Singlespeed vs Gears!

i ride a SS around town and i am a total convert. its my first one, and i would never ever go back to gears. but im just getting into Mountain biking, and ive been reading a lot about SS mountain bikes.

most people i talk to about SS MTB think its ridiculous, but i think thats because they have never riden without gears. they’re just old fashioned!

so i want to see what people think about riding SS, but have also riden with gears.
what worked best? did you revert back to gears once you realized it was preferable? why have you stuck with SS?

i will admit, i’ll probably try SS what ever people say, because i’m curious, but it would be good to hear from people that have tried both

cheers

Depends where / how / what you ride.

I prefer SS, but will happily run gears if needed.
I bought a bike with an EBB specifically because of this.
If I’m climbing I prefer to be out of the saddle, pushing a hard gear rather than spinning like a hamster.

If I’m climbing I prefer to be out of the saddle, pushing a hard gear rather than spinning like a hamster.

Re this ^; I’m new to SS, and relatively new to road biking so standing up on the pedals for climbing is a new thing for me. I rode a geared hardtail the other day and tried to avoid changing up to I could climb in a harder (and therefore faster) gear.

Bt I was nervous of shearing my rear mech off / snapping a chain in the middle of the woods…..

I started with singlespeed as a stopgap until the Alfine 11 hubs arrived in the UK. THat was 2 years ago and I’m still on single speed.

When I first changed I could get up most stuff that I could on my geared bike. Now I still push the odd hill but am as faster if not faster than geared bikes. Real upside is the lack of maintenance compared to gears. Downside? on the flat or gentle descents I get left behind as I ‘spin out’ at about 16mph.

Give it a try! All you have to lose are your gears 🙂

No way you could ride around here without gears..not really you’d be doing allot of pushing 🙂

If it’s proper hilly and/or proper muddy at times you do need small gears to sit down and get through the muck orup the long hills, or you’ll spend a lot of time off the bike. If you don’t mind this then fair enough.

You also limit your ability to get the most out of fast descents as there are often so many occasions where you can up your speed with a bit of pedalling.

I tried SS MTB but the hills, conditions and riding that I do and have in my area made it a bit boring and disappointing.

I don’t see any reason to ride singlespeed.

SS will teach you a lot and you can ride more stuff SS than many think. However, it does ultimately limit the versatility of a bike in that really big climbs become impractical.

I have a SS mtb (fixie actually) but if I could only have one bike it would need gears to keep my riding terrain options open.

I use gears and single-speed in about equal measure. Gears for Tuesday nights, Dumyat and big rides; single-speed for Fridays, lunchtime spins and non-Dumyat (local woods) riding.

Just goes to show that everyone is different. For example, I’ve ridden singlespeed on Thursdays before now… 😉

You just have to try it and find out for yourself really.

Rode nothing but singlespeed for a few years, got some good racing results, feels so much more fluid than with gears, made me very strong, and meant i could ride all the time and spend alot less money, but now i feel its holding me back so i’m on the gears tonight for Dusk ’til Dawn 🙂

http://chris-noble-mtb.blogspot.com

The main reason why I ride singlespeed is because I cannot afford to keep replacing expensive gearing components.

The secondary reason is that I like riding a bike with only one gear.

There are no other reasons.

With regards to the getting off and pushing thing – If I have to get off and push on the SS, I’d be getting off and pushing on a geared bike too as my track standing ability is gash.

It’s not ridiculous only having one gear but it can be limiting depending on the terrain you ride.

Two of my three bikes have gears (1×9/10) and i don’t have to use them but it’s nice that they are there, just in case. I often ride like i’m on SS (especially one the DH bike) but i’m making an effort to cycle ‘properly’ on the hardtail and use the gears more effectively.

I’d go 1 x something to start with and see how you get on.

