If you are looking to build a singlespeed ‘cross race bike, or a singlespeed mountain bike, and anything in between, you can run your favorite 30mm spindle cranks with the BEER Components Oner, as long as your frame has a PF30 shell. Recently, I swapped out the older 24mm Sugino cranks and Problem Solvers bottom bracket for the BEER Oner and White Industries cranks on my Urban Racer.
#singlespeed-bikes-gravel-and-road
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Crystal’s Scissortail Cycles SSCX with DK Pain Patina
Second up in the Distict Bicycles crews’ personal rides is Crystal‘s Scissortail single speed ‘cross bike. This build came together at the absolute last minute before she raced the Dirty Kanza. Crystal didn’t have any time left to paint the frame before building it up for the race. What are ya gonna do? Even if you paint a bike, racing the DK will leave it chipped, with paint damage from all the dirt and gravel pinging off the frame, so Crystal built it raw, raced it and liked the way the patina looked, so her and Bobby got it clear coated with a nice, thick coat, to ensure this “pain patina” would remain.
I love bikes with a story, and this one, in particular, made me excited to document the bike!
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Follow LandRun 100 on Instagram, District Bicycles on Instagram, Moots on Instagram, and Crystal on Instagram.
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Parker from Angry Catfish’s Amazing All-City Log Lady – Kyle Kelley
Parker from Angry Catfish’s Amazing All-City Log Lady
Photos by Kyle Kelley, words by Parker Roenfanz.
BEHOLD: THE LOG JAM!
It’s the Midwest; trails here often ‘require’ neither suspension nor gears. Having been born and bred in an area where the White-Tails carved much of the early singletrack, the folks at All-City created a capable ripper, with tight angles, classic lines, and a few touches of modern flair.
I had the chance to first ride the Log Lady down in Los Angeles before All-City announced it to the masses, and I fell in love with it almost immediately. Having grown up on rigid 26″ single-speeds, the LL really appealed to me.
When the frameset first showed up, I had to make a couple changes to it to make it mine. First, the color had to go; no offense to the wonderful folks over at All-City, but the Red/Black/White fade was not my jam. After that, I jammed the biggest rubbers I could between the stays: Derby’s AM rims with a 35mm internal width and Panaracer’s FBN tire, which measures out roughly 2.7. And finally, I did what any good human should do these days and put dropper on it! Just a little frame modification and the Fox Transfer post was good to go.
Obviously, this setup is a far cry from All-City’s stock build, but it should help showcase what the bike is capable of, and how well one can make it their own.
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Follow Kyle on Instagram, Angry Catfish on Instagram and Parker on Instagram.
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The All-City Log Lady: Sometimes Bikes, Like Men, Jump Up and Say ‘HELLO’ – Kyle Kelley
The All-City Log Lady: Sometimes Bikes, Like Men, Jump Up and Say ‘HELLO’
Words by Kyle Kelley, photos by John Watson
From the beginning All-City has been ahead of the curve. They are dedicated contributors to the current evolution of cycling, pushing their own boundaries and those of the industry around them, making bikes that are actually fun to ride. They began making high quality, affordable track cranks and hubs when there was nothing but Campagnolo and Sugino to choose from. Next they introduced the world to the 32c production road “race” bike. After that, they took the cyclocross world by storm and produced a NAHBS quality production single speed cyclocross bike. And during the vintage MTB craze of 2014-2015 they made a modern day, old-timey MTB equally equipped for ripping down the trails as through the streets to the bar.
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Steady Spinnin with the All-City Log Lady 27.5 SSMTB
Minneapolis is a veritable playground for a healthy mix of urban and trail riding. With the River Bottoms just a short ride from downtown, as well as a plethora of other trails surrounding the city, you can easily ride from your house, to the woods and back on one gear. Part of that ideology is what’s inspired many of All-City‘s bicycles and was without a doubt the motivating force behind their newest bike, the Log Lady, a singlespeed mountain bike with 27.5 wheels and a rigid, segmented fork.
I’ve had the pleasure of riding a custom built Log Lady here in Los Angeles over the past few weeks. This is by no means a complete review, since I’ve yet to spend enough time on the Log Lady to thoroughly vet it but I will say, so far, it’s been a lot of fun. Painful fun, but fun nonetheless.
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The All-City Cycles Log Lady Los Angeles Ride Details!
Tomorrow (or today, depending on when you read this!), Golden Saddle and the Radavist are doing a group ride to kick off the launch of the All-City Log Lady SSMTB. The ride will be MTB and Cyclocross friendly! Just bring knobby tires.
We’ll be meeting at the parking lot at the corner of Windsor Ave and Ventura St in Pasadena at 4PM. From there, we’ll pedal up Fern Truck Trail to what’s referred to as “Brown Mtn Saddle.” From there, we’ll regroup and watch the sunset. Bring your own beverage, you’ll get thirsty after that climb. From there, we’ll all cruise back downhill under a full moon.
Lights and helmet are a must! Come one, come all!!! This is going to be AMAZING!
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Kyle’s Fifth Anniversary All-City Big Block Singlespeed
All-City began as an urban cycling brand, with the Big Block being their flagship model. Over the years, the brand has expanded from track bikes to touring bikes, all with one thing in mind: speedy transport around and out of the city. In a lot of ways, All-City’s catalog grew with their customers. People that began with track bikes picked up road bikes and cross bikes eventually. A few years back, they celebrated their Big Block with a fifth anniversary model, painted in a pearlescent silver to white fade.
Kyle has been sitting on this frame for a while. He was finally prompted to build it up as a singlespeed for himself as well as a floor model for Golden Saddle Cyclery. This build in particular features an elegant Grand Bois fillet stem, those classy TRP Levers, Gran Cru brakes, a Campagnolo chainring with a White Industry freewheel and those new All-City Sheriff Star Hubs.
