Got this bike for a steal, about half what it cost new, after it gahtered dust in a garage.
After a time, I knew it had to be fixed.
Don't go to [insert the name of the nasty local trail here] you will kill yourself, said the guy at the LBS when I picked up my Surly singlespeed rear wheel. Though the wheel was threaded for a freewheel on each side I intended, of course, to install it as fixed gear -- a track cog -- and mount it on my Trek 4500.
The results? AWESOME! Altho, as most people could tell you, a fixed mtb is a bit of a "you nuts?!" thing. The guy at the LBS, who had a sweet vintage track bike thrown in the back of his car, told me bluntly it would be hard to find the sort of thing I needed. "Singlespeed mountainbiking is a cult thing", he said over the phone when I asked for a s/s wheel to spin a track cog onto. Finally he found one and it was worth the wait. The bike was converted to a singlespeed for winter road riding around town and the odd offroad jaunt, using an 11t rear cog from a dismembered cassette giving it a fast but hard 34x11t gearing. Fixed, it was first built up as 34x16t, though that gives it a bit of tight chain tension. A halflink I got rattling around in my pocket might yet remedy that if I can find a bmx chain.
Then it was set up 42x16, perfect chain tension with the vertical dropouts, no need for a half link. This is the setup kept to this day; track cranks, 42t bmx chainring and 16t rear cog. Elite bottle cage. Front brake. Road slicks made it a lot faster, and the bike handles fine and trackstanding on a mtb causes a lot of the drivers to look at me funny!
For an mtb this thing is crazee lite, it feels like a road bike. But it's not. It's a road-mountain-fixed gear... - Elvis [more pics coming!] - Elvis
Specs:
Got to....
Back to da main page
My we'blog
63xc.com - offroad fixed site!
The AWESOME fixed gear gallery site