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The bit i'm struggle with here, is understanding what's complex about gears?
I was on SS exclusively from about 2008 to 2010 or so. Back then the trend of the day was singlespeed steel rigid 29er, before fatbikes stole the scene.
I loved it and still miss it a lot sometimes. All my long distance rides (up to 180km in a day) were done with SS as were my biggest climbing days. It's incredibly fun and efficient. I found that it was perfect for long distances:
- you can climb surprisingly steep stuff, but you are not tempted to grind yourself up. Just dismount, save yourself and enjoy the walk while the guys next to you are dying at bottom gear but still at the same pace as you
- you save a lot of energy by not having the temptation of pushing a long gear on the flats and downs
- I found my legs enjoyed the very diverse pedaling cadences and stayed fresh for longer
My biggest problem with SS is that in order to enjoy it you need to stay in shape. I was in shape during that time, never touching the 32/18 gear and doing everything with it. But once you fail to keep training the thing becomes a chore. Also, 1x drivetrains negate some of the SS charm.
But once in a while I feel tempted to get a try at it again
The bit i’m struggle with here, is understanding what’s complex about gears?
More than once I’ve stayed in hotels where there’s no menu.
It’s enjoyable because you don’t have to think about what might be the best choice, you just enjoy what comes your way.
Even though there’s nothing complex about a menu.
They're simpler but not less faff!
No gears or suspension mean there's more force going through the components. My riding mates with single speeds have the most mechanicals of anyone I know - bent tensioner bolts, snapped chains and creaking/slipping EBBs are common, even the occasional cracked fork. Plus all the time spent experimenting with different gear ratios. They still claim SS is less maintenance though....
Despite this I bought a second hand Cotic Simple for commuting but haven't ridden it to work all year because it's so much fun off road. It's great fun on non techy single track and sending down stuff as fast as you can while holding on for dear life but less fun on big rocky descents. If you ride with others be prepared to be very antisocial on climbs - there's no chatting and spinning you're way to the top, it's a full out lung busting effort followed by a sweaty lie down while everyone else catches up.
In summary: get a single speed as well, it's just a different kind of fun, just don't expect less bike maintenance!
My riding mates with single speeds have the most mechanicals of anyone I know – bent tensioner bolts, snapped chains and creaking/slipping EBBs are common, even the occasional cracked fork. Plus all the time spent experimenting with different gear ratios.
Don't blame the bikes for your weird/incompetent mates 🙂
Bent tensioner bolts sound like crap setup (or impacts that would similarly bend a derailleur); it's tempting to think EBBs are crap setup too; cracked forks clearly have nothing to do with singlespeeding; and I always find claims of snapped chains curious. Without derailing they never see lateral or torsional loads so shouldn't get bent pins or plates, and the tension through the chain for any given force at the rear tyre contact patch is lower than it is for a smaller chainring, ie a granny ring. So all else being equal a geared bike should break chains more easily.
I think the problem is that some people think that if they're building a singlespeed they need to either build it out of the cheapest crap they can lay their hands on, or build the lightest bike they possibly can.
As for fiddling with gear ratios: if it's 26" you use 2:1, you add a tooth at the back for 27.5 and another one for 29. If you want to spend time fine tuning it, piss off to a velodrome 😉
I think the problem is that some people think that if they’re building a singlespeed they need to either build it out of the cheapest crap they can lay their hands on, or build the lightest bike they possibly can.
Yep. If you're going to do it, even just to give it a go, you've got to at least use a proper SS cog on the back so the chain can't/won't drop, especially if you're reusing a geary chain.
Don’t blame the bikes for your weird/incompetent mates 🙂
They're not incompetent, just pretty hard on their bikes. They are weird though.
I've got these on my track ends: https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/gear-spares/black-genetic-track-chain-tensioner/
Unless the wheel's clamped in very tight it will slip and rub on the non drive chain stay. I don't think I could ever generate enough power in my dainty legs to bend the bolts though!
