SS - Do you? Would you?
Comments
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John Moore wrote:supersonic wrote:I like to be faster and more efficient, and have knees that work ;-)
Points one & two - I'm faster round my nearest trail centre (Llandegla) on my SS than my geared bike (Same bike but with gears added for the summer) by a good 5 minutes.
How can this be possible? Unless you're totally useless with gears? How in a month of sundays, can haveing LESS gears make you faster round a trail? That just doesn't make sense.0 -
x-isle wrote:No thanks, I'll just select a gear that's right for the situation.
The point being that on a SS you aren't exclusively grinding up hills at a low cadence, you will also end up spinning a very high cadence on flat sections.x-isle wrote:I'm not knocking it, each to their own, but I'm living in the 21st Century, anybody got a car with a 4 speed gearbox?....
Yes, lots.0 -
militantmandy wrote:John Moore wrote:supersonic wrote:I like to be faster and more efficient, and have knees that work ;-)
Points one & two - I'm faster round my nearest trail centre (Llandegla) on my SS than my geared bike (Same bike but with gears added for the summer) by a good 5 minutes.
How can this be possible? Unless you're totally useless with gears? How in a month of sundays, can haveing LESS gears make you faster round a trail? That just doesn't make sense.
lots of things in life make no sense. Doesn't make them any less true.
for one, my ss bike weighs 8 kgEverything in moderation ... except beer
Beer in moderation ... is a waste of beer
If riding an XC race bike is like touching the trail,
then riding a rigid singlespeed is like licking it
... or being punched by it, depending on the day0 -
x-isle wrote:I'm not knocking it, each to their own, but I'm living in the 21st Century, anybody got a car with a 4 speed gearbox?....
Yep, a 1996 Mini
8) which is funny, because it too is super-fast round twisty roads, roundabouts etc but will only cruise at 70 on the motorway. In a way it's very analogous to having a singlespeed bike 0 -
bomberesque wrote:militantmandy wrote:John Moore wrote:supersonic wrote:I like to be faster and more efficient, and have knees that work ;-)
Points one & two - I'm faster round my nearest trail centre (Llandegla) on my SS than my geared bike (Same bike but with gears added for the summer) by a good 5 minutes.
How can this be possible? Unless you're totally useless with gears? How in a month of sundays, can haveing LESS gears make you faster round a trail? That just doesn't make sense.
lots of things in life make no sense. Doesn't make them any less true.
for one, my ss bike weighs 8 kg
You're post doesn't make much sense, which doesn't make it any less irrelevant.
Very good, your ss is featherweight, but THIS ss bike is a geared bike minus gears. How much difference does it make? I'd wager not that much.0 -
militantmandy wrote:Very good, your ss is featherweight, but THIS ss bike is a geared bike minus gears. How much difference does it make? I'd wager not that much.
All I can say is try it if you're interested, but don't knock it until you've tried it. Of all the decriers on this thread, the only one I think that admits to having actually tried SS is .... well SS
There are several posts from singlespeeders in this thread (me amongst them) where they try to explain the differences and why it's not the same as just not changing gear but at the end of the day, if you want to know then there's only one way to really find out.Everything in moderation ... except beer
Beer in moderation ... is a waste of beer
If riding an XC race bike is like touching the trail,
then riding a rigid singlespeed is like licking it
... or being punched by it, depending on the day0 -
bomberesque wrote:militantmandy wrote:Very good, your ss is featherweight, but THIS ss bike is a geared bike minus gears. How much difference does it make? I'd wager not that much.
All I can say is try it if you're interested, but don't knock it until you've tried it. Of all the decriers on this thread, the only one I think that admits to having actually tried SS is .... well SS
There are several posts from singlespeeders in this thread (me amongst them) where they try to explain the differences and why it's not the same as just not changing gear but at the end of the day, if you want to know then there's only one way to really find out.
Sorry, don't want to give the impression i'm anti SS. I'm not and as you rightly point out, i should try before judging. All i'm saying is that the scenario or geared bike being slower than the same bike, with 1 gear round a trail seems odd to me.
