gears were developed for a reason were they not..

Anyway, i tried singlespeed but found that i was’nt willing to make the compromise required for my commute.
I save the s@m for the weekends.

angryratio – Member
gears were developed for a reason were they not..

Yes, as mobility aids for old & frail people.

Mmmm, maybe I should fit a set. Nah, too complicated. 🙂

gears were developed for a reason were they not..

to keep lbs workshops in tea and biscuits….

Ditto, anyone using pneumatic tyres, handlebar grips or saddles – all developed for the frail…

One of the earlier much talked about atributes of the singlespeed was it’s winter capabilities.
Again this was not the case for me. In particular was the difficulty in ascending non technical but very slippery climbs on my singlespeed. I can recall needing a granny to climb an icy Ivinghoe Beacon as well as some otherwise very easy wet and chalky/grassy/clay hills typical of where I ride. Even my geared crosser couldn’t get a purchase, but stick some dinner plate gears on the back and you could very gently get to the tops.
Never had a problem with the hills in the Peak or Wales, but here?

oldgit – Member
One of the earlier much talked about atributes of the singlespeed was it’s winter capabilities…

All this comes down to personal preferences rather than the bike.

Singlespeeds generally do well in the StrathPuffer which has all the winter conditions you could desire and a few you don’t.

I went back to gears on my Inbred for a while, along with a suspension fork. Then it got nicked.

The replacement doesn’t have gears or suspension.

Must say I love it! converted my djab to SS in march and haven’t converted it back.

I don’t care what anyone says but I do feel stronger and fitter. 1st time i rode the mendips it was a real struggle I went back 2 weeks later and cleared all the climbs.. another month later i was killing all my mates on every climb and sitting in the saddle a lot more on some gradients where I had to stand previously.

Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.

Don’t get me wrong I put a good few years into singlespeeding, probably my nicest bike was the Nicolai. But once you’ve learnt that lesson that singlespeeding forces on you, you might as well get the rest of the cogs, if that makes sense?

Miss my Nicolai 😥

Singlespeed also makes you propper hard n stuff. There’s a certain brummy type gent from this forum who’s been riding about on a ss with a broken patella for months and that bullheart chap who’s as strong as a bear. As much as the ladyboys with gears knock it, secretly they all want to be truly awesome but they can never achieve such greatness.

you might as well get the rest of the cogs, if that makes sense?

No, because then you’ve given up and taken the easy option 😀

Surely the best thing about riding with gears or SS is that you enjoy being out on your bike?

Whatever lets you enjoy what you ride when you ride it is the best solution for you and is thus completely indvidual?

I run two different ratios on my SS bikes because they’ve both got slightly different characters and I found that different gearing suited them. I enjoy riding both of them but neither’s ‘right’ as such, just the best for me and that bike.

No, because then you’ve given up and taken the easy option

So, SSing is all about looking hard? Well, sorry to break this to you but cycling (any) doesn’t make you look hard.

Nice to ride different bikes. Even found I now enjoy road bikes, which I never saw coming.

Ride a large Stumpy for bigger days out, trail centres or where I think the topography might be beyond me.

However, the medium frame Genesis io is my go to bike for a fun ride, with or without mates. Had to lose the rigid fork as that was too much for aging bones and sore hands.

Unless the route is full of flat tarmac then no problem keeping up. May be mental weakness on my part, but if you have gears you use them whether you “need” to or not.

Often ride with big groups and take the ss as it makes a humdrum ride more of a challenge/workout = more fun.

Personally feel it pushes me more and am fitter because of it.

However, SSEC 2011 opened my eyes as to what is possible on a ss and how far I had to go! Mind you, 32:16 might have been a bit ambitious for the course in question?

No, because then you’ve given up and taken the easy option

No no no noooooooo. Then I’ve got bigger gears enabling me to grunt up climbs in the big ring if I should so desire.
When you’re out training for your races you don’t slap it in an easy gear do you, no you use the one thats going to let you lay down the most power. Then I suppose I do adopt a road riding attitude to my off roading.

I struggle with long sentences

If you are faster on a SS then you need to learn how to push yourself properly on a bike using only your mind, without having to apply artificial constraints.

In other words, gears + MTFU.

No, because then you’ve given up and taken the easy option

Yeah too right. Why don’t you take the seatpost and saddle off your bike as well? Only losers with gears sit down to pedal 🙄

happy to fix that for you

Well no, I’m perfectly good at using gears, but on the SS you’re never in the wrong gear, you either adjust the effort required to maintain a speed, or adjust the cadence to suit the effort you can put in. And I’ve never slipped a chain on a SS, 100% of power out of 100% of the corners, no niggling feeling that the chain might be on the wrong sprocket and be about to catapult your nuts/knees into the top tube/stem/bars.

The only place I really miss gears is on fireroad decents when others can spin upto speed, I have to sprint/rest/sprint/rest.

One of my club mates was being bored to death by a roadie wittering on about how he usually singlespeeds everywhere.
He had just overtaken our group whilst we were re grouping, then pulled up in front – always a class move!
Couldn’t get the gist of the whole conversation…blah blah singlespeed etc etc. It was a shame he fell off the back as we climbed the approaching hill. Shame he wasn’t on his singlespeed coz then I’m sure he would have kept up and finished his story.
Anyone from here? Spesh Tarmac?? Toms Hill???

Nothing against you chap, but modesty is always best in the precense of strangers

There a few folk here that are confusing pedals that are harder to turn over (more torque required) with generating more power. Get a power meter and you will soon learn that often the best way to generate more power is to spin a lower gear fast rather than churn a high gear slowly. The only reason a single geared bike should ever be fast up a hill would be if the gear was perfect for the rider’s preferred cadence and the hill incline and the weight loss was a benefit or if you are not mentally strong enough to use gears well.

