This is a strange one.  I’m aware that some time ago (decade?) SS was all the rage.  Back then I was riding geared hardtails like most, but was (on paper) tempted by a Haro Mary SS simply because I like it simple. EBB put me off though, and anyway life got in the way so I soldiered on geared (with one failed SS conversion experiment)

Lately had a drivetrain-death so my hardtail has been relegated to shed this whole winter.  But I bagged this Dawes One for 30 notes a few weeks ago, thinking it was a deal:

When I collected it it turned out not quite as described (‘good working order?’), no not at all – drivetrain knacked, gritty as all hell, BB shot with 5mm play, draggy freehub, notchy headset.  But, 30 quid!  So I rode it around the Hills last night, and around the town the night before.   And discovered that I’m enjoying the simplicity and challenge of just riding.  Headphones drown out the clanks and pops.  Thing is, is it worth throwing any time and money at it?  Not just this bike, but singlespeeding in general?  Wary of novelty but feeling a bit zen and, to be frank, like a kid again.  Does this feeling pass? I’m looking at getting fit and losing weight as cheaply and non-nonsenseley as possible and so far I’ve enjoyed the cranking hell out of it.  Including the hopping off and hiking up bigger hills.  Has anyone stuck with SS?  Or even SS rigid?

Share your dirty pics 👍🏼

Yep. Took 3 weeks to get used to, haven’t looked back. Went rigid a year and a half ago, suits me fine.

Makes you strong like ox :).

SS off road, fixed on. Rigid, but my stainless steel-plated wrist says some bounce would be nice. Probably a Lauf fork in my future, the Rekon is in a box.

I ride rigid a lot.  But not SS.  I do however like using big gears and heaving on the pedals standing up, on rigid, cos it’s satisfying instead of annoying as it is on a FS.  I love putting my whole body into the climbs.  However I still change gear to do it 🙂

I don’t ride it but SS is definitely here to stay.

I really do see the lure of it and would love to try it one day.

Go for it!

I love putting my whole body into the climbs. However I still change gear to do it 🙂

Sounds sensible.  I know what you mean about getting your whole being involved in the climbs, and having mostly been based in the West of Britain I grew to enjoy climbing.  This  (32/16?) is a trial by burning lungs though, and halfway up to British Camp I was jogging alongside the dog.  I’ve got that Kate Bush song in my head again…

If I didnt have to wash and vac the car and get it into MOT by 9am tmrw I’d be off out again on this black be-girdered bobbins of a bike right about now.  Confusing.  Haven’t felt this way since the Raleigh Tomahawk 🤔

I joined in with my local riding mates a few years back and converted my Boardman HT to SS. Loved it and kept it like that through one muddy winter season, but as it was my only MTB at the time, it just became a ball-ache putting gears back on for trips away to steeper terrain, so left it geared for a few years. But always had a hankering to go back. An old Inbred frame came my way for nothing, so decided to gather the parts for a SS build which I did over several months, and it’s been running this winter.

It’s also rigid. Love it. Will definitely keep it. It’s a touch too highly geared (32/16, 26 wheels) but I feel proper Old Skool (and seeing as I wasn’t into MTBing when old-skool was new and modern, am enjoying it all for the first time now). At the ripe old age of 50, I also think my gnarr tendencies are on the wane, so enjoying the SS Rigid in a more XC/pootling kind of riding.

At the moment it’s the only MTB I’ve got again … have got the parts to put together a Prophet FS build which will do the ‘proper’ MTB duties, but will keep enjoying the SS until my knees go pop!

It’s the only damn-fool niche I haven’t done. I guess it’s only a matter of time tbh

Respect for a SS in Malvern, I once rode from great Malvern station up to worcs beacon and then home via evesham to Bromsgrove on a SS, that was silly & needed an emergency pie on the way home. Love SS but find it’s only good for solo rides. So I don’t do it exclusively

Yep, a singlespeed is still one of the fleet and reach bike racks up an equal share of the miles 🙂 (through confidence rather than planning)

Only on the road now. I had 3 or 4 Genesis iO single speeds as I’d buy one, get bored, sell it but then miss it.

Yep, started on fixed gear in 2003, moved to SS MTB in around 2005 as wanted to ride off road then changed to an SS CX bike as the off road where I live is not challenging and then moved back to a fixed gear and use that off road and on road.

So have ridden solely single geared bikes for 15 years.

I think I’ve been SSing for about 8 years now, although not exclusively.

