[Closed] Riding nothing but single speed (if they can do it for the Tour Divide...)

Depends where and how you ride.

I rode singlespeed mtb for a couple of years and got on fine with it. Only tends to be a big issue on the flat where the gear I needed to stand a chance on the hills made it a spinny hell on the flat when you just end up whirling around at 150rpm for 10 seconds then coasting and repeat.

Mainly rode ss for around 10 years
For a couple of those years rode nothing else.

I'm not going back there any time soon.

Depends on you.

I am reasonably heavy, so I need a low ish gear to get up big hills. But I'm powerful, so I want a big gear for flat stuff otherwise I'm basically going nowhere. Also most of my local rides involve steep technical climbs which require being seated, and lots of pedalling control.

I've done a few big road climbs SS when I broke a rear mech and had to SS my bike with 32:20 IIRC, and yeah I could manage it, but there's no getting around the spinning like a lunatic and not going anywhere on the flat.

You should be able to set up your gears to run perfectly without attention for long periods of time. I rarely touch mine, they work fine. I am also extremely fussy about bike maintenance.

Depends where and how you ride.

I have a feeling that's going to be the rather obvious answer.

When I go out for a couple of hours from my doorstep in Leeds, a single speed would be perfect. For longer rides in the Dales I tend to have a bit of road and long easy stuff, but I can go dingle-speed to deal with that.

If you ride in a hilly, muddy place they are great. You do need to adapt your mindset and route choice a bit though, so if you're going down a gentle slope then pedalling will not be worth the bother, so just sit up and smell the roses rather than spinning like a lunatic. Also avoid the unridebly steep climbs or learn to enjoy pushing up them and enjoying the view. On the flat it can get a bit tedious.

There's the old joke about singlespeeders always being in the wrong gear.

I've faux singlespeeded on my fat bike and on the rides I did in the Dales it wasn't too bad TBH but I'm not sure I'd want to do it all the time. It does take a bit of tweaking to find the right ratio that works for you (incidentally have a look to see the ratio Alexandera rode with, not exactly small).

As @molgrips says: once set up gears don't need attention for a good while. For winter/a hack bike then SS is fine but for most riding I'd stick with gears.

rather because I have an OCD streak that means more complexity on my bike == more stress, which takes some of the fun out of riding for me

My bike would help you with that as I don't even have the complexity of a freewheel or brakes.

I recently got a geared bike after 18 years of riding fixed and singlespeed and 2 months later sold it again. I simply enjoy fixed brakeless riding more even it is is slower on off road downhills but realise it is not for everyone (well not for many at all)

I really like it, I've had geared FS and stuff and they're fun and fast and all that but I always end up missing the bum basic simplicity (purity? ugh...) of a nice single speed hardtail. It's not massively hilly or anything round here so my gearing (34/18 on 26", about 49 gear inches) is good for me for most stuff and I love that it's a lot like riding a big, lazy BMX in the way you end up standing up and pedaling for a bit, then coasting, then pedaling, then coasting. I've done 60-odd km bimbles (up to South Shields and back, via the pub) a few times and it's no bother at all. We're not usually in much of a rush though...

So, to conclude, I love riding single speed and you can keep your gears but I'll be having stern words if you try to take my dropper and nice forks 😆

Not many steep tricky climbs on the Tour Divide though 🙂

Peak District SSing is quite different to in the Chilterns. I like it, where I live it makes sense and simpler bikes are better bikes for most of my riding. Geared MTBs make a fun contrast though.

My favourite bike at the moment is my triggers broom on one inbred SS. Cost about £150 for frame rigid forks and wheels plus a few bits from my parts bin. 34:16 and I can manage most rides. Have changed my commute a bit to avoid really steep stuff. Got my fastest time on a flat 3.3 mile off road section the other day. Any thoughts on whether it gets you fitter than riding with gears?

I tried it for a while and echo the pain in the arse on flat bits comments. Peddle, peddle, peddle, coast repeat.