100% of power out of 100% of the corners, no niggling feeling that the chain might be on the wrong sprocket and be about to catapult your nuts/knees into the top tube/stem/bars.

Funny, I never have either of those problems 🙂 I suppose the issue is with gears that you have to know how to use them 🙂

Get a power meter and you will soon learn that often the best way to generate more power is to spin a lower gear fast rather than churn a high gear slowly

This is true.

SS is harder. You may enjoy that, fair enough, but don’t pretend it’s faster or more efficient. It just isn’t. If you are faster on a SS it’s because you don’t have the mental ability to really push yourself on a climb.

backhander – Member
So, SSing is all about looking hard? Well, sorry to break this to you but cycling (any) doesn’t make you look hard.

It’s got nothing to do with looking hard, unless the person doing it is some kind of deluded ego-meister.

This is what it’s got to do with, you ride bumpy & twisty singletrack and at some point, you start to notice (unless you’re blind as a bat) that you don’t often change gear (especially those of us who stay poised in the standing position), you notice that the natural singular gear selection on this geared bike tends to be the very central rear cog, which is only 1 cog away from the typical 16 toothed rear SS setup, suddenly, it dawns on you that SS riding could actually make a lot of sense, you try it and it does.

End of thread.

If you are faster on a SS it’s because you don’t have the mental ability to really push yourself on a climb.

or gears to make it easier 😉

Singletrackworld lap challenge™

SS vs geared

I love all the completely spurious ‘facts’ in this thread.

I love it when this discussion comes up about 3 times a year

you notice that the natural singular gear selection on this geared bike tends to be the very central rear cog

Maybe if it’s a level bit of singletrack. However when the trail goes up hill I change down, and when it goes down I change up. That’s where the gears come into it 🙂

If your ride is entirely undulating singletrack then a SS makes sense. At Swinley, say, it’d be lovely I’m sure.

or gears to make it easier

Gears only make it easier if you are weak and succumb to the temptation to use them!

Actually, you just reminded me of something. I once rode up a 1:3 hill in Bangor on an old road bike with a 39/19 bottom gear. My cadence was about 10 seconds per revolution, I had to zig zag to even be able to turn the pedals at all. It was a fairly easy spin on an MTB and it took half the time.

So despite having a lower gear on the MTB it was both easier and faster.

As a half way house, i’ve started experimenting using only my middle chain ring on my HT to see if i could cope with a 1×9 over twisty bumpty cheeky Cannock trail. Quite an eye opener.

Gears only make it easier if you are weak and succumb to the temptation to use them!

So why have them?

Some of my friends are single speeders and they are faster than me but they are much fitter and more skilled too. They drop me on the climbs but I sometimes catch up with them on the downs. I might consider it in the future but not just now.

Some of my friends are single speeders…

I’d keep quiet about that one on this thread. 😉

As a half way house…

I’d keep quiet about that one too. You’re either with us…!

… twisty bumpty cheeky Cannock trail

But at least that will stop Flow reading it.

molgrips – Member
you notice that the natural singular gear selection on this geared bike tends to be the very central rear cog
Maybe if it’s a level bit of singletrack. However when the trail goes up hill I change down, and when it goes down I change up. That’s where the gears come into it
If your ride is entirely undulating singletrack then a SS makes sense.

Depends how steep you’re talking, I can do the whole of the Monkey trail @ Cannock on SS without any bother, it was tougher at first but still do-able. Only on really steep and loose terrain lacking traction would it be ‘get off and walk – admit defeat time’. The whole of Cannock’s trail centre is perfect SS territory, as is the rest of Cannock Chase, it ain’t the Peaks/Lakes, or Wales or Scotland.

Descents of course is where you only have the ability to pedal ‘so fast’ then it’s freewheel time at that speed you can achieve, so that of course is a draw back if you like, but it’s not like people are pedalling in the highest gears possible over really bumpy techy stuff anyway, so it’s only a few gears you miss out on in that scenario.

you need to learn how to push yourself properly on a bike using only your mind

😆 that sounds like a great trick, you are Derren Brown…

Nope, sorry, singlespeed is great for the lack of maintenance but that’s about it.

Oooh, I dunno. Singlespeed is currently proving to be awesome for starting arguments.

It would be like the hardtail v short travel full suss test they did at Sandwell in the early Mountain Mayhem days.
None of the testers had the means to know how well they were doing, and all of them thought they’d put in the fastest laps on the hardtails, when in fact the fastest times were on the full sussers.

Also there are laps and there are laps i.e I know some race circuits that suit a striped down singlespeed to the core. I’d say time yourself on a route.
When we were training for solos we had a 33 mile loop in the Chilterns, and although we both rode singlespeed a lot and did in the end use our singlespeeds for the many 24s we did, the geared bikes were faster. BUT after three loops we felt more tired from using the geared bikes.
So what do you say? singlespeeds simply are not faster, I could go up a gear and pull away. Or more efficient I could drop a gear at the top of that very long climb and twiddle past you, before putting it in the biggest gear I had to descend down the other side. But hit that sweetspot and a singlespeed is superb.

I thought we were talking off road SS.. Not the road SS argument!

Me? I am talking off road.

For the moment at least, for the mainly forestry riding I do, the singlespeed is just great fun and makes me feel like I’m fitter than I am! My “hardcore” hardtail just feels like a bit of a pig compared to the ss and I rarely use it now.
I’m not bothered which is faster, better, cooler, just enjoy the simple, light and skippy joys of singlespeeding off road.

Oh, and that Brummy bloke with the bosted knee is proppa nails ay he. 😉

Trickydisco, I could always invite some gearies to the singlespeed fight club nights for some 1 on 1 racing for beers and glory