Single speed appreciation, lets see them singlespeeds!

mtbhenry888
mtbhenry888 Posts: 287
edited July 2009 in Road general
As a single speed addict I have decided it would be good to get people together, share some photos and fettling tips and have a singlespeedingly good time! so lets see your steeds, fixed or free, but road/track only no MTB's please as this is the road forum after all!

Singlespeeds forever!

Here is mine! enjoy



Reynolds 531 frame with campag droupouts (frame and fork)
Shimano/rigida wheels
tektro aero levers
carbon bars
adjustable stem
tange sealed bearing headset
shimano 500ex cranks (running 42t chainring)
shimano 16t freewheel
Vittoria Zaffiro tyres
Giant saddle (the most comfortable in the world to me anyway, if anyone has one to sell i will buy it)!
Fluted shimano seatpost

Henry!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31409255@N ... otostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31409255@N02/3124772907/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31409255@N ... otostream/
Carbon fibre, it's all nonsense. Drink beer. Ride a steel bike. Don't be a ponce.
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Comments

  • andyp
    andyp Posts: 10,549
    Is a singlespeed on the road just for those who haven't got the balls to ride fixed? :wink:
  • meagain
    meagain Posts: 2,331
    Now, now!
    d.j.
    "Cancel my subscription to the resurrection."
  • meagain
    meagain Posts: 2,331
    Nice red bike, Henry!
    d.j.
    "Cancel my subscription to the resurrection."
  • itboffin
    itboffin Posts: 20,064
    andyp wrote:
    Is a singlespeed on the road just for those who haven't got the balls to ride fixed? :wink:

    Yes :o

    I tried it once, once mind.

    Here's my main single speed winter hack, it's been completely stripped, cleaned and rebuilt today no more horrible grinding noises, it's amazing how quickly the winter muck wears out parts.

    838383911731428fbd124ea768d0b927.jpg
    Rule #5 // Harden The Feck Up.
    Rule #9 // If you are out riding in bad weather, it means you are a badass. Period.
    Rule #12 // The correct number of bikes to own is n+1.
    Rule #42 // A bike race shall never be preceded with a swim and/or followed by a run.
  • mtbhenry888
    mtbhenry888 Posts: 287
    Yeah winter muck is a problem, i have gaurds for my red bike but they don't fit as before the owner had cut the tabs off so close to the tyre they now rub! which means either i get mucky and wet or i buy some SKS gaurds like i have on my commuter, they are great!

    Secondly...
    Is a singlespeed on the road just for those who haven't got the balls to ride fixed? Wink

    no i have a single speed because thats kind of they way it worked out, i would love to have a fixed but for now i have a freewheelin singlespeed! and theres nothing wrong with that!

    different strokes for different folks! :D
    Carbon fibre, it's all nonsense. Drink beer. Ride a steel bike. Don't be a ponce.
  • andyp
    andyp Posts: 10,549
    I was just pulling your leg Henry. I'm currently mulling over converting a bike across to singlespeed to use as my winter road bike. Most of my friends ride gears and the routes we do are probably a bit too hilly to ride fixed on in a group, i.e. I'd keep up going uphill but not down.

    That's a very nice looking bike you have there btw.
  • stickman
    stickman Posts: 791
    I love singlespeed but, as James Mays would say, I'm not a cycling ponce so I don't look down on fixed :)

    (I think fixed are interesting to read about, i'm just not into riding them)
    Bikes, saddles and stuff

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/21720915@N03/
    More stuff:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/65587945@N00/

    Gears - Obscuring the goodness of singlespeed
  • mtbhenry888
    mtbhenry888 Posts: 287
    Thanks for the comment about my bike Andy! I would like to get my leg over a fixed one day, saying that i'm going to Calshot velodrome with some friends soon to go for a blast (not on my bike though obviously)! Calshot velodrome have hire bikes not sure of the spec but ill get a picture up when i've been!
    Carbon fibre, it's all nonsense. Drink beer. Ride a steel bike. Don't be a ponce.
  • andyp
    andyp Posts: 10,549
    Good luck at Calshot. The experience is as close as you'll get to the wall of death on a bike! :shock:

    It's fun though, just takes a few laps to get your confidence up.
  • dreamlx10
    dreamlx10 Posts: 235
    Is a singlespeed on the road just for those who haven't got the balls to ride fixed?