Started with my old DMR Trailstar, then a Kona Kula. That cracked and got a Unit in 2013. That had a Reba for a while but is back to rigid with a 29+ front end.

Love the simplicity.

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moved back to a fixed gear and use that off road and on road.

So have ridden solely single geared bikes for 15 years.

Mad respect.  ie you are clearly mad, but I respect that 😉

Mine needs new brakes and the forks probably need a service, so it rarely gets ridden these days.  I just love riding my Ti456 too much and as I’ve not been getting out much, the gears, dropper post and bigger forks are great skills compensators.

yup. little green bike is always rigid SS and is bloody magic.  Peregrine is still SS from a race last year, and it’ll stay that way for local rides until/unless it’s need for something longer or loaded, when it’ll get a cassette back..  Jones might get a go SS in the summer.

Yes, still love it. Current SS is possibly my fave MTB ever but it’s not a do-all bike.

Most of my riding is in the Chilterns and rigid SS works well. Keeps winter riding fun where the geared HT just didn’t do it for me. There’s other places I go that are better on a 1×11 hardtail but the simplicity of the SS for local rides can’t be beat. Keeps me on top of basic fitness also – the same hills, the same bike, the same gear over a number of years – there’s no hiding it when I’m slacking.

Don’t ride solely SS any more. Maybe I’m getting a bit old.

But still do the StrathPuffer 24 hour on a SS and most of my road work.

I like a S-A 3 speed hubgear on a general purpose bike these days. Low is the same as the mtb, middle gear is equivalent to the old standard for a road gear, and top is the same as my fixed wheel. Three bikes in one.

Or another way of looking at it, one gear for uphill, one for the flats, and another for downhill and tailwinds. 🙂

Love it, have owned singlespeeds on and off through the years, but quite often end up selling because of knee problems, only to get lured back at a later date.

The current singlespeed (Charge Plug) is fast becoming my favourite bike of all time, basically a singlespeed road bike with mini-Vs and space for 38c tyres and guards. It’s genuinely the best ‘all-weather’ bike I’ve ever owned and has got me out in some horrendous conditions because I’ve honestly got no excuse not to.

Recently I’ve been favouring gears again though, allows me to rest sore knees while still getting out on the bike…

I’ve had a couple, a mix and mash ss and a Kona A full sus, anyone remember them? I have been considering a ss for a work/shop bike eventually. I enjoyed them, not so much a fixie as I like coasting.  I agree with above about full rigid and climbing too.

^^ Pre-existing joint probs?   I last night read an old STW thread re does singlespeeding cause bad knees, and the consensus seemed to be (overwhelmingly) that it was mythical?

One thing that will limit my singlespeeding options is joint probs (pre-existing metatarsal damage/neuroma/deformity) so the extra torque required on SS has had me grinding teeth with pain the following couple of days.  But that’s what gears are for and I’m fixing up an old 3×9 for longer rides.  So this SS thing will probably never (never say never) be a ‘one bike’ option for me, but do see it as a go-to trainer/cruiser for those 1-2hr late-night circuits that I’ve grown to love.  Makes huge sense as a winter hack.

Pre-existing joint probs?

Yeah, first time round I was sure it was the fault of the singlespeed, but at the time I was fit and strong enough to sit and grind the single gear up hills, which was silly.

This time around, I think one sore knee was just poor position on the bike (twisted pelvis) and the other was just overuse, I was increasing distance and intensity every week over a 6 week period with no breaks.

Buuuuuut…. if you do end up with sore knees, it’s easier to nurse them when you have half a cassette of lower gears at your disposal. Back on the bike next week and it’ll be gears for a couple of weeks then just commuting on the singlespeed

I have a love / hate relationship with my, err, Love/Hate.  I find it great, as mentioned, for solo rides up to about 1000m climbing (I’m in the Basque Country, it’s hard to find anything less than that), but when it gets steep and technical or slippy I’m cursing the thing because you can’t put power down with any subtlety, it’s all or nothing, so you can’t clear sections you’d do easily with a low gear. It’s also a pain doing any long flat sections, spinning out at 25kmh.

Has to be solo though, attacking every hill at the bottom gets pretty antisocial.

Used to SS when lived in London, both off road & on road, mix of SS MTB & SS CX, works a treat in the north London clay during winter.

