Ridin' in Yelm w/John

Long ride today, about 16 miles. We were both pretty beat. John put my new crankset on my bike and it was working well. That in combination with a tighter chain seemed to fix my issues with loosing my chain. Oh, and a straighter ring! Shimano LX by the way. Pretty snazzy. Testing Nikon SB800 w/Lumix DMC-LX3 and Pocket Wizard remotes.

Single in Yelm...Speed That Is.

Sloshy, sloggy, sloppy, hoppy. Thick leaves on mud and water, and lots of downed trees.

Syncline on the SS

Good day!

Solo Singlespeed Singletrack

Super Fall day at Black Diamond. Needed to blow off some stress from the week. Great trail and day.

Surly at North Fort

Sweet picture from my ride with Marcus.

Surly...Durty

After a couple of dry rides we had some rain. I discovered that I like my DH tires with a rigid fork. One word: Low-tire-pressure. Oh, I guess that is three.

Surly 1x1 - Orange!

"I'm just a simple man, trying to make my way in the universe."

Jake SS / One Light

Took the boys out to the road to Ipsut. We ride up the dirt road then make stops along the way to throw rocks and stuff. This is my Jake the Snake SS. I have some new stickers on my helmet from a photography lighting DVD that has inspired me lately - Zack Arias' One Light, "People are happier when they're lit."

55 Plus

This guy had 55+ on his race number...you gotta love that. Those Redline Monocog single speeds are the best bang for your buck you will ever find.

SSS

SSS=singlespeeds in show. John and I had our Singles out in the snow at North Fort, Brian had a full set of gears. The snow made for some heavy chugging and a bit of third gear (running that is).

Trail Building

I was out working on a trail this morning with my trusty Access.

Versions of Access

You have to love a bike with vertical drop-outs and perfect 32/18 spacing. I just can't get enough of the Access.

Access at State Patrol Trails

The State Patrol Trails in Kennewick are really great, smooth and fast, and full of curves. I did one ride on my own and one with my son. This trail set is highly recommended if you find your self in the Tri-Cities.

Carbon River Road

The boys and I tackled the Carbon River Road past the ranger station. We didn't make it all the way to Ipsut, we spent a lot of time in the creek along the trail.

Single Speeding at Growler's Gulch

Growler's Gulch in Castle Rock has some really great singletrack for singlespeeds. Juan Grande and I met up with some friends from Portland (a couple of '29er guys, and a multispeeder), and had a barn burner of a ride. I'm loving my White Industries Trials freewheel, it's instantaneous power-on makes other hubs feel sloppy, i.e. my XT hub and my DT Swiss 240. The 240 was my previous favorite, but the White Industries Trials thing absolutely rules.
-Adam

Memorial Day Access

My Access has had numerous make-overs, the latest takes the Fox Float off the front and goes back to the Marzocchi Atom Race. Also, beefy Rhyno-Lite XL's replace the Mavic Tubless set, bigger tires, super snazzy Phil hub and White Industries Trials Freewheel - retaining, of course the perfect 32/18 spacing! The Access rules in a serous way.
-Adam

Freewheels

My ACS CLAWS felt like it had a load of gravel in it after about 5 months of abuse in the Western Washington mud. I replaced it with a super slick White Industries Trials freewheel with 64 points of engagement. Yikes, no slop, power on, sounds like a fishing reel. The ACS was rebuilt by the guys at Black Diamond Bikes, I'll keep it for another wheel.
-Adam

Singlespeed? Three Gears Really.

I spend plenty of time in third gear, on my singlespeed! Top-cap by John PR. Keep them coming Johnny.
-Adam

Bike Nirvana

It took me a while to figure out that all my bike evolution as an adult, with it's ebbs at full sussers, and flows at the singlespeed mantra, where really a journey back to the bliss of being 9 years old on my bmx bike. Transportation, freedom and fun all wrapped into one. I still haven't found that summer day heading to the park, baseball mit on the bars, wet swim trunks sticking to my legs, the warm breeze, and sizing up a curb to jump...but I haven't forgotten it either.
-Adam
P.S. Here's the next-gen.