    Yes :D
  • flashes
    flashes Posts: 229
    I went out to get some brake pads and bought a singlespeed, doh
  • itboffin
    itboffin Posts: 20,064
    flashes wrote:
    I went out to get some brake pads and bought a singlespeed, doh

    Ace :lol:
    Rule #5 // Harden The Feck Up.
    Rule #9 // If you are out riding in bad weather, it means you are a badass. Period.
    Rule #12 // The correct number of bikes to own is n+1.
    Rule #42 // A bike race shall never be preceded with a swim and/or followed by a run.
  • mtbhenry888
    mtbhenry888 Posts: 287
    What singlespeed did u get?
    Carbon fibre, it's all nonsense. Drink beer. Ride a steel bike. Don't be a ponce.
  • GarethPJ
    GarethPJ Posts: 295
    dreamlx10 wrote:
    Is a singlespeed on the road just for those who haven't got the balls to ride fixed?

    Yes :D

    I've said it before and I'll say it again. I was riding fixed when I was three, my three year old rides fixed. What is so hard, or indeed clever, about riding fixed?
  • mtbhenry888
    mtbhenry888 Posts: 287
    fixed has turned into a fashion statement especially since everyone now knows Chris Hoy rode a 'fixed gear' for the olympics and average joe thinks it's dangerous because when you stop pedalling so does the bike and every fixed gear they have seen has no brakes!
    Carbon fibre, it's all nonsense. Drink beer. Ride a steel bike. Don't be a ponce.
  • dreamlx10
    dreamlx10 Posts: 235
    What is so hard, ...........about riding fixed?

    Do you mean difficult or "hard" ?
  • GarethPJ
    GarethPJ Posts: 295
    dreamlx10 wrote:
    Do you mean difficult or "hard" ?

    Which do you prefer?
  • GarethPJ
    GarethPJ Posts: 295
    mtbhenry888 wrote:
    fixed has turned into a fashion statement especially since everyone now knows Chris Hoy rode a 'fixed gear' for the olympics and average joe thinks it's dangerous because when you stop pedalling so does the bike and every fixed gear they have seen has no brakes!

    Quite. There was one article about Hoy which was so badly written that it gave the impression Hoy was riding fixed while the competition all rode bikes with twenty or more gears. I don't think the author intended to give that impression, but unfortunately it was clearly written by somebody who had never even heard of track cycling or fixed wheel until this year's olympics.

    Most people with any common sense know that a track bike probably isn't ideally suited to urban riding, but the number of track irons I see on the road has definitely increased since the summer.
  • andyp
    andyp Posts: 10,549
    GarethPJ wrote:
    Most people with any common sense know that a track bike probably isn't ideally suited to urban riding, but the number of track irons I see on the road has definitely increased since the summer.
    Have you ever tried it? A track bike is very manouverable and ideal for mixing it with traffic. You should try it, you may like it.
  • flashes
    flashes Posts: 229
    I bought a Surly 1X1, I couldn't get over the fact that it is a sort of modern Path bike, so I'm changing the gearing and tyres, fitting mudguards and it'll take over as my commuter until the weather picks up, (ho ho ho).

    I may end up "fixing" it, and why? because I can..............
  • GarethPJ
    GarethPJ Posts: 295
    andyp wrote:
    Have you ever tried it? A track bike is very manouverable and ideal for mixing it with traffic. You should try it, you may like it.


    Yes I have tried it.

