Learn me: bicycles

Taiden wrote:

tuna55 wrote:

Taiden wrote: Just pick a gear from your stack on the cassette, make up some spacers and center it. No need to spend lots of money to try a single speed.

Or you could just, you know... not shift.

Not at all the same. Not having the option is what makes the difference.

uhmm... OK. If it wasn't clear before that I didn't get it, it should be now. You do more work so that you reduce your functionality. Anyway, if you must try single speed, and it needs to be more than a placebo, just pull put a clamp on your shifter cable or something

There's no way to really quantify the value of single speed. Try it. Love it or hate it.

The weight savings are negligible. The reduced drivetrain losses are negligible. The reduced maintenance is, you guessed it, negligible.

My favorite thing about my fixed gear is increased mindfulness, fitness, and most of all... it's dead silent. It's like riding on the wind.

I can believe that with the right tyres it is as close to silent as you can get.

Taiden wrote: There's no way to really quantify the value of single speed. Try it. Love it or hate it. The weight savings are negligible. The reduced drivetrain losses are negligible. The reduced maintenance is, you guessed it, negligible. My favorite thing about my fixed gear is increased mindfulness, fitness, and most of all... it's dead silent. It's like riding on the wind.

Agreed. There's something so pure and fundamental about riding a singlespeed. I grew up working at bike shops, and that's my current gig. I've amassed more than a few bikes over the years (some exotic, some rare, some worth more than my cars). My favorite is my homemade singlespeed Stumpjumper (1995, cromoly). I will never sell that bike.

I have to say this for single speeds and fixxies... most of the guys at the local bike shop ride them

Well, donalson keeps my singlespeed thread alive--so that's all the proof of how much I enjoy mine.

Canute wrote:

gamby wrote: Gangsta. I have an MS150 teammate who is doing and around the world trek. They're paused in New Orleans until it warms up.

Sweet! Do they have a web site? I've covered Santa Cruz to Boston and Beijing to Amsterdam, spending three months crossing Russia. I think Russia was better than the alternative - four thousand miles of desert crossing the Gobi and Kazakhstan.

Here you go:

http://nomadiccycling.com/

a) She's a RIPPING cyclist. First time I rode the 150, she was the 1st finishing woman and 4th overall finisher.

She's done a few Ironmans, too.

b) She's rather attractive.

Taiden wrote: Just pick a gear from your stack on the cassette, make up some spacers and center it. No need to spend lots of money to try a single speed.

Most of my stuff (and all my road stuff) is from the pre-cassette era, so not quite as easy.

gamby wrote: Well, donalson keeps my singlespeed thread alive--so that's all the proof of how much I enjoy mine.

yes i've hijacked your thread :) I tried SS for a little bit... if I was in better shape to start with I could see it sticking on a bike... my LBS guys are all SS advocates as well as early on the 29er curve... but really they just like people to be on bikes :)

I've got a cruiser (built up out of some junked department store frame with crimped! frame joints) that's a single speed. Lemme tell you how much it makes me appreciate gears. Janel has three fancy Electra cruisers, one of which has gears. Guess which one she rides?

Old cars with lots of character have points. But I still take them off to install electronic ignitions.

To be fair, your dept. store cruiser is probably a heavy beast with a "laid-back"/up-right riding position, so not the easiest thing to pedal in the first place.

A lightweight, appropriately-geared, single speed MTB can be a bag of fun on the right trail, (with a bit of fitness behind you).

That said, my new MTB runs a '1x9' set up. Sort of a best of both worlds approach, in my mind.

Yeah, I don't think it's fair to compare a ss cruiser to a ss road or mtb. I have an older schwinn cruiser and I wish it was a 3 speed.

I've ridden with a guy on a ss mountain bike. Impressive effort, but not suited to our trails. Too much elevation change. It might work out east though.

In reply to Keith:

Nope--Very hilly around here.

This singletrack I ride uses all the gears. Granny gear is a must.

it felt good to get back on my bike.. just got back from doing 10 miles.. The new tyres are great.. but now I need to figure out what the SIS is not letting me use the big grear on the crank

Not enough tension in the cable, so it can't climb up to the big ring

"H" limit screw needs to be un-screwed until it allows the chain up on to the big ring.

Fine tune with barrel adjuster on shifter

nah, it's not that. The mechanism won't ratchet back to allow me to even grab the cable for the big ring. I am thinking I have to take the control apart and see if the ratchet broke when I lent the bike to a friend for a few days.

In reply to EastCoastMojo:

I should have put "and/or" between my first two responses.

It's either a tension issue, a limiter issue or a little of both.

I guess this is why I'm not a technical writer...

I figured out what you meant and deleted my post, just not fast enough. Mr. Ninja Fingers

mad_machine wrote: nah, it's not that. The mechanism won't ratchet back to allow me to even grab the cable for the big ring. I am thinking I have to take the control apart and see if the ratchet broke when I lent the bike to a friend for a few days.

Eww. Yeah "friend" might have broken your shifter.

And no prob, ECM. I was still not very clear either way.

gamby wrote:

Canute wrote:

gamby wrote: Gangsta. I have an MS150 teammate who is doing and around the world trek. They're paused in New Orleans until it warms up.

Sweet! Do they have a web site? I've covered Santa Cruz to Boston and Beijing to Amsterdam, spending three months crossing Russia. I think Russia was better than the alternative - four thousand miles of desert crossing the Gobi and Kazakhstan.

Here you go: http://nomadiccycling.com/ a) She's a RIPPING cyclist. First time I rode the 150, she was the 1st finishing woman and 4th overall finisher. She's done a few Ironmans, too. b) She's rather attractive.

True, that. Best wishes to her on her trip.

mad_machine wrote: nah, it's not that. The mechanism won't ratchet back to allow me to even grab the cable for the big ring. I am thinking I have to take the control apart and see if the ratchet broke when I lent the bike to a friend for a few days.

On older trigger-style shifters the factory grease dries up over time and gets gummy, not allowing the ratchet mechanism to operate. Sometimes it can happen seemingly overnight. Flush with carb cleaner, action the shifter a few times, flush it, action it again, continue until you are no longer getting brown gunk out of it, spray with a thin lube like GT85 and you should be good to go.

I will give that a try.. nothing to lose by doing that first. It's a Deore XL if that makes a difference

You guys are tying to kill me.

I went for the first ride of the season yesterday.

My butt still hurts this morning and the time spent recovering in my hottub was equal to the time on the trail.

Shawn

Doesn't matter how many years you do it, that first ride of the season takes a toll!