SSCX Only!

...why a cassette over a freewheel?

You can own a range of cogs cheaply, change them easily, quickly and with a small, light tool everyone has.
Servicing cassette hubs is easier than servicing screw on freewheels and the parts are common.
They're better sealed and lighter.
You can tune your chainline if you want.
You can run a couple of cogs at once.
And your rear wheel is interchangable with other bikes and the whole world of road cycling.

also,
the cheapest cassette freewheel is more durable than the best screw on type freewheel.
Road rear wheel + cog&spacer&lockring is generally cheaper than fixed wheel + freewheel
Much larger gear range possible

I'm looking at getting a frame at the moment and only want to run it single speed. By way of this conversation ^ do you think then that I should be looking instead for a frame with vertical dropouts and road spacing instead of a dedicated sscx frame which don't come up very often second hand? I don't want to spend more than 200 on the frame and I've seen plenty of geared cx frames go for less on ebay.

Look for a frame with road spacing and horizontal dropouts

Failing that vertical and suck up the chain tensioner or more exotic chain tensioning device of choice

My upcoming sscx project. I am using cheap used Gara and 4130 tubing. Not sure if I will be making a wishbone og regular seatstays. I do know that I want a headtube around 74° and that the chainstay will be around 420 mm long.

^ Looks like the aftermath of a really rough race!

watch out for toe overlap and nervous steering with 74 and 45-47 rake.

should be fine I think, but thank you. I have not measured the rake of the forks I will be using yet actually, But it didn't work all that well on my pomp. Way to slack.

Might create the handling to be quite nimble, maybe unstable with such a short trail with the 74 headtube and normal rake fork.

Are you mainly going to use it for CX?

Find the forgiveness you crave in church, not in the steering #ridethebull #thrownintothedirt #shorttrail4life

It's going to be my main race bike... At least until I decide wether I like the steering qualities or not. I have had issues this season with my pomp being to slack and not responsive enough around 180s and steep turns. Especially in heavy mud on technical courses have I felt that my steering was too slow and that the amount of energy required getting back up to speed has lost me races.
I simply will not be using this in the forrest on Sundays. Only for race and practice.

It seem a pompetamine has a headtube of around 71-72degrees with a cross fork. (difficult to measure precisely)

maybe try 73.5 degrees + 45mm standard rake fork. Gives the (theoretical) perfect 57mm trail!

http://yojimg.net/bike/web_tools/trailcalc.php

I would go for sven's suggestion, having a 74 headtube give you a short trail of 50mm, it will be noticeably nimble in corner, but what you gain in corner you may lose in acceleration (i.e. keeping the bike straight while giving it the wellies).

CX bike tend to have a very long trail for stability (around 65mm) by a combination of slack headtube and long raked fork.

What's my best option for SS'ing a CX bike with Vertical dropouts?

Start by reading this page... ;-)

Oops. Sorry....

No worries. Share any info you find here...

Find the forgiveness you crave in church, not in the steering #ridethebull #thrownintothedirt #shorttrail4life

LOLOL

Is this what SSCX does to a man?

My orlowski has 72,5 with 47mm. 59 trail. Feels solid but of course depends on what you prefer.

had nature boy with 71,5 and 45mm which felt lame.

It's going to be my main race bike... At least until I decide wether I like the steering qualities or not. I have had issues this season with my pomp being to slack and not responsive enough around 180s and steep turns. Especially in heavy mud on technical courses have I felt that my steering was too slow and that the amount of energy required getting back up to speed has lost me races.
I simply will not be using this in the forrest on Sundays. Only for race and practice.

Judging by the #fixieking performances this season I'm going to say Hulsroy knows most what he needs from the bike.

for example my orlowski is based on a nature boy geo

Mine is setup for commuting and is great for this.

I think I just need to spend a bit of time and money on making it look a bit nicer :)

Cotic Escapade

Looks interesting.

Judging by the #fixieking performances this season I'm going to say Hulsroy knows most what he needs from the bike.

;-) thx for the support

Actually I am pretty confident that it will great with a 74 degree HT.
Both ThueKr and I have had the same experiences wanting to be faster through turns, especially in sscx.
Basically a cross race is 40-60 min long and not comfy at all, so I don't need the handling to be pleasant. I just need to up my game.
And most importantly of all. If it sucks I will come back telling you all you were right. But I need to try it out for myself.
Also it depends on the forks rake (I can not find exact data online and haven't measured it yet). I am not settled on exactly 74 degrees. But I want it steeper than off the peg frames. Maybe I will do a specific thread...

If it suck, you can always make a custom fork to compensate with the corrected rake.