Change Of Pace

Long time readers of the blog here probably will recall my "pilgrimage" to the Green Belt every Fall. The ride I generally do to see Fall colors and celebrate my beginnings in cycling in the Cedar Valley. I wasn't always a "gravel guy"!

Sometimes I do this ride on a fat bike, sometimes on a mountain bike. This year I pulled The OS Bikes Blackbuck off the peg, aired up the tires, and went seeking leaf-peeping opportunities on a Summer-like day in mid-October. 

So, before I get on with the story, I probably should explain this OS Bikes thing. Every time I post a picture of this bike I get questions about it, so please bear with me if you already are aware of the history. 

OS (Of Spirit) Bikes was a side project of WTB's Mark Slate. Around 2007 he designed a single speed 29"er frame and fork, had 500 units made at Maxway in Taiwan, and bought some components to sell completes and some frame sets. These became available late in 2007. I bought mine in January of 2008. 

Unfortunately for Mark, he spec'ed original Rock Shox Rebas on the completes, which by 2008 were superseded by Fox's new 51mm offset 29"er fork. It also coincided with a less favorable view of single speed 29"ers and an uptick in geared offerings. Finally, the Blackbuck was only available in a single size. The OS Bikes Blackbuck subsequently wasn't in high demand. 

Mark made a second version of the Blackbuck, made at a different factory, with three sizes available, in 2010. These are easily identified by their white "darts" paint job, where the original Blackbuck was almost all black save for a silver colored dart on each seat stay and chain stay. I've no idea how many v2 Blackbucks were made. And no....you cannot buy one new. Unless there are some NOS ones around, which I am unaware of. 

So, there ya go..... 

The OS Bikes Blackbuck as it sits now in 2025.

Now on with the ride....

I decided to head out after lunch for a quick look at the meadow where I usually go to see the Fall colors. I started from the house and took the alleys and side streets over to the dog park and then went up and over the dike to enter the Green Belt. N.Y. Roll reported the Green Belt had received its annual Fall mowing, so I knew it would be fairly clean with little debris to deal with. 

The Fall colors are a bit behind this year. Usually by the 17th we are either done, or right at peak Fall color.. With the extension of Summer into early October, I think the colors were put off until around the latter part of last week. Then I noted a big change in the neighborhood, which was the prompt for me to go check the Green Belt. 

However; once I got out there, it was pretty obvious we are not quite at the zenith of Fall colors. I'd guess it will be next weekend when we reach the peak of leaf peeping here. Barring any stupidly windy days which may strip the trees before the colors come in.

Hopefully this will coincide with the C.O.G. 40. That would be awesome to have a bit of that Fall color happening for the ride, but it would be quite late in the season for the peak. Maybe.... We'll see.

I was scheduled to meet with N.Y. Roll around 3:30pm, so I didn't have a ton of time to explore the Green Belt for more color, but the meadow did not disappoint, despite it being on the early side for colors. I stayed a while in the meadow and contemplated a few things before I set off to come back home again. 

I've had these old Kenda XC tires on this bike for ages now. They are big, voluminous, and have fast tread. They don't work great in anything other than hardpack, which is what I generally encounter if and when I ride off-road. However, with recent rains the Green Belt had some greasy spots and standing water which made the bike a bit tail happy. I could definitely feel the tires slipping a bit in some corners! 

 It was a short, but good Fall ride. It wasn't peak color, but it was a great balance of the greens of Summer with splashes of Fall color. The trails had some leaves, but it wasn't swimming in them. All in all, it was a great change of pace from the gravel I normally am out on. 

Bikes Of 2024: OS Bikes Blackbuck

 It's another December here on the blog. You know what that means? Yep! Another round of my bikes I used in 2024. This round-up will not include some of the bikes I did not use this year much, or at all. I focus only on the bikes that played a big role in my riding during this year.  As always, any changes or future plans for any bike I feature will also be detailed. I hope that you enjoy this year's round-up.

The OS Bikes Blackbuck is a bike that barely made the list this year, and did so because it was pretty much the only MTB I used off-road all of 2024. It also represents the bike I've owned the second longest, the Karate Monkey being the leader in that category. At least as far as bikes I have that are rideable! I have a Mongoose All-Mountain Pro frame that was used on my self-supported tours in 1994 and 1995, but it hasn't been rideable for over 25 years. 

Anyway, a little history on the bicycle being featured here. You might be a newer reader here and you might find yourself thinking, "OS what-the-buck? I've never heard of this brand. What is the story here?" Well, if that is you, here's a brief history based upon what I've been told by the originator of OS Bikes, Mark Slate. 

Yes - that Mark Slate, he of WTB, and a member of the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame. The tire designer extraordinaire. THAT Mark Slate. Mark decided to hop on the 29"er thing after designing THE TIRE and started his own 29"er bicycle company called "Of Spirit Bikes", or simply "OS Bikes". Along about 2005 or so, Mark had - according to what he told me - about 500 frames and forks built up. He offered the OS Bikes first model, the Blackbuck, as a stylish single speed with a first generation Reba 29"er fork or with his radical non-suspension corrected 51mm offset rigid fork. 

