A question mainly to single speeders (as I dont want abuse from the rest of you as normal)…

Do you just SS or do you also have and ride geared bikes?

I have been single speeding exclusively (other than a longish challenge trip in China) for about two years and I love it!

I convinced myself I needed a geared bike recently and bought a 2nd Alu geared HT. The bike is sweet enough with a good spec but I just hate the gears. The grind away, skip and ghost shift.

I am even considering a full on carbon darkside geared racing bike on the C2W purely because I can (up to £1k) and the single speed version are to niche for halfords and Evans to stock!

I have a ss and a geared hardtail, although I have just converted that today to a 1×9.

I have ridden the ss around the hills but it is seriously hard work on some of the hills, and the extra 8 gears help me around some of the gradients.

2 SS and 1 geared (ones a trials bike, does it still count as a SS?!). If your gears grind, skip and ghost shift you need to set it up better, or buy quality parts! Can count on one hand the number of ghost-shifts I’ve had in a decade, and two hands the number of times I@ve had skipping.

Been riding ss for few months, much prefer it to gears, but going back to them as I have a few enduros coming up and i would like the option, also have a lemond fillmore which is fixed
Can’t halfords get anything in?

both

And sort your gears out

My main Mtb is geared. My commuter is singlespeed. My commuter always works, even after riding through winter with very little maintenance. I have the stuff to singlespeed my mountain bike through the depths of winter to save time in the garage and get more riding. In summer I’ll take the gears though. Enables me to go further faster and they work 99% of the time.

Have been pure ss in the lakes for 12 months but just built another 2×9 Ti hardtail.

I have both. Ss for local mucky trails and geared for ‘proper’ riding further afield.

Own both – ss inbred with forks and my coiler. I did do ss only for a while but got bored of the limitations in bike choice.

the gears are XTR so good kit. The LBS set the gears up after I bent the rear gear hanger and they had to replace the drop out.

I ride SS in the winter and solved the geared faffage on my ‘Summer’ bike by fitting friction thumb-shifters and an 8 speed cassette.

OK, so my gear changes aren’t as swift as with modern indexed shifters but all I have to do is set the high and low stops and with a bit of careful thumb work I can get perfect, sweetly running gears in all conditions.

Got a full susser as well as the rigid ss. Originally built the ss for winter riding on the chase, then started using it at some of the trail centres…then thought I’d try the Dyfi on it. Not quite sure why I have the full susser now but will keep it just in case

Was only SS for a while. now ride nearly always with gears. Like going fast. Might go back when the weather turns

No derailleurs here.

Almost all my bikes are singlespeed, but if I want gears I use hub gears. My favourite is the S-A 3 speed. 1 gear for uphill, 1 for the flat, and 1 for downhill. What more could you need?

Hub gears give you the benefits of a straight chainline, and if you set them up so most of your riding is in the direct gear, then it feels almost as good as single speed.

If your cycle to work is halfords, you can use it directly with Condor in london, they sell some very nice fixed wheel bikes. I got one recently. (and they let you contribute cash on top),

3 bikes – all SS.

Might go to 1×9 on my Soda at some point to give me a bit more versatility for big rides in the hills. But my normal everyday riding is much more fun SS.

S/S Inbred with RC31s – for local stuff
2 x 9 Inbred wi’ Rebas – for big days out.
Awaiting B2W voucher for Genesis Croix de Fer – which I believe has some gears on it – for the hell of it. 😉

I’m converting my SS hardtail into a urban job.

Putting back gears and some slick tyres for shopping or nipping about locally. Might be a stand in for my road/tourer bike if it breaks down.

I guess it could stay a single speed on the road using a bigger chain wheel? It’s just the gears allow me to spin fast in all sorts of weather/gradients.

His ghost shifting could be frame related folks and not his mechanical skills.

I reckon it’s sad someone has to apologise before posting on the forum these days. Jeebuz

I’ve got gears (1×6) on my cargo bike, but otherwise have ridden SS-only for a couple of years now.

AW – zzzzzzzzzzzzzz (yet again!!!!!)……

for a while I was exclusively singlespeed. two mountain bikes, one fixed road bike and one fixed cross bike. Then I found I could afford a decent mountain bike so bought a really nice geared handjob (which I don’t ride that often, certainly never in winter). Next came a geared road bike because I felt the need for speed and then a geared cross bike.

Sold a few bikes and now I only have two singlespeed mountain bikes, one geared cross, one geared road and a geared mountain bike. So I’m officially gay now.

The chameleon (singlespeed) gets the most riding for sure though so perhaps I’m just Bi.

I’d love a properly set up hub gear.

