Riding Singlespeed on the road

So, does anyone do it?

I tried it for a short period on my fixie before swapping to fixed, bike is long since sold but I’m thinking of going back to SS on my crossbike (which is also used on the road).

Are there any benefits? I found it a bit spinny, wrong gear all the time sort of stuff but I’m just wondering if I need to experiment with gearing?

I used to, but that was when I was 10 and my only bike was a BMX

I found it a bit of a PITA too, not tried fixed though.

On the MTB it doesn’t feel so bad pushing a big gear up a hill or quickpedal/coast allong the flats, but on the the road bike it just didn’t feel right.

With a bit of luck I will be doing it very soon. Might go fixed though, hills are more fun when you do 200rpm clipped in 😉

I find my 48:18 Pompino great for my 20 mile ew, undulating commute, sadly having to visit client sites limits the chances I have of doing it regularly.

yep I ride ss road – and it’s great. Don’t do it fixed – I use BMX freewheels… It’s a spesh tricross, so in winter it’s a 48×16 or 18. And in summer it seems to go back to 42×18 for recovery rides & blasts off road. it’ll stay that way this year for a few cross races (might do 3 peaks on it!) then when winter kicks in and I don’t want the shiny road bike to get skanky, it’ll go back to roadie speed/legs mullered on climbs mode.

might even dabble with fixed again next winter…

I ride 48:16 on my ss and would totally rate it as a training method.
Theres nothing else for it but too go for it on them hills on a ss so you are building everything up 🙂

Go for it Id say!!

it is a great training tool IMO – your only options are to hammer uphill and spin fast down 🙂

Yup, I’ve got a cotic roadrat and use ss with a freewheel. Rode a fixed pompino a few years back but had a few near misses and decided it was too dangerous, well for me anyway.

The only issue I sometimes have is spinning out on long descents, not a big problem though.

46:16 fixed. Can hurt after a while though. Hills are a laugh but headwinds and long straight sections can get tiresome.

48:17 I think my pompino is, used as a commuter cos there’s less to go wrong, if I could ride fixed I would for the same reason (might give it another go soon) Can manage hills on it ok, bloody steep ones if your legs are fresh, but one road near us (Smithills Dean rd) is long, straight, featureless with a constantly steep gradient, only been up that once and it was soul destroying (headwind, rain and darkness didn’t help)

I commute on a 46:14 fixed. I’ve found it great for building up strength in my legs to get me up steeper stuff on the other bikes. Main reason though is it’s great fun, and virtually zero maintenance. I’d highly recommend it.

Another 48:16 convert. To be fair though I use it rarely now, spinning on long flats is boring mind, undulating hills are fine but any downhill and it’s just odd. In town it’s just enough to dog out on and break free of traffic, fixed’s a no no where I live.

Im running 49:16 on my Giant at the moment, that is mainly used for commuting (between 10 and 25each way). Do the odd 100k at weekends on it too.

Again I agree its great training, shame I managed to destroy BB and bend crankarms and totaled pedal bearings trying to get up a 1in5 a few weeks ago.

I use it for track occasionally to (local outdoor one) and it just works wonders everywhere.

For a few years I was riding fixed (I live in South London so a lot of my journeys were in lovely flat London), 42:16, spinny but very enjoyable. It’s only in the past month that somebody stole my wheels which gave me an excuse to build up a new bike (I had a Pro2 SS hub lying around), and so I built up a Pompetamine singlespeed, 44:16, and so far I can’t believe I rode fixed for so long. I enjoyed fixed for the zen like connection I thought I was feeling, but to be honest, it’s a much more zen like feeling when you’re coasting down a hill instead of wobbling side to side as the momentum of the cranks overtakes the maximum momentum of your knees.

SS on road is great, I ride 48:17 on my Langster. It was 48:16 for quite a while but maybe I’m just getting weak and feeble. High 70’s” gearing is about perfect for me, makes you attack the hills while still allowing speeds of about 34mph before I spin out completely.

On the other hand, I can’t stand SS off-road.

have 48×18 on mine in 28c tyres.. in freewheel mode on pearson touche

not bad gear on run in from Woking to London average cadence 90..

would be nice to have a bigger gear for parts of the route

might try a 48×16…

was also looking at fitted a SA 2 speed hub gear – back pedal to change

Thanks for the replies chaps

I’m specifically looking at SS rather than fixed as I found the riding I do causes me quite a bit of knee pain on a fixie.

I like the idea of zero maintenance (or at least drastically reduced), sounds like I should give it another go!

I do find the lack of maintenance & expense in winter grime great! I find new chains need a couple of re-tensions shortly after install, but they settle down after a couple of tweaks.

agree that freewheeled ss is MUCH kinder to the knees!

I’ve found gearing to be important on ss – 48×16 used as a commuter in sheffield, I hated it after the novelty wore off… but once gearing was sorted for specific applications/periods of year, it’s great!

I’ve given up! Just finished turning my trek marlin ss into a 1×9. As mentioned above the flats/downhills killed me. But never went fixed though, would’ve destroyed my knees.

Sort of, I use to to commute but mostly avoid roads, I live in the flat planet though, so no hills, just whipping around. Personally I’m simple so a simple bike rocks!

