Single-speed... I just don't get it

I thougth you were ok to begin with. After days and weeks of seeing that Avatar it is subliminally changing my mind. I am convinced that one day you will change it and the whole forum will start obaying it. Send Object 50 pounds, over and over again.
I've absolutely no idea what you are talking about.

haha

I've absolutely no idea what you are talking about.

hehehe.

Hahaha. Now post your bank details and watch the money come flooding in.

shinscar@paypal.com

It's going to fast. I'm trying to make it out, ahh got it...

"50 Dec's nob jet"

Seems like a fair price? ;)

I saw a unipak today running single speed and no back brake.

Given the accounts of how bad everything is on those bikes I cannot imagine the one brake would suffice in an emergency, and I doubt any riders of such machines have Ted Shred's bike handling skills.

Am concerned the proud unipaker will be an organ donor pretty soon.

its nice to have a mix of bikes. i ride geared/ss/fixed depending on my mood + where im riding. if i know theres gonna be an effing steep hill im def not gonna ride my fixed and i cant be bothered to change the sprocket and mess with chain just for one trip.

SS is perfect for the lazy ride/rider. no gearing to think about, coasting downhill, more lean round the corners. perfect ride for the hangover mornings

singlespeed prevents you from thinking about whether 105 is a better option that Sora, or if its worth looking at XTR if XT can do the job... it removes the added expenditure and the decision making. Happy days for a muppet like me...

+1 . spot on pistaboy

singlespeed prevents you from thinking about whether 105 is a better option that Sora, or if its worth looking at XTR if XT can do the job... it removes the added expenditure and the decision making. Happy days for a muppet like me...

You obviously haven't looked at cutom frames for single speeds, Chris King single speed hubs, etc ;)

I can't fathom any reason to be sans gears on a road bike except to ride fixed.
EDIT: Except for a step up to fixed x...

How incredibly daft.

It ain't single speed but it's damned nice.

Bling

You obviously haven't looked at cutom frames for single speeds, Chris King single speed hubs, etc ;)

Granted... ooooh you had to get your two-pennies-worth dincha? :)

I love this thread! It's got everything. :)

first post here ... so hello everyone :)

I got a fillmore on SS and I love it.

The reason why I picked single speed is that I was scared of riding bikes for quite a while since I had 2 bad accidents in the past, both a result of standing in the pedals and the deraileur somehow not properly sticking to one gear ... hence a sudden shift of gravity and in the first one a good part of my skin scraped off on my shoulderblade, in the second instance some teeth knocked loose and 8 stitches to fix my chin.

Some 6 years later I decided address and overcome my fear, went to brixton cycles and picked single speed for the very reason that the chain is less likely to come off.

^
Fuck, sorry to hear about your scrapes pal. Glad to hear you up and riding again! Excellent answer to a stupid question.

Hey, it's ok. thought I would be scared for a while, but now, three months in, I am surprised how well I deal with traffic and all that. Do my 20 - 30 miles most days of the week, and contemplate to ride to Brighton or something just to see if I can (How steep is the hill there?) ...

HTFU as someone said on here ...

I go faster on my ss. Descending is safer...
if you value your life, ride ss!

descending is not safer. it's EASIER. and depending on how good your brakes are, possibly faster too.

I could see a point in SS after 100 miles of rolling countryside, the downhills start to get a bit old and your arse and quads would really rather like a rest.

but then, without gears, you can't crank into the big ring to keep your speed up

sure but this is about the benefit of as over fixed. I agree that for longer rides and downhills gears are the way. Ok case in point: threre is a long smooth hill right by me that I tear down every morning. Every few hundred meters there are speed bumps. Fixed I have to slow right down before rolling over them because at speed my feet still turning my balance gets a little thrown off. SS I can straighten my legs and absorb them, the same goes for curbs, unexpected pot holes etc. All in all on London streets where quite often you do have to stop and start often and the roads are lumpy SS is just a smoother faster ride (for me). I'm sure with practice I will be able to maintain speed and control wobbles better but I equally donn see the point of forcing that change when cycling in London is at the moment just that bit more enjoyable SS. In addition to this having a SS setup has many of the maintainance bonuses that a fixed ride has and is just a simpified riding experience. I have built up a lot of strenght riding ss over geared.

I would have said single speed is better for off road after riding off road single speed for 5 years (single speed on the road just doesn't feel as nice as fixed) but having ridden fixed off road for a couple of months it feels better there too!
Seems to make the old routes more interesting, plus skid stopping around is much more fun.
Admittedly I need the additional challenge as I live in the New Forest

I ride a custom single speed hybrid, built off an old raleigh mtb frame. Perfect for my commute in York (streets are really really shit condition) despite falling in love (again) with cycling in the city, its cheap (to custom build and maintain) as i cant afford to invest too much at the mo (volentary student poverty) and has a low(er) nickability factor even though i sprayed it yellow and gave it drops/v sexy saddle, even so its resonably quick and responsive and eats geared bikes alive. But in saying that i want to grab a second hand langster in time and move to fixed having tried out a friends. But single speed has a great deal of benifits and i would not loose my current ride.

I tried riding single-speed for the first time yesterday. No great mystery. It felt a lot like riding a bike.

I have a 19T fixed on one side and 18T freewheel on the other side of my hub - I'd planned to use the freewheel in triathlons but now feel it has too many teeth. But that's another story). I was starting to find 48:19 spinny and wanted to see what 48:18 felt like more than anything.

What was different? Braking. That felt easier. I'm sure you have no more momentum fixed than free, but it feels like your legs don't want to stop. I can't skid but missed being able to slow down with my legs.

It also felt [blush] like cheating on the other side of my hub [don't tell my 19T sprocket, please, say I was sick and stayed in bed]. Maybe that was guilt because it is less work to SS. I arrived at work with less of a work out for sure.

I've got a cheap Dicta freewheel and it worked very well indeed. Absolutely zero noise, unlike some postings here. Smooth operation all the way.

Changed it back to fixed this morning. SS is good but FG is better.