pandabear

hey best friends. can anyone point me in the direction of a good, practical singlespeed? this will be my winter beater, with pretty much no actual off-road use and with slicks until snowfall. must have disc brakes in the rear. preferably 26" (just because i have 26" nokian extremes from last season), but i understand 29" is more dominant.

one i'm looking at is the gary fisher marlin ss, but it has 32x20 gearing, which is just too small for this application. can i swap out the chainring? i'm just wondering because i don't know what the bcd is and it seems really small, is that standard?

Zan

usually beater bikes aren't bought new. you can try buying a used bike and converting to ss. a "****ty used bike" will be less likely to be stolen.

29" is not more dominant, don't know where you heard that.

you'd be best getting a disc in the front, not the rear. your front wheel provides significantly more braking power than your rear. if you're worried about launching off the bike, y'just gotta learn how to ride a bike properly.

sprockets and chain rings can be swapped out.

pandabear

thanks. i know using the front brake provides better power, but the rear brake provides better stability in snow conditions.

and sorry, i meant 29" are more dominant as ss, as i have seen a couple ss 29", but no 26" ss's.

and i was calling it a beater on the pure basis that it will be used in snow. i've considered a conversion, but i'm 6'3 and haven't seen much that fits my criteria.

Svr

Single speeds and 29ers are both niche markets that have been combined in the past few years mainly due to economic conditions. New 26" single speed products haven't sold well simply because there's so much 26" stuff out there to convert cheaply. Go with whatever wheel size suits you.

The current chainring bolt size is 4x 104mm. You can easily find larger single speed rings in this size.