A Year With Project 1 X 1

Project 1 X 1 almost a year after the work began.

The Surly 1 X 1 project I started almost a year ago now has been a smashing success. I should say that the date Saturday will be the actual day I announced it a year ago, but I'll be gone and I've got another post scheduled for that anyway. So, you get my overview a couple of days early.

I won't belabor the opinions I have already expressed. Most of that I published in April here. What I will say is that this bike has been a complete turnaround from what I had before I engaged in making the major changes to it that I did.

In a perfect world, this six time hand-me-down frame would have morphed into a 20" sized 1 X 1 when my former co-worker Brian gave it to me. That said, it works okay as is from a sizing standpoint. In fact, for the urban cruising I mostly do with it, the more upright riding position is better than a 20'er would provide. That said, this is the wrong size for me. At least from today's standards. maybe in a true 1990's sense, it fits. We rode odd set ups back then. I see old 1990's bikes much like I do old high school graduation photos of myself. I felt pretty good about my look back then, but in reality, I was full on dork mode. Yeah.....I said it. 1990's era mountain bikes were total dork-mobiles. Especially if you mixed purple ano with blue paint jobs. Sheesh! Ultra-dorky!

I said back in April that this was like having an adult BMX bike. I think that every time I ride it.  It is so nimble and twitchy it is dangerous, but fun. The other thing is that those danged Velo Orange hubs roll so freely that it makes every other bike I have feel like the brakes are dragging when I coast. This bike just flat out flies when coasting. Those are some really good hubs on there!

So, basically this simple, easy to maintain rig doesn't take much maintenance, is a bit on the dangerously twitchy side, and does what I wanted it for perfectly. The only thing I think I'll upgrade or change is the pedals. This cries out for a pair of Fixation Mesa MP's. I'll have to get a pair of those before the Winter comes.