single speed???????

[mikee]

one gear 4 speeds ,sitting ,standing ,pushing and carrying
s/s only loose out on the uphills ,the flat and down hills

 

[the beaver]

i agree as said before, with me personally i have ridden singlespeed offroad for the last ten years.
without blowing my own trumpet i forget how many times ive met up with people on a sunday morning and they sort of chuckle
'are you gonna be allright on that mate?'
it just spurs me on even more.
i truely think the only 2 downsides are
being overtaken downhill when your just sat spinning the gear
and how much you look like a plonker when you have to go tanking off ahead at the beggining of an uphill to keep your speed right for your particular ratio while everyone else is pacing themselves with a gear,
i dissagree with whats been previously said about fitness, it stands to reason, if your low cadence riding and burning your legs you get stronger every ride, with gears its all to easy to easy to just go up the cassette...
just my opinion btw

 

[mikee]

the other downside of climbing is gearies getting in the way
generally your moving faster uphill on a s/s ,the gearies just sit and winch up a hill

 

[the beaver]

the other downside of climbing is gearies getting in the way
generally your moving faster uphill on a s/s ,the gearies just sit and winch up a hill

very true,

 

[JamesM]

Yep and you get up the hills so quick you have plenty of time to recover before the geared riders finally arrive, meaning you look as fresh as a daisy once again

 

[klunkerbr]

There really is no 'sweet spot' for a SS, it all depends on what you are doing most of, and you have to gear accordingly, and accept a compromise of sorts on the rest.

That does not take away the fun at all in my view, so all power to your knees you freaks

I guess it all depends on the gear of choice. I'd say 90% of my riding is SS friendly. And 100% fun!

 

[Andy R]

This is how it is with me - I now have one singlespeed (which I ride 90% of the time) plus a couple of geared bikes. If I go out on a ride, either on my own or in a group, and I take a geared bike I always end up thinking afterwards "Cool ride, but I wish that I'd chosen the singlespeed instead".
On the other hand I've never chosen to ride the singlespeed and afterwards regretted it.
That's why it's rare for me to ride a geared bike now. Ok, you have to (to an extent) choose your battles - for example, if a group ride involved a lot of tarmac riding I wouldn't choose the SS (mind you, I probably wouldn't bother to go on any bike.....).

Some people "get" the whole SS thing and embrace it, with all its disadvantages as well as advantages, while others try it and hate it with a vengeance - it's all different strokes for different folks. I will say though that a nice singlespeed seems to become an extension of oneself in a way that no geared bike quite seems to do (it has to be a nice one though ).

 

[xizang]

Does anyone ride a SS full-suss (just to add more confusion to the debate)?

 

[the beaver]

Does anyone ride a SS full-suss (just to add more confusion to the debate)?

good question but i do hope not, i couldnt imagine anything worse

 

[mikee]

had a gt i-drive that was s/s'ed in an emergency
worked very well