Posted by: reini-wagner
Posted by: sverdrup
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I am just starting a single speed experiment with it (my first time giving that a go), so would be interested to hear of others' setups on hardtails without sliders.
That bike looks amazing, I had to look twice to realize it was not a before/after shot after a repaint.
Interesting you matched a 160 fork with a 1° headset, how does that ride?
I initially set up my large doctahawk (435mm chainstays) single speed and found the magic ratio at 34t front and 20t back. Both rings narrow wide (absolute black makes narrow wide ss cogs in 16,18 and 20t). I rode it like that a couple of times and never dropped a chain, even though there was some visible slack:
I tried running it with a 170mm Z1, and didn’t totally love the way the front end felt. I know it’s odd to describe a docta this way, but it felt high and steep to me. Some experimenting landed me on the 160mm 38 with angleset, which got me the slack head angle with the lower front end that I apparently was looking for. I also think the longer offset is doing something, but steering feel is voodoo for me. I just experiment until it feels right. I’m also running a 30 x 18 with similar slack until I figure out how to align a Paul Melvin tensioner. I have a microspline hub which has made finding parts more challenging.
Speaking of experiment, this bike feels like the first time I’ve been able to really get weird (it’s all relative) with a build. Andrew’s articles and the banter on this site definitely enabled that.
Riding a single speed hard tail with a 62 degree head angle and DH tires isn’t what I thought I wanted, but now that I’ve made it here, it just feels right.