First post ever, so bear with me..

I’m about to realize a plan that’s been nagging at me for a good while and I wanted to know if anybody has ever seen or heard of anything similar or has any experience / ideas to share.

I’m going to build up an Intense Tazer VP for trailcentre use. I’m into fast flowing singletrack and like to hit jumps.

I like the simplicity and reliability of singlespeed setups and don’t mind honking up steepish stuff in the wrong gear.

I also like riding light bikes, but equally they’ve got to be robust.

For these reasons I thought that it might make sense to go singlespeed and shed a few grams, eliminate some bits that go wrong or snap off and keep things tight, but…. singlespeeds are slow; you spin out too quickly.

Sooo. What about a two cog cassette on the back end offering 2:1 and 3:1 and short cage rear mech activated by a remote fork lockout or similar?

I’m sure that most of you are thinking ‘What’s the point?’ but there you go. Non-derogatory comments please.

With the addition of a mech, it sounds like combining the disadvantages of geared and singlespeed without any real advantages.

Have you considered a hub gear like the 8spd Alfine, or an internally geared two speed crank such as the Schlumpf drive? I have an Alfine and it feels and sounds like I’m riding singlespeed. Just a little weighty, but the more expensive Schlumpf drive may be lighter and bring the weight back to the centre of the bike.

Removes the need for the rattly vulnerable mech and means the wheel can be built dishless.

Edit: Actually, seeing as you are on a full susser you will need a tensioner anyway, so maybe a two speed cassette would make sense.

I’ve got a schlumf speed drive on my bivvy bike.It’s basically a singlespeed with a bail out gear.Spendy though at £450.

If you’re running a mech for two speeds, you might as well have the rest of the gears because what ever is going to go wrong with 8/9/10 speed is going to go wrong with 2 speed.

And you’d have to run a proper shifter anyway, as the cable pull for shock lockouts etc will be wrong.

In fact it would be harder to build, more expensive, more bother and almost certainly less reliable than a fully geared set up.

Sounds like you want to go either Schlumpf or Hammerschmidt.

Just go with normal gears, or Hammerschmidt if you’ve got the cash for it.

First post ever, so bear with me..

😆