In 2006 I purchased a Blackbuck from Mark with the rigid fork. These bikes are ChroMoly frames with parallel seat and head tube angles, straight 1 1/8th steer tubes, and a split eccentric bottom bracket for chain tensioning the single speed set up. You could gear a Blackbuck with a special hangar for a derailleur, but there were no provisions for a cable for shifters on the frame. 

The bikes did not sell all that well, but Mark did have a second run made around about 2010. These Blackbucks have the white "darts" over a black frame. I'm not sure how many of those were made but these are also pretty rare. The V2's were made at a different factory than V1's. I was told that V1's were made at Maxway while V2's were made at a place called "Mercury", but I may have that second factory name wrong. I know Maxway did the original run for Mark.

My Blackbuck with the original "short/steep" fork set up. 74° parallel tube angles!

I mentioned that the Blackbuck was OS Bikes 'first' model. There was at least one other model designed and made as a pre-production sample that I have seen an image of, but as far as I am aware, it never was released, and so I cannot say anything more about that. 

Mike Varley of Black Mountain Cycles did a really great overview of this bike on his site HERE. There are a lot of details on the bike and a great image gallery as well. 

An image of a v2 Blackbuck from OS Bikes Instagram

So, back to my Blackbuck, which I love for bashing around out in the woods and single track here. I don't do a lot of mountain biking anymore since I've been doing so much on the gravel cycling side the last ten years or so. But when I go off-road single tracking, the Blackbuck is the bike I'm grabbing.

I still love the way the Blackbuck rides and handles though. I have it set up with a 470mm axle to crown Bontrager Switchblade composite fork these days which yields a pretty nuetral ride quality. Perfect for single track here. I do happen to have an original Reba 29 fork also. It came off another bike, but I keep it around to complete the "set" along with the original rigid fork.  I let a friend borrow that rigid fork for several years to use on an Xtra-cycle project, but I have that back now, so the whole set up is complete. 

I don't see going in a different direction with this bike anytime in the near future. But there is a handle bar coming out soon that mimics the original Jeff Jones H Bar and is similar to the Titec H-Bar I had on this bike originally. If that does come out I may have to swap bars and see if I can create the "old magic". Ha ha! 

So, there is a bit more to this "Bikes Of 2024" post! I hope that you enjoyed that extra detail. Thanks for checking it out!

Chasing Colors

Monday was the first "real" taste of Fall weather here. This past weekend we went from the 90's to it being 40°F when I stepped out the door to ride on Monday morning. The brisk Northwest wind made it really feel like the seasons had changed. 

It is about this time of year when I get that feeling that I need to do my "pilgrimage" ride. The ride through the Green Belt which I do every year to mark three things in my life. 

One is the recognition of my introduction to mountain bikes. The Green Belt is where I learned to off-road and it is where I took my first mountain bike to ride it in the late 1980's. 

The second reason I feel the need to do this ride is to enjoy the peak Fall colors. I don't always hit on the perfect time, but I try! I also very much enjoy riding single track in the Fall, so that tracks for me as well.

Finally, I use this ride to assess the condition of the Marky-Mark Trail, a single track connector trail I helped put in the Green Belt with an assist from another friend named Mark. While I did the bulk of the work, I didn't do all of it. Still, I consider this trail to be my work up until this day, 27 years after it was put in. The once or twice a year check is done just to make sure the trail is passable and still there. (Sometimes I do a Spring checkup on Marky-Mark also)

The colors weren't too impressive in the Green Belt until I started coming up on the maple grove.

A little better color here.

This year the maples are popping but everything else is kind of muted. I think the drier latter half of Summer and all of Fall has had a poor effect on some trees and therefore the colors have been negatively affected. Just a guess on my part there, but many trees have dried up leaves and they just are not getting much beyond a pale yellow or brown for color this Fall. 

A monster branch which probably blew down over the weekend.

I came across a branch which had busted off an old ,maple about 25feet up in the air and which had fallen across the trail. We had major gusty winds Sunday, so I am betting that this was felled by a nasty gust then. The tree it came off of had already been damaged previously, and by the looks of it, the tree wasn't well internally. I am no tree doctor, but I have slept in a Holiday Inn before! (IYKYK)

I bet that branch made a mighty crashing noise when it came down from the approximately 25feet high place on the tree where it broke off. Glad I was nowhere near when it did come down! 

The West end of Marky-Mark is looking swell here.

As is the East end of Marky-Mark!

Marky-Mark isn't the name I gave this bit of trail that might be what? A half a mile long, maybe? I don't know, as I've never measured it that I recall. Anyway, I did not name it. Another former resident of the area did that, and I have come to use that name as it fits the trail well, I think. 

I found the trail in remarkably great condition. I moved one small blow-down and there is another that is no big deal, but too big to move on my own. There is also one other place where a dead fall is hanging about ten feet above the trail that should be taken down. A half an hour and a saw would do wonders to clear that up. There are a few tiny branches that could use some trimming back, but honestly, I was surprised at how good everything looked! 

