its bloody good for fitness and simplicity.

i quite like it. only in the summer. it does hurt at times though.

if you ride for fun and not competition SS for me atleast is neither here or there – I ride exclusively SS it works well – just as gears do – That’s how I like my bike to be but I’m ambivalent to how others wish to set up theirs .. If a hill is too steep and I’m walking most times my geared friends are spinning at the same pace ..

I’m a bit of an anxious person generally and i’ve found that my ‘go anywhere singlespeed disc brake cx bike’ is brilliant because I’m not worrying about how fast I’m going or if I should be shifting up a gear and pushing harder. I just pedal as hard as I can and that’s it, so for me it’s fantastic. I started out using the bike for an 8 mile commute but more and more now I’m using it for weekend rides instead of my geared ht 29er.

Gears are not faster but they are easier

This applies if you use them to back off and take it easy. If you use them for the intended purpose of transferring your power down in the most efficient way at all times then they are much faster. When on the singlespeed going downhill you are spinning out, ie not accelerating whilst with gears you can accelerate, thus going faster. On climbs if you back off to the easiest gear you will go slower, but if you get in a gear which allows you to get a good cadence and still acheive the same speed you siply have more energy to pedal down the other side whilst the SS rolls dow the hill.

Edit: This does not mean you won’t enjoy it! As said earlier I enjoy it, occasionally

For commuting (normal road stuff), it’s grand. For mtb’ing, it sucks. If you’re on terrain you can use a single speed, the terrain’s boring

😕 I find it the other way round, a ss mtb on the road is so boring, that’s why I have a Langster. Off road a ss mtb is great fun and more of a challenge. If I need to get off and push up a hill, then so be it, nothing to be ashamed of. Out of 3 bikes I ride my geared bike least.

Had the 1st real ride on my newly bulit ss rigid yesterday, forest trails, rocks and roots, some road and some flat bridleway, it was simply excellent and having really pushed it at the end I was knackered but felt really great.

Can make a nice difference, I’m using it as a way of increasing fitness and enjoyment of well known trails.

Are you saying (with a straight face) that a SS can really make the trail come alive? 😉

Yes as has been said the only time it is a pain is on a flat road and spinning out just to keep in sight of your mates. Then one of them says ‘I bet you wish you had gears’ and you think ‘I bet you wish you didn’t when you were eating my trail’.

Some people enjoy the challenge but if I can put in the same effort and go about 5 times faster with gears why not do that?

Sometimes it’s not about the speed, and the times you actually can go 5x faster aren’t as often as you’d think. Think of it as a momentum challenge.

Does suck on long road legs though.

SS on road works, used to have an ss commuter, really really fancy a carbon/silly light drop bar SS roadbike again, I wouldn’t use it enough tho.

SS offroad definitely works, perfect for undulating singletrack, fine for hilly places, it’s just super steep loose climbs and long flat or slightly downhill sections that kinda suck as you’ll be spinning like mad. Until you’ve given it a go – and I mean a fully 100% committed gurn up a sheer rock wall – you won’t believe what you can climb.

I know there’s a lot of bollocks talked about purity and all that but both road and xc you can take a perverse pleasure in picking up a lot of speed by revving the tits out of it. Going from a gurning standing start to thigh burning speed with out them faffy gear changes is kinda cool.

About the only place SS doesn’t work for me is CX, if you have a gear that halfway works on the road then anything above undulating offroad is a proper leg killer. Plus as CX bikes to me are all about versatility ss kinda goes against that.

has to be said didn’t do a whole lot of ss miles last year, was a bit busy rekindling my love of single pivot bikes 🙂

I resisted singlespeed for a bit when most of my mates converted for the winter but 7 years in it seems odd to ride off road any other way and I now own 4 of them if you count the commuter. Twentyfour12, Mayhem, Dusk til Dawn, I’ve done them all SS and can’t see that my results would have been any better with gears.

If I want to ride geared off road I can swap the wheel, mech and shifter from my full-suss (which only ever gets used for uplift days). But that’s only happened once so far and I soon wondered why I bothered.

The best thing about single speeds, is the annual ssuk piss up. 😀

How good is mtb singlespeeding?

Very good.

SS made my legs stronger, core stronger and upper body stronger. I loved it but I found I was unable to do it for long rides. It’s a great training and fitness technique but not for all the time. I’m going to revisit it this year as there are 2 local hills I never got up without walking. I’m finding them hard on 1×10 so it will come as a shock but that’s half the fun. I started doing it after having had my arse handed to me on a plate by SSers around places like Nant yr Arian. They do tend to go faster uphill as basically they have no choice. Revenge is sweet on the flats and downs though.

If you can try it for two weeks and then see how you feel about ss, that’s how I started.

At the factory I commute there are maybe 100 bikes, 6 years ago I was the only one ss to work, now there must be 20 odd who regularly ss to work, quite a mixture of setups too ;-).

Quite change In commuting, the main advantage for me is the reduction in maintance.

Give it a go

@devs — one of them The Beast by any chance? 🙂

Obviously many of use singlespeeders have geared bikes.

But do any of us have a 1×9 setup with a funny expander cog thing?

My full sus is a 1x Alfine which should be about the same range as a 1×9, and I don’t feel the need for an easier gear, but perhaps thats because my Singlespeed and ‘harder’ geared road bike mean I’ve forgotten what its like to spin up a hill at 2.5mph?

And in response to an earlier comment, I prefer the SS on dry summer trails and tend to choose the expensive full bouncer with lots of gears (and pivots) for crashing through muddy forests in the winter slop.