    The riding position is too low to give you a reasonable forward view without giving yourself cervical spondlosis, regardless of the geometry, which isn't as quick as you might think anyway. There is an assumption that track bikes are set up very twitchy, but an XC race bike will tend to be much twitchier. Sure the mountain bike may have slightly slacker angles, but it will have much smaller wheels. Gyroscopic precession being what it is the mountainbike will, therefore, change direction more quickly at speed. Furthermore, bolting rigid forks onto the MTB will generally steepen up the angles nicely. And finally the brakes on MTBs tend to be much better than bolting a dual pivot onto a track bike.

    So the ideal city bike? A single speed XC race bike, converted to fixed if you prefer (I don't). Maybe a Kona Unit on 25mm tyres, with maybe disc brakes for the ultimate in taxi and pedestrian avoidance. Try it.
  • dreamlx10
    dreamlx10 Posts: 235
    fixed if you prefer (I don't).

    You don't like fixed do you ? 8)
  • GarethPJ
    GarethPJ Posts: 295
    I'm absolutely fine with fixed, been riding fixed since I was three and I've owned and built quite a few fixies over the years. However fixed is not suited to every situation. My commute is a bit on the hilly side, as such I find riding with a freewheel better on some of the big downhills. I've found I can, in places, hit speeds that would have me spinning over 200rpm fixed on my usual gear. Not something I find I can do very often.
  • GarethPJ
    GarethPJ Posts: 295
    Just got a frame to build into a SS hack so I'll post some piccies in couple of days when I've built it into some semblance of a bike.
  • mtbhenry888
    mtbhenry888 Posts: 287
    ill get some pictures of calshot up when i go and i'm interested to see what bikes they're using, i'm imagining late 90's track irons with miche/cinelli kit? or am i thinking too exotic!
    Carbon fibre, it's all nonsense. Drink beer. Ride a steel bike. Don't be a ponce.
  • mz__jo
    mz__jo Posts: 398
    I love riding fixed, I was introduced to it by a clubbie very nearly forty years ago. I do not have a fixie at present for two reasons:
    1 The Limousin has some long descents,not too steep but you need to be very fit and a bit maso to bounce on the saddle for 3 or 4 kms twiddling like mad downhill.
    2 The only road frame I currently have for a single speed has a very low BB and would be lethal if I couldn't stop pedalling in corners!

    For those who have never tried it, go light touring in the UK (somewwhere like the Cotswolds is ideal) with a winter frame on fixed with guards and saddlebag and a gear about 65" or 66". Not balls out speeding but real touring. You will rapidly appreciate the real point of a fixed wheel, namely that the bike becomes an extension of yourself; you pedal without thinking, no noise, no gears to think about. You can even forget the brakes. You see something you want to look at, you slow up with your legs! In the right country in the right conditions and with the right physical condition it is the finest form of cycling you can do.
    Cheers Jo
    http://rctl.ffct.org/
  • meagain
    meagain Posts: 2,331
    It SAYS "lets SEE them", so (fixed as it happns):

    HickSyn.jpg
    d.j.
    "Cancel my subscription to the resurrection."
  • meagain
    meagain Posts: 2,331
    And here's the other two currently residing with me!

    icyfix3.jpg

    Lang1.jpg

    Both fixed. Can't really see the point of single freewheels.
    d.j.
    "Cancel my subscription to the resurrection."
  • GarethPJ
    GarethPJ Posts: 295
    mz__jo wrote:
    1 The Limousin has some long descents,not too steep but you need to be very fit and a bit maso to bounce on the saddle for 3 or 4 kms twiddling like mad downhill.

    It ain't necesarilly safe and it sure as hell ain't sensible, but you could always stick your legs out on the big descents. :wink:

    I have to agree my last fixie had a 68" gear which was really too high for a lot of the climbs round here, but downhills were hard work. I couldn't achieve 30mph downhill, a speed I have no trouble doing on a lower gear with a freewheel.
  • graham_g
    graham_g Posts: 652
    Currently in winter mode with hub dynamo and light:

    Bike%20091.jpg

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