Fall colors on the shores of Green Belt Lake.

I ended up making a partial lap around the Green Belt Lake and then heading home. I may have to throw the axe and a nipper in the Big Dummy and go see about taking down that dead fall and doing a bit of clean-up in Marky-Mark, but I also have to get on some review work before it really gets cold and riding in the country is difficult or impossible. 

More soon....

Bikes Of 2022: OS Bikes Blackbuck

It's the end of the year and time to review what's up with the bikes I used over the course of 2022. You'll get a brief overview, any changes made, and what the future has in store for each bike listed. Enjoy!

Mountain bikes. Ah! I used to ride them weekly for years around here. Then I stopped writing for the website "Twentynine Inches.com" in 2014 and then my usage of mountain bikes started to decline until now, well, I hardly ever go mountain biking around here. 

So, I have whittled down my mountain biking stable to just a few examples and those are mostly single speed bikes, with the exception that I suppose that you could say my fat bikes are mountain bikes as well. You wouldn't be wrong......

So, one of those MTB's I've kept going all along is my OS Bikes Blackbuck. I use it mostly for commuting and errands now. If you've been around this blog a long time, you've seen various incarnations of this bike over the years. Always a single speed, but this bike has sported more and different front forks than I can count.

The bike has an old Bontrager Switchblade carbon composite fork on it currently which I've had off and on the Blackbuck before this. This is the fork I will run 80% of the time. I also have a suspension fork I can run on it as well as the original Blackbuck fork which makes this bike a really oddball affair. 

Mountain Bike Hall of Fame member, Mark Slate, of WTB, and owner of OS Bikes, made a rigid steel fork for this bike. It is short, and it has 51mm of offset. So when you use it on this bike the seat tube and head tube angles, which are parallel, are 74°, and with that short fork, this bike rides like a criterium bike with fat tires. It's really weird! I will rarely ever use that fork, but it's nice to have the OG fork for the bike on hand. 

I may get a different crank for this someday. A White Industries silver crank would be nice since i am running White Industries hubs and freewheel on this bike. I could also pull the Chris King pink head set, (an OG, first run one), and install a White Industries head set as well, making everything al matchy-matchy, but that's not high priority here. 

Stay tuned.....more Bikes of 2022 are yet to come!

Bikes Of 2022: OS Bikes Blackbuck

It's the end of the year and time to review what's up with the bikes I used over the course of 2022. You'll get a brief overview, any changes made, and what the future has in store for each bike listed. Enjoy!

Mountain bikes. Ah! I used to ride them weekly for years around here. Then I stopped writing for the website "Twentynine Inches.com" in 2014 and then my usage of mountain bikes started to decline until now, well, I hardly ever go mountain biking around here. 

So, I have whittled down my mountain biking stable to just a few examples and those are mostly single speed bikes, with the exception that I suppose that you could say my fat bikes are mountain bikes as well. You wouldn't be wrong......

So, one of those MTB's I've kept going all along is my OS Bikes Blackbuck. I use it mostly for commuting and errands now. If you've been around this blog a long time, you've seen various incarnations of this bike over the years. Always a single speed, but this bike has sported more and different front forks than I can count.

The bike has an old Bontrager Switchblade carbon composite fork on it currently which I've had off and on the Blackbuck before this. This is the fork I will run 80% of the time. I also have a suspension fork I can run on it as well as the original Blackbuck fork which makes this bike a really oddball affair. 

Mountain Bike Hall of Fame member, Mark Slate, of WTB, and owner of OS Bikes, made a rigid steel fork for this bike. It is short, and it has 51mm of offset. So when you use it on this bike the seat tube and head tube angles, which are parallel, are 74°, and with that short fork, this bike rides like a criterium bike with fat tires. It's really weird! I will rarely ever use that fork, but it's nice to have the OG fork for the bike on hand. 

I may get a different crank for this someday. A White Industries silver crank would be nice since i am running White Industries hubs and freewheel on this bike. I could also pull the Chris King pink head set, (an OG, first run one), and install a White Industries head set as well, making everything al matchy-matchy, but that's not high priority here. 

Stay tuned.....more Bikes of 2022 are yet to come!

Randomonium

  NOTE: Okay folks, if you haven't been around long enough here to know what a "Randomonium" post is, then here is the deal. I ramble, rant, and randomly moan about all things cycling in one, incohesive, bizarre post. "Randomonium", okay?

The refreshed Standard Rando v2

Standard Rando v2/Single Speed Wheel Update:

The refreshing of, and rebuilding of wheels for, the Standard Rando v2 is now complete. The final piece of the puzzle came in last week and I was able to get in a decent test ride before the cold came back again. 

To recap: I wanted a single speed specific wheel for the Standard Rando v2 since my Turkey Burn ride last November. That metric century ride proved to me beyond a doubt that I wanted to stick with single speed for this bike. 