As for fiddling with gear ratios: if it’s 26″ you use 2:1, you add a tooth at the back for 27.5 and another one for 29. If you want to piss about with fine tuning it, great, but that belongs in a velodrome 😉
I didn't want to get into gear ratios as it's one step away from train spotting! But since you mention it... I found 2:1 fine for commuting but too much like hard work off road, so I took a punt on 20 on the back and I'm never touching it again! It all depends on where you're planning on riding I suppose.
More than once I’ve stayed in hotels where there’s no menu.
It’s enjoyable because you don’t have to think about what might be the best choice, you just enjoy what comes your way.
As I said: You do have to have a certain mentality.
Well, the lack of need for maintenance and the immunity to mid-ride crud is a definite plus. A caked drivetrain with derailleurs will jump all over the shop
Not everyone lives in a clay area.
Beyond that it’s largely psychological. Sure you can honk all the climbs in a big gear on any bike, but you’re not going to, because you just don’t need to.
Moot. I don't need to ride around in a big circle at all. The entire thing is pointless effort. I am perfectly capable of burying myself if I want, gears or no. But with gears I can choose if I want to get up and heave out of the saddle, or I can choose to sit and spin fast, or any combination. I can choose which option depending on the terrain or the training ride I'm on. You seem to be suggesting that SSers are so lazy they have to knobble their bikes to stop them taking the easy way out 😉 I don't have that problem I must admit.
And with gears, I can put the hammers down wherever I am riding, even on the flat. You could argue that gaining the mindset to upshift and keep pressing on when you don't need to is actually a training benefit and makes you tougher, because you choose it. If you wanted to pour fuel on the fire 🙂
If you love completely emptying your head while riding and hate cleaning bikes, singlespeed is better.
If you clean your bike it's cos you want a clean bike, which means you'd clean a SS too. My mate who rides SS, his bike is always gleaming. Unless you live in clay. But like I said not everyone does. And gears don't require constant fiddling, they just don't.
Not everyone lives in a clay area.
Sure. I was hoping to get through the thread without qualifying every single statement 😉
And with gears, I can put the hammers down wherever I am riding, even on the flat. You could argue that gaining the mindset to upshift and keep pressing on when you don’t need to is actually a training benefit and makes you tougher, because you choose it. If you wanted to pour fuel on the fire 🙂
No fuel there, it's completely true. As someone remarked earlier, SS is harder on the muscles on climbs (assuming you don't voluntarily use a stupidly high gear on the climbs all the time, which—let's be honest—you don't) but caps your effort on the flat. If you want a constant cardio workout, you're unlikely to be able to get it with a singlespeed. The flipside of that is that if you're doing a big ride and you're sufficiently adapted to singlespeeding that the climbs won't destroy your legs, it's quite good for keeping you in check on the flat and making sure you don't end up accidentally half-wheeling yourself into early fatigue.
We are, of course, repeatedly making the point from different angles that it's just different, not better or worse, and that the advantages of each play out differently depending on where your ride and what you want from a ride 🙂
If you clean your bike it’s cos you want a clean bike, which means you’d clean a SS too.
Yeah, except when that's entirely untrue, of course 🙂 I couldn't give a fig whether my mountain bike's clean, there's no point, it's going to get dirty as soon as I ride it. The only time I've ever needed a bike to be clean is when I've lived in a tiny flat or uni halls and it had to live in my bedroom or the back of a wardrobe. If I clean a mountain bike it's purely to keep it working.
And with gears, I can put the hammers down wherever I am riding, even on the flat.
I did SS when it was the thing. But I was racing at the time and found all the not pedalling hard down time was loosing me fitness.
Still fun though and a definite +1 if you've got the space.
