Spot Brand Bikes has put together a geared alternative for 29er lovers who can't quite get their heads around single speeds--but want near-gearless simplicity. The Longboard 9 is a beautiful hardtail 29er frame, TIG welded in the USA from True Temper heat-treated chromoly steel tubing and outfitted with a Spot single-chainring crankset, and with a SRAM nine-speed derailleur and cassette.
Half way up the mountain and still looking good. Spot Brand's Longboard 9 in its element. Adam Booth photo
The Longboard 9 is elegantly simple in profile and stylishly retro with its creamy two-tone paint scheme and curvy graphics. Brakes are Hayes Stroker Trail and its fork is the well loved Manitou Minute 29. Most of the cockpit items are Spot Brand, which is great, because they know exactly what it takes to make a minimalist machine perform well and ride comfortably.
SRAM X.9 shifting components are among the most reliable ever produced. Longboard frames use Breezer-style dropouts. Adam Booth photo
With a 32-tooth chainring and a SRAM 11 x 34 cassette, you will be a single speed for the duration of most climbs. It doesn't take long to find the 34-tooth cog and after that, you will alternate between seated and standing in the spirit of the one-option climbing style. Where the Longboard 9 finds its center is on rolling, twisting trails. Here, the single right-side shifter feels like a musical instrument and the Spot's sweetly balanced handling seems to empower its rider with more energy than ordinary legs can deliver. The Longboard 9 almost leaps up short climbs and has the reserve cornering stability to encourage nearly brakeless descending.
Plenty of stand-over clearance with its sharply sloped top tube makes the medium-sized Longboard 9 more versatile should the trail turn technical. Brad Roe photo
"Innovative" is a tough adjective to apply to a nine-speed, 29er, steel-famed hardtail such as the Longboard is, but there is one item worth pointing out. Spot devised a small, stainless steel chain guide that prevents the chain from derailing from the chainring when you are using the largest cassette sprockets. The guide is lightweight, adjustable and worth installing on any single-chainring XC bike (are you listening cyclocrossers?).
Spot Brand's adjustable chine guide solves the major issue that single-chainring derailleur bikes face. We never tossed the chain in low gear. Adam Booth Photo
Spot's stem graphcs are not bi-directional--yet. Most 29ers require inverted stems on medium-sized or smaller sizes. Ours did. Adam booth photo
We loved riding the Spot Longboard single-speed (yes, with the Gates Carbondrive cog belt system), and the nine-speed version was a reminder that if you plan to join the 29er revolution, you owe it to yourself to ride one that is made by folks who live and die by big wheels. Spot got the Longboard's handling beautifully big-wheel correct.
Manitou's Minute 29 fork steers well in conjunction with the larger wheel's different rake and trail requirements. Adam Booth photo
If you are a strong climber with plenty of single-speed saddle time, you may balk at the impurity of eight additional gears and a trigger shifter messing up an otherwise clean handlebar--but the nine-speed Longboard will keep you on the bike on long, tough climbs--and it will extend your range when the ride turns into an epic. Geared riders searching for simplicity will find it initially tough to climb in the Spot's 32 x 34-tooth low gear, but the Longboard will teach you to man up and stay in the middle ring when you return to the three-chainring circus.
The Longboard 9's defining feature is its right-side SRAM X.9 trigger shifter. Adam Booth photo
The Spot Longboard 9 is not for everybody--but for those who seek simplicity in the form of a trail-worthy 29er--it may be the perfect ride.
www.spotbrandbikes.com