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Pro bikes, August 10, 2005
Cameron Chamber’s Gary Fisher Two-Niners
Big wheels keep on turningPart two, Gary Fisher Rig Two-Niner Singlespeed (Back to part one)By Steve Medcroft
You can throw away all that gearing talk that crops up with multi-speed 29-inch bikes when looking at Chambers’ Rig. The singlespeed has a 34-tooth chainring and an 18–tooth rear cog, a setup he thinks is the middle-of-the-road standard for two-niners. “With 26-inch singlespeeds the basic gearing is two-to-one [32 x 16 or 34 x 17 for example]. It’s easy,” he says. “The 29-inch wheel changes it up a little bit. This is a 34-18. The rollout of one revolution is a touch bigger than two-to-one on a 26-inch bike [gears of 54.7-inches vs. 52-inches]. Fisher chose 34-18 because I think that’s what a lot of people would choose. Especially for a trail bike; so many people do a lot of dirt road and fire road riding on two-niner that the bigger gear makes more sense.” Chambers runs Avid’s mechanical disc brakes on his Rig instead of the Juicy hydraulics we saw on his 292. “It’s the stock offering for the Rig,” he says. “The whole bike is basically stock, I’ve only changed the stem, seat post and pedals.” The Rig, Chambers says, runs in the thousand-dollar range [$1099 msrp]. “I think they were looking to make it rigid originally and it was going to be like $700 but they added this fork [Rock Shox Reba SL], which sells for $500 or more by itself and is tough to find, so at about a $1000, the Rig is a hell of a deal.” About that Reba -- the SL doesn’t offer Chambers a remote lockout lever on his singelspeed like the Race on his 292 does. Instead, the lockout control is mounted on the top of the right fork leg. “The lever is so easy to get to though,” Chambers says. “It’s totally natural. I’m used to riding rigid forks and like that locked-out feel when I stand on the pedals so every time I come out of the seat I just reach down and flip that lever first.” Chambers runs Crank Brothers Candy pedals, which feature a cage around the Crankbrothers’ four-sided Egg Beater design, on both bikes. “I like the extra little platform because I do a lot of long races and a lot of long training days and it gives my foot a bigger contact patch.” Which means, he says, that he doesn’t get “a hot spot on the ball of my foot where that cleat is positioned. And for the singlespeed it’s sweet because on a steep climb, if you have to push, you can ’cross mount back onto the bike and slam your feet on the pedals because even if you don’t clip in, there’s something to push against.” The coup de grace in the Rig’s design, though, is the inclusion of an eccentric bottom bracket. The rider gets a vertical dropout for hassle-free brake caliper adjustment and friction-free chain-tension adjustment. “There’s a five millimeter Allen in the botton bracket that you unscrew to move it around,” Chambers says. “You turn it which ever way you want to achieve the tension you need and tighten it back down.” Chambers says that once he sets the tension, the Rig reliably holds onto it. “I’ve never had it come loose and you don’t have to crank on it to set it.” PhotosFor a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here Images by Steve Medcroft
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Full specificationFrame: Platinum Series SS internally and externally butted aluminum
w/ eccentric bottom bracket with Genesis 29" Geometry Bottom Bracket: ISIS GigaPipe, eccentric |
Brakes: Avid BB7 mechanical disc brakes Wheels: Bontrager Mustang 29" rims | ||||||||||||||||
