ToddBS

I know tons of people go SS or even fixed gear for commuting. I'm looking at getting a new bike and I'm not averse to giving SS a try (not fond of the idea of fixed at this point though) but I wanted to get the expert opinions on this. My commute is rather long. About 18 miles each way. Now, many days I can take the bus for about 13 of those, but some days the timing just doesn't work for me. Plus, I'd like to eventually eliminate the bus part once I get in good enough condition to do the full commute every day.

So, given my lengthy commute, is SS viable? I read somewhere a while back that the author didn't recommend SS for anything over 5 or 6 miles. The terrain isn't terrible - mostly flat - but I do shift quite often when I make the ride on my current bike (Surly Long Haul Trucker).

CliftonGK1

The distance isn't an issue. I've done a century with over 6000' of climbing on my fixed gear. There are people in the LD forum doing hilly 1200k brevets (The Gold Rush Randonee) on fixed gear bikes.

Singlespeed lets you concentrate on just turning the cranks. No worrying about shifting or anything. I do about 25% of my mileage on fixed or singlespeed, including a commute with a 2 mile long climb. If you're prepared for it with a decent gear ratio, a single/fixed is a great commuter.

Cyclaholic

On most fair-weather days that I can travel light (just my messenger bag) I like to take the singlespeed. I do about 20 miles each way with a few small hills and find it a very pleasant ride. FWIW I'm running 67 gear inches, which is pretty leisurely.

UberIM

For the past year I have commuted on a SS. My commute is not as long as yours so I cannot comment as others have, specifically to the distance. This of course, won't stop me from commenting further, however,

I switched to SS for the simplicity and ease of maintenance. We have harsh winters here in Maine and I wanted as easy to maintain a bike as possible. My Fuji touring bike turned into a SS fits the bill. But that is for me. If I lived in a more temperate climate I might not choose a SS. I have fantasized about going to FG but to paraphrase Twain I believe, "every time I have the urge to change my SS to a FG I lie down until the urge passes."

My good friend/colleague and bike guru says that SS/FG you are always in the wrong gear 80% of the time. I think he exaggerates but I don't spin and 2000 RPM going down a hill............so often I am in the wrong gear..........My commute is about 10% slower in a SS than a similar but geared bike.............no biggie for me but I think that unless one really works at it a SS/FG will be slower. I am sure there are many on this forum where slowing down is not the issue........Is for me..........

AEO

if it's almost entirely flat and not too windy, SS wouldn't be a bad choice.
depending on your strength as a rider and your natural cadence, usually somewhere around 64~74GI should fit the bill.

GearsForFears

My commute is half the distance of yours. But I've done it with gears and in SS so I have some basis for comparison between the two. The key question is whether you have lots of steep hills and/or relentless wind. That's what gears are for.

Absent a hilly or windy ride you will find SS not just doable but better. If you pick a gear that fits you and your ride - which may require a bit of trial and error, or perhaps different gearing on two sides of a flip-flop hub - you will not be in a wrong gear 80 percent of the time. On the contrary, relative to a derailered bike, you will be in better than the right gear much of the time, because you aren't running that gear around a pulley system, and dragging the weight of a bunch of other gears you rarely use and don't need. Not to mention maintaining that system and being serenaded by its many noises.

I live and work in two cities with a geared bike in one and a SS in another. I am currently scouting for a second SS so I don't need to commute with gears any longer. I love my geared bike...for rides and conditions that call for it, or as a change of pace. But it's not the right tool for a mostly flat daily ride through the city and up and down from my fifth-floor office. It's heavy, the machinery is not great in the Wisconsin snow, and over so many miles it requires too much tweaking and care, especially to maintain the whisper-quiet ride SS has spoiled me to. I'm trying to clear my head to and from work and it's a relief just to ride in silence and not be shifting and trimming gears and worrying about cadence all the time.

As for FG vs. SS, I'm just now starting to experiment with FG. Over your distance you'd have to be in great shape to go FG. If not you would get there fast.

Andy_K 

My commute is 11 miles each way. I do it on a fixed gear one or two days a week. I'm doing this mainly as a way of increasing my fitness (which it has). It's also fun and provides a nice bit of variety.

So I guess the question would be, why are you getting a new bike? If you're keeping the LHT and just getting something else to have something different single speed could be good. It would also work if you're looking for something simple or low maintenance. If your priorities are something else, it might not be a good choice.

lil brown bat

There are good reasons (for some people, in some situations) to commute on SS/FG, but "because all the other kids are doing it" is not one of them.

angelo

It is totally viable and you don't need to have an excuse. Just try it.

oldpedalpusher

In a controlled manicured evenly graded urban environment, a simple minimalist SS commuter would work just fine... but for anything else, it has the potential to be a liability.

In the rural canyon where I live, "flat" does not exist, and there is always some wind blowing, and many times it's howling... so a SS is completely out of the question. In all of my years here I have never... repeat, never... seen a fixie on the roads...

...because anybody with one would be walking it!

Greg

Tex_Arcana

Right now I'm sitting at home waiting for the UPS guy to deliver the new wheel set sent from Dallas last Friday. The rear flip flop hub has both the SS and FG cogs. My bike just came with the SS cog. It's also the bike I rode my first century on. Distance should not be an issue.

The ground is pretty flat here though there is a bit of wind (even the geared riders on my century ride were complaining about the wind that day). Still I like the simplicity of the drive train. Having less to go wrong equates with greater reliability for someone like me that tends to ride hard and put my bike up wet and do maintenance every one or two weeks (not the greatest of wrenches either).

