I choose a singlespeed bike because I was riding in Chicago on the flats thru nasty winters complete with all the salt Streets and Sanitation uses to keep the ice off the roads. I wanted a bike that was easy to maintain. I set my gear up in the middle of the range (42-17) to give me easy starts and good cruising speed, granted my top end isn't what it on a road bike but that's not the point. I don't find riding it difficult in fact I'm ok with the fact that have to I spin fast when I'm riding fast. I like the simplicity of the bike.

I think you sports car analogy is appropriate for the SS/fixers who set up their bikes with 52-11, that does seem to be making it hard for no good reason but again that's not me, nor is it a lot of the folks I see out there. Most people I have met seem to have choosen pretty sensible gearing.

So many of your previous post have derided people who choose SS/fixed because they must only be doing it to be part of a cool (passing) fad. I did not choose it to be part of some sort of hip indy sub-culture (that just isn't me). In past posts you have told SS/fixie commuters to go to the SS/fixie forum. Not all of us fit into that crowd. I am a cyclist who chooses to commute on a SS.

It isn't the right choice for you but it is for me. Live and let live.

Good choice and makes perfect sense for commuting in flat Chicago if your priority is not reading high speed readings on cycle commuter.

I do not deride single speeds at all for commuting or the people who find that they fit their needs. Single speed bikes can be quite practical for commuting (especially in flat terrain) for the reasons you stated as well as other reasons such as low initial/recurring costs.

I consider fixed gear a bicycle of a whole 'nother coloe and breed. I place the fixed gear bike's inability to coast or set up pedals for a turn as such a severe liability/limitation that only masochists would crow about the advantage, just like ridiculous stiff gearing for hilly areas boasted about by some bold fetishists.

I-Like-To-Bike:

Would you care to tell us exactly how many miles you've logged on a fixed gear bike? Because I'm sure that such a strong statement on the relative disadvantages of fixed gear bicycles can only be made upon long experience and familiarity with the subject.

Is ILTB preaching about the evils of FG again? He did this before in a thread about FG Commuters. I just ignore his diatribes.

^^^^ To me there is such a profound difference between a fix
and freewheel it cant be described. People think the only difference
is that you cant coast. No one, including me, really understands until
they do it. The stuff they do, a gearie just cant do.
People have a hard time understanding / going against conventional wisdom.
I dont buy the 'fad' hipster stuff either.....It takes a lot of commitment to
be able to handle a fixie competently. I bet there are far more $3,000. CF
road bikes gathering dust in suburban garages than there are fixers.

You are sure of nothing, smart guy. I've got over 50 years of cycling on bikes always capable of coasting and the same amount of time being able to corner without making adjustments for pedal strike. I even know that cycling with a saddle on the seat post is better than without, and don't need to try the dark side to find out if I might like riding (or thinking) as if something is stuck where it doesn't belong.

Nope, the fixie cultists have taken over a discussion of using single speed bikes for commuting, AGAIN!

HMM..wonder why there are more fixie cultists talking about fixies than ss cultists talking about SS....its just plain more fun...period. The suppossed disadvantages to riding fixed are really just additional challenges for folks who want to make their ride more interesting.
I ride geared, SS, and fixed. Frankly, the geared bike bores the hell out of me for commuting. The SS is great on the singletrack, but I don't find it all that exciting on the road. The fixie makes road riding more challenging and interesting. My commute is 8 miles one way, and riding it fixed (with hills) actually makes it an exciting ride, and more of a workout. It may be an obsolete technology, but so are things like sailboats, black powder rifles, vintage cars and what not...yet people still use them for various reasons, mostly for fun, nostalgia, the challenge, whatever. Theres really no point in arguing against it...we all recognize that fixed gear riding has certain elements that can either be interpreted as disadvantages or additional challenges.
Anyway, to get back to the positive aspects of SS..my favorite part of singlespeeding is not the low maintenence or any kind of Zen feeling. Its really just all about the feeling of using 1 gear to whip the arses of my MTB buddies who ride geared bikes.

Haha... I better not let my wife read your post.

Three reasons, the second two being the most important, and first being my rationalization for the second two.

1) Having a dedicated fixie will force me to improve my fixie riding skills.
2) I really want a bike with a nice steel lugged frame that looks "pretty".
3) It's a good excuse, or at least some excuse, to get another bike (see #2).

At least I'm honest about my follys.

I should ignore this flamebait, but what the heck, it's the internet, right?

Nonsense. I regularly clock 25+ MPH speeds on my fixie/SS, with average commute speeds of 18+ MPH. (You're now going to claim that you don't have a problem with SS commuters, that's fine)

Or perhaps you've never given it the time and effort to learn how to ride it. For someone in a commuting situation where they must have a very high degree of control over the bike (snow, ice) and deal with traveling at very slow speeds (traffic), a fixed gear is much better suited to thier needs than a freewheel bike. For this reason (at least the former), many folks ride fixie in the winter months.