I did for about 5yrs and then gears only for another 5, or so. Now got 2 geared and 1 ss. Honestly, if I could only have 1 it'd be an ss. I love the directness and the challenge. That's not to say that you should. I wouldn't do it just because they're 'less complicated' (I don't really think they are in real terms), but because I prefer the ride. There's plenty to obsess about on an ss if you want to.

The only reason we go ss is pure fun instead of faff with gears.

Alexandera was riding with steely boots too - hard core!

I definitely ride mine more than any of my other bikes. Living on the edge of the Peak it can be a pain in the arse at times but route choice definitely helps. Have ridden all the peak classics on it though. Main reason for always pulling out of the cellar first is the lack of faff at the start and end of every ride, just hose down, wipe the chain, oil and repeat. I love it as a bike too, just as engaging as the full sus bike but in a different way.

I've been riding dual speed on the Wazoo for a few weeks out of maintenance laziness, 17T sprocket and swapping from 38T to 24T chainring for steeper inclines on my short commute. Guess it costs me ~2mins each way over ~4.5 miles.

I tried it for a while and echo the pain in the arse on flat bits comments. Peddle, peddle, peddle, coast repeat.

That's the compromise and the more extreme the climbs the bigger the compromise.

Only way around spinning out on flat is to gear for the flat which is what I do as where I live it is rolling hills more than long steep climbs. Riding fixed also leads to a higher gear seeing that coasting is not an option.

I tried it for a while and echo the pain in the arse on flat bits comments. Peddle, peddle, peddle, coast repeat.

That’s the compromise and the more extreme the climbs the bigger the compromise.

[url= https://www.rabeneick.de/shop/tx-e-singlespeed-bafang-252wh-disc-2019 ]E-singlespeeds are available[/url]! 😉

If you ride in a hilly, muddy place they are great.

I don't know why people cite mud. I really don't know how I would clean my bike differently if it were SS.

I don’t know why people cite mud. I really don’t know how I would clean my bike differently if it were SS.

Maybe I'm not as fastidious as some, but I just ignore the mud caked on to my singlespeed until Spring, when it drops off by itself.

I tried it for a while and echo the pain in the arse on flat bits comments. Peddle, peddle, peddle, coast repeat.

I'd like to know why @funkmaster is riding round selling dodgy goods. 😏

It's surprising what you can get up when on an SS if you try. It's definitely a different technique to simply dropping down the gears and spinning. There does come a gradient though when you just have to get off and walk.

People I know who only ride SS use something in the region of 32/18 to 34/21 ratios on 29ers so 46 to 51.5 gear inches. Alexandera Houchin was using 36/19 (55 gear inches) for the TDR.

I really don’t know how I would clean my bike differently if it were SS.

Clean a singlespeed?

There does come a gradient though when you just have to get off and walk.

Thing is, though, once I got used to riding singlespeed, I found that gradient was basically the same as it was with gears.

To be fair, my climbing finesse is absolute toilet, I’m a stomper, but I got to the point where the two limiting conditions (loss of traction or balance with a low gear, versus legs and lungs bursting into flames on a singlespeed) happened at pretty much the same places.

Did take a while to get to that point, though.

....There does come a gradient though when you just have to get off and walk.

By which time, riders on geared bikes are pretty much going at walking pace anyway, so there's no real disadvantage there either.

I'd not go exclusively singlespeed, but I think that's because I'd miss the suspension option of my geared MTB rather than the gears. Singlespeed and rigid seem natural bedfellows when maintenance minimisation is the goal.

@Bez - In some cases I think the momentum you get from a higher gear (whether SS or geared) helps in getting up rough/mildly technical climbs. The only time I use the low gears on my geared bikes is on long draggy climbs where it's mostly about muscular endurance, shorter* steep stuff and I'll be using something like 30/32 or 30/28.

That's still quite a way from the ratios I noted earlier but a bit of training would get you there.

* shorter in this case might still be 800m or so in distance.

