Big Bikes

Now, if You Really Want to Geek Out
About The Single Speed 29er Thing...

Again, I don't have much to say myself today, so I'm going to redirect you to more interesting regions of The Internets.

My buddy Geroge from the IBC team wanted to know how to make a single speed out of a frame with vertical dropouts without using a singleator or eccentric hub. PVD can show you how. In fact, if you have any questions about super-techy bike stuff, he probably has all the answers.

If you "simply" want to calculate your chain length to make a single speed out of a bike that isn't really meant to be one without a tensioning device of any sort check THIS out.

If you want to turn your single speed into a Two-by-Two, go look at THIS. A great way to get to the trailhead without spinning your brains out then switch to a more trail-worthy gear when you get there. Or, if you're a big, lazy bonehead like me, you can just run too big of a gear all the time.

And if you want to truly be a nerd about your single speed gearing, go NUTS. There's a whole lot more to it than throwing around the term "Two to One...Two to One...Two To One".

Marshall, the maker of Kick Ass Cogs and other good things, has some SCIENCE to drop as well on the subject of perfect single speed gear selection.

Now this was a subject brought to my attention by Big Bikes reader Steven. Unfortunately he lost me at "Coefficient" but I thought you folks might enjoy some of his insight on rolling resistance. He pointed me toward this article on the Schwalbe site which basically reaffirms the conclusions I've come to over the years regarding tire choice. Biggah is bettah! My five year old nephew is better at math than I am, anything beyond basic arithmetic makes my brain sweat but if you want to go play around and see how your tire choice might effect your power output, check this out. Steve actually came up with a nifty Speadsheet examining some of the factors.



Sorry, that's all I've got today. See you tomorrow.

-t