do Singlespeeds make you a faster fitter rider?

True?
False?

or do they just knacker your Knees?

Not for use in hills?

Fitter? No I wouldn’t say so.
Stronger? Yes, therefore able to turn bigger gears, therefore instead of noodling up a hill in the granny ring, you find yourself staying I the middle ring and muscling your way up. Edit: I’m talking about when you go back to gears here!

I can’t imagine why they would knacker your knees, not in my experience anyway……

Not on hills? There’s only one climb I can’t do on the Malverns on my single speed.

I rode my singlespeed only from September 2013 until April this year.
when i got back on my road bike i was no faster than when i put it away for the winter.
my knees are still intact (but one is a bit ropey). The Ss hasn’t made it worse.
hills are fine. Put an appropriate hear ratio on, spin, grind, push.

Over sub 90 minute rides my ss is faster than my geared bike but I don’t think I’m any fitter for it

Hills are the only time there any use, you’ll spin out on the flat.

If you want to get fitter get a road bike, ss MTB,s are just maximum fun around the local woods.

I have no idea, but when ridden well they certainly take the wind out of the sails of other riders.

Why only yesterday while taking part in a 60 mile sportive, I was just on the point of cresting a decent climb, having used all 22 of my gears, when I was overtaken by a young guy on a very neat looking ss. This was bad enough but he then stopped to wait for his mates, at which point I noticed he was neither breathing hard nor sweating, both of which I was doing profusely.

I struggled on, muttering dark oaths.

Dunno but I commute to work twice a week on singlespeed and on the hills it’s certainly harder work – which if nothing else gets me used to carrying on even when my legs say “please stop doing this to us”. I think it’s useful from a mental point of view in that respect

Dunno but I commute to work twice a week on singlespeed and on the hills it’s certainly harder work – which if nothing else gets me used to carrying on even when my legs say “please stop doing this to us”. I think it’s useful from a mental point of view in that respect

Which one of your legs is the Spokesperson?

I find it give you a better sense of achievement when you get to the summit, or a better excuse if you have to walk.

neilm………….exactly………a similar experience happened so sat wondering are SS fitter?

I found it made me faster on the climbs because it forces you to work harder on the climbs to get up them. Knock on effect is that you’re fitter, but I think you’d have the same effect if you rode a geared bike harder up the hills.

I did notice a decent increase in upper body strength, which will generally translate into faster descending.

Biggest difference I found was riding my DH bike. I don’t ride it very often, so don’t really work on any of the specific strengths you need to ride DH quick, but I went to FW in September and couldn’t ride the DH there top to bottom without stopping twice due to arm pump and needing to sit down. Went back next May after riding mostly SS for 3-4 months and did 8 runs back to back without stopping. You stand up most of the time on SS, which builds up your thigh strength and you work your upper body more which sort the rest of your strength out.

If you can’t get out on the DH bike much, SS is about the best training you can do for DH I think.

Depends how and where you ride it. For regular riding, you only work harder on the hills but on the flat you spin out easily and can’t click to a harder gear, so you get long periods where you aren’t working that hard.

On a hilly ride it’s more like intervals so I guess does have a training effect if done properly.

I do think it has made me better at maintaining momentum, and giving me technique for short sharp obstacles where throw yourself at it and hope momentum beats inertia is the right approach.

Stronger and I think its made me a bit fitter simply as I have to work a bit harder than I would normally choose. (as per ‘interval’ comment above, I’m a South Downs rider so plenty of shortish but steep climbs)

Knees, I only find an issue with them if I run out of cadence and start bouncing whilst trying to keep up with geared bikes on road sections etc. I reckon on the slower climbs my knees are happier as I’m standing whereas on the geared bike I would have winched up in the granny, and being seated seems to strain my knees more.

Good for core and arm strength, standing climbs, grinding too big a gear, and keeping going when everything is hurting.
Some techniques aren’t best for riding geared when spinning is more efficient.
No knee problems, but lower back pain features frequently, when core strength is poor to start.

I’ve found SSing has made me stronger. Out send to of helped my recovery times too.

