[Closed] SS MTB, knees and fitness

NO idea how hilly it is your way but my experience is it is good as you tend to ride for less in Winter so you get the same level of workout as normal but with a shorter ride

Never had any knee issues from SS personally
As for walk...sometimes you will i guess depending on how hilly but you will improve massively in a short space of time

I reckon SS is much better for your knees than gears.

reason being that unless you are spinning in a v low gear, when you are pedalling seated your effort goes into straightening you leg by your quad pulling your ligaments over your knee. With a 90 deg bent leg that is a really poor mechanical action under load. When SS you stand up so your angle of flex is much less as your effort goes into moving your body weight more than flexing your knee.

My kness only hurt when I go out on the geared pompetamine and sit and pedal in too high a gear.

I only ride SS here on the Malverns. There are some routes I cant clean so I pick the routes I do. I tend to ride for shorter more vigorous bursts of activity. If you pick the right routes you get extended climbs out of the saddle with phases of higher effort if the gradient picks up. I try and avoid push sections and on my usual loop only push for <100yrds in one section (The reservoir if anyone knows it). I do spin out on some descents but they make for rest periods between climbing exertion.

adsh - Member
There are 2 things that I wonder about.

First is stress on my knees and second is fitness

don't worry about either of these and go ride your bike

the whole SS/knees thing is a myth, and there are thousands of different pedalling states in between spinning out, grunting and walking

When SS you stand up

Only two sections near me i cannot do and i just avoid them..one is a mile long hill [ san marino] the other the bit at the end of lead mins clough. TBH I can only just do them geared so never even tried.

What Jo says - you'll get a slightly different flavour of fitness from riding singlespeed, but that's a bit of a generalisation and depends on your riding style.

I tend to gain power, but lose a bit of edge aerobically, and get a bit more core strength. The only time I worried about my knees was pulling a trailer singlespeed - avoid doing that for lots of reasons 😉

I'm planning on a bit of a singlespeed winter, just for old times sake really 🙂

I was a bit worried about both of the above but actually I can ride everthing I could ride before locally (admittedly the first couple of goes I did wonder what I was doing and got off)on my SS. Sometimes I am at the front of the group, sometimes near the back, but I am no longer bothered!
As for the knees, well I did the cartilidge in my knee twice in my last season of playing rugby. 6 months later and I got my SS sorted, and after another nearly 3 years the problem is starting to get worse and I am thinking about getting it looked at. Probably would have needed doing anyway as it was the 3rd time of the same injury on the same knee in 5 years and the same knee I damaged 20 years ago. It doesn't hurt when on my SS or geared bike, it is just a bit worn out.
I climb almost everything out of the saddle now which seems easier on the SS

Sounds encouraging so far.

How about those climbs you have to do seated for rear wheel traction?

Was thinking 32:19 to start with

you'll be able to do *all* climbs seated on 32:19 😉

I ride SS on my Saturday(group) rides from November to March (ish)
I live in North Devon so that's Exmoor,Dartmoor,Haldon and the Q's

Some things I note:
1)Its amazing what you can get up on SS even though you may normally be scrabbling for something easy on a geared bike.
2) Never had a problem with knees on SS. The rest of my body hurts mind!
3)Yes it is a lot easier to clean the bike afterwards
4)I do my other two rides in the week on gears. I find I need to do this to retain some supplesse (spinnyness)
5)I think of it as a sport specific weight training exercise, and yes you do get out of the saddle a lot.
6)There is a lot of myth,rubbish, general nonsense(and a lot of bad language) spoken about SS. Just go out and give it a go. You may just enjoy yourself!

How about those climbs you have to do seated for rear wheel traction

You learn to shift weight as you "row" your way up.

You learn to shift weight as you "row" your way up.

So true!

