[Closed] Rediscovering single speeding

Popped out for a ride on the fat bike in the snow. It's been single speed for a few months now. Great fun. Sort of have to pick the trails - short and steep isn't that much of a problem, long and medium steepness is - I'm blowing out of every orifice at the top of those! Also surprisingly good for keeping up momentum when you get to deeper snow.

Wouldn't have one as my only bike but they are just a brilliant workout and as you say ideal for winter slutch.

Converted my geared Inbred a couple of months ago. Using a Blackspire Stinger I invested in a steel Surly chainring and On One Groove Armada cog. I'd been using it as a hack gravel bike with carbon rigid forks and skinny tyres. But decided to put some old 2.3 Spesh rubber back on it and it’s become a great little go-to, go-anywhere bike when I haven't got the time or inclination to go full mtb. If I had to give up my worldly possessions but keep one item, I think it would be this bike.

I was out on the fixie today. Similarly great for just getting out and not bothering with any sort of pre/post ride faff.

I always use the SS in winter, it's just better. You don't go any slower, you get a better workout on shorter rides, it motivates you to push harder on hills when solo, and it saves a small fortune in maintenance (both time and cost) because it doesn't need any beyond the occasional set of brake pads.

The only thing I don't like doing on it are big multi day rides. I've done them, but you end up so compromised by a gear setup for climbing that road sections become utterly horrible.

Rigid singlespeed for all of 2020...I use the gravel bike when I want to cover bigger miles.

The crusty old hardtail has been out once, and the full susser has only been out a handful of times in the last 3 years or so.

As I was riding it, I thought maybe I should swap out the brakes from my hard tail (nice hope x2) instead of the road BB7 with canti levers but then realised the cheapness is what I like about!

@thisisnotaspoon - the longest ride I've done single speed is the 200km Dirty Reiver, not sure I'd like to have done that again the following day. Didn't fuel correctly though.

I know a couple of riders who've done the HT550 on a single speed, one was very fast indeed. The only multi-day rides I could see me going single speed are arctic rides where there isn't much elevation gain and it's more snow conditions that dictate whether or not you can ride so there's not a lot of disadvantage to SS. Also limits your energy output so you don't overheat. Aiden Harding came 2nd on the 1100 mile Iditarod on a SS so not out of the question.

Those of you who habitually ride SS do you stick with the standard off road ratios people chat about on here? I.e. 32:16 on a 26er etc? Do you not find it a little spinny on the flats or is the fast spinning part of the knack I need to learn?

I’m moving from 32 18 to 30 18 on mine. In part due to fitness but also in part because I’m more bothered about being able to get up hills a little slower on it than having to get off and push. And spinning out doesn’t bother me either.

Oh, and it’s 29+ so usual rules of a 32 16 from years gone by don’t apply.

Do you not find it a little spinny on the flats or is the fast spinning part of the knack I need to learn?

Don't do long flats on a SS, best going up or down, flat exposes the compromise

Agreed, you are gurning on the way up so as soon as it points downhill, I spin out at about 18mph and then I just tuck down and enjoy the free ride 🙂 I avoid long flat bits such as road sections unless I'm knackered and happy to dawdle.

On my 26er I used 32*18 as I wasn't very fit and I live in a hilly area so my rides average about 1200ft of ascent per 10 miles. So I geared my 29er to be the same at 30*19, but I got a bit fitter in lockdown #1 and discovered 29ers are fast and found it a bit spinny, so went to 30*18 which seems to be the sweet spot (32*17 equivalent in old skool wheel sizes)

I went from 32:16 to 32:17 on 26” wheels due to a purchasing error last year and haven’t noticed any difference, so I guess it’s not that big an issue really.

You just have to see what suits you and your riding. It’s cheap and easy enough to change.

Those ratios suit me in hilly Wales, but then I’m an xc whippet and if I have to walk sometimes then so be it. They can be frustrating on the flat so I avoid flat as much as possible. But then 38:11 on my geared bike often isn’t enough on the flat either, and short flat rests are an important part of recovering from the workout on steep climbs.

I would recommend an oval chain ring to help with traction on out-of-the-saddle offroad climbs. And bar ends 🙂

I love singlespeeding. I should do it more.

Those of you who habitually ride SS do you stick with the standard off road ratios people chat about on here? I.e. 32:16 on a 26er etc? Do you not find it a little spinny on the flats or is the fast spinning part of the knack I need to learn?

The equivalent is 32/18 on a 29er but no, and it depends.

Generally most people have a brief macho phase where they go for higher gears, then go lower and lower over time.

You spend well over three quarters of a ride going uphill, and the downhill bit you don't pedal, why? It's a few hundred watts for a few seconds each corner, spend those seconds getting setup better for the next feature.

Part of the trade off is picking a gear that just about evens out between smashing it up hills and recovering on the flats. Over time you build up to spinning faster and faster. My cadence sensor drops out at 160rpm and I can beat that 🤣

Back near the start of lockdown I finally built up a singlespeed road/gravel bike that suits me. Last time I had a singlespeed road bike was about 10 years ago and I loved it but it just got consumed by doing bigger rides with gears.

Now the simplicity of singlespeeding is a tonic for the mental spaghetti of 2020, and I’ve only had one ride with gears since about April.

It’s just tonight acquired a dynamo light setup (it’s already gained mudguards since the balmy summer photo below) so that I can be out of the house and back again with zero thought or maintenance, which hopefully means I can fit it into a working day a little more easily.

Even as unfit as I am after this year, it just brings a smile and some sanity where gears for some reason don’t quite hit the spot.

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Oh, so the forum doesn’t integrate Instagram posts any more, then?

I run a 34/18 with an oval ring on my 29er in Leicestershire. Seems to work out OK, can be hard work in places but is the right gear 95% of the time, so good enough!

Amongst my varied bikes (quick mental check....7 full bikes. I think)

2 are geared.
1 is fixed.
2 are single-speed.
2 are dingle-speed.

Most riden this year is the dingle-speeded Stooge MK4.
32/19, with a 22/19 bailout gear.

I loved it so much that when mine died 12 weeks ago I adopted it’s name in honour. It was more a case of ‘single speed bike rediscovered my love of cycling’

32/16 on 26x2.4”. Was about to go to 18T cog as hereabouts is mad hilly, although walk-pushing it up big inclines/hills is part of the fun for me.

In better times(2018):

I’ve since toyed with the idea of singlespeeding my Longitude, but tbh I’d probably feel better off with another scruffy old hardcore hardtail.

Gearing:
32/22 on the fatbike for the 24 hours of the StrathPuffer.
32/20 on the Scandal 29er for solo 24 hours StrathPuffer and WEMBO 24 Hour Solo (Ft William)
48/19 on track bike for road use. OK for 200km loop round Wester Ross.
44/18 on rod brake roadster for the same Wester Ross loop.
44/20 for retro gravel bike.
44/20 on Pompino when I did the first Bealach na Bah sportive quite a few years ago (90 miles?)

I'm somewhat decrepit these days so younger riders may want to go higher.

My experience is that you can always find a wee bit of extra spin, but never another ounce of grunt.

If I'm down to wobbling speed on the road, I get off and walk. Safer, and get a rest that way.

First rule of singlespeeders, everyone walks (eventually)

I went from 32:16 to 32:17 on 26” wheels due to a purchasing error

FTR: No I didn’t, I went from 34:17 to 34:16. You can see how I made a purchasing error...

32x18 on fat SS is main bike.
33x18 on the 29b+.
SS has been main bike for probably 8 years. It’s a lazy mans bike, get on & pedal, or push & don't. 🙂
Nowt wrong with gears.

I've pretty much always had a SS somewhere, usually as a work bike, sometimes a fixed, vintage Road bike or retro mtb, but at the start of lockdown, I converted my old Karate Monkey to ss, mostly for more of a workout in the 1hi we were advised. Id always used a 6 cog block before that and couldn't work out why I hadn't done it before. There is a flip side though, when I got back on a geared bike, I felt massively unfit. I struggled with bigger gears and spinning small gears for climbs felt just as hard.

big_n_daft
First rule of singlespeeders, everyone walks (eventually)

Those who don't eventually resort to gears. 🙂

To me it's difference between riding a bike and operating it.

Fat bike is 26:18 basically because the 26T chainring is what was on it when I converted from geared and 16T at the back would slip under load. It's about right for round here, Southern Dales, I can get up most things and there's not a lot of flat unless I head along the canal so spinning out isn't really a problem. A quick check and it's basically the same ratio as Brian's 32:22 so not out of order.

The Pompetamine was 39:20, again because 39T was what the chainring was when I took the Alfine hub away and converted it. Good fun keeping up with "geared" roadies and them suddenly realising you are SS!

Part of the "fun" is seeing just what you can do though I knew that if a road had double chevrons on the map then I wouldn't be able to get up it on the Pompy and it was walking time.

@Brucewillies - I wonder if the difficulty in going back to gears is that SSing you sit and spin or stand and grind (or walk) so the sitting and spinning for climbs is something you've lost the knack of?

@Brucewillies - I get the opposite, riding a geared bike after a long stint of SS makes me feel very lazy, twiddling up climbs without needing to make an effort and feeling like I need to do three times the distance to get a work out. However if you are on form it does mean you can fly up the hills in a bigger gear 🙂

I love mine all 26inch wheels and rigid forks of it. It doesn't seem to make any difference to speed for me. The perfect bike for glentress!

I have forgotten the love for a fixed gear road bike though so i need to dig it out for blasts.

Singlespeeds rock. That is all.

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I've been toying with this again as I loved my old SS. Is the Surly Single-ator still the better approach for those of us with non SS specific frames?

I like a BB mounted chain device just because it makes dropping the back wheel out smidge easier than an mech style tensioner.

There is a flip side though, when I got back on a geared bike, I felt massively unfit. I struggled with bigger gears and spinning small gears for climbs felt just as hard.

Weird, as I felt the opposite way. Even my body is a contrarian!

I last rode a single speed in 2011. It was a mark 1 solaris which was my first 29er.

Prior to that I had a 26 inch Ti456 as a 22.5lb SS.

They were both great, but the Solaris was so outrageously capable compared to the Ti456, (itself a really fun bike) that I found SS limited the kind of riding I wanted to do on it. Notably techy climbs and janky trails with little in the way of flow.

The Solaris ended up with 1x9 and bigger tyres. I've had a series of 29er HTs that have become increasingly competent in a variety of conditions and I've not gone back to SS because I think it will be too limiting for these bikes.

I would kind of like to build up a squirty little SS like the Ti456 used to be, but I cant really justify it.

I like a BB mounted chain device just because it makes dropping the back wheel out smidge easier than an mech style tensioner.

Same, keeps everything tucked out of the way too.

never gets washed, occasional brush down, stanchion wipe and chain oil. 7 years of pleasure.

So the BB mounted device is just a normal chain catching thing, not tensioning the chain, just keeping it in the chainring? Any specific ones recommended?

You rotate it round so that it tensions the chain. Blackspire Stingers (or something similar) work nicely.

Curses, curses, curses.

You've made me realise how much I miss my rigid single speed. Gave it to the father-in-law who's become quite attached as it's kept him sane through this year.

Anyone selling an XL 29er..?

Like most people on here I bought one of the 32/16 Inbred singlespeeds back in the early/mid 2000s. I rode it for a couple or three years but got a bit fed up with it in winter as it was impossible to get up the steep muddy slopes round the local woods due to the back wheel spinning out. In the end I went 1x9 instead. Fast forward to 2013 and I decided to build up a singlespeed town bike for going to work, riding to the shops and pub etc and run it 42/16. That was a fun bike to ride and I took it out on the road a few times, although it was an old 1997 GT frame and a bit short. About three years ago I got hold of an old medium size Kona frame so stripped the GT down and rebuilt it with some old Pace carbon forks and disc brakes, found the old Mary bars in the shed and used those, perfect for the longer cross bar medium size Kona. I now quite regularly ride it on the road and much prefer singlespeed on the road to riding a geared road bike. I must get myself a proper ss road bike and rebuild a ss xc bike for short blasts round the woods in the summer months.

Didn't take me long to rediscover having one gear. After around 18 years of single gear riding I bought an 11 speed MTB at start of 2019 as I just wanted a change. At first I thought it was great as it was such a change (pedalling fast downhill, going up climbs at 4 mph in lowest gear etc,) but after 2 months it was sold and back on single gear ever since.

I am just a one geared rider through and through and didn't even have gears until I gave up my BMX at age 18 and got a geared MTB.

I loved riding my single speed mk1 scandal, I was the fittest I've ever been. Gears were 30:16 and served me well living in the Wrexham area.

As with others, I am contemplating single speeding my current 29er (octane one prone) but I now live in Sheffield. Will I be opening myself up for a world of pain or is the Peak doable?

My Genesis i0 is my go to bike for winter, 26” with eXotic rigid carbon forks 32x16 ideal for the wilds of Cambridgeshire.

As with others, I am contemplating single speeding my current 29er (octane one prone) but I now live in Sheffield. Will I be opening myself up for a world of pain or is the Peak doable?

Dingle it!
All the Pros of SS, but with a single bailout granny gear.
Living in East Devon, most of it is doable as, but there are some short steep climbs that I like to thrutch up.
If you've got it set up properly you can use your heel to change down....though you have to manually put the gear back in the bigger ring for the higher gear.

Here's my 2 geared Stooge...

Rohloff rear tensioner, 19t rear cog, and 32/22 front rings.
Also means you can SS a frame with normal dropouts or thru-axle.

I love SS. I seemed to have a much clearer mind riding SS and a quick hose down and minimal maintenance compared to a bike with more movey bits was a huge motivator to ride more. Clearly it must be the best thing ever as my 18lb rigid SS Santa Cruz Highball was stolen 🙁

I have a real desire to ride rigid SS again but there seem to be fewer and fewer sliding dropout frames each year. I don't care what anyone says, using a tensioner just isn't the same as a really clean SS setup.

I am happy to be proved wrong if there are a ton of XCish, lightish, 29er, sliding drop out frames out there for sensible money (sub £500)!

I don’t care what anyone says, using a tensioner just isn’t the same as a really clean SS setup.

You're right, it's loads easier! Especially with a BB mounted one if you've got a few sets of wheels & tyres with different gearing on them for different stuff. No buggering about getting the wheel square in the frame & dead easy to drop the wheel out if you get a puncture when you're out and about, no need for chain tugs... 😉

Especially with a BB mounted one if you’ve got a few sets of wheels & tyres with different gearing on them for different stuff.

This is a good point.
Even on my Surly Krampus, which has horizontal dropouts, I use a Paul's Melvin.
Means I can change cogs or chainrings and not have to worry about chain length or brake caliper position.

When I lived in town I loved my SS. Hills were fun, either hoof it or walk. No worries locking it up outside uni or the pub. No gears or maintenance to worry about.

Had a very steep Downhill commute in the morning and obviously the opposite coming home. Made Geared Riding seem so easy. SS bikes were always the first bikes I picked from the shed.

Now I'm living 7 flat miles away from work/pub SS just doesn't work for me. Either spin out or long wet slog into the wind and rain.

Jealous that OP is loving the SS. Enjoy it!

This thread cost me £500 today.

I hope you're all proud of yourselves.

😁😎

All the Pros of SS

Except the lovely clean lines...

There is a difference between sliding dropouts and horizontal dropouts 😉

I really loved the dropouts on the Highball. Very, very simple but so few frames use anything similar.

Kona's sliding dropouts are top notch (once you replace the socket bolts for hex)

Love this thread. I could ride my Stormchaser all the live long day and then do it all again the day after.

It's the first year I haven't had a single speed for about 15 years. I had an 853 Rock Lobster that I'd stripped down to have repainted and while it was hanging up frame only, I thought I'd give it a go. I got a kit from CTBM thinking I can resell it shortly after once I realised what a shit idea it was, and was proved badly wrong.

Subsequently I've had a Tinbred, then a 29er Inbred, then a Swift (that I really regret selling) then a Pace (which cracked) and lastly a Voodoo that I converted to gears and sold earlier this year spotting a gap in the market when everyone went bike mad, and I was mainly doing road loops due to lockdown.

Now I'm hankering - but don't see many options out there other than another cheap alu frame or bike and a tensioner kit.

@ajantom you need a decrocher stick for your gear changes. 🙂

Google Vernon Blake but make sure to include cyclist in the search or you'll get Batman syff. 🙂

Found inbred dropouts a right pain in the arse, but dropouts on the voodoo were perfect (after changing the hex screws for something not made of cheese). Whole dropout slides, including brake mounts so no worries like on an inbred of wheel dropout being twice as long as brake adjustment. Only issue is that brake was then on seatstay rather than chainstay so kinda got in the way of racks.

I've generally found single speed a step to far but I've been dinglespeed for years now -- 33/20 for techy offroad or long road climbs and 36/17 for roads, gravel or easy XC. That's on a Stooge 29er.

I run a sprung tensioner with two jockey wheels so changing ratios is a 10 second job and I tend to do so perhaps a couple of times an hour. I find the minor increase in complexity absolutely worth it, and the maintenance costs are basically the same as full on SS.

Not the Stooge, but a better pic of the dingleset-up

I was riding s/s as a teen back in the 70s. Did what would now be called a ‘bike packing’ tour of the Dales in summer 1975.
Bought my first s/s for 40 years in 2018. Rode it a little to begin with and was amazed by how well I thought I could ‘manage’.
Throughout 2020 I have ridden it regularly, primarily in hilly terrain (Shropshire Hills / Marches) my geared full suss hardly at all.
£900 rigid Kona Unit vs £3500 Giant Anthem 1 ?
Frankly I’d take the Kona.
32/18 by the way on 27.5+ .

Sounds like what I did. I rediscovered SS a few years ago due to work/family time constraints, having limited funds and finding I was just going through the motions when out on my (geared) bike.

They are rather hard work but quite addictive, I don't think I will ever be without a SS bike.

Word of warning on solely riding SS, they tend to only make you good at only riding SS. I know this is stating the obvious but when I got a geared bike again I struggled to push big gears and just rode it like a SS.

That Dinglespeed is class! I used to have a Genesis Day-One with a flip-flop hub. I would ride it to the trails in (this is from memory so might be wrong) 42/16 then flip the wheel round to a more manageable 42/18 to ride the trails.

Now I’m living 7 flat miles away from work/pub SS just doesn’t work for me. Either spin out or long wet slog into the wind and rain.

That is not how I find it, maybe you are not getting the right gearing?

I use a gear that gives me my best cadence (80-90) at my average speed. If I get a headwind it is not that much of a slog but I am never spinning out apart from steep downhill but luckily I can hold over 200rpm for a few minutes when that happens.

It is also better to ride fixed gear than single speed even on the same gearing for some reason as I hate riding single speed on the flat but fixed is great. Don't know what that is though!

That Dinglespeed is class! I used to have a Genesis Day-One with a flip-flop hub. I would ride it to the trails in (this is from memory so might be wrong) 42/16 then flip the wheel round to a more manageable 42/18 to ride the trails.

I have a 16 and 17 cog on my wheel a slightly slack but totally acceptable 16 gets me out and about and the 17 is a ten second trailside stop.

It is also better to ride fixed gear than single speed even on the same gearing for some reason as I hate riding single speed on the flat but fixed is great. Don’t know what that is though!

Its because the momentum takes your feet round when on a singlespeed your feet can't keep up.

