[Closed] Talk to me about single speed.

Don't fanny about with singlespeed. Go fixed.

It will turn you into a trail ninja.

It's the only way to roll. Everyone else are just pretenders.

i finally ditched the hub gear this week and did a lap of the epping mud with one gear. it was hard. my legs hurt. it was good.

I was quite socially impaired until I tried it.. now I'm an instant hit with the ladeez

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Its stupid and for idiots (8 years in..)

1 X 10 (Singlespeed for wimps?)

Pace is obviously different, you have to work on the climbs and get to rediscover the joys of free wheeling on the downs, one gear = many speeds, sit stand or push - my times are pretty much the same whatever i ride (god knows what that says about my riding!).

built myself a rigid fork singlespeed to see what all the fuss was about.
i live in a hilly area, gave it a good few go's. and decided not for me.
could not see the point really. it was not a fixed gear though.
a lot of freewheeling with a noisy hope hub got on my nerves after a while.
gears where invented for a reason.
nice light uncluttered bike though.

Hills are faster at the bottom and you wait for geared freaks at the top. Also speed is the same gears or not, round my neck of the woods.

It's ok to push your bike up steep hills when you're a singlespeeder 😀

Muke - Member
It's ok to push your bike up steep hills when you're a singlespeeder

It's perfectly valid.

It's a quick way to develop your "guns". 😉

I'dd rather haemorrhage blood from my gentleman's sausage than walk/ push on a hill. Bloody weak limbed effetes giving ss a bad name!

It's a bit marmite but I've been riding singlespeed for 5 years now and whenever I put gears on I miss only having one very quickly.

There are days when gears make sense, like a day in the Lakes, but round Yorkshire I seem to cope fine with just one.

As has been said there are times when you'll be spinning like crazy on the flats but most of the time the singlespeeders I ride with tend to be as fast if not faster than the geared riders and those on Strava are all hanging around the top 5 places.

I have to say though that while I'd say I'm a strong singlespeed rider I've not seen that strength translate to my road riding and turning over big road gears seems to require a different type of fitness.

Observe & compare the meek geared rider on the left beside his singlespeeding buddy on the right...

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have ridden singlespeed for the past 7 years I did buy a carbon full suss in the summer 30 gears and all that
spent a few weeks flat on my arse as i struggled to get used to the gears again now i quite enjoy it but I still enjoy the S/S the simplicity of of one gear is a good thing i don't struggle to much on the hills i run 32/18
i also commute 130 miles a week on a S/S road bike bit of a Gluton for punishment ....and yeah the facial hairs coming on a treat x

its not for everyone, and its not for everywhere.
but ive done more journeys on my ss this year than my other bikes.

I've been back on the single speed for the last couple of weeks now winter has arrived. My beard is coming along nicely too.

I built one over the summer, with the idea of having it as a rigid 29er to complement my 1*10 full-suss.

It's a very different game, initially it hurt like hell climbing. Not so much in the legs, but my lungs. I felt like I was about the puke them up. Now, though, I've gotten used to it, the bike is fast and light, something I really like. It is slower on the flat, but on the down I'm as fast as everyone else (despite being rigid… its amazing what difference those bigger wheels make) and on the ups I leave them all behind.

I still prefer the full-suss for the local woods type runs though, or anything really rough/steep for that matter.

The whole zero-maintainance thing is great. Permanently caked in mud, and it works the same as when clean, unlike the full-suss which needs to be looked after to work properly.

Love it, but I'm still undecided if I would only own a SS or not.

Got an SS as my winter bike.
It will never be as fast as a geared bike but it can be a lot of fun. The big advantage is low maintenance. Mine is rigid and I find I miss the suspension more than the gears.
Surprisingly good fun to ride. I have two sprockets to allow for a (very!) manual gear change, although that is a workshop job, I have a flat gear and a hilly gear. I lose out more on the downs than the ups though regardless of gear.
.
If you want to try one it be done for pretty much free.
Remove shifters and cables.
Remove cassette, and select which sprocket you want.
Use plastic plumbing pipe or old cassette spacers to pack out the rear hub around the chosen sprocket, cassette spacers are best as you can move them around easier to get the chainline right.
Remove granny and big rings if applicable (may require purchase of shorter chainring bolts, less than a fiver)
Shorten chain by appropriate amount.
Set rear mech limit screws to hold it in place by the sprocket, works fine as a tensior.
Set front mech limit screws to use as a chain guide.
Ride it. If you like do it properly, if you don't reverse the above procedures.

You just get used to riding around a bit slower and climbing stood up all the time. It's a lot easier in a way. Just point it and pedal. Sometimes it's hard but you just stand up and push down harder.

It 's not really a Singlespeed you have 3 speeds;
Standing
Sitting
Stop.
The most challenging but also the best bike I've owned.

Try it if nothing else it wil make you fitter.

Singlespeed is a misnomer. You actually have 4 speeds: sit, stand, push and puke.

And if that's not enough you'll instantly be approximately 100x more attractive to your preferred sex. True fat!

Good: builds fitness, road and off-road.
Bad : have to wait at the top of hills.

Have had a rigid 29er and now a HT 26er. I must be soft because I rather like the front suspension now I have it. I also ride 32x17 and spin a lot. Had facial hair for three years.

Bad: If you pride yourself on clearing difficult/techy climbs, SS isn't for you. You can't put power down discerningly, it's all or nothing.