Do they all this "thrulching" in the North

You know you're doing it right when you can feel the bars flexing as you gurn your way up hill.

you'll be able to do *all* climbs seated on 32:19

This ^. I have to pick my climbs around Calderdale on 32:17 but as has been said, if its steep enough for me to shy away with 32:17 then even on my geared bouncy bike I'm going to heading towards borderline walking. I don't know the Chilterns at all but I can't imagine the hills there are as steep as around here. You'll be fine. 32:17 and ride a bit quicker...

Do they call this "thrulching" in the North

I've got dodgy knees, but since riding nothing but SS, they haven't got any worse. If anything, they probably cause me pain less often than when I rode a geared bike. I get cramp less too.
It may be to do with using strength and standing up more - as I used to get very tight muscles when granny ringing it up steep stuff on a long ride and then I'd sometimes cramp on the descent.

Give it a go, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised and post ride its so much easier. Drive train is peanuts etc.

[quote=jobro dijo]
Do they all this "thrulching" in the North

Thrutching. Yes, even southerners and 'merkins do it, although they may know it by a different name.

How about those climbs you have to do seated for rear wheel traction?

Or if/when you have the fitness just blast up it twice as fast as you normally would with gears 🙂 pretty sure there is a local climb I've done ss but not cleaned with gears - moar speed!

ps 32:19 on a 26er would drive me mental personally, way too spinny on the flat, YMMV tho.

As I approach a hill I look to increase my speed if its a short sharp one. You shift your body weight around much more to find traction or get you up and over stuff. My SS is fairly light and racy so it seems to encourage me to attack hills. Haven't been out on mine much this year and I'm kinda putting off the first ride on it for a while but I know I should be using more/always over the winter.

the whole SS/knees thing is a myth, and there are thousands of different pedalling states in between spinning out, grunting and walking

Need to (respectfully) disagree with that one.

SS on my 26" MTB, 32:16, great fun, very few knee issues, if I could have another bike right now I'd definitely make it an s/s MTB.

SS on my Genesis Day one, started out maybe 42/18 but reduced to 40/18. Lots more seated road or landrover track rides, loved to sit and push the higher gear but this definitely resulted* in problem knees. I also think that standing in the higher gear on some very steep hills exacerbated it, probably due to poor core/knee strength on my part.

I agree that there are lots of pedalling states in between, but I think it's the extreme states that caused problems for me.

*very scientific conclusion: I hadn't changed anything else which might be causing knee pain, and as soon as I went back to gears the pain stopped. QED etc.

I've ridden SS around the Chilterns with a trad. 32:16 there were a couple of climbs I never really got a hold off, (Stonor for instance) but pretty much everything else is doable, even surprisingly the climb into Northend from the Wormsley estate.

As others have said balance and determination and practice is the key to success, your knees will be fine. the downside is this time of year you'll spin the back wheel if you're not very careful with power inputs.

However as far as fitness goes, it'll make you a stronger SS rider, but won't do much else

you do realise that single speeding is a stupid idea don't you? the only reason why no "singlespeeders" have bad knees is because, in reality none of them actually ride a bike, they just perpetuate the SS geary troll myths and then laugh maniacally at the thought of some poor sod ruining a day out by trying to ride some cobbled together stealer of fun over the hill and woods. (It's even worse if they have managed to convince you that rigid, big wheels, or funny shaped chain rings are the "truth")

so in summary, give it up as a bad idea, get gears and suspension and ignore anything a singlespeederist says to you as they are all mentally deficient merchants of misery

SS is way harder than not SS on hills so it must do something other than make you better at SS

I am not a sports scientist

SS is also great for really long rides as you push hard on the climbs then recover on the flats, whereas on a geared bike it is tempting to push hard on the flats too.

So you go up hill faster and ride for longer. Win

I am also not a sports scientist.

Taz, you forgot the requirement for stupid shaped handlebars too.

Oh my god yeh "alt bars" who the hell is actually dumb enough to believe that having your hands up near your armpits being swept back on a bar of unobtanium will improve bike handling..and stem cap beer thingies..and "comedy stickers" arrggffhhhhhhh

and the ****s that "need" more than one ss bike...sweet baby jesus!