Skookum Mud

I took the Skookum with me to a Capitol Forest Sooper D race to take pictures. I rode the course to find the best photo locations and found some really great mud. Capitol has got to have the craziest mud in western Washington. The day could have been a lot sloppier too. It had been dry all day and all night.
In the pics above...I wiped some mud off the Phil logo. Phil has been put to some serious abuse while attached to the Skookum, mud like there is no tomorrow, tangled wire, jumps and lot's of singletrack.
-Adam

Riding with Jake 002

This morning was cloudy, with some fog, and I was wondering what the mood was like at my bridge. I took along a camera from school, a Canon Rebel xti w/28-135 IS 3.5-5.6. It's a new lens for my high school students and I wanted to test it. It's pretty smooth, focuses at a pretty close range (about a foot and a half) and the IS seemed pretty flawless on first use.
The scene at the bridge was not as good as I was hoping, no fog. Oh well. I'll try again on another day. I did muscle my way up Tubbs hill on the way back, which is always an accomplishment on a 42/18 cross bike, carrying two cameras and 4 lenses in a backpack!
-Adam

Riding with Jake 001 part B

Riding with Jake 001 began by heading straight for the bridge that is tucked into a less-traveled part of South Prairie soon to be more traveled in that it is part of the proposed new bike path route. From the bridge I headed down the Lower-Burnett loop and hopped off the bike, made my way down a slippery tangled slope and found this eerie little hut. I can't begin to think of what it was for or why it's there. After finding a cool little stream and building some singletrack in my head, I found myself running late and had to hustle home.
-Adam

Riding with Jake 001

This is my first presentation of Riding with Jake. I am going to start cataloging my adventures on my single speed cross bike. It seems to be the go to bike for exploring because it handles on and off road very well. And it is just fun to ride!
Yesterday presented itself with an extra hour and a half, so I took Jake down off the rack and did some local exploring. I've been wanting to photograph this bridge for a while. It turned out to be too late in the day for best results but I'll come back next time about an hour after sunrise. I have it scoped out now! I found another interesting hillside that would be a great place to build some single track...we'll see if I find the time to do that!
-Adam

Random Singlespeed Sighting

Nice little San Jose at the last cross race I was at. This was in the pits! Nice pit bike!
-Adam

SS on the ST

The Black Diamond trail set is one of the best around in western Washington, and a great place for singlespeeds. My quest for bike nirvanna has evolved a pretty unique ride. The simplicity mantra has replaced my clipless pedals with platforms lately. One shoe for all bike riding situations as well as one gear! This bike sees singletrack, jumps/stunts and bmx with my kids. It covers them well enough and I don't even have to change shoes!
-Adam

Phil Wood Hub and ACS Claws Freewheel

Phil! I'll be putting the fabled Phil hub through some serious abuse starting yesterday! The pacific northwest weather is some of the harshest around for moving parts, like bottom brackets, headsets, suspension and hubs. I ride religously through it all, day and night, so Phil I hope you've brought it, because you are going to need it. Phil replaces an XT hub that my local bike mechanic deemed, "the worst he's ever seen, and totally not rebuildable". Well he stuffed it back together and I got another year out of it.
After coughing up the dough for the Wood, I had to go lightly on the freewheel, so I got an ACS Claws and will see how that goes. After one day at the SeaTac Flow Park and the Buckley Skate Park the combination seems smooth and has no problems. Let's hope so! I like the sound of the ACS Claws, (it has the bmx sound!) but the feel is a bit sloppy, which is about the equivalent to the XT hub. I've been spoiled lately with the DT240 that is on my cross bike, which I've been riding a lot lately. Tonight brings the classic trail ride and with a bit of rain lately the gloves will come off for Phil.
Let's say a bit about the Phil hub, because it is worth some praise. It is nicely built, a work of polished chrome art. The bolt on mechanism is stiff, tight and fits snug as a bug in a rug. The skewer system it replaces didn't have that same solidness. Pete at the Black Diamond Bike Shop said it built up very easily, yes that's right my wheel is Peterbilt!
-Adam
P.S. I'll have a progress report on the Rollenlager, Singlator, Surly Cog, Forte Tensioner and Surly Ring shortly.

Third Try is Charm with Rollenlager

Mr. Mole confirms that the Rollenlager is a nice fit to my Jake the Snake cross bike and we're looking forward to some mud, bumps and barriers. I'll report back on it and the Surly cog at the end of cross season. The Rollenlager install didn't go as planned or without glitches. I found out that the der. hanger spacing is not 100% the same across the board. The Rollenlager really only works if you have spacing that matches theirs. They said they rarely have problems, but my SuperGo Access, and my Redline Skookum have different spacing. That was a bit of a let down, after holding the hardware in my hands and drooling over it's precision craftsmanship and sealed bearings. The support at Rennen was lightning fast, George Costa sent me an after hours email, and was fast with suggestions and follow-up info. I'm expecting this will be the best tensioner of the three I run, but it's dissappointing not to be able to get it to work on my other bikes. Say-Law-Vee.
-Adam

