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The embarassing happened to me on Friday. Went for an after work ride (solo, luckily). 100 yards in, discovered my AXS battery was dead on the rear mech.
Had the choice of singlespeed (in a gear of my choice) or riding the whole ride stood up with a full selection of gears.
I chose singlespeed.
What would you have picked?
And feel free to abuse me for a lack of basic bike upkeep, I deserve it.
Extra details:
South of england woodland (tunnel hill for those who know the area) - So no long climbs
Solo - so able to pick my route for either gentle gradient climbs, or ones so steep that pushing is no great hinderance
Tunnel Hill? What you did and gone singlespeed.
Why did you have to be stood up? Could you not leave the dropper up?
I'd take the gears over the dropper every day of the week.
Surely you could just have ridden with the saddle up in a slightly retro XC way?
TH and the surrounding area was my normal riding for years on rigid singlespeeds with no dropper 😉 even concrete hill is manageable in the dry.
Singlespeed even if it was a hilly route, keep it in a lower gear and drop the saddle out the way to make use of the gradient.
Surely you could just have ridden with the saddle up in a slightly retro XC way?
the ability to ride seat up with flat pedals on anything that is even remotely technical is a skill that has always eluded me.
clipped in on my xc bike I may have made this decision, would have affected my trail selection though. Definitely not good enough to jump with the seat up.
Swap the battery over when you need to move the post for significant climbs/drops, then back to gears.
As my ‘friend’ has done in the past.
I've been riding single speed with a dropper for years -- happy without gears, would hate to loose my dropper
Easy. SS, no question.
I had a ride this winter where my dropper cable had seized so the post wasn't useable.
I'd choose singlespeed.
What a very Southern problem! We’ve only just progressed to droppers and gears oop North. It’ll be yonks before we have to worry about battery powered ones! 😂
I cant be the only one who carries a spare battery 🤔
I also check the lights are green before I set off 😉
SS with a dropper, for sure.
I have a rigid SS with a dropper and big tyres, love that bike. Going back to flat pedals on it soon.
A dropper is the most useful and easy bit of tech/luxury, everything else seems to complicate things in return for the benefits.
How on earth did you people survive rides before the invention of the dropper.
100 yards in? I’d have turned around and gone home!
This ^^ and swapped bikes.
How on earth did you people survive rides before the invention of the dropper.
survivor bias. Many didn’t.
Solo? SS with working dropper, for sure.
Dropper for the win.
How on earth did you people survive rides before the invention of the dropper.
They rode bikes with different geometry perhaps.
I cant be the only one who carries a spare battery 🤔
Nope, but then I’m lucky to have two bikes on AXS so have a couple spares. I also don’t leave batteries in place when not using the bikes and check the light colour when taking them off. Just part of my ride routine now.
Back to topic, gears all the way. Local trails don’t really need a dropper and I managed for 20 years before them and still do on gravel bike. If there was a descent that really needed it, I’d stop and swap the battery to get seat down and do same at bottom, much like I did in QR days.
Definitely singlespeed. Can't imagine riding my mountain bike without one. I use my dropper regularly even on my commute. Cornering, track standing, coasting downhill on the road. They are brilliant things.
Depends where I'm riding
I've rideden bikes long before droppers came along, but very rarely (snapped mech) ridden without gears and I'm not super fit
Out of interest, how do you get to select the gear of your choice?
would hate to loose my dropper
No-one wants a loose dropper. I think you meant lose my dropper.
I'd have kept the gears. I have a dropper in my full sus bike but rarely use it.
humilis gloriatio
I'd have extended the dropper to full height, then put the battery in the derailleur.
I’d have thrown it in a hedge and stormed off in a huff to buy a bicycle that doesn’t need batteries 🙂
you want the dropper, because they make descents more fun
gears are for climbing and thats boring anyway
How on earth did you people survive rides before the invention of the dropper.
IIRC we just pedaled faster to outrun the sabretooth tigers.
They pre date the wheel let alone the dropper 😀
If I'm riding SS, I'm stood up most of the time anyway - it's either up or down round here.
I might leave the saddle and gear ratio at half mast and leave it there for the whole ride, or switch the batteries at top and bottom - high saddle/low gear for up, low saddle/high gear for down.
A sort of really expensive dingle speed.
They pre date the wheel let alone the dropper 😀
You weren't there mannnnnnnnnn
That's what put me off AXS - gear range anxiety.
That’s what put me off AXS – gear range anxiety.
ironically its too good, which how I ended up in this situation. hadnt charged it in months
Misbehaving dropper is ride-ending bad for me. I'd sooner have a rigid seatpost than a dropper which is stuck in either orientation -- at least with the rigid post I could manually raise and lower the saddle when required.
Tricky question though. My initial vote was 100% for "singlespeed with working dropper". But then I considered that offroad when riding SS I mostly have the saddle dropped as I'm either out the saddle gurning up climbs or out the saddle dribbling down the other side while my heart rate recovers to something less terminal-feeling.
But then I considered that if I DID have gears I'd quite like to have a seat to sit on to spin up hills, otherwise there's no point and I might as well be SS gurning.
I don't know. Maybe I would also just throw the bike in a bush and go take up some less conundrum-laden passtime.
Singlespeed with a dropper - that’s how my hardtail has been for the last year!
Been thinking about this
While I would rather go single speed and dropper than gears and riding post, if the latter had me running a £400 chain tensioner I'd prob go for the gears
ironically its too good, which how I ended up in this situation. hadnt charged it in months
This. If it runs out, it’s because you’ve forgotten to charge it for a few rides, not that the capacity isn’t enough.
Neither :). I took the dropper off my singlespeed...as I normally stand for big hills I can compromise on the saddle height slightly, probably run it about 40mm lower than geared and this means I don't need the dropper for general trail riding 🙂
The embarassing happened to me on Friday. Went for an after work ride (solo, luckily). 100 yards in, discovered my AXS battery was dead on the rear mech.
Had the choice of singlespeed (in a gear of my choice) or riding the whole ride stood up with a full selection of gears.
Humble brag of the week?
been here before myself. Chose single speed. Unfortunately chose a pretty high gear for my single speed, so had to dig deep at times. But its amazing how much speed you maintain when you know you can drop a few gears and make it easy!
Like many, into the habit of making sure the light is green before setting off 🙂
Wondered how long it would take for someone to translate klunk's post from Latin.😀