mr. peugeot

Single speed.

ls01

Why is it stupid? You can only use one speed at a time.

roccobike

Eleven speed. The expansion to ten speed seemed of little value. But eleven seems to be over the top.

flip

and it is a trend how exactly? (most stupid btw, not stupidest)

ls01

Because its trendy? stupendific!

grolby

They mean the same thing, but stupidest sounds less stupid. Grammar nazi fail.

English
Adjective

stupidest

1. Superlative form of stupid: most stupid.

flip

I'm sure the OP knew that.

ahsposo 

By far the stupidest cycling trend...





Why?

botto 

..

CrimsonKarter21

For city riders, there are no gears, and the reason is VERY little cost to maintain (or time, for that matter). Yes, it makes sense.

You get an extra cog. Where the 15 is too low and the 17 too high, you get that extra 16. For some people, it's over the top, but that's marketing.

garethzbarker

it's a word. I teach and had to write my old grammar professor three years back to ask about superlatives. a word with two syllables often can be expressed using both forms. If this were not the case we could not make sentences like. "He was the hungriest dog in the yard." or "The simplest way to complete the test is to..." It's a matter of choice.

But when you get into higher level grammar it can be confusing because the word arrangement may be grammatically functional but awkward. The most annoying marks I ever got on college papers boiled down to my grammar teacher telling me the sentence was awkward....

the stupidest cycling trend in my opinion are the jerseys people where here plastered with advertisements. If I'm going to wear a shirt that has one foot lettering advertising a company I want to get paid.

sirious94

but then why the seven inch wide flat bars with pink grips and colored aerospokes?

Bianchigirll 

[QUOTE=mr. peugeot;10342353]Single speed.[/QUOT

I would not consider a single speed stupid. now the 'culture' that has attached itself to to single speeds, who IMHO look like skateboarders looking to get off the block where they grew up, make single speeds look stupid.

now the idiots that take a good roadbike and strip it and even saw brazeons off are just plains idiots. it is far easier and better to pay 350 for a BD Mercier Kilo TT than to destroy a nice vintage peugeot or Univega

carpediemracing 

Someone in the bike industry commented on single speeds.

"It just means I'm in the wrong gear 95% of the time." Which isn't technically accurate, since maybe you're riding where that one gear is the correct gear. But I'll paraphrase his comment.

"It just means you have a 95% chance of being in the wrong gear."

(That's for 10 speed, btw.)

I technically own a single speed - a track bike. And for its use, it's great, except when I ride back to the car. Then I miss being able to shift since riding slowly on gravel in a biggish gear isn't fun.

And I think that having a 95% chance of being in the wrong gear is one way to help even out better/worse riders. Stronger riders (lacking discipline) can ride on a single speed to handicap them (hint hint - the single gear handicaps them). A stronger rider with discipline doesn't need the mechanical limitations of a single speed, and if anything happens, you have gears. For example, if the weaker rider is struggling on a hill, the stronger rider can shift down and push the rider up the 20% grade.

The overwhelming argument for single speeds is "reliability".

But when was the last time your derailleurs or shifters failed to the point where you couldn't get home? (Meaning you couldn't even use one gear, i.e. your bike was worse than a single speed?) I ask that rhetorically, because a bunch of people will answer "Me! me! me!". So, rhetorically, I'd then ask, "How many failures were the rider's fault, where the rider did not perform basic and proper maintenance and checks, replacing parts that were suspect or worn?"

Yep.

Single speeds are more reliable for those that don't take care of their bikes. For those that do, they're just as reliable (or not). Anyone can break a wheel or tweak a fork. It takes talent to ride a bike until a drivetrain part fails catastrophically.

Single speeds are great for manufacturers, at least those that don't make derailleurs. They require the least amount of engineering, give the widest flexibility with design (who cares about how long the chain is, or short, etc, as long as the chain line is acceptable). No cable housing stops, either two holes for caliper brakes or one hole and one tab (for a coaster brake).

cdr

flip

Yes, the referees conferred and I picked up the improperly thrown grammar flag. I feel assured the troll didn't consider above however.

Okay, IF it's not a troll, what about single speed cycling is trend-like? Ah, nevermind...troll.

CrimsonKarter21

Dude, get over it. People do what they want. Go live in North Korea.

EventServices

8-speed was worthless. We knew it was just a phase between 7-speed and 9-speed.

Still, we had to go through it to get to the other side.

slothlike

I "get" what the OP means. In NYC and elsewhere, there is a whole "Hipster Dufus" element to fixed gear and single speed bikes. Just like the Roadie culture dictates fads and fashion, the Single Speed culture has its own flavor. But practicality would make me choose a multi-speed bike if I only had one to choose from. But I would contemplate building one up for training purposes.

botto 

1. it's more about fixed gears than single speeds.

2. the op is apparently +/- 6 years behind the trend spotting curve.

flip

^ #2 - exactly

Velodad

Does your bike, car, clothing, house, hair style, et al, look the same as everyone else.........................WHY NOT????

roy5000x2

...

slothlike

Yep, that is whay I mentioned fixed before single speed in my comment. I think some of the fixed, single speed bikes are beautiful, so I can appreciate anything that one can pedal for the most part. But single and fixed gear bikes are a niche that attracts a certain contrarian subculture who enjoy being unique. In the "real world", there really isn't any practical reason to have one. The whole "reliability" thing is BS.

Darth_Firebolt

agreed.

Yaniel

you can look at the reliability argument in another sense though. instead of having to replace cables, housings, expensive cassettes, chains, occasionally a derailleur will fail or break by being hit. the single speed just needs a single cheap cog, a single cheap chain ring, and a cheap chain. clean it, maintain the tension on the chain, lube, replace brake pads and brake cables if you're not a hipster and you have a very cheap bike to maintain reliably. so in the end both can be equally reliable but one will be much cheaper to keep that way.