I like my 10-speed, but when I first started riding again--just a couple of years ago--I liked the idea of simplicity. The retro single-speed or 3-speed appealed to me, the deraillers seemed foreign, hard to deal with. I thought, 'why would you really need more than 3 speeds', then I rode a bit, and wrenched a bit and got better bikes. Turns out the deraillers wern't such a big deal to fix, but 20+ years ago when I got my first mountain bike, it came all in pieces and I didn't have a clue. Fortunatly a friend was willing to assemble it and tell me how things worked. Here let me muddy the waters even further, I get gears but I still like a 10-speed vs. say a 15 or 18, or 21-speed mtn set-up for that matter because I don't have to think so much about cross-chaining. The ride is fun and I'm much less likely to mess up the shift. I suppose if I just had one bike with a triple on it I'd adapt more quickly to the shift, but I have many and my primary long-distance bike has a triple, but it's a recumbent, so not as big a deal for cross-chaining there. If I didn't have the hills and had younger knees, I'd very well be tempted to just ride a single speed or old 3-speed. Now what i don't get--probably because i havn't ridden one--is the fixie thing, I like coasting... coasting is just about the most fun thing you can do on a bike. Obviously I'm not a serious cyclist because I coast, but come on. You're zipping along, wind in your hair, out in the world... it's a good thing.