Originally, back in 2020, when I got this bike, I was intending for it to be a geared bike, but what with the pandemic and all, I was fortunate to just get it up and running as a single speed. I left things as is and well, that is how it is going to be. 

So, instead of tying up a geared rear wheel on a single speed that would never see gears, I decided I needed a new wheel set. That prompted the purchase of a Paul rear single speed WORD hub with the through axle for the Standard Rando's 12mm through axle rear end. I inadvertently ordered a 32 spoke hole hub instead of a 28 hole drilling, as I had intended, because I had a set of 28 hole Velocity Blunt SS rims sitting in the Lab waiting to be laced to something. 

So, I ordered up a 32 hole Blunt SS rim. I had the spokes on hand and in the right colors to do my "Guitar Ted Signature" build which is black spokes on one side and silver on the other, reversed for the other wheel. So- Drive side rear = black, drive side front = silver, reversed for non-drive side. I dunno why.....I just think it looks cool! 

I am pretty sure every spoke is double butted and all have brass nipples. The front is something of an oddball. I have the original wheel set - well.....I had it, now one part is modified! Anyway, the front wheel rim, one side of the spokes, and the hub was a part of the Noble GX-5's original build. I took out the black spokes on one side and replaced them with silver, and boom! Done!

The rim is a Stan's Grail and the hub is a Stan's 'vanilla', average front hub. No big deal that they do not match because from five feet away, you cannot tell the difference. Maybe some day I'll get another Blunt SS and relace that, but I doubt I will. At any rate, I still have a good pair of Blunt SS rims waiting for hubs and spokes instead of one lone rim with no mate. 

Finally, I had to get a single speed freewheel. I really wanted to get a White Industries one, but I don't have White Industries money to spend at the moment, so I got an Origin 8 'Black Ops' 20T free wheel, (It's just s Far East free wheel, but a pretty good one) and put that on. We will see how long it hold up to Iowa gravel!  More soon.....

Testing the Redshift Sports ShockStop Pro post here.

Redshift ShockStop Pro Post Thoughts So Far...

I'm reviewing this for Riding Gravel (Standard Disclaimer applies) and while it looks like the post I reviewed previously here, it is almost nothing like that post. It is a very different experience. In that linked review I state that this post 'isolates the rider from vibrations'. This version does not seem to be the same in that manner. I'm still not sure what level of damping, if any, is going on here. 

It also does not feel 'floaty' at all. The previous ShockStop post I tried does kind of, well.....suspend you. It is a suspension seat post, after all. The coil spring sags under your weight until the spring rate supports you and you are kind of disconnected from the rest of the bike at that point. Full suspension mountain bike riders will be quite familiar with this feeling. It may be quite disconcerting for road riders or new-to-the-sport people. It does feel odd at first. 

But this post, which has one stock spring rate which is not user adjustable, does not do that. Nothing of the sort, so it feels more like a standard post. Now at that point, my mind is thinking 'why not just use a flexible standard post, like the Whiskey Carbon, or PRO Carbon Dyneema posts that I like so well?'

And there is the conundrum I am faced with sorting out at the moment. Is the Redshift Sports ShockStop Pro 'not worth it', or is it a 'bad design'? NO! It is a really well executed design and does work, but my question I have to answer is for which riders, and to what degree does this post complete its mission? I don't know the answers to those questions yet.

More ride time. That's what I need here.......

A 420mm axle to crown fork on my Blackbuck circa 2008.

More On Forks & Their Effects On Bikes:

 Last week's Ghost Grappler introduction cracked open the can-o-worms again concerning how fork length and offset can dramatically affect handling. This was because the Ghost Grappler, ("GG" from here on out), has a short (420mm) rigid fork with 50mm offset and that fork, the "Dinner Fork", is available aftermarket. 

I was asked in the comments about how such a fork would work on a 29'er. I said "Not very well", and that I had tried this. Well, today I bring you my examples.

In January of 2008 I got my OS Bikes Blackbuck and later that year I tried 8 different forks on it, all of which had different offsets and axle to crown lengths. In my testing I used the same wheels, tires, and I strove to keep the cockpit the same across all the set ups. (Which was a whole nuther story) This was to eliminate as many variables as I could. 

The Blackbuck with its stock rigid fork.

I'll spare you all the techno-mumbo-jumbo and cut to the chase. The shortest forks I tried were both 420mm axle to crown. The Black Ops was a cabon/aluminum composite fork with (if I recall correctly) 38mm offset. The Blackbuck fork, (came with the frame), had a 51mm offset. Both forks resulted in a waaaaaay steep 74° head angle. It was the offsets that were the diference maker. 

And boy! What a difference! That Black Ops fork was dead feeling and handled very weirdly. I did not like it at all. The Blackbuck fork was razor-sharp quick. You had to be on your "P's and Q's" to ride it. One moment of broken concentration and you were on your butt off the side of the trail. 

