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Just wondering what other's motivation was. I've built my first up to winter commute - attracted by the mechanical simplicity, which I am loving - but am actually really liking the aesthetic aspect and the light weight.
What were your reasons?
To save money and avoid being stuck (again) in the middle of nowhere with a broken mech. It has served that purpose admirably.
I moved to Cheshire, and Delamere was to be my local trails.
The Heckler I had was overkill, so it was a great excuse to buy a new bike.
Curiosity, cost and aesthetics.
Easier to clean and maintain too.
The first one was just to use as a cheap work bike.
Then a long break from single speeds.
Then build a spare frame to use on group rides to push my fitness
Bike to work scheme let me buy a Paddy Wagon cheaply - and I had a really nice Bontrager frame that I wasn't riding much following the purchase of a FS.
I tend to ride the singlespeeds more during the autumn/winter...
Breadcrumb sums it up perfectly for me.
I'm not very mechanically minded 😉
I think it was the clean look of a ss that I liked. I converted my geared bike for a few months, decided I preferred it and bought a ss specific frame.
4X racing
I too can come up with all the reasons under the sun but at the end of the day it boiled down to peer pressure 8)
I was bullied into it by the bigger boys too...
Clean looks, lightweight, cheap, less maintenance. Bought one just in curiosity, to use up some spares, and to scratch the n+1 itch.
When I look at a geared bike with suspension and dropper (althought I have one and love it in it's own right) I see all the parts as expendable as they wear out, my rigid ss is just there with no dramas attached so it's quite a nice bike to have.
Want a sscx bike now.
I bought a secondhand chameleon from here, it was set up SS and I was intending to put gears on it when I could save up to afford them.
From the very first I ride I did on it, I knew it would never have gears fitted, and it never did.
Like me, I like keeping things simple, less to go wrong, less thinking, the silence.
Plus that gear changing thing that hangs down and snaps or plays up just as things get interesting is the devils work
I agreed to race a SS category a couple years ago, on a bike that I can convert between geared/SS. Never converted it back. Love it.
Also in my opinion it's nowhere near as difficult as most people actually think it really is. Just involves a bit more out of the saddle riding!
Simplicity, both in terms of it's mechanical function & the riding style it suits. Riding a bike, for me, is about getting out there & without starting to sound all evangelical; it's just the simplicity of it. You pedal...& that's it.
I'll be the first to defend gears as SS doesn't suit everyone. Hey, your out on a bike & I'm my book that's what counts.
so I had something to ride at the pump track with my daughter - then started to use on trails for a quick blast and for shopping - recently switched to 1 x 10 and will probably switch back as liked a lot more than I expected and am missing more than I expected
I wanted to improve my fitness and buy a 29er
To save wrecking a better bike in winter crap and its rigid so it saves wrecking rockhoxs
I'd just built my road bike when I got sent to New York for a year with work. I didn't know what storage I'd have and didn't want it left chained to a lamppost in Manhattan so I bought a cheap singlespeed road bike from Bikesdirect. Probably the best value bike I've ever had. Did my first century on it!
When I came to get my 29er I wanted an Alfine 11 on it but as Shimano kept delaying the release I had it built as a singlespeed to tide me over. That was 3 years ago....
I ran my roadbike with 3x10 for a while, then put on the Alfine 8 that I'd bought for the 29er but found I preferred singlespeed. Roadbike's now singlespeed too.
Having said that when I get my fatbike in the spring I'll probably run that geared. Before I sold my Pugsley I found singlespeed too hard in the winter, in the dry it was fine but in the mud climbing out of the saddle just made the wheel spin so I like gears to be able to keep my weight back.
Commuting - bought a Mango SS to replace my old knackered and stolen work/hack bike and now love the ride of it, fantastic bike for getting around on. Not sure I'd want a SS MTB though.
Epping forest mud.
