this wouldn't be a winter singlespeed; it'd be some sort of homegrown dingle-speed. between the headache of setting this up, manually changing gears for "monster hills", and still having to clean/maintain everything else on the bike, i think you'd be better off with a cheap 1x5 set-up. Or, pick a gear you can live with, and run singlespeed.

i know you didn't want a hassle, and i feel bad, so this post is written with all due respect. But, sometimes we gotta try to help folks out. If i posted a question about "which toothpaste makes for the best chainlube? Show some compassion and don't make a big deal about it", i hope someone would mention that toothpaste makes for poor chainlube.

just my $.16. (inflation)

-rob