Why am I quicker on a s/s, I have an air 9 rigid 10 speed & a one 9 rigid s/s both alloy, obviously the s/s is lighter although not by much. The trailes I ride are a mixture of man made, fire roads & natural stuff a few hills aswell. On a 13 mile loop I am about a minute quicker. Any suggestions welcome

The ss forces you to conserve momentum and ride harder up the hills. Descending has a lot less to do with pedalling that people think so higher gears don’t always make you faster. If you break it down are you consistently faster through all of it or are there bits you really make the time?

Brute force and no place to hide on s/s. No choice but to attack when only 1 gear

Based on my experience of SSing – descending speed won’t be much different, your just riding along speed won’t be much different but you’ll be attacking the hills more on the ss so gaining time on the terrain where the gears should help. They are helping but in the making it easier direction rather than the making you faster direction. If the hills were longer the difference would close/reverse I’d expect.

because you go faster up hill on a SS or you stall
on the geared bike you spin more uphill so are slower

Generally if I am attacking a segment with the sole intention of of getting a better time I would be quicker with gears however on the hole loop with 30 odd segments I’m quicker & strangely not as fatigued on the s/s.

I’m not sure a minute over 13 miles is a significant difference. Was the wind blowing in a different direction? Did you get stuck at a set of lights?

As above, it’s psychological. A bit lie changing from a triple to a 1x setup. You find that it wasn’t that you *needed* the gears, it’s just you used them as they were there.
Without the option, you just end up smashing it on the hills more and ultimately end up faster. I’d hazard that if you studied it, your speed on the s/’s will be more consistent, whereas the geared bike will have higher peaks and lower lows.

All about the rhythm mate – push hard and find the rhythm – the magic of singlespeeding 🙂

for a man who pointed and laughed at mine the first time you saw it, you’ve become an evangelist 😉

A lot of time can be wasted going slowly uphill as going slower for longer and the SS is probably faster uphills.

The problem I have is that I am now running the lowest gear I have ever used (around 48GI) because it allows me to ride more technical stuff but my flat speed is now only around 15mph when pedalling at 100rpm so I start to lose a lot of time on long flat sections.

Strava backs this up as I am top 5 with a few KOM on technical and uphill stuff but nowhere on 1 mile+ flat segments. Of course I could change to a higher gearing and do the flat segments I suppose…..

Of course I could change to a higher gearing and do the flat segments I suppose…..

If only someone would devise a mechanism that allowed you to change between a number of different gear ratios 😉

It’s simply because gears make you soft.

It’s simply because gears allow you to be lazy.

And your lazy.

If you have something like a garmin with virtual partner on it load up the SS ride and try matching it on the geared bike.

hopkinsgm – Member
If only someone would devise a mechanism that allowed you to change between a number of different gear ratios

I’ve been discussing this with another singlespeeder.

Have you noticed that there’s room on most freehubs for more than one cog? We figure you could probably get at least 3 on there. That way you could have a low gear for climbing hills, one for the flat, and another for downhill or tailwinds.

It would revolutionise cycling we reckon.

All that’s stopping us is working out some sort of device to take up all the slack in the chain. Once we’ve done that we’ll work on our next secret project.

Enabling it to move the chain across. If we put a large pad on the chain device, you should be able to push it across to the next gear with a long stick which could be carried on the handlebar.

Anyone interested in crowd-funding this? We’ll make a fortune out of the old and frail who wish to keep riding in their advancing years. 🙂

It’s because neither bike has suspension, if they did you’d go faster with gears.

If only someone would devise a mechanism that allowed you to change between a number of different gear ratios

Yes, then I could go slower uphill like the geared riders. I actually enjoy riding up hill, enjoy rolling down hill but the flat sections just need to be endured so single speed is perfect for me as I get a light weight, incredibly easy to maintain and very reliable bike that is great uphill.

Single speed is not for everyone but I haven’t ridden a bike with gears for 15 years so I think it might be for me….

No sorry I’v only just changed the air9 to rigid, it was the same with the rockshox. Thing is I’m only a second or 2 slower on a 500yard fire road sprint within that loop which seems strange as I only have 1 gear, I run 32/16 oval. Over the 500 yd I know it’s more cardio & on hills it’s more muscular but as you say maybe it’s the overall loop I should look at. I have found with the s/s rigid you have to ride fast otherwise you get knocked around by the rough ground to much. I thought a s/s rigid would be a simple option but sorting out gear ratios, chainring options, tyres & tire pressures, also all the carbon bits to give the bike flex its as complicated as a full sus just a bit cheaper.
Cheers for your input

theotherjonv – Member
for a man who pointed and laughed at mine the first time you saw it, you’ve become an evangelist

Jon – i was pointing at you and laughing – not the bike 🙂 🙂 🙂

it’s not quite horses for courses, but – on my SS, I can be quite quick on several sections, partly due to SS and also rigid forks – don’t think weight has much off a part to play but generally less slack. Ramp up the terrain though, and my geared 26″ is, or was, the quicker bike – partly due to having semi decent forks on it.

It’s on the wide, relatively flat bits that the SS tends to lose out, anything undulating and flow and it’s fine.

Bene a convert since I won a pair of forks and cast around for a bike to fit to them, one SS Kona Kilauea later..

LOL @ epicyclo 😀

Gears serve 2 purposes, to make it easier or to make it quicker. If you’re slower on the geared bike you’re using them to make it easier.

So, you know those up hill bits that you have to attack on the SS? Attack them in the same way on the geared bike. And you know the flat or DH bits that you have to coast on the SS due to running out of gears? Attack them too as you now have the range of gears to enable you to do so. Simple!

So, you know those up hill bits that you have to attack on the SS? Attack them in the same way on the geared bike

Yes you could do that but given the choice a lot of people will not do it all that often/ forget/change down as a bit tired today etc,. whereas the single speeder will do it every single time and get faster at hills by default.

The drive train weight savings, in the uphill sections.

Did you spend a while adjusting stuff on the geared bike, whereas the single speed would be entirely maintenance-free?

Yes you could do that but given the choice a lot of people will not do it all that often/ forget/change down as a bit tired today etc,. whereas the single speeder will do it every single time and get faster at hills by default.

Correct. So, whilst in theory a geared bike is faster as you can change to the fastest gear, in practise it’s not as you change to the easiest gear.

The setup on the geard bike is basically the same as the s/s the frames are very similar that was the point of getting the same forks for the geard bike to make them as close as possible. I need to change the front tyre on the air 9 to a Conti Trail King as I find it works better with the Niner rdo forks than the Racing Ralph but that’s the only other deferents.

Latent awesomeness which has been subdued by the use of gears……

I built my fatbike up singlespeed last winter and its the best fun bike ever – like a grown up’s BMX – utterly brilliant 🙂

Anyone else tried it?

[/url]SS Fatty by boltonjon, on Flickr[/img]

boltonjon – Member
I built my fatbike up singlespeed last winter and its the best fun bike ever – like a grown up’s BMX – utterly brilliant

Anyone else tried it?

There’s a lot of fatbikes set up single speed. If you ride for the sort of conditions they’re good on, you really don’t want anything dangling in the gloop.

Quite a few of the fatbikes that do the ‘Puffer are SS.