Got to llandegla one day for a group ride and realised my fork was goosed. Went to shop and they only had one bike I could borrow .. A full Sus Kona SS. Rode it that day and kicked ass on the climbs. Loved the fact it forced me just to power up. MTFU. So then converted one of my stable to SS and never looked back.
??
won a pair of RC31s that someone said 'would be an ideal fork for a SS' so I finally sourced a SS frame and wheel, never looked back. Still a bike I enjoy going out on, every time..
Cheap, simple, living in fenlandshire.
Had a geared P7 so was easy to convert to SS, gave it a go to see what all the fuss was about and loved it. Moved on to SS 29er now and feeling fitter and a better rider because of it
Thought would give it a go to see what all the fuss was about so bought a used On-one. Ideal for winter use with less moving parts, run fully rigid. Prefer the gears and suspension for rest of year.
I got pissed off with the cost and hassle of watching lovley expensive xtr clad full boingy things get eaten by cannock grinding paste and peak district gritty bearing killer winters. Got a cheapo on one years ago and loved it then discovered that gears and suspension were getting used less and less even for massive hilly days out. .went big wheel and the truth was revealed. ....I'm still a mincing queen with no riding skills...just on a bike with bigger wheels 😀
It went with the beard
Mild peer pressure, couple of false starts getting bored with it and putting the gears back on for a while, finally committed to it when our clubs 'singlespeed only' Welsh Roadtrip became an annual event.
I know I'm converted cos I've done group rides as the only singlespeeder and still enjoyed it without needing the motivation of riding with like minded souls.
This video:
Curiosity and a cheap s/h bike from here.
It was ok but very very dull as a commuter bike which is what it was bought for. Never contemplated riding it off road seriously as I'm way too lazy.
Mrs Coolhandluke liked it as it was simple to ride, no gears.
Also, tried a 29er SS but bought an Alfine for it after a bit.
Was given an old frame and needed a commuter
It came with SS sprocket and tensioner so I kept it after the respray. Rigid commuter was great fun to ride but not so good off road. So I put some wide bars and some RC36s on it and it rocks
Really good for local rides in autumn - simplicity and suitability for local stuff keeps me riding it
I wanted to build a cheap, light, and fast XC bike. Singlespeed fitting the bill nicely. Also, my other bike has seven sets of bearings in the frame alone, not cheap to replace, plus fork seals + shock seals. Rigid Singlespeed makes a great crap weather bike.
Is no one going to admit that they did it for the attention? 😛
Money. Gears are expensive and always seem to mess up for me. And on the road bike it feels like a better workout over shorter distances with no easy gears to fall back on.
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.
Curiosity. Lack of things to clean during the winter. Making the shorter night rides more of a workout. I enjoyed it, but I now live in a hillier area and combined with a lack of fitness meant I sold it
Forced to single speed after breaking a mech. Too high a gear for climbing properly, too low a gear for the flats and downhill. Didn't work for me at all.
As various parts on the old Kona I was riding to work knackered, I gradually bodged it into a SS, and did it properly for SSUK in Hamsterley in 2006.
I had a geared Inbred that I still used for proper rides, though the front mech seizing in the middle ring position gave me a hint that I didn't really need it. When I realized that I was choosing geared over SS for group rides, so that I didn't leave everyone behind on the climbs I made the switch to SS only.
I have gone partially back to gears this year, with the purchase of a cross bike. It's not any faster up the hills though, just on the flat and downhill.
Is no one going to admit that they did it for the attention?
I've not ridden with others for ages, but I did like it when people noticed I was on a SS on group rides. Then when they realised that I had rigid forks. And then when someone else pointed out that I'd ridden to the start of the ride as well. 🙂
Just wanted to try it, so I did it the bargain way 2nd hand frame plus shed build). It was a revelation, instead of trepidation, as was sticking a rigid fork on it.
Simplicity, cost and some article in MBUK about Chipps riding a downhill race on his SS
Since '99...
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Wanted to get fit quick