Now live somewhere hillier & so now just SS commute (Vitus V29er) and convert my Private Jake to SS for the odd CX race.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/Y233wW]18/37 V40 WLR2 Gloucester Boating Lake[/url] by martinddd, on Flickr

90% of my riding seems to be on the rigid SS these days.  It seems wrong to take the geared bike out through the winter slop when the SS just shrugs it off with ease.

Mine’s an ageing (had it about 8 years) Genesis Altitude 853 with Exotic carbon forks.

It’s the first winter I haven’t had one, after my Pace frame cracked.

It’s also the first winter for a long time that I’ve hardly done any off road stuff, doing mainly road rides instead.

You could possibly link the two?

I’ve convinced myself – a SS is in my summer plans……

I really enjoy riding SS although I have just put new 1×10 stuff on my (only) bike and enjoyed the first geary ride in about five months yesterday so I’m currently feeling like I’ve sold out 😆 I was glad of the spinny gears uphill into the headwind on the way home mind… I’ll probably leave the geary stuff on until the start of next winter when I’ll go back to SS.

edit- you can have my gears, but don’t you dare touch my nice forks and dropper.

If I had to choose just one of my 7 bikes, it would be this one. But I might be tempted to put a bouncy fork on it, if it was the only one.

I used to love my SS when I lived somewhere with rolling terrain and mud. I moved to somewhere with hills and haven’t ridden SS since. I miss it sometimes, but not on the steep climbs.

I love ss, but normally tend to limit it to winter mtb only, switching back to gears when drier trails and/or events and races start. But this year I was injured at the start of the winter, so stuck to gears. Then I cracked my geared bike so geared the old ss instead. So for the first time in many years, I don’t have a ss.

what i like about single speed bikes is the cheap maintenance which is why I keep one around. It’s just hard to use on hills

it’s the only way to roll

Yep, still singlespeeding, have been for years, doing the  Dirty Reiver SS again for a giggle and ride for a collective of global SS idiots that do things like the arrowhead 135 and iditarod on SS fat fatbikes. I did have a brief dalliance recently with a gear dangler and bloody hated it.

Got my rigid SS Cannondale 2 Summers ago now and gradually upgraded with better brakes, chain, freehub and crankset. It is now pretty bombproof and I love mashing it up and down dale. Great for full body workout/cardio/weight loss. the old 5 spot hardly gets a look in these days, it feels like a heavy spongy sofa coming off the SS.

Respect for a SS in Malvern

👍🏼 – Full disclosure – when I say ‘rode it around the Hills ‘ I was being quite literal, and by road 😂 It’s a start though…and committed to at least 4 times a week.  To give an idea, I’m so out of shape and 40lbs overweight that what was realistically a 13k bimble took me approx 1.5 hrs:

Including drink breaks. Coughing guts up. 🤣.  And a visit to the Telephone Box Community library.

*edit tazzymtb bringing the SS pr0n.  Is that a (green) Stooge basking by the pool with a friend?

Single speed on the Klunker 42×18… god it was, still is hard work at times but the simplicity of it all is so much fun. Takes me back to when I was a kid.

You get fit pretty fast.

edit tazzymtb bringing the SS pr0n.  Is that a (green) Stooge basking by the pool with a friend?

yes its large punkstachio Mk3 along with my medium death disco black one 🙂

singlespeedordeath onecog cycling and steel is real are good facebook resources for SS pron as well

Shelved it years ago on the MTB – once the Teds got hold of it it was time to go. That being said, the hat is still off to anyone who can turn the SS pedals in anger. Easy to build up a SS and ponce around the woods on it, but taking it out properly demands a lot of strength.

Do quite fancy the idea of fixed off-road and mean to try it – I like fixed on the road a lot and reckon it would work well on the right trails. Take care on the descents but you could prob get it round rolling stuff no prob.

I’ve been riding rigid singlespeeds for the last ten years, sometimes pretty much exclusively and sometimes mixed in with long travel hardtails and now, with a Liteville 301.

To be honest, most of my most enjoyable rides have been on my singlespeeds, especially one of my Singular Hummingbirds (currently using the Ti one) and various people that I ride with are of the opinion that I ride my Hummingbirds better than I ride anything else. To be honest, I think that they’re right too – I think that at 65 I’m too old to get much advantage out of 160mm of travel and all that stuff….

I’ll certainly never be without one, that’s for sure, as long as I keep riding. If it wasn’t for my singlespeeds I’d probably have given up years ago.

On and off SS for 20 odd years.

Now got<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”> a road SS too. Funnily enough a roadie told me I should be riding fixed .</span>