Also worth noting that you can have more than one gear on a singlespeed if you have a hub and cranks that will take multiple sprockets/rings. I currently have two on my 29er: 32/18 as the main gear and 36/14 for road; and if I ever have another pop at the SDW in a day I'll add 28/22 for if/when the legs fall apart. Obviously you're unlikely to want to keep changing gears mid-ride, but if you have rides which are split into a few large sections, eg a few miles of road between home and the trails, it works ok.

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Been riding my #fakegravelbike singlespeed for the last month. I live it but it's almost never the right gearing for the terrain. Set it for tarmac cruising and it'll be over geared for off road climbs, set the ratio for off road climbs and it's very spinny on the flat. Once you accept this and just pedal it's great. It does teach you the benefits of braking late and carrying speed too.
https://flic.kr/p/2gzQGdu

I miss single speed. Haven't got one at the moment after having at least one (varying between a SS MTB or SS commuter) for the previous 10 years. Seriously considering SS by plus bike over this winter (fortunately I kept the nice SS converter kit and it has horizontal dropouts).

Hmm, compromises compromises...

It's a fair point that there's still enough on a single speed to fuss over. And if I did that it'd defeat much of the point.

I think the off putting thing for me is definitely the constant spinning out on flats. I'm reasonably powerful so don't mind hills so much, especially as most of the hills on my local rides are short and can be tackled largely with momentum.

I actually have a fairly nice dingle-speed commuter/play bike, and ignoring major hills the larger 39/19 gearing is perfect. Takes me about a minute to switch to 37/21 for more techy offroad stuff.

If Sram had kept making the Truvativ Hammerschmidt that'd probably solve my problems... I know other internally-geared cranks exist, but they don't seem like the sort of things you'd want to go jumping in the woods with.

From my experience of riding a bmx on roads and at a track, I should image a singlespeed mtb is good for upper body strength in a way geared bikes are not.

I returned to cycling in 2009 after a break of a few years, before that it was only BMX and my first big bike was a GT Peace 9r, which I wish I'd never sold. Although my main mtb has 6 gears, I've always owned a singlespeed in one from or another (MTB or FG road). I tend to use it for the work commute and shorter local rides. Consequently, it ends up being my most used bike, despite always being the one that's mostly cobbled together.
I think Alexandera Houchin is an extreme example though; quite a tough gear over a hard course like the TD and you see a monstrous effort. Her Blog makes very interesting reading too.
https://alexandherrastro.wordpress.com/

Single speed is a bloody ridiculous idea and only attention whores and hipsters would even consider it. Clearly, as long as you ride nothing more tech than fire road extreme, slowly then maybe its for you.

Clean a singlespeed?

This is the thing. I'd still clean a singlespeed if I had one, because mud caked bikes are not cool regardless. I can still ride my geared bike if it's muddy, and I do sometimes. So I'll stand by my earlier comments.

As for the comments about what you can and can't do - there's absolutely nothing to stop you stomping up a climb in a big gear on a geared bike (helps if it's rigid). I do this often. But importantly, I have a choice. And when the road heads downhill I can actually get some speed up.

Do it if you want, but don't pretend it's better or more desirable in any real technical way 🙂

From 2012 to 2014 I rode nothing but singlespeed. I had a NS Surge which I ran singlespeed - mainly over the Surrey hills. I also had a Gensesis Day one which I used for commuting and long on/off road rides in Surrey/Sussex. I did London to Brighton off road on that a few times.

Mainly did it for simplicity, but it did teach me to love gears again. I entered a few off road duathlons in early 2014 and knew I would struggle maintaining speed on the climbs and spinning out on some of the non-technical descents so I put the gears back on. By 2015 I was fully back into gears.

Makes you stronger, but also makes your knees hurt!

On the subject of steep climbs, it's not as bad as it seems. Your power output is the same (within a margin) regardless of gear, just the torque and cadence change. So at 40rpm on a SS you just push 2x harder than a geared rider half as often. For most people this will lead to earlier fatigue and cramps but in reality if most of your riding is 2-3 hours you won't notice and the legs just adapt to it. All day rides are fine too, you just have to plan your efforts to make sure you don't kill your legs too soon, accept you will be last up the first climb despite having the legs to smash it 1st, but still be able to get up the last one when the geared riders are shot.