Something like the equivalent of 44:14 for downhill, 34:16 for flat/slight inclines and a 22:32 for big climbs.

Are you running an Alfine? How long for and have you had problems?

MTB is 50:50 ss hardtail:geared full sus.

If I could justify to myself to keep a geared hardtail (or another full sus) I would for winter use as ss is far better in summer. Winter is for keeping ones sanity intact through 4 months of slop.

Predominantly ride an internal geared hardtail (my SS bike but with a different rear wheel), but also own a conventionally-geared hardtail and full susser.

Putting rough percentages on it all:
Internal-geared HT: 50%
Conventional-geared HT: 30%
Geared FS: 15%
SS: 5% 😀

My knees/back just don’t appreciate SS’ing as much nowadays – internal-geared bike is a good compromise for me.

ride ss inbred every week, if not three times. the weekly night ride ( always ss ) varies 20-30k, 1000m-1500m rise and fall, dependant upon weather and attendance.
have alfined inbred for days when i know there are long grinding climbs. gives a little bit more top end over the ss but is setup to provide low end granny climbing predominantly. 32:20 cogs IIRC.
have a ss drop bar and another flat bar 700c ( one ‘racey’ and one very not, which might get alfined.. ).
have an orange 5 too, conventionally geared 2×9, which i’ve been riding more of lately, to get shaken down for holidays next month, and me more used to riding it. enjoying it. felt comfy straight form the off, but does feel inexplicably like harder work going up, even though i know i’m not blowing out my ar5e half as much when i do top out. 🙂

Used the hardtail as SS over winter, just converted to 1×9 for summer. Also got a 2×9 Orange 5 and a SS steel road commuter. I’ve got a SA 3 speed hub on a 27″ wheel at the back of the garage. I might try fitting it to a 26″ rim to use on the hardtail next winter.

For those of you that have done the SS conversion. Did you use a kit like the ones from DMR or Charlie the Bikemonger or did you just ‘parts bin’ raid?

I want to convert my 1990 steel framed Fisher.

*/Super pedant mode on/*
It’s spell dérailleur with a é
/Super pedant mode off/*

I have just geared the HT as its more appropriate for here.
I’ll try it tomorrow but I have the feeling that will bore me to death

“gears are XTR so good kit. The LBS set the gears up”

you should set them up, not the LBS, not because it’ll be cheaper but because you can fine tune it when your riding and as the cables stretch over time

race your SS’s here
http://www.brownbacksracing.co.uk

non race them here 😉

http://www.ssuk09.com

lots more beer at the SSUK event

Have one SS mtb and a geared Kafinback for the road.

That’s just two bikes, which cannot be healthy 😉

I have a SS MTB, geared MTB, SS road and geared road. The geared MTB is the current weapon of choice but just becuase it is the newest. Give it a week or so and the SS will be back out. Changing between bikes keeps riding fresh and interesting.

4 bikes here.
Bouncer with gears
HT with gears
Roadie with gears
Commuter SS

Have to admit that the one that is used the most is the SS as I commute every day. The simplicity of just getting on and riding is what drew me to it. And a little peer pressure.
The idea was to commute during the summer before trying SS’ing on the trails.
Although after being in the Peak District this weekend I think anything other than trail centres may be a bit OTT for me on a SS.
I will be rigiding it up for the winter though.

I used to have an SS and geared bikes but went for 1×9 instead of SS this year, I found I was only riding SS for six months of the year during the summer months – in the winter mud it’s impossible to get up the climbs on an SS so to me it’s a waste of time.

Keva

SS for 11 years and purely SS since 2003. 6 years without gears!

One of each, take the ss to places without too many hills, Swinley or similar, if going somewhere hilly I take gears.

ilikebikes – thanks for the tip on the Halfords vouchers; I will check it out 🙂

chela – so the Soda is SS at the mo? How do you achieve that EBB?

samuri – sounds so similar to me; all SS then a slow return to a mixture of gears and SS.

Brownbacks is a bit far for me as I live in Kent

The grind away, skip and ghost shift.

either your gears arnt set up properly?
are worn?
or you need to improve your shifting technique?

Not trolling, but ive had 100% silence from mine for the past 6 months, and done litte more than clean it and relube it.
i dont change gear if its not an appropriate time to change, asking it to shift under load is a big no no in my opinion.
shift before you need to, or put up with it and stomp for a few strokes to get enough momentum to take the load off the chain so you can dump all the gears to get back to a spinny gear. (99% of the time predeict the gear and get it shifted just before its required, not as and when its required)

I have 2 SSs and one geared bike.
i reckon they get equal use, so 33% geared and 66% SS riding for me