hill cycling with single speed bike

stefano

I am thinking to try some hill cycling with my single speed bike. I currently have 16 x 48 gearing. Is it possible to cycle on hills lets say with a 17-18 x 48 gearing or I need to go lower to something like 19-20? I am concerned mostly about climbing ability than downhill speed.

I have seen that white industries make a double single speed freewheel with several combinations (eg 16-18, 17-19), has anyone try it?

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/whit ... heels.html

satanas

Haven't tried them, but they've been making them for several years and are horribly expensive so should work. FWIW, Surly make a 2 speed fixed cog ("Dingle") in 17X19, 17x20 and 17x21; need to use 9 speed chain.

Fixed gears work almost as well as fixed cats...

Tom Butcher

For proper hills I'd go lower than 48*16 - I've done some good hilly rides in the Peak District on 39*16 and whilst I wouldn't try Winnats Pass on it I wasn't avoiding some fairly steep hills and didn't have any bother.

---

Dave Hinde - probably the worst bike shop in the world.

16simon

many years ago, in the tour, the riders used double sided hubs, with a larger cog for the mountains. when they came to the mountains, they'd stop and refit their wheel with the larger cog on the driveside. a later development was the use of simple derailleurs to avoid the need to take the wheel out. these were further developed to provide more cogs, a choice of front chainrings, indexed shifting, and then the gear shift mechanism was integrated into the brake lever to enable riders to change gear when climbing out of the saddle. nowadays, bikes have as many 2 chainrings at the front(three chainrings are available for women and the elderly), and ten at the back! perhaps you should familiarise yourself with modern cycling technology.

piedwagtail91

i get up most stuff on 48 x 20 (fixed). some of the bigger hills in the dales are beyond me on that gear though.

Gilocp

I can get up most stuff on 42x16 fixed - steepest I've ridden is 16% (according to my trusty VDO computer). That did hurt like b*ggery though and I was going so slow I came close to toppling over......

Gilo

nezza29

Further to this does anyone know where I can get a 20t cog for the freewheel side of a flip flop hub for the very same reason - to ride some hills on a 48t chain ring?

ededwards

You could get a Surly 20t fixed sprocket from me as I have one I don't use. Drop me an e-mail if this sounds any good

Aunty Rubbish

I'm facing a similar problem. I've converted to single speed in anticipation of a flat commute (moving house v.soon). However I live in Devon (not flat) and would like to use the bike for more than just work. I'm running an On-One conversion kit and I'm seriously considering replacing some of the spacers with an array of useful sprockets (16, 18 and 20) and carrying a chainwhip. Just in case. Bearing in mind that the bike has a 53t chainring (it's what he's got and I can't afford to replace it at the moment) does this sound wise or just daft?

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gordycp

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by nezza29</i>

Further to this does anyone know where I can get a 20t cog for the freewheel side of a flip flop hub ?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

SJS cycles sell cheap ones.

White Industries sell expensive ones (up to 23T I think.)

hazeii

Remember that chain tension comes into play when swapping rear sprockets - if you're moving the wheel back and forth for tension you'll be lucky to get more than 3T difference without adjusting chain length (and you may need to adjust brakes as well). On the other hand, if you're using vertical dropouts and a tensioner you can get away with a bigger range (anyone know what the tooth capacity of a typical S/S tensioner?).

16mm

Depends on the hill, as above I've also done some Peak District hills on 39*16, with a bit of brute force and stupidity you can get up 1/5 's on it, but it'll get you fit. This may not be a problem.

later
mIke

annoyingtwit

Are there any particular techniques that are useful for climbing hills on a single speed bike?

I note the discussion of different gear ratios further up in the thread, but is there anything that can be done without changing the bike. I note that I sometimes ride better than other times and have surprised myself on some decent hills where I've felt good and kept my cadence up.

I guess that if I go practice riding hills over and over, I'll get stronger and better at it. But, is there any more focussed training, or in particular strategies for hills that might be useful.

