On-One Inbred 29" winter ssmtb I won't use

What’s your budget for gears? Reckon you could 10 speed clutch (or bodge shimano 10spd clutch/SRAM 9 spd shifter) for sub £50 if you’re shrewd.

Get clutch 10 speed somewhere. Durable, cheap and modern enough you won't struggle to find decent parts.
Or microshift advent if you can get it somewhere, is pretty good

Slot with derailleur drop out mount?

Clutch?

Yep! It's upthread

I'm going to try a dinglespeed setup instead of derailleur

^ didn't do this, as i've been trying to cut spending down significantly.

Ended up in a bit of a huff with the bike overall and it now lives in Northumberland at my parents. Like any strained relationship, some time apart has helped a lot and I'm now excited about it once again.

The ssmtb thread has me convinced that I need to try faster, less gnarly tyres combined with a rigid fork on this, a la:

but also, since I'm being so pigheaded about keeping it single-speed, it needs spds for me to be able to really wrench it about uphill. I'm a scaredy-cat on a bike so anything downhill where I'd really feel the benefit of taking my feet off pedals or moving them around too much I simply won't ride, for now at least.

I sold the carbon fork I had on the surly, which was designed for a 26" mtb.
(https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UK-TOSEEK-MTB-Bike-Rigid-Fork-26-27-5-29er-Straight-Tapered-Tube-1-1-8-Steerer-/123817187422)
It's still in Manchester and hasn't surfaced on any of the guy's bikes so am currently looking into grabbing that back.

I finally got to do some of the type of riding I envisioned when buying and building this bike. I had been planning to bring my road bike up to my parents but if I'm never going to actually ride this I should just sell it. Decision made.

I asked around the local mtb people on instagram I knew, got a lot of downhill trails in woods type of suggestions, and I fancied more of a day-out xc kinda ride? Not sure on the terminology here. OS website + ridewithgps left me with a nice looking route out to Thrunton Woods for a little loop suggested by my cousin, up to Prendwick, across the hills to Ingram via Chesters, and back over to Prendwick on the Sandstone Way. Even found some very-local-to-home bridleways my parents didn't know about, which dad was visibly disappointed about.

I set off four hours late, down those local bridleways. Turns out they don't but cows on the map.

Skipped the loop in Thrunton trusting that the hills would be great.
Road to Prendwick was a bit of a slog but kinda nostalgic going through villages I'd spent a fair bit of time in as a drunk teenager.

Bridleways from here were lovely. Smooth doubletrack on the whole and super picturesque. Single-speed was tough - some walks/jogs/stops but that's alright.

Descending down towards Chesters was a revelation. Long flowey doubletrack with loads of different options and fun bits to play with. Even got both wheels off the ground! at once! More nostalgia of scout camps at Chesters before setting off down the now invisible bridleway (straight line across boggy field) into some woods where stuff got mega steep and technical fast. I'd done what the internet says and dropped my saddle (qr baby) but this was too much for me: pedal striking, dunno what's coming kinda anxiety too much. Nice couple by the stream asked how I was: 'out of my depth'. They laughed. 'At least there's a bridge here now!' they said - maybe I do still sound like a local? Clambered out and onto a little bit of SINGLETRACK which I actually attempted and didn't fall off on, before a long hike up the next climb.

More very fun descending down into Ingram valley (nostalgia yadda) along to the cafe for 2 cokes and some crisps before joining the Sandstone Way back up over the hills again. Caffeine was FLOWING and I was loving it like, so pulled out my phone for a picture of more sweet doubletrack, prompting my only fall of the day, uphill.

Descent down the other side was slightly less fun: it was wet and kinda minging stagnant looking water, and punctuated with a few nervy cow experiences. First a young curious cow started tailing me as I cautiously walked around their little group on the trail, then coming through a gate and having a group of bullocks all simultaneously look up at me. I dunno when I got so skittish around cows but christ I shit one. Went directly left downhill out of their line of sight and rejoined the trail a little way down for more puddles, swamped with flies now.

From there it was a happy tired road slog through the countryside home.

10/10 very good keeping the bike

Good write up, sounds like a great ride

Lush!

Nice! Looks like some good riding up there!

Ace, glad it has become a keeper

This is giving me the regrets for selling my 456! Nice write up

Thanks :)

I've been manically trying (and failing) to figure out how to fit this into the 3 bike line-up back in Manchester since.

I've got some downtime due to covid (hence the write up) so spent some time today playing with my camera figuring out 'the bike pic'

Bike looks ace. I'm moving back to Northumberland at the end of the month and have a project 90's MTB waiting for me until my bikes arrive from being shipped so that write up has got me pumped up to explore all the trails and routes I didn't take advantage of before I moved away.

Gearing up for a winter of ssmtb (thanks to @atk) and pondering rigid forks. Anyone know what length is good? I have the piolet fork from my surly but that's only around 400mm. Ofc the planetx cheap segmented fork has now disappeared.

Also pondering pilfering the wheels from the surly. Means sacrificing some tyre volume in exchange for wider tubeless rims and dynamo lighting. Dunno.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Steel-Rigid-Fork-1-1-8-threadless-stearer-190mm-/114929851600?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

Here you go

I have a 27.5 ecr fork if that might work, 447 a2c, 43 offset. Not sure what the inbred was designed around? Has a lot of mounts. Very ugly.

This seems a reasonable length and sounds wonderfully unattractive - have pm'd :)

Small change of plan

N+1 or switching colour whilst losing the mech hanger?

Edit. Ah, Rigid too, nice.

Bigger wheels is the most exciting change :)

Ooh, roll over all the things!

Most likely more like build bike and think lots about rolling over all the things but let's see!
Title updated accordingly

Plan is:

1. Buy cheap ebay mtb wheels and headset
   
2. Move drivetrain and seating from old inbred
   
3. Get a nicer stem to go with some cool bars I have
   
4. Handwring over tyre choice