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So, I've currently got a Genesis Day One Decade & a Felt Dispatch singlespeed, & I've also got a geared road bike that I'm happy with, & the opportunity through the Cycle to Work scheme to get a geared cross/gravel bike...
My current thoughts are regarding the singlespeeds, although fun to ride solo, I always get dropped off the back on faster flat sections on group rides. Last night on the commute home there was a section about a 1.5miles long that I could only coast down & I got bored....
Is a geared bike ultimately more practical? Last winter I was out on the Day one loads, this winter I've bought a new Cotic Soul so the day one hardly gets any action, but a cross bike with gears I'd use to commute year round & go some more interesting ways...
Anyone with any musings/thoughts to add?
Stick a bigger gear on it and/or spin faster and/or go fixed?
I find SS good fun trying to eek out as much speed as possible, sometimes that means sprinting like a deranged northerner who's heard Gregs is having a fire sale then tucking in behind someone else downhill and not touching the brakes.
Gears on the other hand make everything else hard without those moments of madness that make SS really hard some of the time.
If you're selling the Day 1 I'm after 56.
Practical is a very movable feast. There's no more practical bike than a SS for when the weather is filthy, to be able to hop on, knacker yourself absolutely in 60-90 minutes, then wipe the chain with a greasy rag and shove it back in the shed where it'll be ready to go again next time.
On a full day epic with your mates with everyone else on gears and with lots of flat bridleway cruisey sections (eg: the SDW) - I'd imagine it's horrible, you'll either be too fast or too slow and never just right for them.
Of course its more practical.
You pick the gear ratio that suits the trail under your bike at any given moment. You also pick the ratio that suits how you feel at any given moment.
Cleaning a bike with or without gears is not really different. Bucket of soapy water, brush, hose, lube done.
go fixed?
This is the answer for me. Single speed on flat sections can be very dull whereas on fixed it isn't. Not really sure why, maybe because I tend to use higher gears on fixed as can't just stop pedalling if gear is too low.
im always dreaming of going back to single speed - love the sense of simplicity and accomplishment. but I'm currently enjoying my x11 11/46 cassette a lot as well.
i think the best way is having gears but not being as reliant on them if that doesn't sound totally bizarre.
you somehow cope better with one gear that you'd think, don't scrub speed of as much on occasion and hit things faster (sometimes clearing stuff you'd make more of a meal off with gears). it makes you stronger and read the trail better (or more aggressively)
gears seem to bring out the lazy side but also make other riding practical. ultimately the right answer is different for everyone (what you want from riding, where you live etc)
admitted i ride alone most of the time (live rurally) and clearly have loads of time for internal mumblings...
and i realise I've actually not evolved this discussion at all!
I bought a single speed bike a while ago (2017 Kona Unit). Adding gears has seen it used a lot more. I'm not even remotely as fit as I ought to be, but I'm trying to ride twice a week for 15-20 miles a ride to get myself fitter.
I'd add gears. Do what I did, buy a cheap (I went SLX, £40ish at CRC) cassette, a cheap (I went FSA Team issue, £9.00 at Planet X), and buy a used 11 speed clutch RD and shifter (managed to grab some GX stuff off here), and Bob is indeed your mothers brother.
I also had to buy the appropriate rear dropout for my bike, but I still managed to do the whole lot for under £100, and I could likely resell the stuff if I ever decide to go back and claw some monies back.
what that kerley said.
Put gears on but don't fit any lower than your SS ratio. Get a 5 speed cassette 🙂
I've just gone to 1x9 which is actually pretty good for me. You could try similar with a road cassette.
I tried fixed once, after a puncture on the way home. I almost died 3 times.
I swapped back as soon as I got home.
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based on a ITV interactive vote and what some bloke told me down the pub, if you go from singlespeed to gears, your sexiness will instantly diminish with each dull, conformist click of the gear dangler as your soul slowly withers and dies.
More importantly your willy will shrivel and fall off.
Ignore the folk that tell you that gears are great, they just want you to be unattractive like them to reduce the competition to find a mate.
Keep it single and rigid at all times, its the only way*
*apparently, I wouldn't know as I once looked a specialized stumpjumper the wrong way and caressed its 1x11 lever and have since been committed to Bedlam