I’ve recently started riding SS on my 10 mile work commute and I like it because it makes mundane, easy commute into something a bit more challenging, and I haven’t noticed a significant drop in speed over that route, however it is a pretty flat route. As much as I like the SS on that bike, I don’t think i’ll be considering moving to SS on my MTB or road bike. Not in the hilly terrain I live in and around. SInce riding SS on the commuting bike I have noticed it has stepped up my fitness and I now use a narrower range of gears on my road bike and MTB, so I may drop a chainring on my MTB and ride 2×10 or even 1×10, and go to larger chainrings from a compact on my road bike. Unless you like the challenge of getting round a course on a SS, then I can’t see a SS MTB enhancing your enjoyment, but it depends on they type of riding you do and the challenge you’re after. SS MTB’s do seem to becoming more popular, especially round the trail centres.

Turn it up to 11 and go fixed off road. Great fun and proper skill building.

I run both and would say that it ultimately depends on where you want to ride, i’m happy on most of the NYM’s on it and some trail centres, but after an Edale/Jacobs Ladder route I’ll take gears next time!

Its a great teacher/beaster for your technique and fitness, do it!

Horses for courses IMO, I lived in the south east and had an ss which I would use round Swinley which isnt very hilly and it was perfect, never really needed gears there, however I just moved to Wales and its way too hilly for the ss, well certainly with me on it anyway, so I`m gonna lend it to my mate who lives in London til Ive got the spare cash to put an Alfine on it.

I have both geard and SS MTBs I enjoy rding both I built the SS to save the geared bike from wet/muddy wear and tear but it has had some sunny outings too as it is nice to ride, but on any given route I do fnd the ss is overall slower… thats not the only important thing but if I could only have one bike it would be a geared HT as it covers more bases than an SS….

The problem with gears for me was that when the chain got covered in mud, the gears would either not shift/ghost shift. And also when I would get home I would have to wash my drive-train – this was in winter 2011-12 so I converted my bike to a SS. People told me I should go back to gears for the summer, well I didn’t since summer was an even bigger mudfest than winter

I find that I enjoy the climbs much more on a SS, because a climb becomes a challenge, an event. Where as with gears you just spin at 70rpm till it’s over.

For me a SS makes me ride better (not so much faster but with better technique) because getting up to speed is harder, choosing a smoother faster line and trying to brake as little as possible is important to keeping the speed you have. You also learn to pump the bike. Furthermore because I don’t have to think about what gear to be in, I can fully concentrate on my riding technique.

Although I do miss gears on long smooth climbs, and on smooth shallow descents since you end up spinning out. Oh and you feel more knackered after a ride with SS.

TBH what I want is 3-speed… I want a low one, something not far off 1/1, for draggy climbing. I want something sort of in the middle, like a 2/1. And I want something a fair bit higher for descending. But there’s no one gear that does it all.

So I like the compromise, 1×10 or 1×9 gets some of the benefits and some of the novelty.

I run an SS (rigid), 3×9 hardtail and 1×8 FS bike.

The SS 32:17 will go up more than i thought it could and works in filth far more reliably than the geared bikes. Downside is that on any sustained flat I spin out at 15mph or so. Brilliant for riding and then chucking in the garage til next week.

Geared bike better for big days out in the dry or trail centre winch and plummet riding.

The worst thing of SS for me is when you have overdone it on a ride and are limping home knackered you have neither a bail.out gear nor something you can turn low rev on the flat at a decent speed.

Have one of each. Ride whichever one you feel like.

Hmm, all this talk of SS and with it being sunny tomorrow, road or SS for tomorrows ride? *ponders*

From my experience I’d ask what you mean by mountain biking.

If it’s a blast round the woods a SS suits me, Spank the Monkey at Cannock I’m ok on it, however Dalby was too much and I wished I’d had gears.

As for the Peaks I’ll let you work that out for yourself 😉

Northwind, go 3×1? Always wondered why more people dont do it really, a climbing gear, a JRA gear and a descending/hammering along gear. Perfick.

triple on the front, single on the back? Seems like a chaintension disaster to me?