And with gears, I can put the hammers down wherever I am riding, even on the flat. You could argue that gaining the mindset to upshift and keep pressing on when you don’t need to is actually a training benefit and makes you tougher, because you choose it. If you wanted to pour fuel on the fire 🙂
No fuel there, it’s completely true. As someone remarked earlier, SS is harder on the muscles on climbs (assuming you don’t voluntarily use a stupidly high gear on the climbs all the time, which—let’s be honest—you don’t) but caps your effort on the flat.
That was me actually. I have noticed I get a slightly different type of tired after long single speed rides, which I think is because of the combination of enforced sprints and enforced rests.
What I haven't mentioned so far is the environmental/resource use angle. Even though new chains are cheap and a decent single speed cog isn't as much cheaper than a basic 11-42t cassette as you might expect (£15 vs. £40-45ish), the former has a hell of a lot less metal in it, as well as lasting longer.
I tried to quite biking a decade ago actually, and get into mountain running instead, precisely because of material use. But my ankles couldn't hack it so I ended up biking again somewhat reluctantly, despite my love for it. Given that, I'd quite like a bike that keeps consumable parts to the minimum, but I also like fancy things like droppers... which I now couldn't go without off-road.
I really like SS; two of my four bikes are set up SS ...
Inbred 26er (sometimes rigid), 32/17 gearing, same trails (north Leeds) as the OP. It's my most used MTB, I really enjoy riding it (both bimbling and thrashing) and generally my average speed for a local loop is higher than on the FS. But I wouldn't take it to the Lakes, North Wales, or even some of the more local stuff eg Ilkley Moor, Hebden Bridge, CutGate etc.
Saracen Hack, with mudguards and a rack, and used as a commuter for wet commutes or if I'm going somewhere where I'm more worried about security and wouldn't want to take the Ti gravel bike. It had been sat in the garage largely unused for 18 months in its geared form, so I decided to turn it SS to 'spice it up' a bit (think I bought the tensioner from you OP a couple of months back). It's set up 38/16, gets me up most stuff (including mild off road) on my Leeds commuting, fine for flat, a bit spinny on gentle downhills, and quite a lot spinny on steeper hills. But good fun, as an option. Wouldn't replace my geared gravel bike with it though.
It's hard to justify singlespeed when there are so many good gear sets available these days.
For example Sturmey-Archer make a 3 speed hub.
This gives a low gear suitable for climbing hills or defeating headwinds, a middle ratio for normal riding, and a high gear for downhills and taking advantage of tailwinds.
What more could one ask? It's ideal for folk who live in lumpy places like the Highlands, Wales, or the more rippling parts of England.
Having ridden one, I can confidently predict single speed is dead.
This is really going to catch on, and I'm going to fit one to my bike when I get old and frail.
🙂
Given that, I’d quite like a bike that keeps consumable parts to the minimum, but I also like fancy things like droppers… which I now couldn’t go without off-road.
There's nothing wrong with a nicely sorted single speed; you're allowed nice brakes, nice forks and a dropper if you want-
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Any excuse to stick a gratuitous pic up, I blinking flipping love this bike.
The longest I’ve done on my single speed CX was last year’s Dirty Reiver. I rode pretty much everything (that one short steep bit after the border crossing back in to England beat me) until a long way up the Forest Drive when I ran out of strength. I was a bit over-geared though – 39×20!
And, no, it doesn’t make your knees hurt!
Knees are OK on the SS MTB, strengthened even, because all of the high torque stuff is usually out of the saddle. You need to be more attentive with a road SS to get the right gear, as consistently pushing something slightly overgeared when seated can stress the knees IME. Skid stopping a fixed bike is also heavy on the knees if you're running a serious ratio, so best left to the students.
After the joys of a couple of years riding my SS commuter of a stiffish gear (55:22 but not many commuting hills round here) I was debating taking my Cannondale 29 back to SS, after all it has an EBB so why not.
Well yesterday I was out for a ride up to the Ridgeway and as I plodded along I realised how little I'd like walking up those climbs and how much spinning out I'd do on the way down. So I'm keeping it on 1x11 and accepting there is room for both options in my life.
