Full-Suspension Single-Speed

The Skookum frame is a semi-unified rear triangle (URT) design. The "semi" is a result of the presence of a Horst-link on the rear chain stays. While the URT design has it's design flaws, because it maintains a constant chain length during suspension travel, it does permit the use of the frame as a single speed.

I had previously owned a Skookum in 2001-2002, and like the way the bike handled. It wasn't the best climber, but a decent all-around bike. I thought (and still do) that the design looks really cool, even if it's not the best design ever. However, when I decided that I wanted to try and build a single speed bike with full suspension frame, the Skookum immediately came to mind.

Ti Cycles is a Seattle based shop that designs their own frames, and has them manufacture for sale at their retail store. In the summer of 2004 I picked up a Skookum frame on close out for $250. I had the shop upgrade the main pivot bearings with their higher quality optional roller bearings. Most of the other components used to build it were from my parts box, or scavenged for cheap where possible.

The bike does pretty well as a single speed. It climbs well out of the saddle, and provides suspension on the downhills. Overall it's a fun bike for cruising around the trails. A little more dampening on the RX Coupe Deluxe would be nice, and I'm not crazy about the Total Air cartridges in the Judy (it will likely go back to a stock Judy someday).

-el