Okay, I Have This Crazy Idea...

My idea is inspired by this venerable bike. 

Once in a while I get these crazy ideas for bicycles. Sometimes I act on them and you end up seeing the results here. Bikes like my Pofahl Signature, or the latest to be realized, the Honeman Flyer. 

Sometimes they remain in my mind never to be realized. Which, in some cases is probably a good thing! It doesn't help things when I have several frame sets around and lots of parts not doing anything. I naturally want to just find creative ways to put this stuff together and see what the outcome might be.

Lately I have had this idea percolating in my head which was inspired by the venerable Surly Pugsley. That weird, versatile, early fat bike option which had some unique design features. First of all, you could use parts from a hard tail MTB to build one up, including the hubs. Well, the rear hubs. See, the Pugsley was designed specifically to utilize two rear hubs so a rider could have a geared hub as the main drive wheel, and the front would be set up with a single speed free wheel 'just in case of emergency'. Say you whack the rear dangly bit off. Well, you simply swap wheels, utilize the Pugsley track ends to tension the shortened chain, (you did remember the chain tool, right?), and you can then pedal your way out of a tight spot.

This idea spawned my thoughts regarding my forlorn, but rare, Singular Buzzard frame. I was trying to sell it for a while, and I actually had some interest in it, which then pushed me over the edge to jump off and do this idea. (Apologies once again to the person who expressed interest)

Anyway, check this out. It's just a mock-up. A sketch, if you will. I'll explain after the image.

Okay, so here we have the Buzzard, a hard tail MTB with a kind-of slack geometry. This bike was designed just previous to the radical "long/slack/low" geometry craze we all know these days, so the head angle is not super choppered out, but it is slacker than older 29"ers. The top tube is not crazy long, but it isn't short. This is kind of a transitional design from the early "first gen" 29"er to what we have out there now. 

Now, it is not a typical Singular in that the frame is not single speedable. This is a critical factor in my idea. Fortunately Velo Orange makes an eccentric which accepts a 24mm spindle, two piece Shimano crank set. Now, the next critical piece is the front wheel. I happen to have this oddball single speed 135mm rear hub laced to a Marge Lite rim. This happens to work really well with this old Salsa Cycles Enabler fork I have lying around. The plan is to re-lace the red single speed hub into the old front wheel from this bike, which matches the rear wheel, and is a Velocity Dually. The rear is laced to a Velocity geared rear hub. Also of importance: The fork is a rear brake standard. So, I can use two rear hubs, one geared, one single speed, and if something went wrong on a ride? I could use the Velo Orange eccentric bottom bracket and swap wheels.

Crazy, right?