It does feel like it helped my fitness come on quicker when I started.

I think you need a certain amount of stubbornness for SS.

Oh and I ride mine in the lake district.

My thinking about knees is your muscles will cause you to stop before you do any lasting damage to your knees. I’m not a doctor mind.

And pushing into a headwind or up a hill definitely builds strength in some leg muscles (and bulk, which has caused me problem with some suit trousers); endurance I’d be unsure about,

Yes

There’s something to be said for spinning your legs at daft rpm for 10 miles on the flat. I’m not sure what exactly though. I think perhaps it’s hard work because it’s really inefficient?

I found after a few rides what was initially ‘spinning out’ was just pedalling faster and that I could maintain the higher rpms for long enough that I could still ride fairly hard on the flat, so wasn’t taking it easy. For reference I was doing a 6 mile flat spin to and from the start of my regular loop. That was with 32:15 and 33:16 ratios.

I do think a lot of riders are a bit too conservative with their gears, going for the hardest gear they think they can climb, rather than thinking about the descents and flats and growing into the harder gear.

No. But women will find you more attractive.

I don’t think they “make” me anything. But I climb faster than most because there is a speed below which the next gear is “a pied”. Spinning out on the flat at about 17 mph in 32×17 on my 26″.

Funny thing is, I’m a massive spinner on the road, 90-100 for normal riding and 110 for road racing! The latter is what makes SS’ing work for me.

Love my SS Mtb, it’s a weaon of mass torture but so much fun and very rewarding, tend to hit higher heart rates on climbs, definitely stronger with it, fitter can’t say really as I ride gears on the road, and sometimes ride gears on a Mtb.

Just bought a Niner RLT to run as a SSCX this winter, rather than my geared one which hopefully is going to a new home.

Fitter? – no.
Stronger? – a little.

Healthier? – yes. Bad back niggles that I associate with geared bikes disappear after a period of time on a SS. Probably because you are moving around more and climbing out of the saddle allows more effective and direct use of your back strength.

Knees? – I suspect its very difficult to knacker your knees if you mostly climb standing up. Never had sore knees from a SS.

Overall – it mostly makes you better at riding a SS, but not necessarily faster on other bikes.

Hills are the only time there any use, you’ll spin out on the flat.

That’s absolutely untrue with a 46-16 in Calderdale. I used it everywhere in Nottingham and London, but now it’s pretty much just for whizzing along the valley bottom for shopping. I can get it up some of the hills here, but it doesn’t feel like I’d have knees left after a year of it.

Basically it’s a mental game… Because geared bikes aren’t cvt, you have the choice to not shift and continue to push a gear just like singlespeed. So it’ll only make you fitter if you habitually drop into easy gears. And it takes away other opportunities to get fitter, since there’s occasions where you can’t put in the same effort because you’re spun out.

I find that because you can’t power out of corners when heading downwards you try and brake less, seems to of helped me a little with my smoothness.

I got fitter and faster after riding a SS regularly for a year or so. That was 5-6 yrs ago and I’m now legendary.

: ) Nah, I’m stronger uphill and generally fitter as it makes me work harder but I could’ve got the fitness from a turbo or different attitude on my geared bikes. Thing is I like my SS bikes and I’m happy to push to popping point on them, whereas on road or geared mtb I tend to go for the long-haul and rarely hit my real max these days.
It’s a strength that fades after a month or so away from the SS, so I need to ride it 2 or 3x a week to really keep on top of it. And it does lead to big-ringing habits/attempts on tarmac that can see me fade a long time before the wily roadie types who know how to keep it in the bag till the last 10 miles. Fake big-ringing though, since I’m on a 50T ..

I think there’s something in the effort-recovery ratio of riding SS too. 20% real effort and up to 80% recovery spinning, maybe. Seems to help keep putting out hard efforts over a long day that helped me get to grips with endurance pacing, or at least see the results of a different pacing pattern.

thanks Jameso, good point on the ‘alternative’ training methods such as turbo

that reminds me i need a singlespeed kit for the HT…

defo makes you stronger. upperbody definately good training for a long distance ride i found. made the hills easier.

cant see teh point when its winter as i just spin out the back wheel.