Rennen Rollenlager

If you have spent much time on many of the basic singlespeed tensioners out there, the Surly Singlator and the ones like it, you have become aware that they leave something to be desired. I've heard the Soulcraft one is nice, but I decided to hork up $50 for this Rennen Rollenlager. I haven't installed it yet, but I will and when I've put it to some abuse, I'll report back. My "Piramid" LBS generic brand tensioner got beat nearly to death last night taking my Redline Skookum down Tiger Mountain. Tiger is pretty chundry, and I broke a spoke as well trying to stay with my full susser friends. Anyway the Rollenlager came just in time. I bought it at Black Diamond Backcountry, which is my favorite bike shop, those guys rule in a very serious way.
-Adam
Oh, yeah, this thing from Rennen is burly, I mean burly, yet surprisingly light. It comes with a half link, which I've never seen come with a tensioner and is a really thoughtful thing to include. You won't use it every time, but sometimes it will save your bacon, and a trip to the bike shop. Nice job Rennen for the half-link.

Juan Grande Puts Up a Single-Double

This is a nice single-double put up by Big John of Thursday Night fame. I'll put the specs up on the SingleSpeed Nation photo section when I get them from Johnny P-R.
-Adam

10mm Lock-Washers and a Half Link

It seems that there is rarely a singlespeed conversion that goes without a hitch...for me anyway. I am not a bike mechanic, or a person that knows everything about bikes, however I have picked up a few tricks along the way that may or may not be helpful to you out there in the blogesphere. I just turned my cross bike into a singlespeed. It is a Kona Jake the Snake, and was previously run as a nine speed. So, the conversion went like this: cheapo spacer kit and tensioner from LBS, nice Surly 18t cog, Sram P1 chain, half-link (my spacing was too long for even the tensioner to fix, so I had to resort to this little gizmo), 10mm lock washers. The two glitches on this conversion were (1) my spacing with 42/18 was either too short to fit the chain on, or too long for the tensioner to work correctly. (!) The half link comes in here and saved the day. The second (2) glitch was that the singlespeed chain was too wide to fit between my front ring and the bash guard that was on it from my 9 speed setup. When I took the bash off there was a gap in the chain ring bolts. The bike shop guys were out of the shorter bolt sets, and sent me home with washers that ended up being too small. I picked up some 10mm lock washers from Home Depot that did the trick though. It's done and on my first spin the drive train was working well and very snappy, nothing accelerates like a light weight singlespeed with a nice hub in back! Anyway, the first spin also produced bad news...the headset is toast...King?...$130...ouch...we'll see if I cough up the dough for King-Bling or cut a corner to save the check book.
-Adam

T's GT SS

T-Money has joined SSN with an old school GT and a bunch of spare parts. All I know is he's been leading the ride lately and there is nothing but a lack of air behind.
-Adam

Surly Dogs & Cogs

I just got my paws on a 18t Surly cog for my cross bike. I picked this one because it's real wide and steel. It's going on a DT Swiss 240 hub with shimano freehub body. I was concerned about a thinner cog damaging my super sweet 240. I haven't had problems in that area before but some people do warn about it and again I'm being careful because it's a nice hub. I'll report back with a no holds barred review after I've put some sweat and mud to it.
-Adam

Singlespeed Gear Ratios

This chart was sent to me by John Bravard from Portland, Oregon, where the bike lanes are plentiful and the rain is wet. For a version that can be altered with automated calculations: http://www.adamleahyphotography.com/SSN/SSNratios.htm
-Adam
Here is some explanation from the gear-head himself. This is in reference to the numbers in the middle of the chart.
Johnny B. says, "It's 'gear inches' - which is a standardized measurement that basically determines how far the bike will travel with one revolution of the pedals.
The "46.4 inch" gear means that one turn of the pedals will move the bike the same distance as a wheel with a 46.4 inch diameter. The concept is that by introducing gears/gear ratios we effectively change the wheel diameter. I'm not sure why this is the standard instead of using the actual distance covered with one pedal revolution - which would be this number multiplied by pi.
Higher "gear inches" means that the bike will go further with each pedal revolution and that you will pedal slower at a given gear than if you were pedaling a lower "gear inch" combination. For example, if you were riding a 45 inch gear at 90 revolutions per minute, you would be traveling at approximately 12 mph. If you were riding a 90 inch gear at 90 revolutions per minute, you would be traveling at approximately 24 mph."
Well, there you have it. Thanks John!

SSN Logo in Liquid Reynold's 853

Photoshop rules!

Birth of a Nation

Singlespeed Nation is born! This blog will feature cool stuff relating to riding bikes with one gear. Singlespeeding is, of course, not new, the first bike we all rode was a singlespeed, later we may have tried bmx, then we complicated things with gears and now we are back to the way nature intended, and everything has been put back right with the universe. The yin is with the yang, your karma bus drove past the football team and picked up the cheerleaders, Jesus lives again and it is all good. Check back later. -Adam