Cleaning a singlespeed? Who does that?

Spinning on the flat. Yes, but unless your mates are the sort to go on TdF style breakaways the opposite as the climbs applies, you just pedal at 120rpm with half the force they plod along at 60rpm. For the most part you can still keep up with people of equal fitness. If you're a big person don't expect to fit a high gear for the flats and cope with the climbs, if you're light you can get away with a higher gear on the climbs and not struggle on the flats. Basically SS gets exponentially harder the heavier you are.

Do it if you want, but don’t pretend it’s better or more desirable in any real technical way

Well, the lack of need for maintenance and the immunity to mid-ride crud is a definite plus. A caked drivetrain with derailleurs will jump all over the shop, whereas you can dump a singlespeed in the shed and leave it until the chain looks like it's been buried at sea for a decade, and it'll still be fine once you turn the pedals. It'll never skip when it's covered in clay, you can't bugger it up by clouting your rear end on a rock, and so on.

Beyond that it's largely psychological. Sure you can honk all the climbs in a big gear on any bike, but you're not going to, because you just don't need to. Singlespeeding is a case of not even having to think about it, you just pedal to go faster or higher and brake to go slower. Sure, pedally downhills are spinny, but steeper ones are no different, and a singlespeed will teach you to carry more speed through corners, because you can't just honk your way out of them. Again, you could do the same on a geared bike, but you probably won't, because you just don't need to.

It's really just different. If you love fiddling with bits of bikes and want to race, you'll probably hate singlespeed. If you love completely emptying your head while riding and hate cleaning bikes, singlespeed is better.

Do it if you want, but don’t pretend it’s better or more desirable in any real technical way

Oh I know that! Ideally I'd like a Pinion Gearbox bike...

I think what I've realised about riding my other single speed long distances is that it seems to get you stronger but I'm not sure it gets you fitter. Stronger for the obvious reason that you have to pedal so damn hard sometimes, but as spinning out happens so often I get a lot more rests than I would with gears.

The only people I know who bought singlespeed bikes used then for a couple of months and then we never saw then again. Some people like them, but I suspect you have to have a certain mentality. If faffing is the issue then why not use a hud gear?

think the off putting thing for me is definitely the constant spinning out on flats....

.....and ignoring major hills the larger 39/19 gearing is perfect.

You will spin out on the flat on a gear as low as 39/19. I use 39/16 and can cruise at a good speed on the flat and still get up all the gravel and off road climbs but it is still too low to keep up with road riders who pass me.

It's just a different way of looking at and riding things and, well, why the hell not? It's not really any different to swapping to a FS/HT/rigid/fat bike from your usual bike, you just pick different lines to play to the advantages/avoid the weaknesses of what you are riding.

The longest I've done on my single speed CX was last year's Dirty Reiver. I rode pretty much everything (that one short steep bit after the border crossing back in to England beat me) until a long way up the Forest Drive when I ran out of strength. I was a bit over-geared though - 39x20!

And, no, it doesn't make your knees hurt!

Anyway, I suspect we are rapidly disappearing down one of STW's rabbit holes.

Sure you can honk all the climbs in a big gear on any bike, but you’re not going to, because you just don’t need to

Exactly what I found after going back to geared for 2 months. After years of riding up hills in a relatively high fixed gear I immediately found myself changing down the gears and spinning up the hills (more slowly) just because I could.

Anyway, I suspect we are rapidly disappearing down one of STW’s rabbit holes.

This. Shall we do HT or FS now? 😆

If you ride partly for fitness and have limited time they are great. If I go out for a couple of hours with gears it’s a nice ride, if I take the SS I feel like it’s been a workout. As mentioned above it seems to work out the upper body too, unlike the T-Rex workout a geared bike does. My arms hurt, my stomach muscles hurt, it all bloody hurts. But, I still love it.

My gravel commuter fixie is 39-16, only spins out downhill, even the shallower of false flats is hard work.

My last ss mtb was 32-14 which it came with and I kept for ssuk18 on the beach, rode 100+miles the day before too!

