Bicycle thread

[VxZeroKnots]

Originally Posted by yater

Or you just hop the rear end as you upshift, taking all strain off of the drivetrain. I also ride a ss...a titanium independent. I still know how to ride a geared bike....and mostly race with gears.

Oh, I still know how to ride a geared bike, but I generally prefer to conserve momentum over energy and can lay down plenty of power so my inclination is to just not shift. The advent of dual lock on the the bars makes it that much easier, I'm not a fan of drop seat posts but having that much control over your suspension is awesome.

As to racing? If you are against geared bikes you definitely need a geared bike to be competitive.

Originally Posted by Aurelius

Single speed? What kind of bike has only one speed?

generally they are hard tails, but you can SS just about anything within practical limits.

It is an exercise in simplicity at the cost of efficiency.

[Aurelius]

Originally Posted by VxZeroKnots

generally they are hard tails, but you can SS just about anything within practical limits.

It is an exercise in simplicity at the cost of efficiency.

So what do you do with a bike like that? Is there a special class for them in racing?

[Chisenhallw]

flannel-class cat-6

[VxZeroKnots]

Originally Posted by Aurelius

So what do you do with a bike like that? Is there a special class for them in racing?

Is that a trick question? You ride the ever living piss out of it and lube the chain like once a year, having a stainless steel drivetrain really helps in this matter.

Many races have special classes for single speeds, and if the course doesn't have a lot of flat sections they are about equally as fast for the first 25 or so miles. After that you start to get roached, and on flat parts you spin out while others shift and go faster.


Single speeds teach you momentum conservation and good line choice, they are great learning tools. In very technical riding I prefer them because there is no drivetrain dangling down to hang up and you are always in the right gear.

Did I mention they are simple and quiet.

[Aurelius]

Originally Posted by VxZeroKnots

Is that a trick question? You ride the ever living piss out of it and lube the chain like once a year, having a stainless steel drivetrain really helps in this matter.

Many races have special classes for single speeds, and if the course doesn't have a lot of flat sections they are about equally as fast for the first 25 or so miles. After that you start to get roached, and on flat parts you spin out while others shift and go faster.


Single speeds teach you momentum conservation and good line choice, they are great learning tools. In very technical riding I prefer them because there is no drivetrain dangling down to hang up and you are always in the right gear.

Did I mention they are simple and quiet.

It wasn't a trick question, I was merely trying (and failing) to imagine a circumstance in which a single speed bicycle wouldn't be more trouble than it's worth. In order to achieve any decent speed, the gear would have to be so large that getting the bike going from a complete stop or pedaling it at a very slow speed would be extremely difficult. I'm reminded of the time when I forgot to downshift at a street crossing. I'd left the bike in a gear which was ideal for traveling at a constant speed of ~ 18mph, but when I tried to get it rolling from a dead stop in that gear, I almost couldn't manage it because the mechanical disadvantage was too great. This happened on perfectly level asphalt, so it's even harder to imagine how one might get the bike rolling in that gear had I stopped on an uphill slope - or worse - off road. You could of course design a single speed bicycle equipped with a smaller gear to make this task easier, but then you'd have the opposite problem of having to pedal at ridiculously high rpms to bring the bike up to even modest speeds.

[VxZeroKnots]

Originally Posted by Aurelius

It wasn't a trick question, I was merely trying (and failing) to imagine a circumstance in which a single speed bicycle wouldn't be more trouble than it's worth. In order to achieve any decent speed, the gear would have to be so large that getting the bike going from a complete stop or pedaling it at a very slow speed would be extremely difficult. I'm reminded of the time when I forgot to downshift at a street crossing. I'd left the bike in a gear which was ideal for traveling at a constant speed of ~ 18mph, but when I tried to get it rolling from a dead stop in that gear, I almost couldn't manage it because the mechanical disadvantage was too great. This happened on perfectly level asphalt, so it's even harder to imagine how one might get the bike rolling in that gear had I stopped on an uphill slope - or worse - off road. You could of course design a single speed bicycle equipped with a smaller gear to make this task easier, but then you'd have the opposite problem of having to pedal at ridiculously high rpms to bring the bike up to even modest speeds.

Sorry, I was't trying to be an ass, just funny.

For generally flat terrain on pavement they kinda suck. On my road SS i just run a tall gear and deal with it, I probably top out around the mid twenties speed wise and basically chose my gear by what was the tallest one I could climb any hill in town on a bad day with.

As to off-road? Pretty much the same principles apply, if the trail is flat and straight they pretty much blow, but if there is a lot of ups and downs and curves they get by just fine - some might argue better. I last weekend I put in a 35 mile day of technical single track with lots of climbing with my roommate and his g/f all of us on SS bikes. At mile 20 we fell in with a group of friends all on geared full suspensions who were all fresh and fairly decent riders and none of us had issue with outpacing them on the remaining 15 miles of single track.

Had it been flat or double track they admittedly would have blown our doors off, but you can only ride a bike so fast on single track gears or not. Usually it comes down to how aggressive the rider is and how well developed their bike handling skills are and their level of fitness.

Single speeds get a lot of bad rap because it is a bit of fad which tends towards the bizarre, but just like anything else they ride just like a bicycle and have areas in which they excel and in which they are deficient.

They are like the two-strokes of the MTB world in my mind.

Originally Posted by Chisenhallw

flannel-class cat-6

[yater]

Racing ss taught me that I wasn't pushing myself hard enough on my geared bike.

[VxZeroKnots]

Originally Posted by yater

Racing ss taught me that I wasn't pushing myself hard enough on my geared bike.

They are a great training tool in that way!

[Gummee!]

Originally Posted by yater

Racing ss taught me that I wasn't pushing myself hard enough on my geared bike.

You just need to ride with the same guys I just did. Got up to 45kph and still got dropped.

M

[k7]

From another forum. Luckily, the rider had his camera rolling and sent a screenshot to the company. The rest of the video proved there was no need to do this. The driver was suspended.

[k7]

Link to the video....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5iRQ...hu_2_nnrjv-bs=

[Aurelius]

Originally Posted by k7

From another forum. Luckily, the rider had his camera rolling and sent a screenshot to the company. The rest of the video proved there was no need to do this. The driver was suspended.

Central Florida. I could have guessed as much.

[2whl-hoop]

Originally Posted by k7

From another forum. Luckily, the rider had his camera rolling and sent a screenshot to the company. The rest of the video proved there was no need to do this. The driver was suspended.

That happened to me, last year or the year before, but I was hugging the white line and the wind blast blew me off the road. There was a small gravel shoulder and I managed to unclip and stay upright, but I was as pissed as that guy is. I couldn't figure out if it was a local farm truck or from a local gravel hauling company. If I found out, I probably would've made a night visit with a piece of rebar and ventilated their radiators.

I try to avoid roads like that, especially if they're heavily trafficed, but sometimes there isn't much choice unless you want to backtrack for miles.

[ducnut]

Originally Posted by Aurelius

Central Florida. I could have guessed as much.

That's what I was thinking, too.

I drove a truck, for 18yrs, and never ever felt the need to do stupid shit like that. We have a lot of Amish east of here, and I always waited until oncoming traffic was clear and never went past them at more than 30mph. It's simple respect for others. We have three quarries, south of town, and the truckers out there have by far given me the most respect on the road. They always wait and always slow way down and I always wave at them. I'm out there regularly, so I'm guessing they're used to seeing me. Conversely, on the same roads, on Sundays, the geriatric church crowd regularly buzz me. Go figure.

[GP640]

I'd hazard to guess that somewhere that driver is posting in a "cyclists on the road"
rant thread.