Tom V.

Always a goos experience. Good stack, prices quick checkout and delivery.

I am a single speed mountain biker and was riding a custom built steel rocky mtn 29, with all the upgrades you could want.
•Tubing: Custom-drawn Reynolds 725 steel tubeset
•Fork: Fox 32 F29 RL w/100mm travel
•Drivetrain: RaceFace cranks
•Wheels: Shimano M525 hubs laced to Stans tubless Disc rims
•Brakes: Avid Juicy 3 discs (160mm f/r)

Over 2k invested and over the course of the last 5 years, I have blown out the seals in the fork 3 times, bent my front rim beyond repair, replaced with stans tubless, and have rebuilt the Juicy brakes 2 times. I am hard on my stuff, I recently cracked my frame and sent it back to Rocky Mountain for a replacement.

I ride 2-3 times a week mostly single track and was really jonzing for a ride. I just could not wait around for a month for a new frame. I started looking for a back up bike and did not want to spend a ton of money.

I was looking on Ebay for some used 29ers but I needed a small frame, wanted steel and could not really find a selection in anything decent. I started looking at some of the online bikes sites like performance and Nashbar. I had ordered a KHS solo one single speed, soft tail from Jenson too about 10yrs ago for about $400, and had a great experience so I was open minded. I did not know Bikesdirect but they had a nice single speed steel dawes for $350, nothing fancy but the price seemed too good to be true. It was, they only had a 19 and i was a 15.

So I decided to settle, since it was only a back up and start looking at aluminum frames. It came down to the BIKESDIRECT gravity and the Nashbar singlespeed 29er. The Nashbar got great reviews but it was $400 plus shipping it had an also had an aluminum frame and steel hard fork. At first, I was hestitant to buy a Gravity, I had never heard of it, but after another week of research and soul searching, and riding my wifes 26er I decided to pull the trigger on the BIKESDIRECT gravity singlespeed 29er.

I went for the flat black 15.5 with the front suspension fork. Delivered for $399. I ordered on a Tuesday and the bike showed up that Friday. I spent about an hour putting it together with some simple hand tools and had to grease and silicone the brakes, the headset and the cranks but other than that, it was set to go. The only thing that was a little tricky was getitng the mechanical disc brakes to align so they did not rub. Not a big deal, I have a stand and just had to make some minor adjustments. NOTE:. If you are not good with bike tools, probably best to go to a shop, but it is not a hard bike to work on if you have insight and tools.

I rode it around the neighborhood, jumping curbs and riding up inclines, the fork worked great and the bike was a blast. The next day, I brought over to my local single trace and put it to the test. Is the aluminum as soft as the steel on the bumps, no, but did the bike work great and was it fun to ride, oh yea. Only upgrades were shimano pedals and a bigger saddle. I am sure that I will get a lot of fun miles out of this bike. If and when stuff goes bad, I will just replace it with better stuff.