8/22/2023 0 Comments Redline monocog single speedI invited a few friends to try out my Monocog at Alpenrose and they all came back giggling with delight, which I took as a good sign. But if you're coming into cross from mountain biking and you want to go singlespeed, you could do a lot worse than to start here. (If you wanted to add drop bars you could turn this into a really fun Monster Cross singlespeeder.) In summary, roadies will hate this bike but frankly they've got plenty of roadie-style cross choices already. The stock V-brakes work just fine, but you can easily swap in disc brakes. I've already upgraded the pedals, crankset and bottom bracket, which shaved over a full pound off the weight. The cassette allows me a wide range of cog sizes, easier to swap in and out than freewheels and when I'm ready to upgrade the stock wheels it will be easy to find hubs that will fit. The rear ends are spaced at 135mm, and the stock hub is a singlespeed cassette hub with the same 135 spacing. In fact, I think most people who get and love this bike buy it for the frameset and upgrade parts as they go along. This bike has high potential for upgrading. The 26" wheel size will get you no help in the pits (and are not allowed at UCI races, but if you're racing cross on a mountain bike you're not going for UCI points anyway), but it's sturdy enough that, if set up properly, mechanicals will be few and far between. But for courses that favor singlespeeds - such as last week's Alpenrose Dairy course - it's a fun and rewarding bike to ride. The Monocog is NOT a cyclocross bike, it's a singlespeed mountain bike, so it IS definitely heavy on run-ups and when suitcasing over barriers. Descending, even over bumps, is a very straightforward affair, though riders unaccustomed to a fully-rigid mountain bike will want to practice in non-race situations to get used to the feel. The bike really responds to my pedal stroke and in spite of its relative heavier weight it rewards my accelerations quickly enough to let me power over the berms. The straight fork shortens the wheels base just enough to make the bike feel quick without feeling overly "squirrelly", and it handles grass and gravel with equal aplomb. MSRP $420.00 (26" model, the 29'er costs a bit more) This bike has been ridden through an entire season of short-track xc, a few weeks of cross practices and my first cross race last weekend. Here are specs: Test model: 17" (medium). For the singlespeed mountain biker wanting to try cyclocross on a very tight budget, consider the Redline Monocog. That's why I'm grateful for the grass-roots ethos of singlespeed racing, which encourages simplicity and resourcefulness over high-concept technology and flash. Getting into cyclocross from other cycling disciplines can be intimidatingly expensive, especially when you see so many people racing on the latest carbon-fiber this-and-that. All the fun of a single-speed, but you have bigger gears available so you are not just twiddling your thumbs on flats.The 32-hole hub was. This fun to ride MTB is a 2007 Redline Monocog Flight 29er single-speed where I installed a Shimano Nexus Inter3 internally geared hub to give me 3 gears.
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