Many of us are one and the same (flip-flop hubs!) and both fixie and freewheel single speeds qualify as single speeds. Some of us are trying to share our passion for a somewhat obscure corner of bicycling with new people who may find it becomes thier passion as well. Instead of letting good enough alone, you have to crash our party with your fixie hatred! Oh, the humanity!!!

Please consume the last two sentences with a healthy dose of sarcasm.

What a great analogy! As a shooter and a cyclist, I think that BP and fixed gears both carry the same sort of fun that the more "user-friendly" tools of the sports just don't have. (Not that the other tools aren't fun, but BP and fixed gears have something unique that captures people's passions)

I don't really see it as any hate. For general use, a fixed bike simply isn't as easy to use/safe for most people. I think that's all he's trying to say, and it's a valid point.
The inability to freewheel is a handicap for most people, especially casual riders, or anybody who has experienced an unusually tiresome day. Stating that isn't professing one's hate for the breed, it's just the truth.

Commuting on a fixie isn't for everyone and I doubt fixie riders are trying to take people's gears away. I commute on a fixie and a geared mtb and I have two different riding styles and approaches, one for each bike. If the OP gets a flip/flop hub setup as fixed/free, he can try riding both ss and fixed and pick the one he's most comfortable with. As for the fixie cultists taking over this discussion about SS commuting, a fixed gear only has one gear which makes it a SINGLE SPEED.

Amen Brother!

When I was a little kid I used to think girls and beer were icky
and had kooties, too

What??!!?? Beer has Kooties??

Thank you. You are correct. Another observation would be that is that some zealots interpret doubt/skepticism of their mystical beliefs as hate. Or maybe some zealots have a real problem when their passionate beliefs are confronted with someone else's version of the "truth."

The other day I saw my first "fixie" enroute. The poor soul was so buff, but thie hills....man he was struggling just to do the mid-sized hills. I didn't see the point of straining knees like that.

It bothers me that in the end, in this and past posts, that you just group us into some sort of zelous intolerant fringe hipster sect. When most of us are just saying fixed/ss works for me, 3-speeds great, glad they work for you. You tend to display your choices as based on sound fact and experinece while our choices are attributed to foolish vanity. They are all just opinions stop making it about right and wrong.

What?!? Yes, you are right and trying to ride without wheels and pedals really sucks too.

Who cares? You either are or you are not and if your not, your probably cool enough to let his rants not bother you.

Al

I would like to address the knee issue. For as long as I can remember, I have had pain in my knees almost all of the time from running them to death as a long distance runner in my early and late teens. It is almost like I have no cartlige (sp?) left and feels like bone on bone pain. For years, physicians have been telling me that I could relieve some of the pain by building up the muscles on both sides of the knee. I have been commuting about 100 miles per week for well over a year now. For the first 6 months or so, I continued to have knee pain. Then I built a fixed gear with a much higher gear (76 gear inches) than I would normally run. I have been commuting on that since January or so. Even though I have ridden for years with the partial intention of building up those muscles, I really have never seen any real gains or effect until I forced myself to ride the tougher gear all the time. My legs are noticably larger and more defined. The knee pain is drastically reduced.

I argue that the "fixies and ss's will ruin your knees" argument only holds true if the rider does not capitalize on the true value of being forced to ride in one gear. That value is learning to climb much more efficiently by pulling with the hamstring much more than he otherwise would. Yes, one could do this on a geared bike, but I always just chose to shift down and spin instead. After riding fixed for one or two thousand miles, I am literally walking away from my old friends on moderate climbs and on the super steep stuff I don't fair too poorly either because I have learned an entirely different way of climbing that really is faster.

Bottom line for me....my knees are actually better off riding a single gear because I am finally building the muscle mass to support them.

+1. Even with my size (a bit over 300lbs) I can take hills at 74 gear inches and I am NOT good at pulling up on the pedals yet, since I've only been running clipless for a few months. I don't even have to stand on hills usually, I just grind up them. My knees are never sore. In fact the only time I've had knee pain was after we (me and my wife and kids) did some hiking up in the hills a few weeks ago, and some of it was very steep and I had to descend. THAT was hard on my knees. Fixed gear riding is FINE for my knees however.

Dis tread is teh funnies...courtesy of 'I-Like-To-Bike'. My current new bike project is a fixed gear with a Milwaukee Bicycle Co. frame...

So, the answer is (and I'm rounding to the nearest integer): 0. Thank you for your comments. I, for one, will accord them with all the respect they deserve.

(Where oh where did I put that ignore button?)