Now it's 36-19 I think, might be 20 which is the typical 52" or 1 higher as a typical ride for me is 15 rolling miles to swinley, a lap and 15 home again. As SSUK19 is sounding more like 3 hours of short laps climbing/descent I'll drop to something lower as it'll be more a case of smashing climbs and surviving flats (ha!) and coasting descents.

N.b. I m only taking SSUK seriously enough that my unfitness doesn't kill me!

The bit i'm struggle with here, is understanding what's complex about gears?

I was on SS exclusively from about 2008 to 2010 or so. Back then the trend of the day was singlespeed steel rigid 29er, before fatbikes stole the scene.

I loved it and still miss it a lot sometimes. All my long distance rides (up to 180km in a day) were done with SS as were my biggest climbing days. It's incredibly fun and efficient. I found that it was perfect for long distances:
- you can climb surprisingly steep stuff, but you are not tempted to grind yourself up. Just dismount, save yourself and enjoy the walk while the guys next to you are dying at bottom gear but still at the same pace as you
- you save a lot of energy by not having the temptation of pushing a long gear on the flats and downs
- I found my legs enjoyed the very diverse pedaling cadences and stayed fresh for longer

My biggest problem with SS is that in order to enjoy it you need to stay in shape. I was in shape during that time, never touching the 32/18 gear and doing everything with it. But once you fail to keep training the thing becomes a chore. Also, 1x drivetrains negate some of the SS charm.

But once in a while I feel tempted to get a try at it again

The bit i’m struggle with here, is understanding what’s complex about gears?

More than once I’ve stayed in hotels where there’s no menu.

It’s enjoyable because you don’t have to think about what might be the best choice, you just enjoy what comes your way.

Even though there’s nothing complex about a menu.

They're simpler but not less faff!

No gears or suspension mean there's more force going through the components. My riding mates with single speeds have the most mechanicals of anyone I know - bent tensioner bolts, snapped chains and creaking/slipping EBBs are common, even the occasional cracked fork. Plus all the time spent experimenting with different gear ratios. They still claim SS is less maintenance though....

Despite this I bought a second hand Cotic Simple for commuting but haven't ridden it to work all year because it's so much fun off road. It's great fun on non techy single track and sending down stuff as fast as you can while holding on for dear life but less fun on big rocky descents. If you ride with others be prepared to be very antisocial on climbs - there's no chatting and spinning you're way to the top, it's a full out lung busting effort followed by a sweaty lie down while everyone else catches up.

In summary: get a single speed as well, it's just a different kind of fun, just don't expect less bike maintenance!

My riding mates with single speeds have the most mechanicals of anyone I know – bent tensioner bolts, snapped chains and creaking/slipping EBBs are common, even the occasional cracked fork. Plus all the time spent experimenting with different gear ratios.

Don't blame the bikes for your weird/incompetent mates 🙂

Bent tensioner bolts sound like crap setup (or impacts that would similarly bend a derailleur); it's tempting to think EBBs are crap setup too; cracked forks clearly have nothing to do with singlespeeding; and I always find claims of snapped chains curious. Without derailing they never see lateral or torsional loads so shouldn't get bent pins or plates, and the tension through the chain for any given force at the rear tyre contact patch is lower than it is for a smaller chainring, ie a granny ring. So all else being equal a geared bike should break chains more easily.

I think the problem is that some people think that if they're building a singlespeed they need to either build it out of the cheapest crap they can lay their hands on, or build the lightest bike they possibly can.

As for fiddling with gear ratios: if it's 26" you use 2:1, you add a tooth at the back for 27.5 and another one for 29. If you want to spend time fine tuning it, piss off to a velodrome 😉

I think the problem is that some people think that if they’re building a singlespeed they need to either build it out of the cheapest crap they can lay their hands on, or build the lightest bike they possibly can.

Yep. If you're going to do it, even just to give it a go, you've got to at least use a proper SS cog on the back so the chain can't/won't drop, especially if you're reusing a geary chain.