Depends where you live and what your usual routes are?

Seems pointless if you want to ride up hills.

JMHO but when I ride my 2:1 ratio HT for 3 miles on roads to get off road, it’s a completely yawn-worthy experience, it’s when you get off road and onto bumpy singletrack that it all makes sense.

Might be worth doing to a CX bike for singletrack purposes, but road bike, I’m not so sure.

Seems pointless if you want to ride up hills.

not for me!! i like hills and their challenge… getting up them in a single gear bottom to top is rather satisfying & brings fitness on (aerobic & strength) no end!!

Fixed here.
Advantages: None
Disadvantages: Everything.

If you’re doing the same commute every day then getting the gearing right can happen quite quickly. The only time I have problems is on the hilly muddy bits, if it’s proper muddy that big old gear can be tricky to move.

2:1 is boring on road, but the OP wanted it for a road bike. I run about 3:1 on my road bike which I find fun enough 🙂

not for me!! i like hills and their challenge… getting up them in a single gear bottom to top is rather satisfying & brings fitness on (aerobic & strength) no end!!

Depends what sort of hills your riding I guess. A weekend ride for me usually involves at least 1 or 2 25% inclines and I wouldnt be able to push an ss up that (or at least one that could be useful on the flat anyway)

Fit people on track-geared singlespeeds are among the most worthy commuter adversaries in the race that dare not speak its name. Even when you eventually drop them, just before throwing up there is the nagging doubt they would have had you if they had gears – you never feel like you’ve ‘won’. And especially if they have a solid trackstand (ie riding fixed).

Fashion driven factory built 42:16 slowcoaches are among the least worthy.

Choose wisely…

Need to be proper fit to do it justice.
It was funny watching DrP killing it last week on the Asthma Beach to Beach 140 miler, finishing first out of 200 starters on an old steel fixie, legs spinning at 100mph at 38mph down hills and churning up the hills dropping us all (Bas**rd!)

Used to ride 48:16 fixed on my Paddy Wagon. Great commuter bike. Flats and uphills were no probs but downhills were a bit sketchy at times. Riding a Genesis iO currently at 32:16 free and although it’s a bit spinny on the flats I’m not finding it too dull. I’m learning to spin to keep momentum but it’s not nearly as fast as the fixed! Tempted to get a flip flop hub so I can ride it fixed too..

I would just like to caveat my post that if you have hills on your commute and are as ancient as most of us, then track gearing is dumb.

Unless you are the Hutch/elite/etc.

cp – Member

not for me!! i like hills and their challenge… getting up them in a single gear bottom to top is rather satisfying & brings fitness on (aerobic & strength) no end!!

Bottom line of this is that the highest gear I can brute my way up the hill in on the way home- which is still reasomably high- is massively too low for riding down the hill on the way there. So i go with doublespeed, I’ve got one gear I use on the way and another on the way back, and therefore get all the fitness benefits without being late for work

here’s mine.

I also ride fixed, but m=now I’ve a flip flop hub on this one, it’s sorted…oh and it’s now got bigger tyres fitted.

Er think I’m 48:16 (might be 46:16) – for commuting – but I have done a couple of longer rides. Mainly did it for the lack of maintenance (for which it is great). Haven’t found it annoying spinning downhill or grinding uphill at all (certainly less annoying than maintaining gears), though I guess that could change if I was out on big road rides every week.

I generally enjoy not having gears though, on road and off. I only really like gears for big bouncy bikes & big rocky hills.

Personally, much as I love my SS road bike, I don’t find it’s a good training device – quite the opposite, since as soon as you get up to speed it doesn’t want to go faster (I’m on 42:16), and generally I put just as much climbing effort in on gears anyway. Gears make me work harder overall. But I’m a bit of a big old masher – I don’t like spinning fast.

The SS is perfect for winter/wet rides, though, and it’s great for forcing the muscles back into shape if you’ve let yourself go a bit. And it’s just nice for just riding along without bothering about gears or having the slight noise of the chain turning jockey wheels.

I’m with bez, my ss is 46 something, most i did was about 40 miles on it. Changed to gears to prep for a half ironman and find it so different

ran around a 2:1 SS mtb for about 6years now as a town/ shopper/ fill in bike for when the big bike is under maintaince (half the bloody time!).

running it round on the road bloody sucks though, so slow and essentially undergeared.

ran a fixed conversion road bike around for a few months, especially when visiting cities and thats been great, helped build up the early season muscles and zero maintainance required. Now its drier the geared road bike comes out. But don’t really see the point in a singlespeed road bike, unless its a zero maintainance shopper.

My Roadrat has been ss for several years. Did all my road training for kielder on it last year so up to 100 mile rides. 42:16 – wouldn’t go higher as commute with panniers full of books.

I’m looking at getting geared bike though – I want to go faster on road on new, longer commute.

Off-road I hate gears. Recently built a 1×9 but find myself in same gear all the time.

i commute from 1 end of bristol to the other so have a very spinny gear 39-16 as the only flat bit for me is in the center whare the trafic is riding as s singlespeeded carrera road bike with spacer kit managed to get magic ratio luckely so no tentioner.

Um 48 : 17 doing 34mph … that’s some serious rpm or fishermans tales