Also being strapped into the pedals and not having any gear choices to shift to has made me a better rider. My cadence has improved and where I used to shift down for the few inclines I do ride I now tend to increase cadence to gain momentum and climb more quickly rather then shift down to a slower gear (probably wouldn't work too well for those long grades though).

Over all I'm glad I went with the SS choice for a commuter.
By the way, I'm no uber cyclist or hipster. I'm a 50 year old clydesdale that had high blood pressure (last time I checked it though it was fresh from a 30 mile ride and it was dead normal) and a left hip that bothers me when the weather changes.

wunderkind

Gears give me options where I live.

Dario33

I commute ~16 miles per day in MSP on my singlespeed bike w/o issue. Minneapolis is relatively flat -- though can get quite windy at times. Either way, I like the SS -- I rode a geared bike for years and realized I was only using 2-3 of them 90% of the time.

RogerB

Not much terrain, but wicked winds around here. I can't see me ever going to SS or FG on purpose.

As it is, however, in the winter my rear shifter doesn't work so I ride as a SS. It seems to work OK then because the prevailing winds are light in the morning and at my back in the afternoon.

In warmer temps, I typically use 3 or 4 different gear combinations, but the wind dictates which 3 or 4. As I get stronger, too, I'm climbing up the scale of "typical" gear inches.

I rarely if ever need the granny gear, and only use the big ring when the mood strikes and I have a gravity assist.

Bottom line, is I like having gear selection, although I could certainly get by with fewer than 3 x 7. I've seen conversions that go down to a single ring, or maybe to a SS rear with two rings. There's an "in between" the full kit and SS, so anything is possible.

jdmitch

Completely viable... now, might it kick your @$$ the first couple of times? Yes, but you'll quickly adapt.

If'n you're really worried, have a Sturmey Archer S3X built up (if you're looking to go fixed), or a Sturmey Archer 3-speed with drum or coaster brake (if you were originally leaning towards single speed). Any reduction in the number of gears is going to simplify your ride.

If nothing else, the challenge of doing some of your commutes with a single gear will be a LOT of fun.

caloso

As others have said, it's not the distance, it's the hilliness or windiness of your commute. Pick a reasonable gear ratio (65 to 75 gear inches, say) and you'll be fine.

ToddBS

Thanks for the input. I live in Florida so the hills are pretty minor around here and thankfully the few we do have are not on my route. I do have a slight incline, maybe 4-5%, that goes for about 1/2 mile. The nice part is that it's a ridge so it goes back down the other side.

So, I ordered a Salsa Casseroll SS from the LBS. I'll give it a go for a while as a SS. I don't think FG is really for me. If the SS proves to be too much (or too little rather) then I can always throw on some gears since the frame is made to handle it. And who knows how it might end up? I can even see the scenario where the Casseroll becomes the general purpose bike and the LHT is the commuter but I'm going to give the SS thing a good run first.

caloso

Just for fun, pick up a fixed cog while you're at it. You say you don't think FG is for you, but you won't know until you try it.

bigbenaugust 

My commute is pretty flat (along the bay) and 12mi each way. Bikely says it's only 130' of climb (not sure how accurate that is). SS is fine most of the time, but there are times when I'm carrying a ton of extra stuff around or it's really windy and I want a few gears. Which is why I run a 1x8 most of the time. There are also times when I'm on a recreational ride and I want more than one gear in the hills, too. And since I have only one bike... well... QED.

Actually, I built the bike as an SS, then switched it to 1x8 after 3000mi or so, then after another 6000mi, the cassette was losing teeth like the loser in a bar fight, so I rebuilt it as SS until I could get the parts. SS is fun and all, but I decided that I prefer some gears. And 1x8 with a friction shifter is pretty maintenance-free, too.

rando

I converted to SS a couple years ago when I realized I was only using one gear anyway. made sense for my flat urban route, and I don't regret it at all.

Santaria

Seriously, if your not racing then(like most of the riders I meet daily in and out of the shop) that big ring on a triple is just a bash guard. I'm sorry, but I'd love to do a poll of the riders here who actually USE that ring daily. The number probably is accurately, staggeringly low.

So now you're on the middle ring on the front. Oh wait, it's windy and you only ride on the granny gear? Then you're doing something wrong. I know I don't know you. But you are wrong. Wrong as the day is long. The ONLY time I've seen someone spin down into a granny gear was seconds before they got off the bike on a steep hill. If you've gotten down to sub-8MPH riding you're almost blowing up and will be walking or resting. Even in 30 MPH winds I ride a SUSTAINED 14 MPH on a SS (33x16T) into it, and I'm a seriously pathetic rider by comparison to some of the grizzled veterans here.

knucklesandwich

Give a review on that Salsa when you have a chance. I was looking at them when I was thinking about buying a dedicated SS bike. Ended up just putting an ENO wheel on my commuter when I decided the geared components had had enough.

supramax

I use the 'big ring' almost every ride. I don't always use 'granny' on every ride, though.

So, that's '1'.

BarracksSi

OP, I was gonna say to pick one gear combo on your Surly and ride that for a week, resisting the temptation to ever shift.

I went ahead and picked up a SS only after doing several of my usual routes with the same gear ratio as the SS bike comes with. I found that although the ratio wasn't ideal, it was good enough, and the SS bike would serve its purpose of being a low-maintenance bike for any weather.

I don't ride it all the time, though.

apricissimus 

Last winter I rode a Redline 925 to avoid getting my nicer bike all mucky with grime and salt. After four months of that, I really appreciated having gears. I totally got used to it... but I prefer being able to switch gears, and it gets annoying (for me) to be stuck in one gear much longer than ten or so miles.

You're not going to know how it'll be for you until you try it.