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I'm soon to have a 15 mile flat commute (15 miles each way - 30 miles total) to deal with. I'm did fancy a Pompetamine, but given the recent price increase, i'm wondering if a Pompino will be suitable for that sort of distance.
What sort of average speeds to people manage, and on what gearing? I can do 15 miles on my SS hardtail (16x32) in 90mins ish on knobbly tires. What do people think of skinny tires on an 18x48 (obviously gears can be changed, i'm just getting a banchmark)
What are your experiences of commuting on a singlespeed?
It'll be fine. I have an undulating 28 mile each way commute and am perfectly happy doing it on my pompino. Average commute times are fairly similar to my geared bikes (16-18mph without pushing too much). I'm running 48x19.
I doubt there i smuch time penalty for a SS over flattish ground compared to gears as long as you get the right gearing
I commute the same distance over flattish ground on 39-16 and it takes about 45mins (20mph av).Its pretty spinny (100 rpm+) but its good practice and gives me a bit of wiggle room for tired headwind fridays.Might go up to a 42 but will mean new chain aswell so maybe not!!
I commute 10 undulating miles on a Pompino.
Started out 49:16 but Found that a little hard and as the cogs wore out I replaced them with 48:18 which is great.
Only times I don't enjoy it is riding up the inclines into a headwind!
The Pompino is a great bike at a great price
I commute 10 miles each way on flat roads on a s/s Roadrat. No problems - good to have lack of choice of gear for building strength. And with so little to go wrong it's v reliable
I commute 10 miles each way on flat roads on a s/s Roadrat
just about to start to do the same thing on the same bike and set-up. (12 miles though)
quite looking fwd to it TBH.
I'm looking to use 45:18 gearing.
Until I got the road bug, I commuted 32 miles a day fixed on my pompy (I do miss that bike). You will be fine, they are amazing bikes and v comfy too even with a steel fork.
Sounds good. I did think about slicking up my hack hardtail, and commuting on that. However, upon consulting the Domestic Chief of Staff, i was advised that i'd better buy a dedicated machine for the job. Damn!
Pompino is the favourite at the minute. Has anyone had an experience of any similar frames - Roadrat, Day one, etc? I'd be interested to hear some different opinions.
Am i right in saying the new ones are 120mm hub spacing? I'm wondering about perhaps Sturmey Archer in the future...
Pompino is the perfect commuter bike. Love mine. Fixed, I'm using 48x17 at the moment for a 15-17 mile ride on mostly flat ground but it does have 35mm knobblies on as most of my commute is offroad. I could probably go a bit higher than that but when it's muddy it's too much of a drag.
Ride times are an hour going to work because it's more downhill (and usually quieter on the road sections) and about an hour and ten minutes coming back because there's more climbing.
edit: High tyre pressures are the key to going fast and easy by the way. 100psi for mine.
look also at the surly cross-check. that's spaced at 130mm, so it will take mtb or road hubs. leaves the door open for alfine should you fancy it. that full bike deal they're right now is a very good one though.
i sometimes do a longer way into work which adds up to 12 and a half miles with a quite nasty hill in the way on my surly with 42 16.
think about some sks chromoplastic full guards too. they'll need drilling to fit a pomp though. no big deal.
tomhplanetx - Member
@Duffer The current ones are 120mm rear spacing.
Excellent! Thank you very much! On the website, the bike configuring tool offers hundreds of 3TTT bars, but no On-One bars. I fancied trying a Midge - is there any scope for getting some instead?
loved my Pomp. for commuting, again, 16 miles at 48-18 (nothing major silly to climb hill wise)
Only had a speedo for a short time and used to avg 16mph in the summer, which included a mixture of singletrack, canal paths, road, cheeky & city traffic.
Used it for 3 years and it never let me down once, apart from the usual flats!
Only bike I have regretted selling!
My (now completed) commute was 17 miles each way and reasonably flat. I used to ride a geared bike, but didn't change gear much - usually finding myself in 50x18-ish.
Fixed I'd probably ride something more like 72" (44x16), which is what I used to use over a shorter distance.
New commute will climb Ashurst Beacon from each side every day. I'll stick to a geared bike....
It's looking good for the Pompino, then! Although i'm not sure a steel, singlespeed road bike is niche enough any more...