Originally Posted by
Doohickie
The weird thing is this: When I ride my single speed, I don't really miss the gears. I have three modes: coasting, pedaling seated and pedaling standing. I climb some pretty steep hills with 69 gear inches and get a lot of speed out of them too (to the point that I don't really average a faster speed with a geared bike). People talk about maintaining cadence, but I can ride longer if I vary the cadence. I really don't get why anyone would need more than about 5 or 7 gears on the rear wheel.
Well, like I said, if you're setting your own pace, it's less of an issue. If you're riding in a group where the rider at the head of the line is setting the pace, then it's nice to have lots of gear choices so you can match the speed utilizing a cadence that's comfortable for you rather than being forced to pedal at an uncomfortable cadence to maintain that pace. For that matter you can vary cadence while maintaining the same speed if that helps keep you from getting fatigued.
With my old 80's road bike I found it more difficult to ride with people because at least once in awhile I'd get in a situation where one gear was too low for my liking but the next gear was too high.