Yeah.

Are there not spring loaded SS tensioners? (never had/needed one, so no idea…)

Singlespeed hardtail (32:16) and geared (3×9) full sus. Hourses for courses, right tool for the job and all that. SS is great on undulating routes, works you on hills (could drop the gearing but would remove the challenge), can be a PITA if riding in a group with gears on hills, you have to be at the front so you can attack the hill or you’ll get bogged down by the spinners and can end up spinning out on low speeds.

Full sus geared does it all from steep climbs to fast descents and can give legs a change/break if out for a long day.

There is something nice about the simplicity of a singlespeed though.

Mate ran 3 up front for a wee while with single on rear, used rear mech as tensioner. Almost defeats the simplistic principle though.

I have built up a Sanderson Soloist over the last couple of months with the aim of getting on the trails and seeing what the SS hype is all about. I’m still road riding it at the moment on a 32:13 ratio which I’d hoped would train my technique sufficiently to allow me to get out on the mud. Not going to lie though, bloody hard work. Think throwing the TV remote away……

I don’t see any reason

not

to ride singlespeed.

I ride both, and they’re both great. The ss is good for lack of maintainance, but more than that it’s morefun and more rewarding to ride.

I live and ride in the Peaks, I only have one bike, it’s a garage built SS and it’s just a case of choosing your routes. I chose SS because it is easy on the pocket and very simple.

I have my FS 2×9 that doesn’t get ridden much.

I have my old 94 Univega that’s running 42:15 for getting me to work and road riding, built for cheapness and low (none in a while) maintenance.

And I have my HT SS 32:18, which I built to save wear on the FS. As it turns out I get SSing, I love rattling round Whinlatter or even some of the natural stuff round the lakes. It has helped me be a smoother rider for sure.

I live and ride in the Peaks, I only have one bike, it’s a garage built SS and it’s just a case of choosing your routes. I chose SS because it is easy on the pocket and very simple.

So what do you ride?

Turn it up to 11 and go fixed off road. Great fun and proper skill building.

You still have too many wheels for proper hardcore riding 😉

I live and ride in the lakes and ride a racy SS rigid 29er or an AM FS 26er. Of the two I prefer the SS tbh and chances are the AM FSer will shortly be changed to a trail 29er SS such as a Simple/Swift etc.

I prefer to attack the climbs rather than spin and for techy stuff I seem to find I’m in the “right gear” more often on a SS than if I’ve got actual gears to choose from.

so i want to see what people think about riding SS, but have also riden with gears.
what worked best?

Gears. No question about it.

Have one for nipping to the shops. I got it originally for commuting but it takes too long without gears. It is a good lesson to push bigger gears harder, use the upper body and so on, but surely only the weak need to use self-imposed restrictions to progress? 😉

so i want to see what people think about riding SS, but have also riden with gears.
what worked best?

What works for me is the fitness and strength you develop by riding SS regualarly (Chilterns local, so not too hilly but not flat either). When I use gears for steeper / more technical areas or loaded riding, I find I still ride like a singlespeeder, I can just choose the right gear to keep going and still climb much better than I used to. Most of my geared riding is hilly road miles or loaded off-road touring. I’ve ended up a fair bit fitter over the last few years and it all started with a rigid winter SS that I simply found more fun and less faff than a geared HT.

So as an only bike, prob not for all. As one of 2, definately. I had one that I used here and there many years ago, but for some reason it just ‘clicked’ when I went rigid and changed the bars, became like the BMX I had as a kid – and now the most £££ bike I’ve ever had by some margin is my SS (though I can gear it when I feel like it)

only the weak need to use self-imposed restrictions to progress? 😉

Call me weak then ) but I prefer slack, with now-discovered potential )

there is no ss VS gears..all bikes are ace!!

*says quietly* all of my bikes are ss these days, but that’s only because I haven’t evolved opposable thumbs yet so gear shifty wotsits are difficult to use!