“Worst trail on the shore, on the worst bike on the shore!” – #JerryWillowsHatesMyBike
I’ve not had much success executing my mission as the rigid forking single-speedtologist I’m accused of being. Sure. I’ve introduced a few folks to the joy of being in the wrong gear, all the time. Yes, I get a bit of correspondence about rigid forks and plus-sized rubber. But I cannot claim to have converted anyone who wasn’t already seeking a different experience.
In my defense, it’s not for a lack of big bikevangelistic thinking. I’ve seen enough cinema to understand basic transformation tropes. Get the least likely candidate onside and roll from there. The last time I bumped into Ryan he was ruminating about ripping double-black trails on a rigid Rocky Mountain Blizzard fat bike! Musing isn’t doing, so we can’t start calling him Rigid-One-Speed-Ryan just yet, but he could be on the path of trading the 7″ Slayer for a 0″ Stooge. No more creaking CSUs!
I’m also increasingly certain that Jerry is more likely to get back together with riding skinnies than open his heart and accept the joys of fixed-forking and one-f*cking-gear. But I keep working on him. #JerryWillowsHatesMyBike today, but I swear his gaze lingers on it just a little longer every time I bump into him. Is that a longing for lost Ludditedness I detect?
If folks can learn to love pedaling themselves up steep single-track on a multi-speed bike it’s really only a small step further to do it on a single-speed. If folks can adapt to riding a hardtail whether for simplicity, amusement, or economic motivations then a double-hardtail is just a second application of the same thought process. An upfront cost with no ongoing maintenance requirement.
Already own a hardtail with great geometry for where you ride, but it has no provision, like sliding dropouts, for tensioning a chain? There are any number of affordable options to bolt on a tensioner. Even just your rear derailleur with long limit screws or a short section of shifter cable to tension it. If the frame has ISCG tabs use a chain guide.
Is it designed around a longer travel Boost fork? RSD has a solid rigid option that will plug and play. True, a 2.8-3″ front tire and i35-to-i40 rim will be needed for the best experience on rougher and tougher trails, but even this is a relatively small investment if you’re actually into running a fixed-fork setup. Even sometimes.
Much of my correspondence around rigid bikes and single-speeds is from folks looking to dip their toes with a used rig or an old frame they have around. It’s true, that’s the cheapest way to experiment; however, it’s been my observation that folks are much more likely to enjoy simpler shredding if they do it on a rig with the right geometry, brakes, rubber, and seat-post drop for their terrain (dropper post, or rigid post + QR).
[aside] No, I don’t know anyone who rents single-speed mountain bicycles of any variety. [/aside]
It’s funny. I regularly see folks commit comparatively huge sums of money to a mountain bicycle or eMTB based on an ‘it’s your size’ parking lot test and the knowledge that it’s the sort of bike they want to ride. But for some of those same folks, in exploring their interest in rigid and/or #1FG rigs, that level of commitment, even at a much lower sum, is a ladder bridge too far.
As much as I dislike spending other peoples’ money, the most certain way to fall in love with a rigid and/or single-speed bike is to own one you really want to ride. That could be committing fully to a rigid-only Stooge frame and fork. That could be combining a flexible but aggressive Middlechild, Chameleon, Enigma, Stylus, or whichever modern hardtail grabs your attention which will happily take a 500-510mm axle-to-crown fork and a big 29″ front tire. Personally, rigid-mulleting an aggressive 27″ hardtail is my best future path forward.
Single-speedtologistic fixed-fork bikevangelism.