I actually quite like the idea of an SS for riding to work. Based on Innerliethen and Glentress though, I don't fancy it for off roading.0 -
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"I agree each to their own, but to say that SS'ing is not for hilly areas is complete rot."
You got any 500ft ascent 1 in 4 climbs off road? Let's see how you do then. Push I reckon on a standard 2:1, and that aint biking, it's walking lol. You don't have to sit and twiddle, though it is more efficient - maybe you'd select a 1:1 ratio on some hils and power up it. There are many places on my trails which are slow and technical and suddenly lead into very steep slopes where I can't physically turn a high gear (well, not without a ridiculously low cadence and stalling) where you need o change down.
It depends on the hill, and the gears. Hilly areas vary.0 -
bomberesque
8kg?! Wow!0 -
Chinley Churner wrote:blister pus wrote:RealMan wrote:Lots of people use the old "too many hills" excuse to not SS.
If you live in the hills, ride in the hills, travel from town to town in the hills, travel to a ride / loop through hills on a daily basis, do more than 15 miles of hill work 4 times a week, you'll have a vague idea as to why that's just laughable crap. And why I've yet to see a single SS on my travels in the dark / white peak ....and when I do (and I'm sure I will eventually) I'll know there's a car not too far off.
Bunch of Balls!!! I live in glorious Chinley and ride almost exclusively on a single-speed all around the area including Chinley Churn, Kinder, Middle Moor, Lantern Pike, Hollins Cross etc. I regularly do 5-6 hour rides and usually find myself overtaking groups of geared riders. I also recently took my SS to Coed-Y-Brenin and rode all of the trails there comfortably.
I agree each to their own, but to say that SS'ing is not for hilly areas is complete rot. It's in the hills that they shine. Assuming you're reasonably strong, you'll get up most climbs quicker than geared riders as you're lighter and don't have the option to twiddle up slowly. Even if you end up having to push, chances are you'll still be going as fast as geared riders as they'll be down on some ridiculously low ratio by that stage. The downhills round my way are mostly steep and technical so not a whole lot of pedaling is done anyway.... no speed lost there. It's only on flat, non-technical bits of trail or roads that you lose out but most riders take those sections as a breather anyway.
Here we go, here we have the single brown rice eating militant contrarian. When I see more than one of you I'll pay attention ....even then I probably won't though.0 -
Single speed to me is completely pointless. The whole point of a mountain bike is that it 'climb any mountain and forde any stream', you can hardly do all that with one gear can u not unless you've got legs like king kong or superman.
I'll be keeping my triple and 9 combo thank you very much.0 -
supersonic wrote:bomberesque
8kg?! Wow!
actually, maybe 8 1/2 now I put a SID Team on it
we have some of the climbs of which you speak round here (150-200 vert m) and I agree, once you get past a certain grade you start running into trouble assuming it's longer than you can blast up. I have dropped the gearing on mine slightly (32:18) and that helps more than I thought it would, I can *almost* sit and grind at that gearing, depending on the grade. Normally I can make them, but I can't manage *as many of them* before I'm in a groaning painful heap of exhaustion
for me it's not about SSing being better per se than geared, but it trains me in certain ways (handling, pumping, climbing out of the saddle and sprinting)Everything in moderation ... except beer
Beer in moderation ... is a waste of beer
If riding an XC race bike is like touching the trail,
then riding a rigid singlespeed is like licking it
... or being punched by it, depending on the day0 -
"for me it's not about SSing being better per se than geared, but it trains me in certain ways (handling, pumping, climbing out of the saddle and sprinting)"
Well said.
I must get sme carbon rigids for the Zaskar LE!0 -
A huge +1. the exact reasons I chose SS (as well as ease of maintainance and sturdiness)0
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blister pus wrote:Here we go, here we have the single brown rice eating militant contrarian. When I see more than one of you I'll pay attention ....even then I probably won't though.
