URT Full Suspension Single Speed cont.

It's time to get back to the roots of this blog.  Mike has called me out a few times for Manarea going the way of just being a bike racing blog.  It's true, I have strayed a bit from my shed project days and I haven't homebrewed once this entire year.  But as we barrel into Fall I'm gonna try and revive the Manarea a bit.  I've got a Whiskey Rye Ale on deck and Project bikes to work on!  And oh what a project this one has been/will be.

My full suspension single speed has been an ongoing project for awhile now.  Actually got my proof of concept almost a year ago.  I rode it at the Turkey Burner to great effect...turned lots of heads rolling around the parking lot.  I even raced the damn thing.  That race however showed definitively that if I wanted to continue riding it I was gonna have to show it some TLC.

But why stop with just some TLC when you can get completely franken-ridiculous with the thing?  THAT'S the Manarea way...creating cycling abominations since 2007.  And this project is getting downright evil genius.  You're going to have to listen to this on loop while you read the rest of this post:

This had been laying dormant for quite some time until one fateful day when Jomo texted me to tell me he was mailing my old Bomber fork back from CO.  I had let him have/use/borrow it sometime back after I had bought my Redline.  Initially I had no idea what I was going to do with it but but then it became so obvious.  Whats better than a full suspension single speed from the 90's?  That's correct! A 69er full suspension single speed from the 90's! What could go wrong?!

old shock

new shock!

It looks surprisingly normal/badass right?  It's still a big question mark at this point.  I had enough parts laying around to get it to this point but there is still some work to do.  The geometry got pretty screwy but the Thompson layback actually helped quite a bit and I feel normal-ish on the bike.  It is obviously going to climb like crap but I bet it will descend like butter and hopefully ride ok enough on the flats to be workable.  I think it would work a bit better with riser bars but I'm fresh out at the moment, I think my last pair of Hellbents got sold with my first Monocog.

Also needs a BB5/7 on the front.  I thought I had one but I forgot that they were the short pull road versions I used on the monster cross when I had the dirt drops and road brake levers on it.  And last and most importantly it really needs a new rear shock.  But I might have a line on one...(Help me Obi-phil Manseau you're my only hope)

If this all comes together and the ride quality is not complete crap this will probably be the most ridiculous thing I've pulled off to date.  Stay tuned...