Otherwise, all good. You adapt, it's about the least suitable bike for my trails (Basque Country/Lower Pyrenees) but I persevere.

If you want to be fast on a bike, buy a motorbike...

You can't put power down discerningly, it's all or nothing.

Disagree, that's down to technique.

If you pride yourself on clearing difficult/techy climbs, SS isn't for you. You can't put power down discerningly, it's all or nothing.

I disagree with both these things. It's even more satisfying to clear tricky climbs, and the art of singlespeed is about control.

Went out on my inbred today, first time as a single speed for a long while as been running it with an alfine. God almighty it was hard work, reminded me why I put gears on it 😆
But it was fun and I'll be sticking with ss for a while, unless it kills me

Disagree, that's down to technique

Sure, technique helps and it's amazing what you can get up. However, there comes a point when in order to keep moving you've got to really push and that's when you start breaking traction especially if you're standing up. With gears you'd just shift down, spin a bit more and maintain traction.

It's great for attentionseeking...

I popped my cherry twice today,one riding a 29r other being ss,
finally got my inbred ss rolling out on my regular loop,can say I too experienced the "puking aspect",bloody enjoyed it though!

Don't fanny about with singlespeed. Go fixed.

Thinking of doing this over winter, dabbled a bit before and found it 'interesting'.

Stu, was that you I saw in Bobbington this morning?

Haze.

No mate we didn't leave home until later and headed out the opposite way to Bobbington.

Ah cool, only glanced as I passed going the opposite way.

I was on the road bike so don't like to appear too friendly.

I wouldn't have spoken to you anyway if you were on a road bike. 😉

Well when I am feeling sad and blue it's the cheapo rigid singlespeed that gets me riding again, but I still like the gears and the bounce.

😆

Biggest problem is Women throwing themselves at me. There's only so much lurvin a man can give.

Waiting for mine to arrive. Not tried it since I was 7. "Faint hearted never unmentionabled a pig" as they say. Why not have a bit of everything?

Thinking of doing this over winter, dabbled a bit before and found it 'interesting'.

Do it. Initially I thought 'what the **** have I done' but after a few rides I realised it was awesome fun. There are things you can do on a fixie off-road that you can't do on any other bike and I've developed a feel for the trail that I wouldn't have otherwise. I now have a sliding scale for trails / individual features of: Done it on the full susser, done it on the hard tail, done it on the fixie. The gap between them is getting smaller.

Join us...

I've flirted with singlespeeding for about 5 years, but have become committed during the last 3 months.

I tried it about 5 times on and off and initially found it an unhappy combination of frustration with parts that didn't work right (9 or 10 speed chains, chainrings :|) and hard work (32:16 wasn't right for me).

But since having my second child, I've found my MTB'ing almost entirely limited to local trails (Ashton Court, Bristol).

Like me, most people will be converting a geared bike and I'd recommend going for a singlespeed-specific chain, cog and chainring. They don't cost much, but make a world of difference. The set-up that works best for me is:

- 32T Hope single ring
- 18T Shimano DX cog (found 16T too much work with hills around here)
- SRAM singlespeed chain
- On One Doofer chain tensioner (mounted where rear derailleur would go)

I still have my XTR shifters, mechs and cassette in case I'm doing a longer ride - but, realistically, I haven't done any this year and they tend to be planned well in advance when I do.

Although I enjoy having a clean / new bike, it's very helpful to be able to just put the bike in the shed at the end of a ride with no worries - and singlespeeding is almost immune to new product development envy. 🙂

- 32T Hope single ring
- 18T Shimano DX cog (found 16T too much work with hills around here)
- SRAM singlespeed chain
- On One Doofer chain tensioner (mounted where rear derailleur would go)

Does the single speed chain make a big difference, mine shipped the chain a couple of times despite a reasonable tension, iirc it's a nine speed kmc, will a single speed one help?

^^

I think so. I was previously using an M780 XT 32T chainring, which has ramps all over it and is narrow for 10-speed use - basically making it not ideal for singlespeed.

Had often thought about trying SS & I had enough spare parts to build one so picked up a cheap frame & put it all together (after all, I could always sell it). Expected to hate it but was pleasantly surprised. Yes it can be hard work at times but it's satisfying and fun - the fact that it also has almost zero maintenance is a bonus.

To make matters worse, I recently put rigid forks on it and like it even more 😯

Kilo - I also used a 10-speed XTR chain, which didn't help either!

I've just built up a ss rigid inbred - converted Alivio triple up front with original 32T chain ring in outer position, 8 speed chain, 17Twide base cassette sprocket rear with DMR simple tension seeker. On vertical dropouts, only just getting enough tension with tensioner pushing down.

I like it but chain tension will become an issue. Most of my riding on it will be fairly flat, so in time I think I'll go 33T or 34T ss specific on front, 32:17 seems fairly easy at the moment, so shouldn't be too much of an icrease, and will help chain tension a fair bit.........

But, I like it, so simple and natural, no fuss, just get on and pedal!

I've converted my scott scale 29er to singlespeed for most winter duties. The trails round my way are so slow and slick at the moment I'm not going to be setting any PRs, so may as we'll make it interesting in a another way. I don't find it as bad as I thought, hills are tough but you get plenty of rest when it's flat or road. My average speed is about the same as on a geared bike. I use a narrow wide chainring and can swap to a 1x10 in about 10min if I feel the ride needs some gears, 3x10 takes about 40min, but I can see me going back there again.

It's not for everyone, quite cheap to do, and you can always put the gears back on!