Don’t blame the bikes for your weird/incompetent mates 🙂

They're not incompetent, just pretty hard on their bikes. They are weird though.

I've got these on my track ends: https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/gear-spares/black-genetic-track-chain-tensioner/

Unless the wheel's clamped in very tight it will slip and rub on the non drive chain stay. I don't think I could ever generate enough power in my dainty legs to bend the bolts though!

As for fiddling with gear ratios: if it’s 26″ you use 2:1, you add a tooth at the back for 27.5 and another one for 29. If you want to piss about with fine tuning it, great, but that belongs in a velodrome 😉

I didn't want to get into gear ratios as it's one step away from train spotting! But since you mention it... I found 2:1 fine for commuting but too much like hard work off road, so I took a punt on 20 on the back and I'm never touching it again! It all depends on where you're planning on riding I suppose.

More than once I’ve stayed in hotels where there’s no menu.

It’s enjoyable because you don’t have to think about what might be the best choice, you just enjoy what comes your way.

As I said: You do have to have a certain mentality.

Well, the lack of need for maintenance and the immunity to mid-ride crud is a definite plus. A caked drivetrain with derailleurs will jump all over the shop

Not everyone lives in a clay area.

Beyond that it’s largely psychological. Sure you can honk all the climbs in a big gear on any bike, but you’re not going to, because you just don’t need to.

Moot. I don't need to ride around in a big circle at all. The entire thing is pointless effort. I am perfectly capable of burying myself if I want, gears or no. But with gears I can choose if I want to get up and heave out of the saddle, or I can choose to sit and spin fast, or any combination. I can choose which option depending on the terrain or the training ride I'm on. You seem to be suggesting that SSers are so lazy they have to knobble their bikes to stop them taking the easy way out 😉 I don't have that problem I must admit.

And with gears, I can put the hammers down wherever I am riding, even on the flat. You could argue that gaining the mindset to upshift and keep pressing on when you don't need to is actually a training benefit and makes you tougher, because you choose it. If you wanted to pour fuel on the fire 🙂

If you love completely emptying your head while riding and hate cleaning bikes, singlespeed is better.

If you clean your bike it's cos you want a clean bike, which means you'd clean a SS too. My mate who rides SS, his bike is always gleaming. Unless you live in clay. But like I said not everyone does. And gears don't require constant fiddling, they just don't.

Not everyone lives in a clay area.

Sure. I was hoping to get through the thread without qualifying every single statement 😉

And with gears, I can put the hammers down wherever I am riding, even on the flat. You could argue that gaining the mindset to upshift and keep pressing on when you don’t need to is actually a training benefit and makes you tougher, because you choose it. If you wanted to pour fuel on the fire 🙂

No fuel there, it's completely true. As someone remarked earlier, SS is harder on the muscles on climbs (assuming you don't voluntarily use a stupidly high gear on the climbs all the time, which—let's be honest—you don't) but caps your effort on the flat. If you want a constant cardio workout, you're unlikely to be able to get it with a singlespeed. The flipside of that is that if you're doing a big ride and you're sufficiently adapted to singlespeeding that the climbs won't destroy your legs, it's quite good for keeping you in check on the flat and making sure you don't end up accidentally half-wheeling yourself into early fatigue.

We are, of course, repeatedly making the point from different angles that it's just different, not better or worse, and that the advantages of each play out differently depending on where your ride and what you want from a ride 🙂

If you clean your bike it’s cos you want a clean bike, which means you’d clean a SS too.

Yeah, except when that's entirely untrue, of course 🙂 I couldn't give a fig whether my mountain bike's clean, there's no point, it's going to get dirty as soon as I ride it. The only time I've ever needed a bike to be clean is when I've lived in a tiny flat or uni halls and it had to live in my bedroom or the back of a wardrobe. If I clean a mountain bike it's purely to keep it working.

And with gears, I can put the hammers down wherever I am riding, even on the flat. 

I did SS when it was the thing. But I was racing at the time and found all the not pedalling hard down time was loosing me fitness.
Still fun though and a definite +1 if you've got the space.

