Originally Posted by Blazinall91
lookin at 32:17's bike. I'm not knocking it because it loks like a nice bike, and probably suits him perfectly.
But, can you explain what the whole single speed/ simple is better thing is all about. I persoanlly don;t get it. I like having a plush ride, i like having many gears, and i just don't seem to see what's so appealing about simple and one speed.
if anyone can elaborate on this without denouncing me as a hater, i'm not trying to hate. I'm trying to understand the mentality behind simple, no suspension single speeders
Read all about it
here,
here and
here. Let me illustrate. I have an MTB and a road bike. On my MTB, I use at most about 6 out of 21 gears (all on one ring) in a ride (not a lot of climbs here). On my road, I'll use 3-4 (one ring--52) over a 50 mile ride in rolling hills (I have rather strong legs from doing many squats over the years). Now, I'm doing a conversion on my road bike, which has horizontal dropouts. I'll probably use the ratio that is the average of those 4 gears (all in succession) and subtract 1-2 teeth (probably 52-17). Take away extra cogs, derailleurs, pulley friction, crooked chainline, longer chain (and sometimes looser), extra chaingrings, shifters/cables, and you've got a more efficient and lighter machine. I'll do a cassette hub though, so that way if I decide to go someplace with mountains for a tour, a temporary return to gears won't be too hard. I'm too much of a wimp to do that to my MTB
yet, though.