It’s great. Mine is fully rigid, 29r flavour. It mainly gets used in winter when the trails are sloppy and you don’t take such a pounding…..

EDIT – it’s all donor bits from other bikes (except the frame). as chains wear out on other bikes, they go to die on the singlespeed. it’s my mtb for crappy weather for regular training/riding.

great fun to ride, different to geared bikes – good for length strength training, no option but to gun it on the ups. and there are plenty of those round here.

Yes, geared too, but no expander cog. 32×34 seemed sufficient.

I temporarily converted my HT to SS to give it a go and when I found I could keep up with my regular riding buddies, who are on average 15 years younger than me, I was hooked and built up a permanent steel SS Inbred. There isn’t really anything round my way (Warwickshire) that I can’t ride on it and the main trouble is spinning out on the flats so I’m changing the ratio from 36/20 to 32/16.
I still take gears to Cannock though but I know people who don’t.

Between meh and awesome

not for me, i was always in the wrong gear.
and i weigh about 10 stone more than your standard singlespeeder.

@spooky I’ve just taken an alfine off my full suspension frame, only ever known one other person do that

It gets the occasional double take but I think it suits my Yeti 575 (the older version with the triangular knuckle). The bolted hub stiffens up my flexy carbon stays and it is much quieter. I find the Alfine 8 is a perfect spread of gears as well. It feels nice and balanced too although strangely I feel more comfortable pushing my limits on my SS which is an Explosif.

I only tried it as my drivetrain needed replacing and the Alfine was collecting dust after the Explosif became a full time SS.

I bought an alfine specifically for it but that’s also gone ss now, it’s a bit more cumbersome than the hardtail ss but much more comfortable for the bigger rides.

Singlespeeding is like dogging. Some people love it and can’t imagion life without, others hate it an can’t understand.

I love singlespeeding.

I tried on-and-off for about 5 years to get along with singlespeeding, but finally made it “work” for me two winters ago. I generally singlespeed over the winter and put gears on for the summer.

I’ve gone singlespeed again since changing frames (and wheel size) last autumn. It’s great for all my local woodsy trails, with some ups and downs thrown-in.

I’m off to ride some more extreme trails in a few weeks time and I’m in two minds about whether to stick gears back on…

Not yet, but an 11-40 9 speed cassette would be nice.

But do any of us have a 1×9 setup with a funny expander cog thing?

I don’t like the look of them expander things.. too unwieldy and ungentlemanly

just straight up 1×9 for me

30T 11-36 is ample range.

@devs — one of them The Beast by any chance?

Yep. 32:16 just too tough for me at the time. I’ll be on 29 or 29+ this time so probably 32:18 or maybe even 32:20. I’ll get up it though. It’ll be a while before I go out with the Sunday Singlespeed Gang on it it though 🙂

You can get expanders for 9 speed now?

Brilliant!

I loved my SS mtb. It was a voodoo djab. first few times ( running 32:16) was difficult to clear some climbs in the mendips then a after a few rides I could clear almost anything. Proudest moment was clearing the climb out of smiths combe in the quantocks

Have gone and bought a voodoo wanga to build up SS as i miss it

Coming from a bmx background many moons ago i’ve always had a single speed, be it a road bike, fixie or mtb. I never enjoyed it at all on a 26″ MTB. However I now have a 29er mtb, which has made all the difference, really good fun and lots of traction with tubeless tyres. Run with no suspension, steel frame, low pressure tyres, light weight wheels and 32-18T.

Pros:
Having a perfect chain line helps greatly with pedal efficiency.
Being silent is very nice.
Light weight.
Low maintenance all a plus.
Improves technique + fitness.
Will make local terrain far more challenging and ‘alive’ again.
Cheap to run.

Cons:
Yes i do sometime want a lower gear, as a stop start on a hill means walking, which is the worst part.
Spinning out on the flat / downhill.
Riding on the road (due to low pressure in tyres).

If i could only have one bike, a single speedable hard tail, with 1×10 and suspension forks would be my recommendation. Have a single speed rear wheel, quick links on your chain and you can make the switch between gears and hard tail quick and easy.

I originally built up my single speed as a winter bike a few years ago, thinking it would be low maintenance & build up my strength for the geared bikes come summer.

I just ‘got’ it straight away , it really suits my local terrain. My HT & FS now only see day light a couple of weeks a year!

Only down side is it’s probably ruined my ability to climb on a geared bike in the saddle , as I’m one of those always standing single speeders , love it !!

I ride 32-15 for racing commuter traffic, having a blast and I never need to carry tools whilst either enjoying being a hooligan, practicing skills or enjoying quiet towpaths. The slightly harder ratio makes me stronger on the hills and quicker on the flats, but I wouldn’t take it to the trails.
Then, when I’m on the trails, my 1×9 (32, 11-36) is ample.

Pros

It’s an excuse for another bike
It’s different – very different
It’s fun
All rides turn into intervals
It’s cheaper
No excuse not to get out in the mud
Good balance training – 0mph, 0rpm but upright and clipped in.

Cons

It hurts – a lot!
Your thumbs lose strength

Be great to see pictures of all these ss bikes. Would give me inspiration for my ongoing inbred build. Someone should start a thread….

Ss mtb is a stupid idea and singlespeeds are usually ridden by shonky **** who smell a bit funny. Can’t see the point at all

Youve convinced me tazzy. Anyone want to buy my 18″ inbred 29er frame off me for cheap to give it a go. FSA headset and chaintug included.

(Will be in FS forum later, once I can do pics. New ss frame on its way)