This is a link I took out of my single-speed Kona Unit. Now the sliding drop-outs are 1/2″ farther forward. I don’t think I’m fooling myself; the bike feels a bit more lively. I’ve also gotten the chain a bit tighter. This is a 3/32 “8-speed” chain, and seems to drop if there’s much slack. I’ve got a newer one ready that’s a better grade (SRAM PC-870). This one seems to be wearing kind of fast – about 12 1/16″ already for 12 link. I’ve ridden in about 300 miles of trail use. Maybe that’s normal for single-speed?

I’ve ridden my Kona Big Kahuna (29er, hard tail) for two years now, nearly daily. It’s still going strong, but getting a bit worn. This fall I was thinking about whether to upgrade it or buy a new bike. It seemed to me that want I really wanted was a 100mm travel fork (The Kahuna has 80mm), 1X9 gearing, and a steel frame. So the idea was to get a Kona unit, and upgrade it to get there. As a side-benefit, I could try out single-speed riding, as it had an aesthetic appeal, and It also seemed like it would be a new challenge. I tried my daily ride in Willowdale State Forest on my Kahuna staying in my 21-tooth cog, and 32 tooth chain ring to prove that it was feasible.

I got the Unit about a month and a half ago. I had expected a challenge, but the surprise was that it was more fun than challenging. Sure, there were some short steep climbs that were tricky (it has 32/20 gearing), and the rigid fork required more care on bumps, but the combination of lighter wieght, particularly up front, with the solid, smooth steel frame and fork makes it a blast to ride.

We sometimes think of challenge, and fun as separate choices, but sometimes, ideally challenge means more fun. I find that on the Unit I don’t worry about gear changes (there are none), and the bike is very predicable in its handling, so all that matters is hand-arm position, body position, balance, strength, momentum, and pacing. For me, this makes for more fun. This of course is true on the smooth single-track of Willowdale. On other terrain, I’ll still use the Kahuna, because I can’t do technical trails at speed, and I need the front shock to keep the bike from bouncing around due to my lack of skill.

At first I was disappointed in the brakes. They’re Avid BB7s – mechanical disks. But I think they’re breaking in slowly, and I’ve adjusted the front caliper to rid it of some problems with grabbing, and I’m starting to like them. I’ve also got some better levers to put on – Avid SD-7s that have a throw adjustment in addition to cable tension. I’m hoping to avoid upgrading them to hydraulics if I can get them to modulate a little better. They have plenty of power.

My plan is to keep the Unit pretty much as-is, perhaps converting it to tubeless, but sticking with the Maxxis Ignitor 2.1 tires. I like the bike now, so I’d hate to mess it up with changes. If there’s budget, I may just get a better fork for the Kahuna, and perhaps convert the crank to a single with a chain-guide. It’s got Stan’s Flow rims with 2.35 rampages, and I’m likely to switch to it in soft or snowy conditions this winter.

I strongly recommend the Unit, particularly if you ride smoother trails. It’s relatively cheap, not much more than a nice fork, and opens up a whole new ride.

I rode Willowdale today. It was tricky. but a lot of fun. Particularly some open areas where the crust was strong enough for me to ride right on top, There’s a foot or more of frozen corn snow in the woods, so there’s no way to ride it if the temperature gets above freezing. Rain is comming, so it will be a while before I can ride again.

Dan guided Mark and I though Dogtown today. Perfect weather and great fun. BTW – these pictures are via my HTC Android Incredible – not bad for a cell phone.

I parked cars for a couple of hours. We had a turn-out similar to last years’ – about 500 people – probably 200-300 cars. It made me think of Bike Snob NYC’s assessment of mountain bikers – people that will drive 4 miles for every mile ridden (or something like that). At around noon I did a ride with some of the other volunteers. We did a mix of the advanced and intermediate courses – about 15 miles in 3 hrs.

Frank led a ride that connected Bradley Palmer/Willowdale with Georgetown/Rowley State Forests. He said it would be about 25 miles. As it turned out 31 riders showed up; Based on the e-mail I saw I was expecting maybe 10. We went about 32 miles. The group stayed together quite well, adopting the practice of having the 2nd rider stop at each intersection and guide the rest of the group until the sweep showed up (Joe). I did pretty well until the last 2-3 miles when my legs started to cramp up pretty badly – next time I need more water, and will think about bringing some sort of sports drink for later in the ride. But all in all it was great fun, and the longest MTB ride I’ve done so far.

Taken on last night’s ride. I wish I had a real camera with me – he was white with grey streaks.

My Kona Big Kahuna came with Sunringle EQ23 rims. The rear wheel lasted about 6 months before becoming a maintenance headache – breaking spokes, spokes coming loose, etc. I’ve been nursing it along all summer. The front wheel did well until it had a relatively minor meeting with a tree trunk, putting it an inch or so out-of-true, beyond recovery by adjusting spokes.

After a bit of reading and shopping, I settled on a set of Stan’s No Tubes Flow 29er wheels bought direct from notubes.com with Stan’s ZTR hubs. I watched the video about mounting tires on their site a couple of times, and mounted my Panaracer Rampages on them Friday night. The process went without a hitch. I used my regular floor pump to get them inflated. I had to pump like mad, and the front wheel wouldn’t go without the removal of the valve core. But they sealled up quite well. All told, including transferal of rotors and the cassette it told me a couple of hours.

I tried them out on my usual trail ride yesterday. I’m very impressed. The wheels are really solid and stiff. Running without tubes makes quite a difference – they roll better, and are much smoother over roots and rocks. The wider rims (28mm) make for a noticable increase in width and volume. I ran them at 28 psi – I’m pretty sure I can run them lower, especially on snow this winter. Weight-wise, the rims might be a bit heavier (I checked: sunringles are spec’d at 450g, flows are 525g), but are compensated by the lack of tubes. We’ll see how the hold up, but right now I’m pretty happy – it feels like a whole new bike.

Without a whole lot of thought or planning my daughter Matti and I decided to head up to Sunday River to try the mountain biking up there. It turned out quite well. The weather was fantastic on Saturday. I knew my bike (an XC hardtail with a short-travel fork) wasn’t exactly the right thing for downhill, and Matti is just getting started riding, but it seemed like it would be fun to just be on the mountain and see what there was. As it turns out, the easier trails are the dirt service roads that mostly traverse the slopes. There is a bit of easier single track (Easy Tiger for example), but most of what I tried was pretty tricky, and I only did the “More Difficult” rated ones. These included some drops and rooty sections that I elected to walk. Matti got a lot of practice managing speed on the access roads, and did very well.

Sunday was drizzling and 50, so we just rode the lift up, then hiked the rest of the way to Aurora Peak. It was very quiet and pretty. I’d like to go back, either with a downhill bike rental, or just to return again with my XC bike.

More comments on the pictures in the gallery below.

Update: the GPS Tracks: