseam: 34” Kona is one cool company. Case in point: these guys are offering the first-ever production dual suspension singlespeed. They had to know ...

Ed. Note: Mountain Bike Trailer Park is a regular column written by Uncle Dan that appears monthly on the Dirt Rag Interwebs. If you missed his previous columns, check them out here. Well, I sold my bar bike, affectionately named the Shitbike. The Shitbike had gone through many changes over time, ultimately shedding parts as ...

Singlespeeds aren’t rational, like eating cereal for dinner. That’s not healthy; you know better; you just can’t help it; you don’t have time to put together something more complicated or nutritional. You just want to get on with it. Cereal for dinner was an extremely rare occurrence in my childhood home and not even all ...

The old Surly Karate Monkey got a few small changes over the years but, for the most part, it was the same bike that helped 29ers gain mainstream acceptance starting in 2002. It was launched that year at the very event we’re now detoxing from (Interbike). We covered the new Karate Monkey earlier this year and brought ...

Words and photos by Devon Balet I came up with this great bad idea over beers at my favorite bike shop in my hometown of Grand Junction, Colorado. Shop mechanic Alex and I were discussing ideas of how to spend the first two weeks of February when the shop was closed and he was left with ...

I was stopped on the side of the bike path, topping off a slightly underinflated tire. “Hey nice bike. What’s that extra tube for? Must be heavy duty or somethin’. Is it for extra weight?” The tube in question is the twin top tube on this here Kona Humuhumu. A retro/cruiser/mountainous/classic/singlespeed/bar-hopping/klunkish/commuter. Why is the extra ...

Catch up: A cross-country bike tour with a twist: Chris Reichel is riding his mountain bike from Colorado to North Carolina and hitting all the best trails along the way. If you missed earlier installments of the Ultimate Ride to the Ride, see them here. By Chris Reichel I didn’t have much of a schedule or ...

Chumba’s lineup offers two hardtails: the Stella and Sendero. As the Stella collects its accolades on the cross-country and endurance race scene, the Sendero is off-course looking for anything and everything to pop off. Downcountry, a fun cross-country bike or simply modern hardtail geometry, whatever you want to call it, the Sendero is titillating. THE ...

Earlier this year when Pivot Cycles revamped the company’s flagship cross-country race bike, the LES SL was no longer sporting the company’s signature Swinger II dropout system. Many A select few (including myself) speculated where to turn for a high-end carbon singlespeed that offered sliding-dropouts, modern hardtail geometry and the ability to run a proper ...

Editor’s note: The following reader letter appeared in Dirt Rag issue #116, published in February 2003. Hey Dirt Rag, Not too long ago, I decided that my perfectly good paint job of stock primer gray on my 2003 Bianchi S.I.S.S. was just too familiar. So in a quick decision, it was stripped, primed and painted ...

Editor’s note: Last weekend Dirt Rag’s “sponsored” SoCal racer Lance Nicholls lined up for his first cross-country first race of the new year. While the rest of the vet pros (and open pros) were on geared bikes, Lance races only on a singlespeed. Here’s how his winning ride unfolded. Congratulations Lance and thanks for doing ...

Editor’s note:The Tao of Singlespeeding first appeared in Dirt Rag #110, published in October 2004. Adapted by Corvus Corvax from The Tao Te Ching, translation by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English, Random House, Inc., New York (1972), with apologies to Lao Tzu. Illustrations by Michael Pfaltzgraff. The ride that can be finished is not the perfect ...

Editor’s note: This bike review first appeared in Dirt Rag issue #102, published in August of 2003. By Philip Keyes Kona is one cool company. Case in point: these guys are offering the first-ever production, dual-suspension singlespeed. They had to know that they weren’t going to sell millions of these things, but they had the ...

Courtesy of Ruckus Composites: (Click here and you’ll understand the cow image.) Calling All Single (Speed) Ladies! Everyone knows SS ladies have more fun. If ya didn’t, now ya do. And girl oh girl do we have a race to prove it. We’ve built a special course with interesting twists and turns, a few kegs ...

Take what you know about a hardtail mountain bike and toss those opinions in the trash; the new Specialized Fuse for 2020 is an entirely new animal, and it’s ready to party. This aggressive hardtail is sporting a slack 66.5-degree head angle, minimal branding, and adjustable dropouts for those that refuse to let singlespeed life ...

By Scott Williams INTRO Ripping through singletrack on a singlespeed is where I find my ultimate happy place, but each year, the niche I connect with continues to sink further into the depths of a forgotten past. From a business perspective, I fully get it, but that doesn’t mean I like it. The weight difference ...

As Surly says, “The Lowside is the bike that gets you across town for a quick rip on singletrack, then over to the bar for a night out.” This singlespeed picks up where the 1 x 1 left off with the addition of modernized features like internal dropper post routing, Gnot-Boost rear spacing and thru axles. ...

Tester: Scott Williams Age: 31 Height: 5’10” Weight: 175 lbs. Inseam: 32” When the Pivot LES first stormed bike shop floors in 2012, it was obvious Chris Cocalis of Pivot Cycles was ahead of the curve offering a hardtail with a short chainstay and slack, for cross-country standards, 69.5 degree head angle with a 100mm ...

Tester: Adam Newman Age: 36 Height: 6’ 1” Weight: Gaining Inseam: 33” It’s steel. It has wheels. It rides like a bike. To be honest, I’m not really sure what I’m supposed to say? I mean, a rigid singlespeed is about as bare bones as you can get, and you’ve probably already decided if riding ...

By Eric McKeegan Some things just go together. Cream cheese and bagels. Peanut butter and chocolate. Harleys and guys dressed like pirates. Soma and steel. Soma has been turning out high-quality steel frames to fill niches in the industry for years, and the newest version of the Juice updates this hardtail with more wheel size ...

When Pivot made subtle updates to their LES for 2017, the sliding dropouts and sub 70º head angle which made the LES a crowd pleaser when it first came to fruition in 2012 remained intact. As Gordon “Quadsworth” Wadsworth, the 3x National Ultra Endurance (NUE) Series singlespeed champion states, “Budda don’t need no grease.” With ...

By Adam Newman Ah yes, the Kona Unit. At once the least glamorous and most amorous model in the Kona lineup. A no-frills, knobby tire gateway drug for the masses. The Unit may be simple but it has changed through the years, and for 2017 Kona is showing off its versatility by swapping out the ...