Neither was what I would call 'ideal' to ride. So, how does that relate to this GG fork- the Dinner Fork? Well, it has the same axle to crown as the two forks I tested 14 years ago. But it leans more towards the Blackbuck fork I have, with its 50mm offset than it does in regard to that old Black Ops fork. So, on most 29"er hard tails with shorter stock forks, you'd end up with 'crit bike' handling and a nervousness on technical terrain that would require maximum concentration to control. On a longer forked, 'modern-day' trail bike? No. Just no.... Those bikes are made to have LONG forks on them. Like 500mm and longer axle to crown forks, so a 420mm fork would be, almost, unrideable. 

So, unless your 29"er was made to have a 470mm or shorter fork stock, I'd forget about the GG fork as an option. That's my take.

Want more about forks? Let me know in the comments. 

That's it for today, thank you for reading!

Randomonium

  NOTE: Okay folks, if you haven't been around long enough here to know what a "Randomonium" post is, then here is the deal. I ramble, rant, and randomly moan about all things cycling in one, incohesive, bizarre post. "Randomonium", okay?

The refreshed Standard Rando v2

Standard Rando v2/Single Speed Wheel Update:

The refreshing of, and rebuilding of wheels for, the Standard Rando v2 is now complete. The final piece of the puzzle came in last week and I was able to get in a decent test ride before the cold came back again. 

To recap: I wanted a single speed specific wheel for the Standard Rando v2 since my Turkey Burn ride last November. That metric century ride proved to me beyond a doubt that I wanted to stick with single speed for this bike. 

Originally, back in 2020, when I got this bike, I was intending for it to be a geared bike, but what with the pandemic and all, I was fortunate to just get it up and running as a single speed. I left things as is and well, that is how it is going to be. 

So, instead of tying up a geared rear wheel on a single speed that would never see gears, I decided I needed a new wheel set. That prompted the purchase of a Paul rear single speed WORD hub with the through axle for the Standard Rando's 12mm through axle rear end. I inadvertently ordered a 32 spoke hole hub instead of a 28 hole drilling, as I had intended, because I had a set of 28 hole Velocity Blunt SS rims sitting in the Lab waiting to be laced to something. 

So, I ordered up a 32 hole Blunt SS rim. I had the spokes on hand and in the right colors to do my "Guitar Ted Signature" build which is black spokes on one side and silver on the other, reversed for the other wheel. So- Drive side rear = black, drive side front = silver, reversed for non-drive side. I dunno why.....I just think it looks cool! 

I am pretty sure every spoke is double butted and all have brass nipples. The front is something of an oddball. I have the original wheel set - well.....I had it, now one part is modified! Anyway, the front wheel rim, one side of the spokes, and the hub was a part of the Noble GX-5's original build. I took out the black spokes on one side and replaced them with silver, and boom! Done!

The rim is a Stan's Grail and the hub is a Stan's 'vanilla', average front hub. No big deal that they do not match because from five feet away, you cannot tell the difference. Maybe some day I'll get another Blunt SS and relace that, but I doubt I will. At any rate, I still have a good pair of Blunt SS rims waiting for hubs and spokes instead of one lone rim with no mate. 

Finally, I had to get a single speed freewheel. I really wanted to get a White Industries one, but I don't have White Industries money to spend at the moment, so I got an Origin 8 'Black Ops' 20T free wheel, (It's just s Far East free wheel, but a pretty good one) and put that on. We will see how long it hold up to Iowa gravel!  More soon.....

Testing the Redshift Sports ShockStop Pro post here.

Redshift ShockStop Pro Post Thoughts So Far...

I'm reviewing this for Riding Gravel (Standard Disclaimer applies) and while it looks like the post I reviewed previously here, it is almost nothing like that post. It is a very different experience. In that linked review I state that this post 'isolates the rider from vibrations'. This version does not seem to be the same in that manner. I'm still not sure what level of damping, if any, is going on here. 

It also does not feel 'floaty' at all. The previous ShockStop post I tried does kind of, well.....suspend you. It is a suspension seat post, after all. The coil spring sags under your weight until the spring rate supports you and you are kind of disconnected from the rest of the bike at that point. Full suspension mountain bike riders will be quite familiar with this feeling. It may be quite disconcerting for road riders or new-to-the-sport people. It does feel odd at first. 

But this post, which has one stock spring rate which is not user adjustable, does not do that. Nothing of the sort, so it feels more like a standard post. Now at that point, my mind is thinking 'why not just use a flexible standard post, like the Whiskey Carbon, or PRO Carbon Dyneema posts that I like so well?'

And there is the conundrum I am faced with sorting out at the moment. Is the Redshift Sports ShockStop Pro 'not worth it', or is it a 'bad design'? NO! It is a really well executed design and does work, but my question I have to answer is for which riders, and to what degree does this post complete its mission? I don't know the answers to those questions yet.

More ride time. That's what I need here.......

A 420mm axle to crown fork on my Blackbuck circa 2008.

More On Forks & Their Effects On Bikes:

 Last week's Ghost Grappler introduction cracked open the can-o-worms again concerning how fork length and offset can dramatically affect handling. This was because the Ghost Grappler, ("GG" from here on out), has a short (420mm) rigid fork with 50mm offset and that fork, the "Dinner Fork", is available aftermarket. 

