My buddy is building a hardtail so now I’m dithering a hardtail build of my own. Might not actually happen but at least it’s keeping my brain occupied.
I want to have a singlespeed option, but most frames I can find that have sliding dropouts are way out of my price range (I’m hoping to keep frame price around $400). The two frames I’m looking at are the Orange Clockwork or the NS Eccentric, as both have threaded BBs and ISCG mounts so there’s some good chain tensioning options.
I’ve been leaning towards the Orange since it’s designed around a 130 fork (which I have already) vs a 140 with the NS, plus it’s not quite as slack and should be a bit lighter, but it’s got pretty long chainstays at 450mm. The NS has 430mm chainstays. Both frames would result in a longer wheelbase bike than my Trance.
Seems like most folks tend to prefer short chainstays on singlespeeds since there’s a lot of standing climbing and that moves weight more towards the front wheel and long chainstays only exacerbate that. Not sure if I’m thinking too hard about this or not. Anyone have any thoughts?
My sawyer ss is listed at 445. I don’t think you would really register the difference on 20mm with all of the other variables. There is going to be a learning curve regarding climbing no matter what geo you end up with. Getting a feel for how much torque you can push without breaking loose is kind of the main difference in ss. You’re going to have to work that out for your body on your bike and I don’t think it’s enough difference to make or break it.
Three pumps, pretty different psi readings. Sample: Topeak at 60, Giyo (afaik the oem for both fox and rockshox) at 65, Fox over 70. Kinda sucks as I believe the Fox to be the most accurate based on experience.
I pumped the test fork up to 80 on the Fox and it read as 72.5 on the Giyo. Pumping it up to 80 on the Giyo read as 87 or so on the Fox.
Rear shock: pumped up to 225 with Fox, read as 212 on Giyo when attached.
Pumping up to 225 on the Giyo led to a reading of 220 on the Fox (which takes a lot of air when connecting to rear shock, seemingly less so on lower pressure fork).
You have to account for some air loss in the hose but I’m still kinda unhappy with the discrepancies. I was expecting the Fox and Giyo to be close. I suppose that as long as the digital pump is consistent, I just have to recalibrate myself to using its numbers over the trusty analog pump.
My experience with tire pumps is that the actual accuracy doesn’t make so much of a difference as much as using the same one for relative consistency. I imagine this holds true for shock pumps too?
Yeah that’s what I said at the end. It’s just kind of annoying with forks and shocks because if I were to, for example, dial in a new piece of equipment with the Topeak pump, it would (and has) result in a terrible ride. That’s how I figured out that the Topeak was utterly fucked earlier this year.
@Crustradamus does the Giyo pump have a quick release to tighten around the valve? My Giyo does and I swear it will lose about 10 psi when I remove it.
Yes. I believe that when you unfasten the lever, you are no longer connected to your fork/shock and just measuring hose pressure. You then press the button behind the digital head and release the hose pressure before fully unthreading.
With a 29er wheel or keeping 27.5? I had a 180 fork on for a minute (which I think would be approx the same total length as a 140 fork with 29er wheel, though I guess mechanical trail would differ) and it felt pretty ass on everything that wasn’t pointed straight down.
(Omg… just typing that phrase I had 3 autocorrect errors)….
95% of the riding here is fire road climb then straight down. So it makes sense, I think the biggest deal is the rollover advantage. I honestly can’t be bothered though. I’ll by a 29inch e bike in a few years or whatever.
Top photo is 27.5 x 2.6 with a 160mm 38, bottom is a 29 x 2.5 with a 140mm pike. Unfortunately the steerer on the pike was too short so I couldn’t thread the top cap/bolt. Had the effect of slacking the fork a bit due to the play in the unloaded headset.
The clinometer app on my phone only does whole degrees so couldn’t get very exact results but seat angle remained unchanged (71* actual). Head angle differed by 1 degree (63 vs 62) but I’m assuming that’s due to the loose headset. Bb height was approximately the same (343mm +/- 2mm)
I’m honestly surprised it’s this close. Seems like it’ll work a treat for a winch and plummet style of riding
