Commuting - Give me some advice

I built a singlespeed mountain bike with kenda kwest slicks. I am planning on using this as a commuter bike. My daily commute to school/work is about 7 miles each way. Am I being foolish riding a singlespeed for this trip? Thanks all.

No. Not unless of course you live in the Davis Mtns.

no no, far from it, I am in Lubbock

How fast do you want to get around? I tend to want to get everywhere as fast as I can, and with as little effort as I have to muster. I pay for blissful laziness by riding a fairly light, geared, Trek touring bike. Having gears means that the only limit to my speed is my own strength, on the wide open plains of Minneapolis. Should I ever want exercise, I'll put baloon tires on the wire donkey and place bricks in the paniers.

That said, my machine is more complicated, needs more maintenance and is much more costly. And it ain't half as cool as yours!

I built a singlespeed mountain bike with kenda kwest slicks. I am planning on using this as a commuter bike. My daily commute to school/work is about 7 miles each way. Am I being foolish riding a singlespeed for this trip? Thanks all.

You won't know for sure until you actually try it, but I don't see why not.

Not really. But for a challenge why not go fixed?

Yeah, if you get a fixie, it's more security for your bike. And being in college, college campus are hives for bike thiefs.

7 miles shouldn't be that bad on a singlespeed, go for it!

Jay

Distance is no issue, only whether you can handle any hills you might encounter. I'm guessing that's not much of a problem in Lubbock. I enjoy my 22+ round trip commute on my fixie. Although I don have gears on my primary commuter, in practice I ride the same gear 99.9% of the time.

You are not crazy. People should start commuting with whatever they have until they are sure the bike-commuting-thing is not just a phase. After you have used your bike for a few months, you will know if it meets your needs.

I started commuting with a ten-year-old mountain bike and a back pack. After six or eight months, I sold my car and bought a cyclo-cross bike with all the equipment needed for commuting. The six to eight month trial run made it much easier to make informed decisions about the bigger purchases.

I ride a single speed pretty much everywhere, 36x18 17" mountain bike. The thing about riding this bike is that you spin out when you get in a hurry on the flats. 7 miles on a single speed will take between 30-45 minutes unless you run some higher gears.

Give it a dry run and see how you like it, if it's too slow then put a smaller cog in the back.