Introductions - Been reading for awhile; just joined.

Hey, thanks for letting me join you! I'm a 50 year old grandfather of three. Been biking all my life. Had one of the first mountain bikes in the area; a Skyway - $450 - around 1980 or so - only thing resembling suspension back then was how padded the seat was ; ) How things have changed!

I've flipped back and forth between road and mtn biking since then. Currently looking around for a new mtn bike and have discovered single speed bikes on the forum. Very intriguing!

See you on the forum. ; )

Welcome! With age comes wisdom, does a mtb w 1 gear really make sense to you? Mountain biking... sounds like some hills might be involved...

Hello. Yes, hills (and some steep ones) definately involved. I got into a conversation with a few guys (I'll admit, they were at least half my age ; ) at the bike shop and they were into single speed. They said they did all the climbs around the area. Not that it was easy; on the contrary, it was killer (but that was one aspect that appealed to me). Even the guy working at the bike shop started in about his single speed until he remembered they didn't sell them and got back to talking about all the super-tricked out full suspension set-ups they had.

It might not be a good idea. I'm considering mod'ing one of my old mtn bikes to single speed as an experiment. I don't mind spending the $$$ for a good bike but all the adjustment features on the suspensions, brakes, etc looked like a lot of work and maintenance.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks!

OK, anyway you can use a ss for riding to the coffee shop or cruising the bike paths. I like the climbs where if you lean a little too much back you wheelie, and if you lean a little too forward the rear wheel spins. I need at least one to one gearing (26 gear inch or more) to get up that kind of slope. Well I needed 28t ring and 28t cog when I was young (probably your skyway came with a low gear like this). Now mountain bikes often have a low of 22t/30t and I don't know how I managed with the one to one ratio. I think gravity is increasing, even the top racers run gears less than 1 to 1. Probably the shop guys can smoke those pros (in their dreams).

Good advice; I'll think about it all. Thanks!

Was I advising or just ranting about ss mtb? I just feel like mtb was invented when they put derailleurs on old schwinn cruiser, take derailleurs off and you have a cruiser again. Would I like one? Yes!

Bikes do continue to get more complcated, but I'm not sure there's a lot more maintenance. They are less user servicable. If you want to keep it simple, you might go with a hardtail w v-brakes. I'd get full suspension and cable-accuated disc brakes if I could afford a new mtb. I'm buying my friend's used hardtail for now.