JacobKinsella

So me and a few friends are considering doing a short tour (70 miles) over a couple of days. I was wondering whether this is possible on a single speed? I'm not worried about whether I'll be able to keep up with my friends on their geared bikes, more whether it is comfortable enough?

Cheers

IthaDan 

Of course it's possible. HTFU.

rex615

The comfort of a bike is dependent on fit, not on whether it has gears or not. If your single speed is comfortable to ride for a few hours you should be fine.

A more important consideration is terrain. If there are a lot of hills, a single speed will be more challenging and a geared bike might be a better choice.

JOHNinIL

Absolutely, I just did 30 miles on my ss yesterday, no big deal just pick good gearing.

JacobKinsella

Great stuff! The route we're taking is coastal so I'm guessing it will be fairly flat.

bowzette

Assuming it is reasonably flat to rollers the issue will be how much gear are you carrying and wind. Very doable but pick a good gear. With SS you can use an easier gear than fixed 'cause you can coast downhill. I ride fixed through constant rollers for 50-60 most Saturdays. a couple of times a year I'll do a 100 miler. But I'm not carrying gear, or climbing serious climbs or fighting killer wind. Much wind and I'm on a geared bike. Check out the wind especially if it is "coastal".

humboldt'sroads

inspiration:
Tour by fixed-gear bicycle

something i'd love to do someday

koolerb

This.

As long as it fits comfort shouldn't be any different than if it were geared. I ride with a semi-local guy a few times a year that's a monster on a single speed. It doesn't seem to slow him down a bit. In fact, he's getting ready for pretty long tour on the single speed this spring.

JacobKinsella

Awesome!

I don't think I worded my original question very well, I meant would I have any trouble compared to doing such a distance on a geared. But by the sounds of things it shouldn't be a problem!

We're now going ahead with the trip

Tracy94

I do 20 mile commute a day each week day on a vintage road bike converted to single speed. As long as there not doin some mountain journey you should be fine

AristoNYC

Riding a geared bike would be easier but not necessary to complete the task. Many people have gone 100+ miles fixed in one shot. Others have touched that comfort is up to bike fit and components on the bike.

jlafitte 

What everyone says about being comfortable on the bike.

Do a few rides of an hour or two duration and you'll have an idea of how well prepared you are for your proposed tour. Then if you do your tour and it's smooth sailing, Google fixed gear randonneuring for more epic ideas.

Huffandstuff

Tell your older brothers I'm a huge fan of their work.

stilltooslow

As others said, of course it's do-able! I've done several one day rides of that length on mine, all somewhat hilly at that. That's the whole point of the SS mindset…..you build it to your best possible level of compromise, and rather then utilizing the flexibility of a geared bike to adjust to the varying terrain, you make the adjustments from within. It's all very pure…..

europa

Here you go, the Paris-Brest-Paris randonneur

1200 kms with the requirement that you average 20km/hr overall (I think that's the speed, there is a definitely a time limit) and yes, lots of riders do it on fixed gear bikes.

GhostSS

There's some question here on what you mean by "possible". You mean keeping up with your geared bike buddies? Lots of variables come into play here, such as fitness of the riders, type of bike, gearing, etc.

Just from personal experience I went on a short tour with some friends, they both rode carbon fiber $2K Scotts and I brought my steel $300 SS Retrospec commuter. I basically kicked their asses and dropped them several times. Hell I chased down and paced with some fairly rapid riders on their $5k Tribikes. It really came down to fitness and how comfortable you are riding. I ride by bike everyday, they don't.

kansukee

I just did 111 miles this last Saturday with a group of friends on a 51-16 which was perfect for the ride. We only stopped 2 times at miles 64 and 103 and averaged just under 20mph (19.74 to be exact). So yes, it's perfectly doable as long as you are in good shape and the bikes fits you well. Go for it!

bmontgomery87

I'm fairly certain you could do 70 miles on a childrens tricycle dude.

I comfortably do about 30 miles almost every saturday and that's just a few short hours. If you have a few days to just ride, drink, and eat you can put in a lot more than 70.

Have fun, take pics.

rex615

^This

^Definitely this


^This....not so much!

stilltooslow

That's a steep freaking gear for a ride like that! What kind of terrain? I actually have a fixie set up similarly with a 50 x 15 exclusively for when I ride during summer vacations along the near dead flat roads on the Atlantic shoreline, but more like 40 mi. per ride.

Kudos to you sir!

thewilson 

This makes me wonder if they'll bring back the metric century challenge.

GhostSS

I run 53 x 16 which is nearly the same as 50 x 15. I'm not sure why everyone acts like anything over 80 GI is a big deal. On flatlands if you want to cruise at 20, it's only 80 RPM and you can tour way easy on that. Even the occasional hill isn't that bad as long as you're pacing with friends and not CAT 6'ing.

downtube42

I rode the last 20k of PBP '11 with a Belgian who was riding fixed. Impressive, considering it's not a flat 1200km. He was hurting, but then everybody is by then.

Don't worry about it, just do it.

stilltooslow

I agree that it's not a big deal on flats and is actually well suited (thus my 90 GI fixed flatland missile), but for a ride of 100+ miles with the presumption that there are at least a few decent hills, that's a lot of gear.

kansukee

As someone else mentioned, it's a very good gear for cruising. My cadence was in the mid 80s and low 90s for most of the ride, allowing my HR to remain reasonably low in the heat and humidity. This was a flat ride in S. Florida so it was flat and windy.

I run anywhere between 51-15, 16 or 17 on my fg depending on the type of ride I do and I was actually going with the 17 for this ride but did not have the time to swap cogs and it turned out to be ok...