a mate was stupid enough to do it SS a few years ago, my advice would be fit gears and go running

Have a look on Shaggy’s (John Ross) blog. He rode it SS this year and there may be some info on there. The hills are too mostly too steep to ride so I’d focus on getting a gear that works well on the road. Only the start of Pen Y Ghent I could see you having a problem, as it’s good to ride on a geared bike.
Rob

Beavis – watch your mouth there, that ‘cheating toe rag’ is a mate of mine.

FYI he doesn’t swap at the top of the hills, he swaps between hills to get some faster tyres for the road and then back again for the offroad bits. It’s not the tour no, it’s the 3 peaks cross RACE, The idea being to get from the start to the finish in the fastest way possible within the rules of the event.

I wouldn’t bother with a single gear unless you like walking, running WILL be your problem, you’ll do a hell of a lot of it if you’ve only got 1 gear. you’ll have to pick one for the road at there’s 20 miles of the stuff, you won’t be riding much of the off road bits with that gear is my prediction.