Beard in rear mech incident…

Initially, Just to see, and the aesthetics

I bought an Inbred 29er in 2006. Brant said he would sort out some gears later but I never bothered. SS 29er makes great sense.

i) To have a winter commuting bike with a drive train that might last more than one winter.

ii) To cheaply resurrect an old bike that otherwise I would have finished with.

iii) An excuse to take it easy on downhill and flat-sections and be able to blame the drive train spinning out for riding slowly.

iv) The thought of riding a niche gear ratio involving prime numbers e.g. 37:17 🙂

When the n+1 bikes itch started for me, my original intention was to build a 29 with an Alfine 11 hub – mostly for the low maintenance aspects.
As this not long after the Alfine 11 first came out, there were varying contradicting reports on the reliability – and the order process seemed a bit confusing, as the hub, the cable guide, and other mounting kits seemed to have to be ordered separately – I turned to idea on it’s head and built the 29er with gears and converted my Genesis Altitude to singlespeed.

I struggled a bit with larger hills, at first, but recently changed from 32:18 to 32:17 and have now fallen in love with the SS – for local night rides.

I still bring the 29er out for longer days with more hills, but the singlespeed is just a joy to ride, and it’s certainly improving my fitness.

About 5-6 years ago, I was out riding with dot from here and he’d cobbled together a singlespeed. At the first notable hill he shot up it, leaving me and the rest for dust. When we eventually got to the top he was hunched over trying not to be sick and looked awful. I thought wow!- look what a singlespeed can do and look what it does to you. I was intrigued, so cobbled one together myself.

@yak I rode the very same climb on a singlespeed this afternoon, did it a bit quicker than 6 years ago but still felt like puking at the top 🙂

Curiosity and I was fed up destroying drive trains in the noxious filth that local trails consist if for ten months if the year.

stevenmenmuir – Member
I like being able to put some nice stuff on the SS as I’m not spending lots on gears.

I like that, that has just helped me justify spending some money on my Unit!

Because I’m a stubborn northerner, living in the south west. I use it to help improve my riding mates fitness……he he he

Road: fixed builds fitness faster and improves pedaling
Off road: first mtb was a rigid Kona Unit 29er SS because I though it would build skills and fitness faster. Second is a Genesis ioid Alfine which is now SS again.

And I quite like different.

You can never have too many bikes! I just like the simplicity and have no shame in walking. 🙂

No beard here!

I did it for the sex, exotic locations, endless class A drugs and because a lady wearing skin tight velvet underwear told me to.

7/8 years ago when I came back to the sport after 10 years messing on boats. Read about it, got one & loved it. Was much fitter then. Now all my best local rides seem to involve a single speed, when I’m fit enough to ride one 🙁

Keef – Member
because PQ did…

There’s a blast from the past! It was sofaking and salsaboy that inspired me. Oh, and to meet ssstu… 😉

And, I’d just like to mention the Aviemore SS Worlds; it wasn’t just men in the ‘best beard’ line up 😯

A broken chain and Winter…
Last week’s ride – 4 riders, one rear mech mechanical, one front mech cages snapped in two, one singlespeed (me), and one rolhoff. Only me and the rolhoff survived a not especially muddy ride.
SS is now in the garage and will be ridden this week without needing to me washed and pampered…

Prefer riding the bike to operating it.

Besides all those levers confuse us simple souls.

A Sturmey 3 speed I understand – one for uphill/headwinds, one for the flat, one for downhill/tailwinds.

And it seems a shame to drag those beautifully engineered derailleurs through mud and grit.

psling – Member
Keef – Member
because PQ did…
There’s a blast from the past!

Indeed Pete,I remember me and PQ meeting up with you, and you showing us round FOD,we were all SS, a much rarer sight in those days…

It was probably around 1988 and I was 5. They only had one gear back then and were just called bikes.

I tried singlespeeding in a bid to try and assuage my feelings of sexual inadequacy..

I wanted to gow a beard… 🙂

My first s/s was an experiment on using my hardtail MTB frame, I kinda liked the s/s thing but needed one gear for riding to the trails and an easier gear for riding on the trails… so I went Sturmey-Archer internal 3-speed hub (too skint for an Alfine / Rohloff).

Around the same time the rear derailleur on my winter commute cx bike succumbed to several winters of salt de-gritting the roads.
It was a Surly & was s/s ready & I had the bits left over from the MTB, it seemed rude not to.
All I had to do then was calculate the max gear I could get over the hardest hump of the commute on.

Because I am too inept to maintain my bikes properly.
Because I’m too tight fisted to buy a new mech every 5 years or so when it wears out.
Because I already push a geared bike uphill so a ss makes no difference.
Because I already wear a grimace instead of a smile.

