do you hate single-speed bicycles?

Do you hate single-speed bicycles?

Want to pedal easily? Get a car. Seriously, how many askers do you think are over the age of twenty? Over thirty? Almost none. Just because you got stiff and flabby doesn't mean that the average elevator rider cannot get around the average city on a bike limited to one gear around 70gi. With or without gears, a hill and/or a headwind slows ya down. Lifting yer butt off of the saddle is no more difficult than getting out of bed and dragging azz to the throne- you're just doing it on pedals with the bonus of handles to push-pull against. For most people, gears are an unnecessary complication to an already unnatural machine that, when finally close ebough to mastery of going, stopping and turning on dry pavement is still very akward. Heck, these people can't even figure out how to use google, and you want to hope that they figure out how to use a shifter while still being terrified about falling (and THEN getting run over!)? On your next sunny day ride over some hills, go at one or two of them a couple of cogs higher than you usually do and just do what you do when you're not on the bike- put your weight on one foot, then at the appropriate time, shift your weight over to the other foot.

Now, for the question part- can you cite any authority that says that the never-going-to-be-as-easy-as-driving-a-car activity of bicycling is made so difficult by single-speed equipment that it is so awful that giving biking up and getting a bus pass and a gym membership is easily preffered?

*****crickets*****

I'm disappointed that your rant didn't include me. I ride a singlespeed mountain bike on the rugged and rocky trails of the American Southwest.

I know how to use Google, and I know how to shift gears. My bike has an eccentric bottom bracket which allows me to either run gears or to set it up as a singlespeed. Now get ready for this...

I got rid of my clipless pedals and installed a set of flat pedals, Gasp! I know it's hard to imagine how anyone can ride a bike without being attached to the pedals ~ sitting and spinning in the adult fetal postion, but it can be done.

No! For a start if you use an old derailleur bike a Powerplay chain tensioner can be used, so no more chain coming off. Simple mechanics, priceless! On top of that with modern tyres, tubes and lightweight parts it's easy to pedal. The biggest bonus a chainset can easily be fitted so fitted a much smaller one for Scottish hills so no more being stuck with a useless oversize chainset with useless cotter pins. Mine has drop bars so fighting a headwind is easier. Mine started life as a bog standard 21 speed 700C mountain bike, now ten years later it has been rebuilt as a lightweight single speed, a real joy to use. Single speeds, just love them, thirty five years later!!!

No I don't hate SS bikes. That'd be like hating shovels and wheelbarrows only b/c there are excavators and dumptrucks.

It's just that (for my type of riding) they're not that efficient. And when you have a fair bit of distance to cover, efficiency begins to matter.

Anyone who's clever enough to get online w/o assistance certainly have the intellectual capacity to figure out how a geared bike works.

If they CHOOSE not to do that, well, that's their problem. Existence will always punish laziness, one way or another.

I like them.

After I'm done building up my touring bike ill be building a single speed for around town use.

Hills are tricky if your not fit or older but I'm youngish I can handle them

One of my friends is really fit. Always has been runner he was ahead of me going up a pretty steep hill one time. He was riding a fixed gear. It wasn't set up on a hard gear but it wasn't the easiest either

As for your rant

Why bother posting this

Someone must have offended you here

It's the internet get over it

Wow...what a rant. I don't "hate" any type of bicycle. What I "hate" to see is people making poor decisions on what type to buy and/or use for their particular situation. Example: I would "hate" to see someone trying to commute to work & back 20 miles every day on a BMX bike.

I "hate" when people think a MTB is the greatest thing in the world for city use only. Like buy a Jeep Wrangler & never taking it off road.

I "hate" when people like you criticize people like me without knowing all my physical limitations & liabilities. Your quote, "Lifting yer butt off of the saddle is no more difficult than getting out of bed..." Oh really? With a gimpy back & arthritic knees, there are mornings I need a CANE to lift my butt out of bed. At yet since March 19, 2014 as logged on the website http://www.100missourimiles.com/ I've logged nearly 5,000 miles so far. That's FIVE THOUSAND. And they don't count miles in winter. That's just since the first day of spring.

There's a bike shop in the central west end of St. Louis ( http://www.mikesbikesstl.com/ ) that caters mostly to the single speed & fixed gear crowd. But that area of St. Louis is also very FLAT. They also carry road bikes, CX bikes, hybrid bikes, MTB bikes, etc. One of the first questions they ask a customer looking for a new bike is, "Where will you be riding?"

No...I don't hate any type of bicycle. I "hate" when someone on a fixie can't be bothered to at least slow down for a stop sign & nearly causes a wreck. I "hate" when a fixie rider blows through a red light & gets creamed by a car. I don't "hate" the bicycle. I just hate the idiots who buy the wrong type of bike for their own particular riding style & local situation. Me? IMHO, I've just found the perfect bike for rough city streets & going on light trails from time-to-time and commuting. Plus it has GEARS so I can climb hills - even with my bad back & knees...without getting off the saddle! http://www.masibikes.com/bikes/competition/cx-comp...

I'm not sure what brought on your rant; but if getting acceptance from strangers is so important maybe you would benefit from counseling.

70 gear inches wont cut it when you want to go fast. That is only 18 mph at 90 rpm. If you cant figure out the gears don't drive a car.

Edit:

The rantings of a pot head.

What?

What thuuhhh ........., Just what are you ranting about?