http://reviews.mtbr.com/singlespeeds-are-for-angry-people

Discuss…

“We’re not angry, man. We’re passionate.”

Nah…. I’m pissed off what ever I ride.

Codswallop

Not as angry as people who ride 26ers 😉

Not a bad read really.

Bollocks, now piss off!

But do they singlespeed because they’re angry, or does singlespeeding make them angry?

The anger arises because the rest of you won’t accept the fact that we are right.

The gnashing of teeth & narked expression are nowt to do with anger. 😳

Entertaining article, but maintaining gears in UK conditions makes me far angrier than riding SS.

From the article:

the type of pain and suffering that comes with riding only one gear

Suffering? Pain? Where do they come into singlespeeding? I must be doing it wrong.

Single speeders are only angry when we are going up hill. Going downhill we coast and on the flat we spin with a grin.

Therefore riding a single speed imitates life. Riding with gears is like being on Prozac, every day’s an easy day (if you want it to be so).

Surely us geared riders are the angry ones for having to listen to the righteous chat in the car park only to get stuck behind one halfway up a climb when they decide to dismount and walk the rest clogging the climb and stopping us sensible types from ‘cleaning’ the section / climb?

only to get stuck behind one halfway up a climb when they decide to dismount and walk

That’s not a real singlespeeder.

Now I’m not an angry person, I’m happy and chilled out almost all of the time. But when someone gets in my way at the very top of a large painfull climb I am inclined toward shoving their bike where the sun don’t shine 😯

They’ll regret fitting those Nobbly Nicks

Hmm, it certainly resembles the ones I have been riding with, and thats in flat as you like Swinley.

I had to stop reading when when he claimed “zen”. 🙄

Surely us geared riders are the angry ones for having to listen to the righteous chat in the car park only to get stuck behind one halfway up a climb when they decide to dismount and walk the rest clogging the climb and stopping us sensible types from ‘cleaning’ the section / climb?

Alternatively, singlespeeders have to listen to dull chat about going from 9 speed to ten speed, whether to stick with triple or go double and bash or maybe even 1×11. Then when we start to make our graceful charge up the hill some fud that can’t make their mind up which very low gear to be in while they wander from side to side all over the trail. Then when they come to the first step up or water bar they have to dismount because they were in the wrong gear or didn’t have enough momentum. Failing that they don’t manage to change gear early enough and have to stop before they wreck their expensive chain/rear mech/whatever. Two sides to every story.

Funny article. Certainly made me smile and I concur with a couple of what the author points are.

But angry, nah, what makes me angry is not cleaning a steep ascent, that reeeaaaaallllyyy grates. However 98.7776543565678% of the time riding I’m as chilled out and digging hard as I always do/am.

What makes me angry is when racing and getting stuck behind someone whose riding gears and gets stuck up a climb in front of me and decides to hop off when I’m pacing myself behind and want to continue the rotation/effort.. But then that happens in most races no?

Indeed there is Mr Menmuir. I guess each discipline has its mincers. I do accept that my comments, although based on a factual experience, does not encompass everyone.
Personally I have been contemplating converting my Transition Covert to Butchers bike rod brakes as a hark back to simpler times. I will let you know how I get on.

Can you post up pictures of the aftermath too?

For balance, I did try the SS for a little while but it did not suit my local wood due to it being a very small wood in a steep valley. I was always either under or over geared. I guess that makes me a mincer.

There’s an awful lot of bollards talked about SS from both geared and non geared riders.

SS riders are angry riders

I think most of us would be, if we could only afford one gear.

Fortunately, a lot of us are lucky enough to be able buy bikes with multiple gears. We should consider ourselves lucky.

😉

Some of the singlespeeds pictured in that article have suspension forks on them. I didn’t think that was allowed?

Mine has carbon, disc brakes, a suss fork and everything….

There are rules? I don’t think I got the memo

Perhaps it’s just me then, I always thought that a single speed should be fully rigid, made of steel, and have cantilever brakes while a singlespeeder should be bearded and wearing dayglo lycra from circa 1984 🙂

Alternatively, singlespeeders have to listen to dull chat about going from 9 speed to ten speed, whether to stick with triple or go double and bash or maybe even 1×11. Then when we start to make our graceful charge up the hill some fud that can’t make their mind up which very low gear to be in while they wander from side to side all over the trail. Then when they come to the first step up or water bar they have to dismount because they were in the wrong gear or didn’t have enough momentum. Failing that they don’t manage to change gear early enough and have to stop before they wreck their expensive chain/rear mech/whatever. Two sides to every story.

+1

Climbing on a SS is reltively straighforeward, climbing on a SS behind someone with gears is where it gets really complicated trying to trackstand on a shallow bit while they faff about ahead, then trying to accelerate into the gap to clear whatever it is they’re struggling with.

but the final conclusion is that SS riders are not angry but they are idiots, very hard ones, but idiots none the less.

this is so very true 😆

There are rules? I don’t think I got the memo

Nor me. My SS has 18 speeds.
😯

I loved it. It was freedom, like having no pants on. But my knees didn’t cope with the pressures of hill climbing and I’ve returned to my spinny style and nine gears. [sigh]

I suspect the style suits riders who have some attitude. It’s like flogging yourself at times. Self satisfaction and affirmation through Masochism. Like all tough sports.

SS riders are……

mechanically illiterate….

slow…..

asuaging guilty consciences….

thumbless…

constipated….?

The truth is unless we can teach one to communicate we may never know.

nickc – Member
Mine has carbon, disc brakes, a suss fork and everything….
There are rules? I don’t think I got the memo

Mine’s now full suss, will I be ostrichised?

Brilliant.. geared riders moaning about stalled wannabe-SSers, SSers going on about momentum ruined by gear-crunching biffers.. SSers being wellard and suggesting they always rocket upwards, whistling as they go like monkey on his pink cloud.. mentions of butcher’s bike technology..

I should’ve written a bingo-card of predictions before opening this one, would’ve made my tea break )

My teas breaks are quite dull, I know. What can I say, I work in a garage and today’s ‘exciting break’ was an hour on a turbo.. and my perma-turbo-bike has 3 more gears than my MTB usually has. %-*@ing livid about it I am.. and $(@~~~in’ turbo training when I ride a SS. What the f3%& is that C*77(0@ all about? C04k-%h0t b0110k5.

The truth is unless we can teach one to communicate we may never know.

: )

Mine’s now full suss, will I be ostrichised?

Only if you can hear them…

jimmers – Member

Single speeders are only angry when we are going up hill. Going downhill we coast and on the flat we spin with a grin.

Therefore riding a single speed imitates life. Riding with gears is like being on Prozac, every day’s an easy day (if you want it to be so).

I like! 😆

Pain on the uphill? I love the sound of derailleurs chattering away as the group madly downshifts up the hill. Then settle on the back wheel of the guy in front, and sure enough, at some point, they drop another gear, and you spin past ’em.

How do you know when someone is a singlespeeder?

They just spent 15 minutes telling you about it.

That said I do want to SS one of my bikes and see what its like. I’m halfway there, I did away with my front mechs.

I tried SS for a month once. It made me angry. Too hard a gear to climb and too easy a gear to have fun DH, load of crap. Only any good for BMXs and jump bikes.