I was asked in the comments about how such a fork would work on a 29'er. I said "Not very well", and that I had tried this. Well, today I bring you my examples.

In January of 2008 I got my OS Bikes Blackbuck and later that year I tried 8 different forks on it, all of which had different offsets and axle to crown lengths. In my testing I used the same wheels, tires, and I strove to keep the cockpit the same across all the set ups. (Which was a whole nuther story) This was to eliminate as many variables as I could. 

The Blackbuck with its stock rigid fork.

I'll spare you all the techno-mumbo-jumbo and cut to the chase. The shortest forks I tried were both 420mm axle to crown. The Black Ops was a cabon/aluminum composite fork with (if I recall correctly) 38mm offset. The Blackbuck fork, (came with the frame), had a 51mm offset. Both forks resulted in a waaaaaay steep 74° head angle. It was the offsets that were the diference maker. 

And boy! What a difference! That Black Ops fork was dead feeling and handled very weirdly. I did not like it at all. The Blackbuck fork was razor-sharp quick. You had to be on your "P's and Q's" to ride it. One moment of broken concentration and you were on your butt off the side of the trail. 

Neither was what I would call 'ideal' to ride. So, how does that relate to this GG fork- the Dinner Fork? Well, it has the same axle to crown as the two forks I tested 14 years ago. But it leans more towards the Blackbuck fork I have, with its 50mm offset than it does in regard to that old Black Ops fork. So, on most 29"er hard tails with shorter stock forks, you'd end up with 'crit bike' handling and a nervousness on technical terrain that would require maximum concentration to control. On a longer forked, 'modern-day' trail bike? No. Just no.... Those bikes are made to have LONG forks on them. Like 500mm and longer axle to crown forks, so a 420mm fork would be, almost, unrideable. 

So, unless your 29"er was made to have a 470mm or shorter fork stock, I'd forget about the GG fork as an option. That's my take.

Want more about forks? Let me know in the comments. 

That's it for today, thank you for reading!

Bikes Of 2020: OS Bikes Blackbuck

OS Bikes Blackbuck

 It's THAT time of year again when I have my year-end reviews. This series will cover my bikes I used during 2020, any changes made, and why I still like each one- or don't! Thanks for reading!

Again, what we have here is a long-time resident of the G-Ted stable of bikes. No, I probably will not ever get rid of it either. Maybe you have never seen anything quite like this? I can understand. The first run of the OS Bikes Blackbuck was only 500 frames. There was a second run which I think was even less. So, a brief telling of the story might be in order.

Mark Slate, of WTB, a Mountain Bike Hall of Fame member, decided back in about 2006 to have a run of frames he designed made in Taiwan. He formed a company to set up sales through called "Of Spirit Bikes" (OS Bikes) and dubbed the only model he ever had produced the "Blackbuck". It is a steel, single speed specific, (kind of), frame with a split eccentric bottom bracket type for tensioning of the chain. The bike could be bought with Mark Slate's radical design for a steel fork or as a complete single speed with a first generation Rock Shox Reba. 29"er wheels, natch! 

You know, I can't even remember exactly how I ended up getting in contact with OS Bikes, but I imagine it was all e-mail. I vaguely remember Mark Slate reaching out to me asking if I wanted to purchase one. I think that's how it went..... Anyway. The point is that I got the frame/fork deal. I tried the fork, (I won't get all into the nitty-gritty on that- long story!) and it didn't sit well with me, but a Bontrager Switchblade fork sure did, and that's what it ended up with, although I have a suspension fork I can run on it when the need arises. 

Well, Changes.... I did a wholesale change on wheels, tires, seat post, handle bar, stem, pedals on this bike recently. I laced up some old White Industries ENO hubs that my friend in SoCal, Grannygear gave me, and I put on some Kenda Honeybadger tires on the Salsa Gordo rims. Tubes here, because I don't ride this bike a lot anymore. I really like where this bike is now and it does single track around here like a champ. I see no big changes in its future. Just more riding, hopefully!

Bikes Of 2020: OS Bikes Blackbuck

OS Bikes Blackbuck

 It's THAT time of year again when I have my year-end reviews. This series will cover my bikes I used during 2020, any changes made, and why I still like each one- or don't! Thanks for reading!

Again, what we have here is a long-time resident of the G-Ted stable of bikes. No, I probably will not ever get rid of it either. Maybe you have never seen anything quite like this? I can understand. The first run of the OS Bikes Blackbuck was only 500 frames. There was a second run which I think was even less. So, a brief telling of the story might be in order.

Mark Slate, of WTB, a Mountain Bike Hall of Fame member, decided back in about 2006 to have a run of frames he designed made in Taiwan. He formed a company to set up sales through called "Of Spirit Bikes" (OS Bikes) and dubbed the only model he ever had produced the "Blackbuck". It is a steel, single speed specific, (kind of), frame with a split eccentric bottom bracket type for tensioning of the chain. The bike could be bought with Mark Slate's radical design for a steel fork or as a complete single speed with a first generation Rock Shox Reba. 29"er wheels, natch! 

