SS - Do you? Would you?

RealMan

Following on from that 29er thing, and just from seeing a load of SS bashing on another thread that didn't seem to make much sense at all, I am now curious.

Just to start things off.

nicklouse

yes.

willy b

Indeed! 8)

chris281192

+1, then + a few more

KonaKurt

Nah, sorry. I am too well 9-speed trained. Trying a single speed for me would feel very odd, and to be honest I wouldn't feel very confident with only one ratio to use.

KK.

John Moore

Yes x 2 bikes

Remember
If it doesn't make you fitter, faster and a better rider it will kill you

Northwind

I wouldn't, because I'm too lazy... But all credit to them that can make it work well.

chrisga

I am about to strip my singlespeed down to make a useable hard tail.
I havent used the singlespeed anywhere near as much as i hoped i would. Possibly because noone else i ride with has singlespeed so they would always be waiting for me, too unfit uphill and run out of gears down. Possibly just because I'm lazy.
Singlespeeding appealed to me because of lack of maintenance and simplicity, but ultimately being of an engineering disposition I can't help but think there is a very good reason companies have spent an awful lot of time and money developing gearing systems.

NatoED

i've done a margam NPS on a single speed ridged bike (steel sarrecen XC pro) 10 years ago what a blast . went past weight whinnies in Lycra on the climbs . i had 50t 16t combo (pace chain ring with Ti Ni finish)

Raymondavalon

SS? Any day... they are wonderful machines.. takes me right back to my youth before 3+9 made me a softy
There will be one in my fleet one fine day...

GHill

I'd be open to giving it a try, but I'm wary of spending the money and not liking it.

blister pus

I live and mostly ride in the dark (and white) peak.

...not a fooking chance.

supersonic

No. Not with the hills here.

ride_whenever

I have threes, my road bike, my xc bike and my jump bike.

But my main bike is geared.

Kiblams

I used to run my MTB as a 1x9, but too many hill slogs made me put my front derailleur back on. Will be a while before the MTB goes SS.

However I use an old steel MTB with slicks to commute on and this is SS, is great fun and allows me to concentrate all of my attention on the car drivers trying to run me over

John Moore

I geared up my SS for the summer dry months and found after converting back to SS last week that my hill climbing out of the saddle fitness has died, now I need to train for the winter :oops:

bomberesque

Short answer; yes I do but not exclusively

Reading through the comments, there seem to be a few folks who would try it out but fr fear of it being expensive, them being too lazy / worried about holding up their riding mates etc. The rest of this is for them, maybe I can convince one or two of you to give it a go;

• I converted an old HT to SS a few years back. cost 30 quid so it doesn't need to be expensive
• I ride almost exclusively with people on geared bikes (there are 2 other guys in my club who ride SS at times)
• While they may have been waiting for me in the first few weeks I was on the SS, this is no longer the case.
• SSing has done more for my leg strength than 20 years of geared riding, mostly because it forces me *not* to be lazy
• I still ride geared aswell, but the SSing has informed the geared riding. One of my club mates commented recently that I climb like I'm singlespeeding no matter what bike I'm on now. What they mean is I attack climbs rather than winch. SSing has changed the way I ride a bike. For the better IMO
• I think I climb better today than I did when I was 20 (half a lifetime ago). Perhaps that doesn't say much about my climbing abilities as a 20 year old, I don't know
• warming up is an issue as you can't gear back for the climbs in the first couple of K of a ride. Spinning 5k from home to the trailhead though sorts this out
• I do need to watch my knees. SSing definitely puts more stress on them. there have been times when I have dismounted rather than push harder as I'm concerned I may pop something. Some sensibility keeps that danger in check though, I think

As for big hills. I ride my SS in our local forest, which is pretty tame, and the one out near Leuven, which is hillier but still no prolonged climbs. once I've committed the bike to some bigger rides (which is the reason I recently bought a "proper" singlespeed) then I'll be able to talk more about that.

blister pus

It's not "a gradient" that's the problem with me it's the frequency and variation of gradients that would make running a SS pointless and counter productive for what i do. I use all the gears I've got and most of the time I'm doing interval training when I'm cycling. So SS would drastically limit how I use my bike and would therefore effect my enjoyment of cycling.

MacAndCheese

Not on the southdowns, I don't think I could even go down to single front ring, would just restrict my riding too much. At Uni I ran a BMX as my only bike for a while which sucked when I had to come back up the hill with my shopping in a backpack, could really have used gears then! Fair play to all those who can make it work though.

lawman

love the poster might put it as my sig

papasmurf.

if you look at the picture closely it actually says.

bomberesque

subtle. I see what you did there. took me a while, but I got it

Penylope

Not yet, but by the end of the week i will

snotty badger

I took my SS out for it first proper run the other week.
Along relativty flat trails to slight hills its great- I'm not into hippy crap but you do enter a kind of zen like state of cadence

You have no choice but to go one speed along the flats too- I left my riding buddies behind until the first real climb :oops:

It is hard work, being in the Lakes won't help but I know if I manage to use it more often it'll increase my leg strength no end.

Makes me appreicate the Pitch more too

supersonic

Here is a thought - buy a geared bike - and use the hard gears!

snotty badger

But its too easy to wuss out and use the granny ring

Plus those gears need maintaining, and buying! One of the reasons I built it as SS was cost! lol

And the most important thing- they look cool 8)














:P

Cps

supersonic wrote:

Here is a thought - buy a geared bike - and use the hard gears!

Obviously you have never tried SS - cause it just ain't the same!!

stumpyjon

No and No.

bomberesque

supersonic wrote:

Here is a thought - buy a geared bike - and use the hard gears!

come on SS, you know it's not the same

adb1006

Cps wrote:

supersonic wrote:

Here is a thought - buy a geared bike - and use the hard gears!

Obviously you have never tried SS - cause it just ain't the same!!

This is the sort of comment about SS that confuses me so much - i think i touched on it in the thread that RM was referring to in his initial post. How the fcuk is SS any different to riding a geared bike in a high gear? Except for the fact that you have easier gears to go into if you really need to. Surely riding in 30 front and 16 back (or whatever ratio you use), is the same, whether you have other gears or not. It just seems pointless to me, grinding up hills in a high gear when someone else will just click down a few and be off past you in a flash. IMO, there's a reason professional racers don't use them - geared bikes are quicker, and better suited to anything but flat terrain.

I'm not SS bashing, each to their own i say, but i refuse to believe that it makes riding more enjoyable, or makes you a better rider etc etc. I'm actually thinking about building an SS bike at some point myself, but that will be due to cost and maintenance issues, and it will only be used as a second bike.

bomberesque

adb1006 try it. honestly, it is not the same

• no chainslap (because no spring tensioning the chain)
• completely straight chainline
• quiet drivetrain
• no skipping chain .... EVER. (well OK, if you let the chain stretch too much then it can jump, usually ending up in emergency as it will always happen when you're tonking as hard as your knees will let you)

There are other more psychological effects (like not having the gears there even if you wanted them) kind of like the difference between riding along a white line on the road and riding along a plank the same width

But, those aside, It is physically different.