You can't ride much in the peaks if you haven't seen any SSers, the place is full of them.0 -
I see you are all crawling out the wood work. Cool. 0
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And when I say not one, I mean, not one. I did say there will be a time when I do encounter one but it's not happened yet.0
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I see them quite often as a pass them by, laughing at their legs doing 250rpm on the long downs
;-)0 -
Grab a pic with your phone for me and post it so I can grab it and use it as desktop wallpaper, will ya, ta.0
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I love my SS. I agree, that it may not be all that great on hills, and I may not be as fast on my SS as I am on my geared, but I am really still very quick on my SS and it is loads of fun. I really feel as though I am embracing the essence of mountain biking.
But it has its place and time, I can climb some serious hills on it. I really is just a really nice simplistic machine.
No gears to clutter the bars, very light. Mine is just over 8kgs. Its not something you can really grasp until you have owned one.
Don't get me wrong gears will be quicker more often than not, but there is a heck of a lot of pride in yourself when you know you kept up with all your geared mates on your SS.
I would suggest everyone try it with and open mind.0 -
Did try it for fun and enjoyed it but I can't see the point. I love my 42/27 11-34 setup.
Just to add that while climbing was challenging, the spinning bit was utterly pointless unproductive and frustrating.0 -
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do you have a beard ?
do you have a big ego
do you look down on geared riders ?
was your bike made by a manufacturer that know one else has heard of ?
if yes to all these questions
then your well on your wayThe hardest thing about being a singlespeeder?
Telling your parents that you're......
(I'll stop there!)ooOOoo - i'll let you into the secret; no-one actually RIDES a single-speed bike. it's a myth.
once a year 250 people pull an old orange clockwork/on-one inbred out of the shed, chuck it in the back of a car, and drive off to the SSUK venue.
Here they will drink a bit too much beer, and cock about on their bike for about an hour or so. One of them is later announced as a 'winner' - and given a t-shirt.
Then the real prizes get given out to those people who had the most fun/provided the most entertainment/broke something.
When they all get home, they will get back on their geared bikes, and give their knees a rest for 363 days.
honestly, that's all there is to it...
(and you WILL need a beard)
They rarely come first, I'll give you that...0 -
Interesting replies from the SS lot.
I also ride using only one gear - till my cadence drops, and then I change gear!
Personally, No, no SS for me. I like to practise the art of moutain biking, which to me means going up and down mountains on my bike - as the name would suggest.
A SS does not allow me to do that, for nipping down the shops they are great, but just not suited to my type of mountain biking. If I did by a SS bike I would have to change the name of my hobby to
"Riding on slight gradients before I run out of steam and have to push the rest of the way"
Just doesn't have such a good ring to it.
I also consider it an evolutionary step backwards - why downgrade my bike - I can still ride mine through 30cm of snow without the gears clogging - modern bike kit works fantastically!
I'm not having a go at SS. I also see them round my way - the grandads use them to go to market Not really active0 -
Sure if SS is not for you then don't do it.
But this whole machismo thing against anyone who likes to ride SS is a complete load of retarded B*****ks.0 -
Cps wrote:Sure if SS is not for you then don't do it.
But this whole machismo thing against anyone who likes to ride SS is a complete load of retarded B*****ks.
I'd take things with a liberal pinch of salt if I were you. 0 -
Exactly. I can quite happily ride QE Park's Orange Trail on my SS and keep up with my geared friend. OK, it's not Scotland or Wales but it's up the side of a large hill in the middle of the South Downs. Only bits I walk, he walks as well 'cos it's just too steep.
I don't know why everyone thinks you can't go up hills on an SS. :roll: You just have to go about it a bit differently.
I've done 500ft 1 in 10's on my SS and if I was fitter I could do higher gradients and distances I reckon.0 -
you do need a much higher level of fitness to ride ss effectively uphill, downhill bike handling plays a bigger part.
I have two regular riding mates, one a lot fitter than me one less fit. I'm a better trail rider than both of them. I'm faster than the less fit one whether on my inbred or my 456 (ss and geared respectively, about 4 lbs difference between them) up and downhill. With the fitter guy he's faster up on both bikes i'm faster down on both (he rides whichever i'm not) but on really technical climbs i can beat him on the ss as long as i don't blow0