Phil_D

stefano wrote:

I am thinking to try some hill cycling with my single speed bike. I currently have 16 x 48 gearing. Is it possible to cycle on hills lets say with a 17-18 x 48 gearing or I need to go lower to something like 19-20? I am concerned mostly about climbing ability than downhill speed.

I have seen that white industries make a double single speed freewheel with several combinations (eg 16-18, 17-19), has anyone try it?

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/whit ... heels.html

If you have a bike with gears, would it be worth you experimenting with that to find a combination that suits you, doing a few rides without changing gear?

annoyingtwit

Warning: As there was already a thread on this topic, I used. it. Only my question is from this year, the rest are from quite some time ago.

marcusjb

Hopefully all those seeking answers 7 years ago have been romping up hills on their SS/fixed and are now monsters on the hills.

AnnoyingTwit wrote:

Are there any particular techniques that are useful for climbing hills on a single speed bike?

I note the discussion of different gear ratios further up in the thread, but is there anything that can be done without changing the bike. I note that I sometimes ride better than other times and have surprised myself on some decent hills where I've felt good and kept my cadence up.

I guess that if I go practice riding hills over and over, I'll get stronger and better at it. But, is there any more focussed training, or in particular strategies for hills that might be useful.

You are on single speed or fixed wheel?

There's a little bit different technique on the two - but most of it is getting on with it and learning how to use your body position and weight better. There's more reliance on upper body strength as well compared to gears, so that can take time to come (especially if you're a skinny sub-60kg rider like me!).

I concentrate on breathing much more climbing on fixed, trying to keep my breathing rate lower to help act as a regulator - it's very easy to blow on fixed, so keeping the pace manageable is important as there's no where to hide should you blow, you can't click into granny gear and spin up the hill!

Tacking can be useful on the really steep stuff - using the full width of the road and going from side to side to flatten the gradient slightly (obviously, this only works on little country lanes with no traffic!).

Don't be afraid or ashamed of the 24 inch gear. I know some real hard nuts on fixed (riding massive distances with massive amounts of climbing) and they will happily walk when needed.

Beyond technique and mental approach, the traditional way of getting good at going up hills is to do lots of going up hills. Repeats of a local short sharp hill will do wonders for your strength.

annoyingtwit

Thank you for your very useful post.

I'm on a single speed w/freewheel. I have a flip flop hub, and have tried the fixed gear side, but didn't find it to be an advantage even after trying it for a month. I accidentally flipped it back when changing a tube and never went back.

I'm about 77kg, which is a normal weight for my height. I don't want to lose significant weight, as in 2013 I went from 89kg to 77kg and still think I look all skinny.

Using my body position and weight sounds exactly like the kind of thing that would help. I'm not an expert cyclist, so I just tend to get on my bike and ride. Breathing again is something that I imagine that I could gain from. Recently I did a spin class for the first time and was breathing considerably harder than I ever do on the bike, even when struggling on a hill. So, perhaps I'm not using everything I have. I've never tried tacking. Most of my rides with hills are in the countryside. While I avoid massive A-roads, most of my riding would be on B-roads with some traffic. So, I'd need to be aware of my surroundings while trying tacking.

I have a certain amount of perhaps inverted pride at riding the single speed everywhere, and was very pleased after completing a ride from Leicester to Nottingham and back recently. Apart from massively struggling on the last leg from Loughborough to Leicester through the Charnwood Hills. Hence: my question. On the way out I did walk a careful selection of the hilly bits as I knew I was cycling further than ever before and wanted to preserve leg strength. Similar on the way back until I got to Loughborough, where I found that I even ended up walking on the gentle hill up to Nanpantan. (In hindsight, I should have taken this as a warning...)

How short/sharp should a hill be for decent training? This is near to me: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=avebury+ ... 33,,0,2.63 I would guess that a hill like Reservoir Hill would be what you mean https://maps.google.com/maps?q=thornton ... .73,,0,3.8, but that's far enough away that I couldn't pop out for a few hill reps.

cougie

I think fixed is much better than free - you get stronger as you just dont rest - this must pay off in getting up hills that you previously couldn't. I could get up most things on fixed - its the coming down at speed that I found the hardest ! Two decent brakes needed.