hills,keep getting hamered by single speed

bexley5200

hapened again today got passed by a single speed,managed to keep up but how do they do it

amaferanga

On all but the steepest hills I'm as fast on fixed as I am on a geared bike. Fitness and strength is how they do it....

bexley5200

im stufed then

brownbosh

Im almost always at the front on my single in a club run. As has been said get stronger. Single speeds give you no excuses no searching for gears trying to make it easier just you and the pedals.

Bhima

Ha! I was going up a hill yesterday and saw a single-speeder out of the saddle struggling in front of me going about 3mph. I overtook them, only to find him sitting on my rear-end doing 24mph later down the road. The guy had a leg-breakingly high gear ratio on that thing - his legs were doing about 50RPM at that speed! Looking back, I'm suprised he actually managed 3mph on the hill! :shock:

bexley5200

dam them single speed nutters

brownbosh

You gotta want it!!!! Join in the beautiful suffering.

bexley5200

can i buy a carbon single speed

Bhima

Yes, of course.

You can get carbon anything these days. Someone I know actually has a carbon fibre toilet seat. :roll:

brownbosh

If you like!

http://www.pearsoncycles.co.uk/page/112/Cartouche

markos1963

I'm about to buy a single/fixed(Boardman Comp SC)and was wondering whats the best gearing compromise for climbing/flat. I don't fancy grinding up hills at 3mph!!

brownbosh

I ride a 42 x 16 and can get up any hill as well as coast at 22.5 mph on the flat. Average 19-20 mh on undulating rides with a couple of decent climbs in them. MAny would find that gear a little big for climbs but its fine for me. Im only climbing the south downs so i suppose it depends what terrain you are riding.

markos1963

brownbosh wrote:

I ride a 42 x 16 and can get up any hill as well as coast at 22.5 mph on the flat. Average 19-20 mh on undulating rides with a couple of decent climbs in them. MAny would find that gear a little big for climbs but its fine for me. Im only climbing the south downs so i suppose it depends what terrain you are riding.

Cheer for that, Boardman is coming with a 48/18 which I think is similar gearing(about 70 inches) and as I'm in Norfolk I don't think we've got anything to compare with the Downs(grew up in Eastbourne!)

brownbosh

Just try it, give your pedalling action/ core/thigh strength a month to adapt and if you have issues (either way) you can gget a replacement freewheel for about £15 or a chain ring. My tip is to take it round all of your hardest routes from the start. There are some techniques to climbing on a single that you need to practice - more upper body/pulling up on pedals on really steep slopes.

brownbosh

Oh and get a surly tugnut to make wheel alignment easy.

Frank the tank

brownbosh wrote:

Oh and get a surly tugnut to make wheel alignment easy.

Forgive my ignorance,but what is a surly tugnut?

brownbosh

It goes around the thread on the drive side of the rear wheel axle and has a screw in place to stop the wheel slipping in the horizontal drop out and keeps the chain tension correct.
Here -


http://www.surlybikes.com/parts/tuggnut_pop.html

bobtbuilder

Forgive my ignorance,but what is a surly tugnut?

It sounds like an offensive insult. :shock:

Frank the tank

brownbosh wrote:

It goes around the thread on the drive side of the rear wheel axle and has a screw in place to stop the wheel slipping in the horizontal drop out and keeps the chain tension correct.
Here -


http://www.surlybikes.com/parts/tuggnut_pop.html

Thanks for that my owd.

Mark Alexander

bexley5200 wrote:

can i buy a carbon single speed

Why? steel is the way to go.

carldavies

i'm currently in wales and single speed would mean a lot of walking. it would be IMPOSSIBLE to do these climbs with a single speed. I'm not a fan of a bike that limits you in that way. Your paying a lot of money so you really need to make sure you get your money's worth!

brownbosh

carldavies wrote:

i'm currently in wales and single speed would mean a lot of walking. it would be IMPOSSIBLE to do these climbs with a single speed. I'm not a fan of a bike that limits you in that way. Your paying a lot of money so you really need to make sure you get your money's worth!

Not so. You would chose appropriate gearing for your surroundings. If you just ride up and down hills all day then you wouldnt need an ability to pedal fast on the flat. Its not impossible but may not be easy.

vorsprung

bexley5200 wrote:

hapened again today got passed by a single speed,managed to keep up but how do they do it

It's quite simple

On a moderate hill that suits the gearing on a single speed it will be faster. The single speed is a tiny bit lighter and a tiny bit more efficient so it will be a tiny bit faster, all other things being equal

You can usuallly make up time vs a fixed on downhills and often on the flat. On very very steep sections single speed will struggle also. They normally have a gear that will cope with shallow slopes but tend to not be so good at a real stiff hill

amaferanga

carldavies wrote:

i'm currently in wales and single speed would mean a lot of walking. it would be IMPOSSIBLE to do these climbs with a single speed. I'm not a fan of a bike that limits you in that way. Your paying a lot of money so you really need to make sure you get your money's worth!

I live in Sheffield and cycle in th Peaks. Some might say it'd be impossible to ride fixed here, but I did this at the weekend almost as quick as I would do it on my geared bike. It'd be easy on a singlespeed....

So no it wouldn't be impossible riding a singlespeed in Wales. 20% plus is tough on fixed with a reasonable downhill gear, but you could ride a 60" gear on singlespeed and get up (almost) any hill if you're fit/strong enough.

bexley5200

ive been out with a fixed doing 40 mph downhii and still pedeling

JonEdwards

ive been out with a fixed doing 40 mph downhii and still pedeling

fu#ked legless and cluless

Do you think these 2 quotes could be related???

Back on topic, to keep a sensible cadence going you end up riding uphill on an SS at nigh on the same pace as you do the flat - it's a bit "no retreat, no surrender" you simply have to attack it full bore. Easier on a fixed as it pedals through the deadspot for you. This approach is all fine and dandy until you run out of puff, then it properly hurts!

carrock

bobtbuilder wrote:

Forgive my ignorance,but what is a surly tugnut?

It sounds like an offensive insult. :shock:

No, you're thinking of tagnut

Surly TAGNUT would be grossly offensive, as would anything involving dangleberries or clinkers :shock:

ride_whenever

That is the thing about ss, if you can keep below your lactic threshold climbing standing up then you'll be faster than on a geared bike. What the gears do is allow you to match the gradient to your threshold.

However you end up pushing yourself a bit harder and blowing out your a*se thereby getting stronger.

robthehungrymonkey

A mate of mine rides his single speed when i'm on my road bike, he's generally quicker than me, but has to really attack the hills.

We're riding to Morocco next year, and he's usign it then... fully loaded touring up the pyrenees! We'll see how he copes with that one!

dave milne

markos1963 wrote:

I'm about to buy a single/fixed(Boardman Comp SC)and was wondering whats the best gearing compromise for climbing/flat. I don't fancy grinding up hills at 3mph!!

I ride a 52x19 which is fine. Can get up any hill round here that's <= 12% without too many issues.