New Singlespeed

jjgreenwood

My orange p7 has now arrived and I spent the other night building it. Members who saw my other thread will know I haven't been on a bike for over 10 years. My first ride was a simple ride for about 2 miles on the road. I bought the bike to improve my fitness and it will certainly do that. My legs now hurt and I was a bit wobbly when I got off it. Verses my old raleigh marauder I had years ago which had gears here are my initial observations:

1. Its much harder work being singlespeed, and you can't go as fast (obviously) you need to put in more effort. My new bike is much lighter, having said that it does feel more rewarding.

2. The orange although needs work to setup does feel like a proper quality peice of kit.

3. I am now terribly unfit but having been out on it want to get back on it again (now my legs have feeling again) but its dark so need to buy some lights.

4. Technique seems more important on single speed, something I never used to worry about.

5. My new bike has front suspension I have no idea how it works and need to spend time with the instruction manual for my rock shox but initial impressions playing around with a kerb is it looks good. I'm surprised its not very heavy.

6. My palms have bruises because the grips are more grippy than expected and I didn't tighten my bars enough so improvement and gloves needed.

All in all things seem to have come on a bit. The bike arrived with mountain tyres rather than speed ones advertised which must be good I suppose. I'll spend some time with it tomorrow getting it set up right and then hopefully go out on some tracks, found a bridleway today so will prob take it down there next.

Will post some pics soon.

kopite1979

im new the mtb meself and personally dont see the point in singlespeed. why dont you just keep it in one gear and have the rest there just incase?

nicklouse

jjgreenwood
stick with it and keep things short untill you are 1 happy with the bike set up and 2 you are happier with yourself.

your gear? what is the ratio? number teeth front? number teeth rear?

the fork is? dont worry about it to much as long as it seems to work.

tlw1

keep with it - its more about your lungs than the bikes gears!

Airienteer

Stick with it, trust me you'll feel the benefits fitness wise when you hop back on to a geared ride.

joshtp

im currently sripping a old steel frame back to bare metal, so im gonna have a polished metal singlespeed, but it will be my second bike, for around town only. and before you shout and say it'll rust, im gonna clear laquer it.

trekhead

I`m going to get me one of these for pootling round town, when they sort out the carbon belts!
Gotta have it `cause it`t got orange on it

Torres

Would i have a singlespeed? Yes!
Would i have one as my only bike...ermm.....maybe not.
Probably not that helpful, but it is hilly round here ...

John Moore

Just remember

Single Speed - if it doesn't make you fitter it will kill you, also your slow speed technical skills improve no end

jjgreenwood

nicklouse wrote:

jjgreenwood
stick with it and keep things short untill you are 1 happy with the bike set up and 2 you are happier with yourself.

your gear? what is the ratio? number teeth front? number teeth rear?

the fork is? dont worry about it to much as long as it seems to work.

don't know what gear it is but if you have a look on the orange website its a p7 one so I imagine it'll say on there

it has a rock shox tora 130mm fork (308 i think?) which has surprised me with how light it is. Fiddled about with it today and reset the position of the brakes and re-tightened the bars to the stem so hopefully won't come loose next time. Had a very brief ride round the block a couple of times and still had sightly wobbly legs when i got off it so have decided to have a short ride every day. Gonna go for a slightly longer ride tomorrow if the weather is ok. Still think the saddle it came with feels wrong so may play with that next.

jjgreenwood

trekhead wrote:

I`m going to get me one of these for pootling round town, when they sort out the carbon belts!
Gotta have it `cause it`t got orange on it

looks cool but have you seen the orange p7 concept http://www.singletrackworld.com/2009/02 ... prototype/
you could have orange rims and frame then

captainfly

My view on single speed is great for specific rides not good for general riding. If you are already fit then go for it but if not stick with gears and learn how to pedal, working on pedaling cadence and power strokes.

supersonic

Would I have an SS? Absolutely not. Not around here, far too hilly.

I don't subscribe to the view that they make you fitter either - the geared bike can be made harder if that is what you want!

Gears for me equal more efficiency: I can therefore ride further and clear hills and climbs that are impossible on a standard 2:1 ss.

Weight and simplicity are the advantages.

toasty

I would, and did, and thought it was boring My poof confused thumbs wiggled every ride. My Stumpy from the pic is geared again now.

supersonic

Toasty wrote:

I would, and did, and thought it was boring My poof confused thumbs wiggled every ride. My Stumpy from the pic is geared again now.

Wow, we agree!

jjgreenwood

I understand if you live in sheffield which is where i used to ride my old raleigh - it is proper hilly. I now live in swindon though - not many hills here. Will spend most my time running around trails where hills don't exist.

supersonic

Is down to preference in the end - if you think it has an advantage for you, then go for it! I just think it needs to be carefully looked at, and for many is a fashion/fad thing.

Aye, Sheff is great for slopes

jjgreenwood

used to live in sandygate and ride along the craggs (in between hallam and crosspool looking over the valley) up to the road and back was always good fun

supersonic

Very good riding there. I ride the Wharncliffe crags, and there is the Rivelin crags and Stannage which I guess is the ones you rode. Fantastic place to live, couldn't contemplate not having gears for that!

jjgreenwood

I did have gears then lol you're right you need em