Whatever your reason for bike purchasing, this article is designed to test the best single speed full suspension for the money. Follow me to check how to choose the suitable one.
- Part 1: Overview of Mountain Bike Riding
- Part 2: Advantages and Disadvantages of Mountain Bike Riding
- Part 3: Precautions for Mountain Bike Riding
Part 1: Overview of Mountain Bike Riding
No matter the type of rider you are, riding with single speed full suspension is incredibly fun. In stripping away excess equipment and producing a more challenging, simple experience, it also improves the skills of the rider.
Without relying on gears, the rider must be able to properly read the trail. They focus on their technique and channel their energy to clear more difficult sections. Riding a bike with a single speed full suspension will make you a better biker.
Bikes riding on single speed full suspension are those with only a single gear and no derailleur hangers or shifters. It’s common for the term “single speed” to refer to single speed road bikes. But there is a multitude of others. BMX bikes, fixed road bikes, children’s bikes, track bikes, mountain bikes, and jump bikes rely on a single speed.
Fixies, or fixed gear bikes, are a type of single speed ride that lacks a freewheel mechanism in the back hub and replaces it with a secured cog. This means that when wheels turn, the cog does so as well, cranking the pedal and then the rider’s legs. They are the most basic form of bikes and represent the purest type of cycling.
Part 2: Advantages and Disadvantages of Mountain Bike Riding
Pros
(1) Lower Price Point
Feel free to drop $10,000 on a build with custom carbon fiber, but one of the truly best things about these machines is the fact that they are cheaper than their peers. You can purchase a complete, brand-new single speed full suspension bike at relatively low prices due to its simplicity and lack of parts.
On the high end, you can also find models with quality suspension forks and frames for less money than a geared bike. Generally speaking, a single speed is less expensive to own. A cassette hub steel cog costs less than $9, and a quality cog runs close to $70. For threaded hubs, the average freewheel sells for approximately $30. Furthermore, a one-speed chain costs less than $15 when it’s time to replace. As a final bonus on saving cost, there are no housings or derailleur cables to replace, with no potential of parts failing.
(2) Demands Less Maintenance
There is so little going on with the traditional single speed, and fewer stuff results in less stuff to maintain. If you ride rigidly, the only maintenance on a routine basis you will require includes lubing of the chain and airing the tires up.
However, like every vehicle, the rest of the bike will need regular checkups, including the bearings, wear items such as grips and brake pads. Yet, one of the best parts of a single speed is the fact that it will spend less time in a shop and more time on the trail itself. While on trails, they are far more resistant to crashes with no vulnerable derailleur and shift cables, making the bike more likely to keep rolling better than the average geared bike.
Due to their lack of maintenance, single speed bikes are very easy to craft. Use a hardtail frame or purchase a cheap used one and acquire a tensioning converter system, and bam, there’s your single speed. They make for a wondrous way to recycle parts like forks with un-tapered wheels or steers with a rapid release, or hubs that are incompatible with boosting.
(3) A Fresh Perspective
Single speed bikes help riders handle burnout very well. If you’ve ridden the same old trail an innumerable number of times, try them on single speed for a motivating, challenging, and refreshing experience.
You will be surprised what you discover about the trails that you never noticed when traversing with a geared bike. In addition, due to their increased difficulty, the short rides are all the more satisfying.
(4) Understanding of Momentum
Get on a single speed, and learn to swear by momentum. Despite the fact that you cannot change gears, it isn’t easy to spin at low speeds. When bogging on a single speed, you either need to power out or bring the bike to a stop and walk.
As a result of this, you will start riding in ways that keep momentum which demands the choice of better lines, getting speed at every chance, allowing the bike to carry and roll, and brake less. You will observe your trail with a newfound perspective when applying the lessons learned to the geared bike, which will subsequently prove to be faster and smoother than ever.
(5) Achieving Zen
Riders will find that these bikes are normally quiet in nature, given the straight chain that doesn’t rub or slap and fewer accessories to carry on the bike. This allows the drivetrain to be smooth as possible.
When combining a smooth and quiet drivetrain with style you will naturally adopt, a swooping, flowing style that maintains momentum, get the riding experience that is almost meditative in nature.
(6) Boost Fitness and Strength
Many people hate to work out at the gym, but they love riding their bikes. Everyone understands that riding offers a wide array of fitness benefits. Yet, riding geared bikes makes one lazy in a lot of ways. You can stay seated the vast majority of the time and spin a high-cadence and highly efficient stroke with low torque.
Cons:
(1) Crashing
Though it may sound obvious, a fall from a single speed bike at high speed, often in front of peers, never fails to cause pain. Slow speed offs are often the worst painful niggles.
(2) Mechanicals
In the middle of the ride, if the rider hasn’t performed proper maintenance, it’s possible for the rear gear cable to snap, leaving you fumbling off the bike.
Part 3: Precautions for Mountain Bike Riding
(1) Frame
The majority of frames for single speed bikes tend to be either alloy or steel. Alloy frames are often lighter than steel, but steel allows for robust cycling that can handle urban life abuse and is easy to repair.
Forks are often made of metal as well, with steel as the most popular option to keep with the rugged design. Sometimes, carbon forks are included on road bikes.
Single speed mountain bikes come with highly rigid forks and can always convert mountain bikes with suspension.