Bought secondhand from here and one my favourite bikes ever. (I won't show the SS again. I promise.)
https://flic.kr/p/2gA7ghE
Single speeds look more elegant. That's enough for me.
Main downside is riding with other, geared, people is tricky to keep together but I fixed that by having no friends 😀
I think the problem is that some people think that if they’re building a singlespeed they need to either build it out of the cheapest crap they can lay their hands on, or build the lightest bike they possibly can.
Getting a lighter bike is good by product. My fixed gravel/road bike is currently at 6.5kg running heavy puncture resistant tyres and just over 6kg with road tyres on it (didn't even cost much to build either) and flies uphill.
I like the way it looks and feels being a bit lighter at the back. I don't find it limits me too much either up, down or across, and as it is mechanically simple it is almost always ready to ride (except for now when it is a bit broken!). For those reasons there is almost always a SS in my shed.
I did a fair amount of longer distance training for the SDW earlier this year and was able to keep up pretty well, but I did go for gears on the day. My training was based on HR, and I noticed that on my SS I stood up climb almost all the hills and my HR immediately rocketed. That was fine on training rides up to about 70km but there was no way I would be able to do it all day, but most of my riding is less than 4hrs anyway.
Any excuse to stick a gratuitous pic up, I blinking flipping love this bike
Nice bike! Toying with a Stanton SS, what size axle (boost, 142, 135) do the SS drop outs take? (was going to email stanton, but seeing as your flaunting yours!)
I lurve my singlespeed...
I originally started with a 'POS' hack bike put together from spare parts...
Over the years it morphed (well, new frame set..) into a specific 29er SS...then a few years ago I got a Travers angus SS specific frameset...
So it's now my poshest (i.e most expensive) bike!
Nice and light, rapido...rides way more comfy than a rigid bike should..
I use it for my long distance rides (SDW etc etc) as it's just lovely!
singlespeed..not just for scrappers!
DrP
(and I clean it all the time...ooh...check me out!)
Bez - I saw your 2 speed setup above. I assume to change gear you just stop and move the chain over? If so how do you retain tension?
I often think it would be nice to try maybe a 3/4 speed setup, but have no idea how this might be achieved.
I think he's two chainrings so the relative sizes of each chainring-cog combination are the same. You just move the chain across from inner to outer pair (or vice versa).
Hopefully I've got that right @Bez
Two chainrings, two sprockets. A gear change involves getting off, releasing the rear QR, moving the chain over, a quick twiddle of the tug, do the QR up and go. Takes under a minute but isn't exactly what you want to be doing for each climb 🙂 Works great for getting to the trails on the road, though.
https://twitter.com/mashing53/status/910195857609363459
Nice bike! Toying with a Stanton SS, what size axle (boost, 142, 135) do the SS drop outs take? (was going to email stanton, but seeing as your flaunting yours!)
I'm just using the standard 142x12 geary dropouts with a chain device as a tensioner-
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It works well.
I rode singlespeeds pretty much exclusively from 2007 until about 18 months ago, when a desire to ride rockier, steeper and more technical descents turned my head, and now I spend more time on my 301’s, plus I’m in Greece half the year where I don’t have a SS anyway.
However, now I’m feeling guilty, because I have a very, very nice Ti Hummingbird sitting out in my workshop which hasn’t seen the light of day for six months and yet at one time I couldn’t imagine life without it.
In fact, the last time I rode it was on a shop ride at New Year. That’s pretty shameful and now that I’m back here for a few weeks I’m going to rectify that state of affairs.
I was exclusively singlespeed for a good few years. My MTB is still SS, although I don't ride it much, but I have a geared Cotic X that I ride most. Even on that, I often forget to change gear - I tried to change to the smaller chainring a few months ago and discovered that the front mech had seized - and tend to ride in the large ring and the central few sprockets at the back.
When I do ride off-road, I ride there and back on the road so a dinglespeed appeals.
