My neighbor came to me the other night with an idea to build up a single speed bike.He had a laundry list of preferences and a frame already picked out.The Surly Cross Check was his frame of choice. All I had to do was help him find parts that would fit onto it.
He had some weird criteria from my vantage point. Bullhorns and BMX brake levers near the stem. No brake levers on the bar ends, where his hands would be, yikes! I know this guy. He is three things I am not; He is young, strong, and, very fast. He would not need to have brakes handy because he would be riding fixed. He wanted the brake levers on the center section just in case his girl friend might ride the bike in it’s freewheel mode. Logical? Maybe. Why does she not have her own bike? Why would her bike not have a Bionix kit on it so she could keep up? Not many humans can cling to his wheel on a bike with gears.
We looked around the inter web at brake levers, carbon bars, not carbon bars, stems, seeds, wheel sets, pedals, saddles, and, tires. He wanted cyclo-cross tires. Where in the hell was he going to ride this thing? SPD shoes too. Clipped in on a fixie? I say nay nay. Danger, danger Will Robinson!
Then I started to think.
Big mistake.
What threw me were the Cantilever brakes on a single speed bicycle. Would he not want at least one caliper brake on an urban bike? OK. The Cross Check frame would allow him the big tires he wanted. But would he really want 32’s?
The inter web transported us to California and Soma Fabrications. Soma offer this sexy single, their Van Ness frameset. All silky white with real horizontal dropouts, chrome, chrome fork bits. Chrome. Tange Prestige tubing. His eyes lit up. What he said at that point was: “ Maybe 28 mm tires would be enough” “Good choice” I thought. But why go to California when we might have something right here? Well a Salsa Casseroll would make a good single. Oops, Cantilever brakes again. The Surly Cross Check and the Salsa Casseroll have Semi- horizontal dropouts Not the best choice. This guy is an animal.
My mind was flitting about for choices. I thought about Mother Russia, The Cold War, and The space race. Sputnik! I took a drink of cold water pretending it was Vodka and navigated over to the Jamis web site. Sputnik. Perfect. A real steel single speed. Flip-flop horizontal drops, MSRP of $700. Reynolds 520 butted tubing. Road brakes and only 28mm tires. Crap. It might have worked.
Then I felt the call of nature, and went to the All-City site.
This was it. This was the right frame. Real horizontal dropouts with the Hennepin bridge cast right into them. Almost exactly the gearing he wanted, plus those cantilever brakes so he can retire any way he wants to. 32s, 35s, 38s!! Drop bars, not bull horns but so what! It will be great. A single speed psycho cross bike! It was designed to do what he wanted at a reasonable price.
Earlier there was talk of using clipless pedals. I am not going to allow him to use clipless pedals with this beautiful bike unless he promises to do some flipping and flopping and put the thing into freewheel mode. I know his parents
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