Cycling: single speed???

And think of the fun you'll have on you're fancy new bicycle. Don't forget to buy the proper riding attire!
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I'm terrified of riding fixed wheel. According to my father, who rode them a lot in his youth (mainly on tracks, but also on the road), they're fine so long as you have time to plan ahead, traffic lights etc. If you need to stop instantly for some reason, not so good.

Faster, undoubtedly, on the flat once up to speed but you won't catch me on one on the road. Plenty of couriers use them in London from what I've seen though.

This thread reminds me, I need to dust off and rebuild the summer bike this evening.

 

Though depicted is a 3-speed, you've got to test drive the 747 - couple of friends had this bike (only available in gold) when I had a blue schwinn stingray with sparkly blue banana seat, just as gawd intended. Don't know if the Stingray-converting lowrider bike place is still on Abbot Kinney @ 14-1500 block or if they moved (say, up to Lincoln), but there were some beauties...
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SS's seem to be the rage these days & I've started to dig around the SS forum over at mtbr.com a bit too. I wouldn't mind building up a SS hardtail/urban assault bike to ride around on with some semi-slicks. Should be good fun if you do go that route though.

 

Do you mean single speed freewheel, or fixed wheel.

Fixed is beautiful way to ride a bike; so pure, and it feels so effortless because you have no dead spot (ie the cranks pull you through). Downhill is bit of a pi55er, but uphill, it can't be beat. But it would take the most gonzo-headed rider to not fit at least a front brake, and you absolutley MUST have a lockring on the sprocket if you are on the road; It pretty bloody scary if you have to use the cranks to retard your forward motion, only to be rewarded by the sprocket unscrewing itself from the hub (hence the need to have a lockring for it to push back into). Scary stuff.

For a longer journey, it can be a tad fatiguing. I once road a hilly 25 mile time trial on a 68" fixed, and I have never been so exhausted in my life; I would have done a better time if I stopped every 5 miles for a couple of minutes rest......

And one last caveat; buy decent rear hub/sprocket/chainset. If any of them are manufactured to poor tolerances (ie off centre by fractions of a %), then you will get a progressive tightening and slackening of the chain (no derailleur to take up the slack, you see), and you least problems will be accelerated wear. The worst will be the tendency of the chain to ride up and off the chainwheel when riding hard (happened to me on the track in the mid 80s at full chat, down the banking, trying to catch the GB olympic squad. Owwwwwww).

But a lovely way to ride nover the less.

 

Going downhill is just something you'll get used to, and it's a great aid to suppleness.

I urge you to do it, it's a great feeling, and in twelve years of riding fixed, I only "forgot" once.....

 

www.singlespeed.net

 

I was browsing around today and came across a post about lugged road frames which I hadn't thought about in quite a while. Some of them are simply incredible in their construction:

http://www.bikelugs.com/pacentigallery/index.html

http://www.gvhbikes.com/current.html ...has some nice frames for sale for good prices & they're just begging to become a SS.


Oh, and check these Llewelyn bikes out. Some amaaaaazzzing pieces here that would make a killer SS:
www.llewellynbikes.com

 

If you waste your time on single speed freewheel, you'll never find your legs. That's the whole point....

Don't be afraid, for fear is the path to the dark side.......