The drivetrain must keep its chain taut to prevent unshipping, meaning that, instead of vertical, the track bike faces backward. This lets the rear wheel move forward and back in order to adjust for the chain’s slack.
An additional option includes a bottom bracket with an axle that can rotate to remove the chain’s slack. For example, certain brands produce rear single speed hubs with an eccentric axle.
Still, another way to ensure the chain remains in its place is by fitting one sprung jockey wheel under the stay. This is typically utilized on single speed MTBs, and that means you have a full-susser.
Be sure to know that it is impossible to run a fixed gear setup with a tensioner. Because these are designed for conversions and won’t work with a drivetrain on a fixed gear.
(2) Gearing and Drivetrain
The typical suspects don’t include themselves often in single speed builds, aside from dedicated components for track racing.
This leaves the field open to other, less-known brands in addition to complete no-namers and unknowns. They are able to craft the specialist components.
Gearing your bike largely depends on the location you intend to ride, your level of fitness, and the type of bike at hand. Too little, and the bike will spin out, but too high, and you’ll suffer a painful fall on a steep hill.
On hybrid and road fixes, 44/16 is a common ratio between the sprocket and chainring, while on gravel and mountain bikes, a lower ratio helps master the terrain.
The good news is that changing the gearing on fixies won’t take much effort or cost much, regardless of whether using a chainring or sprocket.
Nevertheless, the choice for gearing is critical to enjoying a single speed bike, especially if riding in areas that aren’t pan-flat. Therefore, it’s worth considering whether a bike that only has one gear is right for you, in addition to dedicating the time to acquire the right setup.
(3) Wheels
Specialist wheels will typically include what is known as a flip-flop hub. Such a setup allows you to run both a freewheel and fixed sprocket on the same set of wheels.
Single speed wheelsets do not possess enough space to allow for bulky cassettes. Instead, they are constructed symmetrically with no right-side dish. This is needed to allow the hub to be flipped and make for a greater robust wheel with wider angles to boot.
Rather than thru-axles or quick releases, the wheel will be held in its place with the aid of 15mm nuts. Then its position can be altered to tension the chain.
It’s even possible to convert standard wheels to freewheel single speed. Many brands like DMR include kits that allow the replacement of the sprocket in the center with a straight chainline.
Pay close attention to axle widths, as there are multiple standards. For instance, track frames typically include 120mm worth of spacing for the rear wheels. They can potentially carry over into a fixie’s frame. The majority of bikes include wider rear axles, beginning at 130mm for quick release, and wider for thru-axles and disc brake wheels.
(4) Chain Width
Most fixies will include wider chains than more narrow ones found on geared bikes. This is to accommodate for the increased stress over braking forces, normal chains, from high torque, starts and climbs. There is more room for a robust chain without having to include a cassette.
(5) Pedals
As with all disciplines of cycling, pedals come at the personal preference of the rider. Whether you prefer clipless or flat pedals will depend on what you’re looking to get out of the bike in addition to where you are riding.
Flats are the best place to start if fresh into fixed riding. It also due to the fact that it is easier to get a foot down, and one is less likely to crash if something goes wrong.
Conversely, people have less connect with the cycle itself, so it’s far easier for a foot to slip. It’s more difficult to use legs to brake. And you are far more likely to whack by a crank that is still spinning. Much of this can be avoided if you are clipped in.
4. Bikes to Consider Purchasing
(1) Monocog 29″
The Monocog is tank-tough and sports a simple 29r for single speed riding. With mechanical disc brakes, horizontal dropouts, a threaded bottom bracket, a straight steerer tube measure in at 1 1/8-inches. This is a fantastic BMX bike that is in line with the heritage of Redline.
(2) Unit
The Unit is simultaneously minimalist and tough. It doesn’t have to stay like this, though. In fact, it’s able to handle a suspension fork, rack, and rear derailleur. If you plan to pull an overnighter, it includes fork cargo mounts and three bottle mounts.
(3) SIR 9
The SIR 9 is packed with a high-end, trail-ready single speed build. It highlighted on the dropper post and Fox Factory 34 fork at 120mm. An extremely versatile frame, this bike can take 29er tips to 2.4″ or 27.5 tires to 3.0″. It includes mounts to carry racks, cargo bags, a fender, and a good derailleur.
(4) Rocker SS 6-Star
If attempting to ride around with the flashiest look imaginable, look no further. The Rocker SS 6-star has it all. With a carbon frame, gates belt drive, Fox Factory fork, carbon rims, and a wireless dropper post, the Rocker even lets riders roll on 27.5 plus or 29.
Single speed bikes don’t allow an easy riding experience. In fact, they typically demand that the rider stands up and grinds out low-cadence, high-torque revolutions. And they will then require them to pull the bars with immense strength and thrust the body to keep moving. This provides many different benefits than riding a bike with gears.
(5) The Lenz Sport MilkMoney
The Lenz Sport MilkMoney is one of the full suspension single-speed mountain bikes in the world that doesn’t need a chain tensioning system to keep the chain in the right place when the suspension moves. With the Concentrak suspension system, the length of the chainstay stays the same. And sliding dropouts allow us to adjust chain slack and remove the wheel easily. This Lenz bike is an all-mountain/cross-country version of a single-speed mountain bike. The Milkmoney is great for long cross-country rides and also does well on technical day rides.