Because the geometry is true to form track, this bike zips around, regardless to how chill the build looks…
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Lucas’ Zebra Stoemper Singlespeed ‘Cross
Singlespeed ‘cross bikes on a course like Grinduro are no joke. For Lucas, the painter at Stoemper, the pain is part of the fun. The way he sees it, you’re grinning no matter what. Whether you’re spinning on the downhill or hiking up a steep kicker like China Grade, you might as well be enjoying the ride.
This SSCX was easily the wildest bike I saw the entire weekend. So. Much. Character. As I’m setting up the bike to photograph it, Lucas interrupted me, asking if he wanted me to remove the beer holster. “You’re riding it like that right?” “Yeah” “Then leave it!”
Races like Grinduro are best kept light and energetic in spirit. There’s no point in tearing yourself apart on a singlespeed, because you still have to make it to the finish!
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Bombtrack’s Versatile Arise
The Arise is Bombtrack’s veritable Swiss Army Knife. Run it singlespeed or with gears, with slicks or knobbies. 1x or 2x. On sealed or dirt roads. It even has rack mounts… See more at Bombtrack.
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Adam’s Sklar Singlespeed Disc Cross
I hope you’re ready for a complete overload of awesome rides from this past weekend’s Grinduro event in Quincy, California. We’ll start this avalanche of unique bikes with Adam from Sklar Bikes‘ own singlespeed disc ‘cross. But before we dive in, let me put this out there: this was Adam’s first tig-welded bike and there’s a reason it’s his personal rig. The welds on anyone’s first tig bike ain’t gonna be pretty.
While the welds might not be delicately overlapped beads of perfection, I can’t get over how clean and elegant this frame is. Even with what Adam refers to as a “parts bin build” with mis-matched rotors, this singlespeed has so much character and yeah, he completed Grinduro on it.
Run what you brung…
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Sklar Bikes: Scott’s Custom 29+ Singlespeed MTB
A bike that’s at home with 2.5″ or 3″ tires, that is curvalicious as a rigid, yet able to accept a suspension fork and sports a mean green coat of wet paint is about to be unleashed upon the singletrack of Ft. Collins thanks to Sklar Bikes. Scott’s bike is looking great. See more at Sklar Bikes.
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Speaking of PAUL
For those of you who had questions regarding his personal Rock Lobster cross bike, here’s a video of him walking you through his build… I’m really enjoying these. Keep ’em coming!
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Charlie’s Ted James Design ESB Rear Disc Singlespeed
If any city merits a good, solid track bike or singlespeed, it’s London. The traffic is like an organism. Sometimes predatory, othertimes symbiotic. It’ll swallow you whole, or let you surf the wave of continuous flow. Die-hard fixed gear and track bike riders will sing their bike’s praises in these conditions, while guys like Charlie will take all that and run a different direction.
Charlie is the owner of Seabass Cycles. He’s had this Ted James Design ESB, or extra strong bike for a few years as a fixed gear. The premise behind these frames was to take a track geometry and tweak it with a few BMX or MTB influences: bigger tire clearances, gussets and body language.
Radar
Bombtrack at the European SSCX Championships
Check out the latest from Bombtrack, bringing in the Euro vibes with the ECSSCX recap and Stefan “Fish” Vis.
Radar
Bombtrack’s Arise SSCX Frame in Action
The Arise is Bombtrack’s singlespeed drop bar bike, with clearance for bigger tires, canti or v-brake studs and a geometry dialed in for off-road riding. Its versatility is heightened even more by its removable cable guides and rear derailleur hanger, added to the track end dropouts. Need more information? Head to Bombtrack.
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Daimo’s Mosaic XSS-1 Singlespeed Cross Team Single Barrel
I tell ya, these Mosaic XSS-1 cross bikes are unforgettable. Except, I kinda forgot about posting this one. Sorry guys! Aaron and the crew at Mosaic do a superb job on these bikes, which they make for some of their local racers on a team they’ve come to call Team Single Barrel. There’s also Team Small Batch, but Single Barrel is their SSCX team. It’s a pretty rad concept, which you can read up about at Mosaic.
Now onto this bike. Daimo is, from what I could gather anyway, quite a character. The first thing he said to me was something along the lines of, “don’t forget to photograph the best finishing tape job on the team.” All It needs is some shallac! Anyway, Daimo’s bike came together great but it wouldn’t have been possible without support from Shimano USA, Chris King and PRO Bike Gear… and yes, tying off the bar tape was a nice touch. It’s not too early to be thinking about a custom cross frame from Mosaic. Holler at the boyz. For more inspiration, check out Aaron’s own suped-up XSS-1.
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Aaron’s Mosaic XSS-1 Singlespeed Cross
As you can imagine, the 2015 Cyclocross Nationals brought all kinds of custom frame eye candy to town. Hidden in the fleets of Rock Lobsters and Stoempers are these blue “Singlebarrel” Mosaic XSS-1 singlespeed cross bikes. Built from True Temper tubing with Chris King, Shimano and ENVE rims, it’s not hard to spot one in the crowd of buzzing freewheels.
I bumped into Aaron from Mosaic and managed to get a few photos of his bike before the massive SSCX race took place yesterday. These bikes are lightweight, precision race machines and you can find out more about them by visiting Mosaic Cycles.
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Breadwinner Cycles: Sparkle Pony Holeshot SS CX Bike
That’s a whole lotta bling for your buck. Disc, singlespeed cross bike with internal routing? I know cross season is almost over, but this Breadwinner Holeshot has my interest piqued. See more at the Breadwinner Flickr!