The drive train on my old Kona was coming to the end of its life and I was struggling to get 7 speed parts.

I took it as an opportunity to buy a modern bike, but kept the Kona and converted it to singlespeed.

It was intended to be just a ‘winter’ bike, but have used it more than that.

I like the lightweight simplicity, low maintenance and get satisfaction from slogging round in winter and proving to people that you don’t need a stack of gears to ride round North Notts.

I had a dog to take out every night. Best way was by bike, so all weather bike needed, no time to clean or maintain it, it just had to be ready to use every day.
Don’t take the dog out much anymore, so the ss a bit surplus. Oh well.

A friend had ridden one for years in the UK and US and I just thought I’d build one out of an old Kona Cindercone to give it a go, became hooked and now it’s all I ride.

Went up to Ashton court to watch a mate race SSUK, ended up winning place at SSWC in Scotland after a dancing competition. I’d only started riding properly a couple of months prior to this, single speeded my bike immediately after, 1 gear ever since. I had a beard already though so I guess it was destiny.

I built a hard tail because I fancied doing my own custom build, but it meant my full susser hardly got ridden. When both bikes were nicked I made sure I replaced them with two very different bikes, so it seemed like an ideal opportunity to try a single speed “just because”. It performs admirably as my low-maintenance steed for family rides, pubs and shops as well as being a very different challenge to my full susser when off-road. It also looks ace.

When I lived in Cambridge, most of my “”fun” riding was in Thetford. No need for many gears there, so I went SS for weight-saving speed and simplicity.
Moved somewhere hilly and kept it, MTFU on the climbs makes you faster.

Most recent SS was more about attention seeking though as its got a belt, not a chain. 🙂

Built up a commutey bike SS to keep costs down, and commute was fairly flat. Really enjoyed the simplicity, and quiet, and the way it freed up my brain in an unexpected way. It’s not until you ditch the shifters that you realise how much of your time you spend thinking about them.

Put a cassette on the back for a Downs Link – SDW to Brighton ride, and kept it on. Commute got hillier.

Off road: I bought a Dialled PA as a stop gap while I spruced up the dekerf. Liked the PA, figured there was room for both, but even more so if I kept the PA and longer travel geary, and set up the Dekerf as rigid SS. 1st proper outing was at SSUKG in the Purbecks and rode about 60 beautiful miles in the Purbeck hills. I knew it would handle brilliantly with rigids, and knew I’d enjoy SS for all the same reasons as I did on the commuter.

I didn’t know how much the uphill hauling and thrutching works your abs, back and shoulders, though!

RightWing – Member

Because I am too inept to maintain my bikes properly.
Because I’m too tight fisted to buy a new mech every 5 years or so when it wears out.
Because I already push a geared bike uphill so a ss makes no difference.
Because I already wear a grimace instead of a smile.

That pretty much sums it up for me two 🙂

A friend let me have a go on his he said “go on try this, you can have it free for a weekend” needless to say I was then hooked and had to buy one… Classic bike pusher technique!

First time round it was cost amd simplicity and the fact thay I was doing more jumpy stuff that didn’t need gears or want to bust a mech…

Eventually I got round to wanting to do more winter XC miles and the same drivers of cost and maintenance still held true for that, so I just used a slightly lower ratio on a more farm gate style frame and now merrily churn my way through the mud with it during winter…

All told I have owned 5 SS MTBs one way or another…

Santa made me,when he left one for me(& every other kid)back in 1969………..

Funny thing is nobody made such a big deal of it in those days……. 8)

Well, if we’re going back, I first tried SS because I was placed on a red, blue and yellow plastic trike. It was direct drive top the front wheel too, for extra niche points.

I couldn’t go very fast on it, so everything since has just been a skills conpensator.

Commuted for 2 years on a Kona Paddy, loved it … only bike I ever regret selling.

Commuted on SS for years.

Got a SS mountain bike because C2W scheme came up again and I didn’t ‘need’ any other bike, but it felt rude not to use C2W, so got one of these

5 or 6 years ago, i stripped my bike down and sent the frame off to be powder coated. When it got back, and there it was hanging naked in the garage, I got this curious itchy feeling. i genuinely thought ss was only for the big boys with massive thighs and lungs like dustbin liners* but also realised that now was the time to give it a go. So I got a kit from Brant, fully expecting to be advertising it on here two weeks later……and I’ve had one ever since.

(that frame did go back to gears, but only once I’d got a dedicated ss frame to replace it. Now on my third……)

* obviously totally true, I’d just underestimated how butch i was back then.

I just fancied a fixed gear bike. I thought it would get me fitter. Dunno if it has done that but hasnt done any harm.

Stuck with it for the same reasons posted. Convienience on the maintentance side. There is nothing to go wrong so it is always ready to ride. I also love the clean looks.