Seeing as we have all the resident SS'ers here, what do you carry in the way of chain links? I have my sliding dropouts in the middle of their range, but removing 2 links makes the chain too short to run the axle all the way forward. Not much use in carrying a quick link, the only option is to carry a few links of chain.

^ this, or if I was going to be very remote I'd even carry a spare chain.

Never needed to use either though; I reckon the major killer of chains is hamfisted shifting forcing the chain over and twisting it across cogs that weakens them. My legs never managed to break one purely through tension. I also know that you can buy proper cheap chains but I always went mid range branded for a few quid extra.

The major killer of my chains is me adding and removing links when changing gearing, getting wheel closer/further away depending on tyre size etc,.
The only time I had a chain fail was with a chain that I had added and removed links many times combined with it being a very light weight KMC X9-SL and the side plate just snapped in half which I would wager was a side plate I had rejoined/bent a bit to get link in. Luckily I was less than a mile from my house on return part of loop.

I just carry 3 or 5 links along with spare power links. It's very unlikely you'd ever snap it (even the 9 speed ones that I use) but if you do, there is no bodgery to get you home.

So what's the best STW-approved BB mounted chain tensioner?

So what’s the best STW-approved BB mounted chain tensioner?

Anyone? My singulator has skipped a few times resulting in pain of one kind or another and so I’m also keen to try a BB mounted one.

I had no luck at all with BB tensioners or BB mounted lower chain guides used as tensioners and those using them seem to be a bit of a minority. I'd be searching for a better mech mounted tensioner personally.

Something like a Blackspire Stinger-

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2323012.m570.l1313&_nkw=blackspire+stinger&_sacat=0

You can rotate the plate around to tension the chain and the roller can be moved up and down its slot too. I had a full MRP type chainguide on my Switchback just because I used it for DH races as well as just pottering about on and it was easier to leave it on. 1/8" chain too, which is not everyone's cuppa I know but I prefer them.

BB tensioners are a bit like push up ones at the back, they work but only for about the equivalent of half a chain link. I suppose you could run one pushing down if needed? They do look tidy though.

I think the only/best option is to play with ratios untill you get it almost right, then add the tensioner.

I really must get out on my Ti Singular Hummingbird (with custom Singular Ti forks) in the next day or two - I haven’t fallen out of love with it, rather I’ve just been distracted by other stuff.
It’s still the one bike that I’ll never part with - although, when I get too old and decrepit to do it justice, I might actually give it to someone who could.
Or send it back to Sam for the Singular museum....

Love riding SS. Chilterns based so there's plenty of hills to work on, some are a real challenge but doable others can be completely avoided - mainly due to conditions & traction as I only generally ride SS in winter (Salsa El Mar). My current fav thing about riding SS is, this happened today, dropping riders who you accidentally bump into on e-bikes 😁 Rigid as well for added impressiveness 😉

My current fav thing about riding SS is, this happened today, dropping riders who you accidentally bump into on e-bikes 😁 Rigid as well for added impressiveness

Happened on my ride today too 😁

Full suss ebiker. Overtook him on some very sloppy single-track, could hear him whirring behind me, but dropped him when there were a couple of techy bits and a log hop.

He came puffing past me on full turbo after we reached a bit of road 😆

[img] [/img]

Never get tired of this....

https://twitter.com/darwendashers/status/1343911412939313152?s=21

Andy, that is a thing of beauty. I must resist the temptation to build up a bling single speed!

I opted out of the SS today due to the snow and ice. It was the right call. Even on 32:42 and 29*3 the rear wheel was spinning on the climbs.

Yes, yes and thrice yes
Ss gets back to the simple pleasures. Love it all day long.

I'm hoping for another hard frost tomorrow, and I'll take the SS out on a final long outing of the Xmas hols.

Back in school to teach remote lessons on Monday am 🤨

If anyone in the Bristol area fancies an almost new small Dialled Bikes Love/Hate frame then let me know. I'll even deliver it if needed. Yours for a donation to charity.