And with gears, I can put the hammers down wherever I am riding, even on the flat. You could argue that gaining the mindset to upshift and keep pressing on when you don’t need to is actually a training benefit and makes you tougher, because you choose it. If you wanted to pour fuel on the fire 🙂

No fuel there, it’s completely true. As someone remarked earlier, SS is harder on the muscles on climbs (assuming you don’t voluntarily use a stupidly high gear on the climbs all the time, which—let’s be honest—you don’t) but caps your effort on the flat.

That was me actually. I have noticed I get a slightly different type of tired after long single speed rides, which I think is because of the combination of enforced sprints and enforced rests.

What I haven't mentioned so far is the environmental/resource use angle. Even though new chains are cheap and a decent single speed cog isn't as much cheaper than a basic 11-42t cassette as you might expect (£15 vs. £40-45ish), the former has a hell of a lot less metal in it, as well as lasting longer.

I tried to quite biking a decade ago actually, and get into mountain running instead, precisely because of material use. But my ankles couldn't hack it so I ended up biking again somewhat reluctantly, despite my love for it. Given that, I'd quite like a bike that keeps consumable parts to the minimum, but I also like fancy things like droppers... which I now couldn't go without off-road.

I really like SS; two of my four bikes are set up SS ...

Inbred 26er (sometimes rigid), 32/17 gearing, same trails (north Leeds) as the OP. It's my most used MTB, I really enjoy riding it (both bimbling and thrashing) and generally my average speed for a local loop is higher than on the FS. But I wouldn't take it to the Lakes, North Wales, or even some of the more local stuff eg Ilkley Moor, Hebden Bridge, CutGate etc.

Saracen Hack, with mudguards and a rack, and used as a commuter for wet commutes or if I'm going somewhere where I'm more worried about security and wouldn't want to take the Ti gravel bike. It had been sat in the garage largely unused for 18 months in its geared form, so I decided to turn it SS to 'spice it up' a bit (think I bought the tensioner from you OP a couple of months back). It's set up 38/16, gets me up most stuff (including mild off road) on my Leeds commuting, fine for flat, a bit spinny on gentle downhills, and quite a lot spinny on steeper hills. But good fun, as an option. Wouldn't replace my geared gravel bike with it though.

It's hard to justify singlespeed when there are so many good gear sets available these days.

For example Sturmey-Archer make a 3 speed hub.

This gives a low gear suitable for climbing hills or defeating headwinds, a middle ratio for normal riding, and a high gear for downhills and taking advantage of tailwinds.

What more could one ask? It's ideal for folk who live in lumpy places like the Highlands, Wales, or the more rippling parts of England.

Having ridden one, I can confidently predict single speed is dead.

This is really going to catch on, and I'm going to fit one to my bike when I get old and frail.

🙂

Given that, I’d quite like a bike that keeps consumable parts to the minimum, but I also like fancy things like droppers… which I now couldn’t go without off-road.

There's nothing wrong with a nicely sorted single speed; you're allowed nice brakes, nice forks and a dropper if you want-

[img] [/img]

Any excuse to stick a gratuitous pic up, I blinking flipping love this bike.

The longest I’ve done on my single speed CX was last year’s Dirty Reiver. I rode pretty much everything (that one short steep bit after the border crossing back in to England beat me) until a long way up the Forest Drive when I ran out of strength. I was a bit over-geared though – 39×20!

And, no, it doesn’t make your knees hurt!

Knees are OK on the SS MTB, strengthened even, because all of the high torque stuff is usually out of the saddle. You need to be more attentive with a road SS to get the right gear, as consistently pushing something slightly overgeared when seated can stress the knees IME. Skid stopping a fixed bike is also heavy on the knees if you're running a serious ratio, so best left to the students.

After the joys of a couple of years riding my SS commuter of a stiffish gear (55:22 but not many commuting hills round here) I was debating taking my Cannondale 29 back to SS, after all it has an EBB so why not.
Well yesterday I was out for a ride up to the Ridgeway and as I plodded along I realised how little I'd like walking up those climbs and how much spinning out I'd do on the way down. So I'm keeping it on 1x11 and accepting there is room for both options in my life.

