Highball Converted to SS

On Friday last week I received the final parts to convert the Highball to single speed.  The dropouts arrived from Santa Cruz and the chain and 19 tooth Surly cog were waiting for me at Peninsula Bike Works.  I had planned on just picking up a Shimano SLX or Deore chain, but Sean hooked me up with a SRAM PC 1091.  Who am I to argue with such kindness?

SS parts and a new dinger.

 After attending an event with my wife for her work, I stayed up way too late (for a father of two children who don't understand the concept of sleeping in on weekends) to complete the conversion.  The most time consuming task was to file and sand the inside of the Gusset cassette spacers to fit on the DT Swiss 350 cassette body.  I couldn't find the Gusset lock ring, so I just used the one from the XT cassette.  Since it is for an 11 tooth cog, the diameter is a bit small so I'll be on the lookout for an orange 12+ tooth one now.

Saturday afternoon I was able to head out to the other side of Fort Ord to test it out.  It was nice riding over there since I hadn't been on that side in over a year.  Flogging a single speed on that side is a little easier since it has more of a rolling terrain with fewer extended steep sections.

 

Race Face Narrow Wide Chainring Install - Bolt Decisions

After numerous rides on my Santa Cruz Highball using only the 32 middle ring, I decided to ditch the front derailleur, shifter, and extra chainrings.  After looking at the options I decided on the Race Face Narrow Wide single ring, mainly because I could get it in orange, and bumped up to a 34.  If it proves to be too much, I can always do a cassette conversion to gain a 40 on the rear.  My current XT cassette is 11-36, and I rarely use the 36 out in Fort Ord.  One of my big concerns with going to one ring was losing top end speed which is why I opted for the 34 tooth ring.

Install was straightforward.  Mostly.  I pulled the cranks to get the rings off and do some general cleaning and went to slap on the new ring.  There is a choice of graphics on this ring.  One side is mellow with some laser etching in the grooves, but the other side has Race Face laser etched all over it.  I wanted the beautiful orange color to show, so I opted for the mellow side out.  I had ordered a set of Wolf Tooth Components single chainring bolts in blue to nicely offset on the orange and tie in the blue bits of the Fox fork.  This is where I ran into trouble.  You see, the Race Face ring is flippable, but different.  On the mellow side, the bolt holes have a recess for a bolt head to sit in.  The flashy side is flush.  If you want the mellow side out, you need double chainring bolts.  If you want the flashy logo side out, then you need single chainring bolts.  Bummer.  I dropped $36 ($28+tax+shipping) on the WTC bolts which are now useless to me.  Luckily I had a set of double bolts sitting around that I slapped on.

Race Face Narrow Wide Chainring - 34 Tooth

I wrapped the chain around the chainring and largest cog in back, without running it through the derailleur to determine the new chain length.  With three links overlapped, I shortened the chain by one link and added a master link.  I was a bit surprised that the XT chain didn't have a master link installed.  On the stand, shifting didn't seem to be any different, and thinking about it, I didn't take note of extra noise from the chainring.

As for weight savings, I dropped about 380 grams (0.84 pounds) by removing the rings, cable, shifter and derailleur.  It's a decent chunk of weight dropped for parts I rarely used.  I will give it a proper flogging this weekend to see how well everything works and will do my best to try and drop the chain.

Hard to see, but the flashy side holes are flush and the mellow side holes are recessed.

Fort Ord Is My Back Yard

After moving to the Toro Park neighborhood about a month ago, I have been spending a lot more time in Fort Ord and have basically forgotten about my road bike.  It's awesome to hit dirt within about ten seconds of leaving my front door.  Yes, it's that close.  Below are a four photos from recent rides.

My new back yard - Fort Ord.

Motobecane Fantom Cross Uno SSCX looking over the new 'hood.

Redline Monocog Flight AL SSMTB looking over the new 'hood.

Santa Cruz Highball AL on one of the many trails in Fort Ord.

ALERT: Demo Bikes Stolen From Santa Cruz's Headquarters

Nearly $100,000 worth of Santa Cruz demo bikes were stolen from a locked trailer behind the company’s headquarters last week.

Click here to read the full article on MTBR.

The photo below was originally posted by Eric Highlander to his Instagram account.

 

New Bike!! Santa Cruz Highball

On Sunday, I took delivery of a bran-spankin-new Santa Cruz Highball.  I opted for the aluminum frame over the carbon for two reasons.  First reason is price.  It was going to be nearly an extra grand for the carbon.  Second reason is dropouts.  The aluminum frame has swappable dropouts that allow you to run it geared or singlespeed.  The singlespeed swinger dropout kit is about fifty bucks.

Sunday afternoon I swapped out some stock parts for some parts snagged off other bikes that I prefer.  The parts I removed were a 70m Easton EA70 6 degree stem, WTB saddle, and Lizard Skins grips.  They were replaced with a 90mm Thomson X4 -10 degree stem, Fizik Tundra carbon saddle, and Oury Grips.  The other things I did was remove the red and white decals from the WTB i19 rims
add some orange aluminum bottle cage bolts to hold the King Titanium Cages, and toss on a set of Crank Brothers Eggbeater pedals.  I was hoping to have a mango Chris King headset installed, but they are on backorder so I'll swap it in as soon as it arrives.  Other parts I'm waiting on are a custom orange seatpost clamp from Purely Custom, some miscellaneous titanium bolts, and a stem (mentioned below).

On Monday morning I had a fit session with Chris Burnham, who has an office inside of Peninsula Bike Works.  We spent most of the time with my road bike, with the main focus on my cleats.  On the Highball, there were a couple tweaks with saddle height and position.  At his recommendation, I have a Thomson X2 100mm -17 degree stem on order to get some more drop and a little more reach.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take the Highball on dirt, but did get a quick eight mile ride on the bike path to get a feel for the bike.  The main thing that I found strange is the massive width of the Easton EC70 bars.  They're listed at 685mm, but measure out closer to 710mm.  The bars on my other mountain bikes are closer to 600mm wide.  I'll be chopping them to a more reasonable width when I swap out the stem.  This weekend I'll be able to take it out to Fort Ord for a proper break-in.