I swear by my single speed commuter. I built it up from the frame to my spec and it's my favorite bike ever, but I think it's not for everyone. It's not a big mystery but here are my observations after 3 years.

- Living in a basically flat part of the earth helps a lot, especially if you run winter and studs. I'm Ok with gears, my other bikes have them. But IMHO they aren't mission critical to 85% of the riding I do in and around Minneapolis. The other 15% is road and mountian biking, I like gears for that.

- The minimal amount of maintenence is real on a daily basis especially if you run fenders. The long term maintnence costs are low too both in terms of time and expense. It's really pretty easy to learn the skills needed to maintain a SS bike. Every once in a while I find myself in awe of how well my bike runs and how reliable it is. It's a combination of quality parts, simplicity, and really not very much regular maintenance.

- I get a better work out from the daily ride. Not having gears makes you work for it all year long, But especially with the studds on and a big head wind, oooof! On those days I swear AT the bike not BY the bike.

- Using a flip flop hub I can switch to FG anytime, which i do on occaasion for fun or whatever, and it's especially handy if your freewheel breaks. Which is rare but possible.

- Cred. People for some reason are shocked and give you all this unfounded credit when you tell them you ride a one speed bike. But after I tell them why (see the reasons above) they understand and realize I do it becuase it makes a lot of sense for me as a commited daily rider.