You know, I can't even remember exactly how I ended up getting in contact with OS Bikes, but I imagine it was all e-mail. I vaguely remember Mark Slate reaching out to me asking if I wanted to purchase one. I think that's how it went..... Anyway. The point is that I got the frame/fork deal. I tried the fork, (I won't get all into the nitty-gritty on that- long story!) and it didn't sit well with me, but a Bontrager Switchblade fork sure did, and that's what it ended up with, although I have a suspension fork I can run on it when the need arises. 

Well, Changes.... I did a wholesale change on wheels, tires, seat post, handle bar, stem, pedals on this bike recently. I laced up some old White Industries ENO hubs that my friend in SoCal, Grannygear gave me, and I put on some Kenda Honeybadger tires on the Salsa Gordo rims. Tubes here, because I don't ride this bike a lot anymore. I really like where this bike is now and it does single track around here like a champ. I see no big changes in its future. Just more riding, hopefully!

International Single Speed Day Report

My Pofahl Signature single speed.

So yesterday was "International Single Speed Day" as I reported last week. I didn't know why it was and I had no idea where this 'day' came from. I just decided that since it was on a Monday, of all days, that I would just do a single speed ride commute to work and back to be a part of the goings on. 

Well, Monday, after my commute, I found out what this was all about. Apparently, somehow or another, I was on an email list that helped to point to what the deal was here. It turns out the entire thing was an idea hatched by Paul, of Paul Components, you know.......'The Paul', of Paul Components, not to be confused with the "Apostle Paul", unless you are talking about an apostle of single speeding....... Maybe.  

So, Paul just figured he and another gal friend of his with birthdays on November 2nd should have this be a special day. But not just for them, but all who claim the single cog as "all they need". Thus November 2nd has been declared "International Single Speed Day" henceforth and forever.  

I decided to pull out my Pofahl Signature Single Speed. It's representative of single speeding as a whole, I think. You see, being a rider of The Single Cog can be seen as weird. Possibly stupid. Definitely 'not right' by most folk's standards. My Pofahl, with its design that I came up with, all goofy and whatnot, is pretty much an embodiment of the anti-establishment sentiment that the modern day off-road single speed movement had when Paul Components made the WORD hub and rebels against The Shimano Empire rejoiced to have a completely non-Shimano, non-multiple geared bicycle to flash between the narrow margins of single track. 

Anyway...... I rode my Pofahl and it was a ride. Nothing spectacular. At least I know now why the day was Monday and not on a weekend when proper single speed shenanigans could have been promulgated. Oh well. It will fall on a weekend someday, this "special day" of single speedness. 

In the meantime, I figured that in honor of International Single Speed Day that I would show some of my single speed devices in one post. You've seen the Pofahl already, so........

The OS Bikes Blackbuck

 

The Twin Six Standard Rando v2

Black Mountain Cycles "Monster Cross" aka "Orange Crush" aka "#49"

On One Inbred Limited SS specific frame

2003 Karate Monkey (The stem has been changed since this image from 2019)

And finally- a 'dual single speed drive train' or "Dingle-speed". The Salsa Cycles Blackborow

That's about it for single speed devices with the exception of my rat-ride Raleigh Gran Prix fixie. I don't have a current image of that one. This does not include my other Inbred which I traditionally ran as a single speed but has gears on it now. 

You might say I'm a bit of a single speed freak. But I do have geared bikes I love, and one that looks like a single speed but has 14 speeds in a hub. (Ti Muk 2 Rohloff) I guess single speed and my style of riding just works and even though people keep telling me my knees will one day tell me I am no longer a single speeder, that day has not arrived just yet. 

I hope that y'all had a wonderful 'International Single Speed Day', even if you don't engage in the madness of a single gear. 

Also- Don't forget to vote if you live in the USA TODAY!

International Single Speed Day Report

My Pofahl Signature single speed.

So yesterday was "International Single Speed Day" as I reported last week. I didn't know why it was and I had no idea where this 'day' came from. I just decided that since it was on a Monday, of all days, that I would just do a single speed ride commute to work and back to be a part of the goings on. 

Well, Monday, after my commute, I found out what this was all about. Apparently, somehow or another, I was on an email list that helped to point to what the deal was here. It turns out the entire thing was an idea hatched by Paul, of Paul Components, you know.......'The Paul', of Paul Components, not to be confused with the "Apostle Paul", unless you are talking about an apostle of single speeding....... Maybe.  

So, Paul just figured he and another gal friend of his with birthdays on November 2nd should have this be a special day. But not just for them, but all who claim the single cog as "all they need". Thus November 2nd has been declared "International Single Speed Day" henceforth and forever.  

