tjspiel

For the last 2 winters I've strongly considered converting my winter bike in order to keep the components (derailleurs essentially) from suffering from the ravages of salt covered roads. Then I take my first ride on studded tires for the season and realize that gears are damned nice to have.

As far as shifting performance in winter goes the biggest problem I've had is with a front derailleur seizing up and not wanting to shift. A swift kick from my boot usually gets it to shift down.

This year my winter bike will be my old Peugeot road bike. it's in nice condition. I don't want to trash the derailleurs. So I have two options I figure:

1. Put on a sacrificial set of derailleurs and cassette
2. Go SS.

I'm leaning towards #1. I can find old derailleurs cheap, cheap, cheap. I even have a rear one that'll probably work fine.

Is there any advantage to SS that I'm missing and should consider?

littlefoot

Advantages? next to nil maintenace. I ride both fixed and geared and I'm buiding a ss mtb atm, I live in the South so snow isn't really an issue for me, the few times we may get it the world comes to a stop anyway.

Try it you may like it, I did.

tjspiel

I guess I don't do a lot of maintenance to my geared bikes that's specifically related to having gears. Yes I adjust the derailleurs but we're talking maybe an hour per year.

The rest of the advantages I've heard about seem much more umm... how shall I put it... subjective?

littlefoot

I'll be honest when I ride my fixed gear conversion it's not for anything much over 10 miles tops round trip. It's a round town to the bar beater,library, drugstore etc. Now my plans on the 29er mtb aren't really set, other than building it ss to start. I may consider a internal geared hub down the line. or get jiggy with the welding machine and put a derail tab on it, not certain. I live in a pretty flat area for the most part so ss or fixed gear works to some extent....there are numerous people that ride commuters that are ss/fixed in the forum I'm sure you'll hear alot of more informed opinions than my own. Thing I like most about my fixed gear is leave it outside for months, it doesn't care at all. little lube and it's good to go.

Hirohsima

I think the maintenance card gets overplayed w/ SS. I ride geared as well as SS (I have 2 of each style bike) and do almost as much maintenance on my SS as I do my geared. When it rains and the bike gets caked with road scum and the chain sounds like sand-paper, I clean the gears and toss the chain into a jar of mineral spirits. Once the chain is completely dry, I relube, reinstall, and go about my business. If it takes longer than a day or I am lazy, I ride another bike the next day/week.

I love SS bikes, but have no exp riding with them in the snow. I shift often when I have gears and am just as happy to ride in a single gear when on my SS bikes. You are never in the ideal gear on a SS bike but there is slightly less to clean when riding a SS. Its a PITA to clean all the c-rings and der bits on a geared bike,.... but the frequency that parts gets cleaned/re-lubed is more dependent on need rather than geared vs SS.

My commute ranges from 18 miles RT to 60 miles RT depending on my rout. I commute on my SS 90% of the time. I have 2500 miles on my SS bikes this year and have done flatish centruies on my SS road bike. So it can be done, but the "fun" of SS/FG I think is, as another poster adequately stated, subjective.

europa

Consider also that there is a difference between riding fixed and riding SS - the addition of a freewheel changes things and it's not just in the ability to coast.

You do have a lot more control over your speed on a fixed bike and you do exercise it a lot more. The question is, is this just a source of satisfaction or is it a serious advantage? I'm never likely to ride in snow or ice (we don't get it here, a very cold day is 10C where I live) so can't answer that question.

The other thing to note is that, for reasons I've never been able to understand, the power delivery on a fixed bike is different to something with a freewheel with the result that, up to a point, you don't 'need' the extra gears - I ride rolling routes on my fixed gear bike without thinking about it or feeling the need for extra gears yet that same route has me using everything except my granny on my geared bikes. However, you will eventually come to a hill where you do NEED to go down a gear and if you have one or two of them on your commute, fixed or SS isn't the way to go.

I personally think that if SS will work, fixed will work better, but I don't mind spinning down hills and don't miss the opportunity to coast.

Maintenance? I think that depends on how fussy you are. Me? I'm slack and any bike is filthy by the time I get around to doing something. Yes, fixed or SS is a lot easier to clean but considering that I hate doing either, it's probably not much of an issue. I feel your concern about the drs though.

How's this for a suggestion. Convert your bike to fixed or SS either by buying a rear wheel or just going for a suicide hub (safe enough if you use your brakes to stop) and just run off one your existing chainrings (don't remove the other). Fitting gears is an afternoon's task if you decide you want them. Even if you're forced to redish the rear wheel, that's not a problem. The initial conversion of my Europa was reversable simply by bolting the bits back on - she only become more specialised after I realised I liked this fixed game. One thing's for sure, you won't know until you try.

Richard

bkbrouwer

Option #3 - convert to an Internal Geared Hub.

tjspiel

Thanks for the response.

At this point I'm not really considering fixed. I figure it would take me a while to get the hang of it and learning on slippery roads is probably not the best way to do it. Riding in winter is challenging enough as it is.

My planned SS conversion would be pretty reversible. I was just going to get one of those kits from Nashbar with the spacers and use a wheel with a standard freehub. I've got a pretty ideal set of wheels for winter use since the rims are a tad wider than typical road wheels. They'll work great for the studded tires. And as you suggested, I was going to leave the chainrings in place.

tjspiel

Might be a good option for somebody else. I'm working with a limited budget.

europa

But if SS works for you, an old 3 speed rear hub might work better (and be really cheap), particularly if you can get one of them Sturmey Archer jobs with the coaster brake, that way the salt and muck can't affect your braking.

Richard

tjspiel

I can find 3 speed hubs cheap and an IGH has definite advantages in the winter. The way I see it though even an old 3 speed Sturmey Archer is going to end up costing more than I want to invest by the time I add a 40 hole 700c rim, get new spokes, new cabling, etc.

Not that it would be hugely expensive but if you think about all the time I'd put into building a new rear wheel, one could have replaced all the rusted screws and cleaned up a "sacrificial derailleur" a few times over. Plus I'd only have 3 speeds back there instead of 7.

CastIron

Works for me all winter.

TRaffic Jammer

modernjess

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.