Bought secondhand from here and one my favourite bikes ever. (I won't show the SS again. I promise.)
https://flic.kr/p/2gA7ghE

Single speeds look more elegant. That's enough for me.

Main downside is riding with other, geared, people is tricky to keep together but I fixed that by having no friends 😀

I think the problem is that some people think that if they’re building a singlespeed they need to either build it out of the cheapest crap they can lay their hands on, or build the lightest bike they possibly can.

Getting a lighter bike is good by product. My fixed gravel/road bike is currently at 6.5kg running heavy puncture resistant tyres and just over 6kg with road tyres on it (didn't even cost much to build either) and flies uphill.

I like the way it looks and feels being a bit lighter at the back. I don't find it limits me too much either up, down or across, and as it is mechanically simple it is almost always ready to ride (except for now when it is a bit broken!). For those reasons there is almost always a SS in my shed.

I did a fair amount of longer distance training for the SDW earlier this year and was able to keep up pretty well, but I did go for gears on the day. My training was based on HR, and I noticed that on my SS I stood up climb almost all the hills and my HR immediately rocketed. That was fine on training rides up to about 70km but there was no way I would be able to do it all day, but most of my riding is less than 4hrs anyway.

Any excuse to stick a gratuitous pic up, I blinking flipping love this bike

Nice bike! Toying with a Stanton SS, what size axle (boost, 142, 135) do the SS drop outs take? (was going to email stanton, but seeing as your flaunting yours!)

I lurve my singlespeed...
I originally started with a 'POS' hack bike put together from spare parts...
Over the years it morphed (well, new frame set..) into a specific 29er SS...then a few years ago I got a Travers angus SS specific frameset...
So it's now my poshest (i.e most expensive) bike!
Nice and light, rapido...rides way more comfy than a rigid bike should..

I use it for my long distance rides (SDW etc etc) as it's just lovely!

singlespeed..not just for scrappers!

DrP

(and I clean it all the time...ooh...check me out!)

Bez - I saw your 2 speed setup above. I assume to change gear you just stop and move the chain over? If so how do you retain tension?

I often think it would be nice to try maybe a 3/4 speed setup, but have no idea how this might be achieved.

I think he's two chainrings so the relative sizes of each chainring-cog combination are the same. You just move the chain across from inner to outer pair (or vice versa).

Hopefully I've got that right @Bez

Two chainrings, two sprockets. A gear change involves getting off, releasing the rear QR, moving the chain over, a quick twiddle of the tug, do the QR up and go. Takes under a minute but isn't exactly what you want to be doing for each climb 🙂 Works great for getting to the trails on the road, though.

https://twitter.com/mashing53/status/910195857609363459

Nice bike! Toying with a Stanton SS, what size axle (boost, 142, 135) do the SS drop outs take? (was going to email stanton, but seeing as your flaunting yours!)

I'm just using the standard 142x12 geary dropouts with a chain device as a tensioner-

[img] [/img]

It works well.

I rode singlespeeds pretty much exclusively from 2007 until about 18 months ago, when a desire to ride rockier, steeper and more technical descents turned my head, and now I spend more time on my 301’s, plus I’m in Greece half the year where I don’t have a SS anyway.
However, now I’m feeling guilty, because I have a very, very nice Ti Hummingbird sitting out in my workshop which hasn’t seen the light of day for six months and yet at one time I couldn’t imagine life without it.
In fact, the last time I rode it was on a shop ride at New Year. That’s pretty shameful and now that I’m back here for a few weeks I’m going to rectify that state of affairs.

I was exclusively singlespeed for a good few years. My MTB is still SS, although I don't ride it much, but I have a geared Cotic X that I ride most. Even on that, I often forget to change gear - I tried to change to the smaller chainring a few months ago and discovered that the front mech had seized - and tend to ride in the large ring and the central few sprockets at the back.

When I do ride off-road, I ride there and back on the road so a dinglespeed appeals.