I decided to pull out my Pofahl Signature Single Speed. It's representative of single speeding as a whole, I think. You see, being a rider of The Single Cog can be seen as weird. Possibly stupid. Definitely 'not right' by most folk's standards. My Pofahl, with its design that I came up with, all goofy and whatnot, is pretty much an embodiment of the anti-establishment sentiment that the modern day off-road single speed movement had when Paul Components made the WORD hub and rebels against The Shimano Empire rejoiced to have a completely non-Shimano, non-multiple geared bicycle to flash between the narrow margins of single track. 

Anyway...... I rode my Pofahl and it was a ride. Nothing spectacular. At least I know now why the day was Monday and not on a weekend when proper single speed shenanigans could have been promulgated. Oh well. It will fall on a weekend someday, this "special day" of single speedness. 

In the meantime, I figured that in honor of International Single Speed Day that I would show some of my single speed devices in one post. You've seen the Pofahl already, so........

The OS Bikes Blackbuck

 

The Twin Six Standard Rando v2

Black Mountain Cycles "Monster Cross" aka "Orange Crush" aka "#49"

On One Inbred Limited SS specific frame

2003 Karate Monkey (The stem has been changed since this image from 2019)

And finally- a 'dual single speed drive train' or "Dingle-speed". The Salsa Cycles Blackborow

That's about it for single speed devices with the exception of my rat-ride Raleigh Gran Prix fixie. I don't have a current image of that one. This does not include my other Inbred which I traditionally ran as a single speed but has gears on it now. 

You might say I'm a bit of a single speed freak. But I do have geared bikes I love, and one that looks like a single speed but has 14 speeds in a hub. (Ti Muk 2 Rohloff) I guess single speed and my style of riding just works and even though people keep telling me my knees will one day tell me I am no longer a single speeder, that day has not arrived just yet. 

I hope that y'all had a wonderful 'International Single Speed Day', even if you don't engage in the madness of a single gear. 

Also- Don't forget to vote if you live in the USA TODAY!

Fall Views: Something A Little Different

Saturday I decided that 25mph Southerly winds were not going to be conducive to being out on gravel and having anything that approaches 'fun'. So, I decided to do something I haven't done in months- go for an off-road ride. Yep! I grabbed the OS Bikes Blackbuck and headed for the Green Belt for a quick jaunt into the woods where the wind was not able to get its searching fingers around me. 

Plus, I have a 'plan' for something coming up- possibly- that may require the use of the Blackbuck. I cannot say more than that right now, but if this actually comes together, I think a lot of  minds will be blown. It would be rad. But we'll see.......

Anyway, the single track promised to be super dry, and since we hadn't had much rain at all since July, the sometimes flooded Green Belt would be at its driest overall, and it was. Traditionally wet areas where you have to get off and hike-a-bike across were all completely dry or very rideable. This was a super rare occurrence. Maybe not since four or five years ago has the Green Belt been this dry. Fortunately the Blackbuck is sporting some voluminous Kenda Honey Badger tires which I aired up (with tubes) to 20psi and that took the edge off a lot of the rough bits. 

I was thinking of running the Fargo with its new Extraterrestrial tires, but with Fall and winds come sticks. That means derailleur removing events are a distinct possibility. Single speeding takes that out of the equation. Once I got out there, it didn't take long to see that I had made the correct choice. While I may have gotten through just fine with a geared bike, why take the chance, especially when the terrain keeps you in one gear most of the time anyway. 

There were some bigger things than sticks blown down in the Green Belt.

A view up Marky-Mark Trail looking West.

I decided to go check out my old trail, Marky-Mark, which is one of the rare bits of 'true' single track in the Green Belt. It was all rideable, as long as you can bunny-hop a downed tree here and there, and it was pretty clear in the tread at least. I could see where the Summer growth maybe had made this trail less than desirable to ride, but the recent spate of dry and hot weather has accelerated the die-down cycle of the underbrush. This has made the trail okay to ride through again. 

The open prairie section just North of the Ridgeway Avenue Access.

There was plenty of color in the prairie section to take a closer look at.

Normally every year I do a 'pilgrimage ride', a mountain bike single track tour of the Green Belt that I do almost every Fall to see the colors of the season. I decided to count this  ride as the one for this year. Why? Because I think this one beats all due to the fact that the situation with weather has kind of blended Fall into the back-end of Summer so well that we are getting late Summer flowers along with early Fall tree colors. Generally speaking, the two events are exclusive. 

So, that was a fun, relaxing ride. I thought perhaps I may have forgotten my off-road skills but I shook off the rust fairly quickly and was carving turns as always when I felt like it. The day was warm. Perhaps the last Summer-like day we will have in 2020. Next week things will turn much colder and I suspect stay cooler until Winter begins to creep in. It was a good season of warm weather riding this year. This ride was a good way to cap that off.

But now coats, wool jerseys, and gloves will be getting dug out, freshened up, and put out where I can find it for the cooler weather rides that are surely on the doorstep. I'll be wearing 'shoulder season' gear and getting used to the constrictive feeling of pants again. Oh well....... 

At least I am able to ride, right? I shouldn't complain.