AFAIK none of the pros (road or MTB) ride s/s for training. Which suggests the answer to the OP’s question is no and no…

Ah, but pros out for training will push hard uphill, downhill and on the flats (recovery rides, etc., excepted)

When I’m on my geared bike, I tend to coast a bit on the flats and mince downhills ‘cos I’m scared. And then I work reasonably hard on the hills, simply because riding uphill is hard work. But I also tend to click through gears to stop it being too hard……

On the SS you don’t have that option. I still coast on the flats and downhills (OK, I might spin furiously for a bit but then get bored of that and just accept i can’t go faster than i can go), but on the hills it’s generally max or close to max effort a lot of the time. Hence a SS ride for 90mins on a ‘hilly’ circuit is much more like 90 mins of interval training than the same would be on my geared bike.

So riding my SS is almost inevitably more like a training ride than riding my geared bike just because it has to be – or stated conversely the geared ride isn’t so much like a training ride because it DOESN’T have to be, and I don’t make it into one.

do Singlespeeds make you a faster fitter rider?

my experience: yes.

No, im as slow, fat n shite as ive always been. No one actually rides a single speed, they just sort of hang around attention whoring in car parks trying to look all beardy and heroic with their nicheegowankchariot on 33.2″ + wheels

I think there’s something in the effort-recovery ratio of riding SS too. 20% real effort and up to 80% recovery spinning, maybe.

I reckon thats it – if you have a few hills around you, it’s like HIIT without counting or timing.. so less scientifc but similar effect.

The biggest advantage of a singlespeed is you realize you need speed to get through a technical uphill climb.. And you soon loose speed in a technical climb when you cant change gears.
So you just have to try and keep as fast as possible, for as long as you can.
When you get to the top, you realize its actually made clearing the obstacle easier.
Thus you become faster and fitter.

I wonder if there’s a difference between MTB SS’ers and Road SS’ers

I’m going to SS my road bike (just riding around in 1 gear for now) and I’m enjoying it

Haven’t contemplated doing that to my MTB, though I don’t ride that as often as I’d like anyway

I rode SS for many years. As I got stronger I found myself pushing bigger and bigger gears ending up fluctuating between 34:16 and 34:15 depending on how I felt (26 inch wheels btw).

The gears were too big quite honestly and translated into lower back pain (a lot).

I also tended to experience many near castration issues when my chain (frequently) snapped on short, sharp climbs. I eventually ended up with a track chain to save my gonads!

It didn’t make me fitter particularly, but it did teach me how to ride a singlespeed quite sharpish.

Another thing it did…..it made me love it when I got gears again. Haven’t ridden a SS off road for maybe 5 years now and don’t miss it a bit. Riding a fixie on the road in the winter, now there’s a different kettle of fish!

Recently went SS on the P7 (frame purchased specifically for SS compatible dropouts).

Absolutely love it, can’t put my finger on it – perhaps the simplicity? Perhaps because the “easier” option (gears) has been taken away?

Currently has Fox Float 140s up front, but I’m selling those to buy some 29er rigids (longer a2c length).

That’s the setup I have after going through a couple of normal forks. Mine are 470 a-c X-Lite forks, the bike is much more comfortable on the longer forks and a good bit faster on descents.

I don’t know about fitter or faster but I have never come home from a SS ride without a massive grin! 😀

A SS forces you to ride the way the pros would tend to train which is to take the easy bits easy then smash the climbs- SS forces you to do this. Of course you can ride like this with any bike.

All sub 2 or 3 hour rides I’ve done on the SS have been faster than my XC race bike for the same ave and max HR’s (don’t have power yet to compare). You really have to ride the climbs quite hard but get some rest on the flats and descents (where I invariably pick better lines on the SS and maintain momentum better too). Over 3 hours I just don’t have the legs ATM for any more big efforts climbing on the SS on hilly rides.

I’d ride SS for fun and simplicity rather than to get fit or fast- disciplined use of gears are probably the better way to achieve this and can be adapted better to a wider variety of terrain….