I plan to start riding my single speed on group rides this weekend. Should be ok on the hills but wont be able to keep up on the road sections between woods. Also on 32:16 26er.

I ride the chilterns all the time (ashridge, wendover, chess valley). I prefer my singlespeed winter snotter over my more glamorous bike. I'm geared 32:18 - specifically selected so I can get up all the hills without stopping but with a considerable degree of effort on the steeper ones. This also seems perfect gearing for the epic mud sections in Ashridge. Knees aren't a problem - stand up and take it steady on the long hills and sticky bits (you get used to the technique after a few weeks).

On the steeps you need to maintain enough momentum for the pedals to keep going round - I find this results in me climbing more quickly and getting fitter. The one hill that regularly defeats me is the wall out of great missenden but the issue there is wet leaves on slimy tarmac and a lack of traction that no amount of gearing helps with.

You pay a bit on the flats as your top speed is limited. Take it easy, look at the views, watch the red kites and buzzards, plan your next bacon buttie, forget strava segments and ignore your mates with gears - they'll wait for you.

Should be pk on the hills but wont be abke yo keep up on the road sections between woods

furious spinning mixed with close drafting should see you right.

Taz you also missed out the misery of a weekend of drunken shoddy shenagins with loads of other myth spreaders.

Then there was the displeasure of meeting Junkyard as well 😉

Had problems with knees on road bikes, none on a SS mtb/cross/road. It's the variety of pace and loads that help.

Need to (respectfully) disagree with that one.
...//...
SS on my Genesis Day one, started out maybe 42/18

I really like mtb ss
I quite like road ss
cx ss not so much (but I may go back to it for flat winter commuting)

*some STWers would argue that the current cx bikes aren't actually cx at all but we'll ignore them for now.

cobbled together stealer of fun

the displeasure of meeting Junkyard as well

Of course you can junky darling and for what its worth I fink you're lurvely and not nearly as smelly or grumpy or vegan nazi in real life xx

You can get up anything on a SS, it might not be as fast as you want & you might taste blood at the summit but you CAN get there

I was just too injured to fight you ....next time though 😈

More than welcome for another gentle pootle anytime..I may actually have the ability to pedal rather than do a couple of miles in a state of hungover near death at the pace of an asthmatic snail going uphill with heavy shopping

I only ride SS here on the Malverns.

Mind me asking your setup? I'm running 36/18 and have trouble getting back from Link Chippy 8)

36:20 which is 52" on a 29er.

I can clean most of the "normal" trails including getting up to the worcestershire beacon if I'm being daft.

I can even clean the gullet climb. But perversely I cant quite yet do the pink cottage double track in one go from gullet car park (due to it's length and it pitches up under the trees), although Ive watched from behind as that bastard singlespeedstu did it 🙂

And of course I cant clean the reservoir track or black hill ridge.

I found that my knackered knees hurt way less than on the geared FS. Position was the key. The susser had me sitting further back and the action was more of a scoop whereas the SS bike has me more forward and the pedalling is more down. Also as I assume that your SS will be a rigid you will be able to stand up and the hills won't seem as bad as when twiddling whilst sitting. You will climb faster. Pick a gear that doesn't have your legs going like hummingbird wings on the flat and stand up and push on the pedals on the hills.

cant quite yet do the pink cottage double track in one go from gullet car park

I always find that's a bit of a soul sapper in any case. Gah, was really stoked about an SS bike until I tried it - I think even with a 20 on the back it'll still further knacker my already knackered feet. I have the legs for it but ongoing capsulitis has put pay to my aspirations so it's granny gear until the grave unless I go for amputation and have some nice spd prosthetics welded on.

Don't forget you'll have to gurn like you're shitting a pineapple.* Oh, and socks.

* I think that was one of Tazzy's. 😉

Your knees will be fine, BTW.

Nice that my words of wisdom are remembered amongst my ss brethren

Ss all the way