I have a Surly Cross Check built up as a SS, but my commute has about 50 feet of elevation change in 10 miles, since I have a trail from my backyard to the hospital, and it used to be a rail line.

Go with a larger ring rather than a smaller cog. Running a small drivetrain leads to faster wear and tear on the components. Keep the 16 in back and go with a 44 or 45t up front and it's just about a half gear inch on either side of a 39/14 combo.

Thanks for the tip!

Sounds like a sweet ride to work.

I used to ride a "coaster" as a commute bike when I was in college. It works, but I rode flat urban streets. I wouldn't want to do it today.
I ride some massive hills on my commute, now, and prefer a road-ish bike for both it's sleekness and it's selectable gears.

For reasonably short commutes, though a coaster does the job. After all, when I was a kid I rode all over Hells half acre on a coaster bike and didn't know I was 'commuting.'
'Course, I wasn't trying to keep to a schedule back then.

i don't know how you SS/FG guys do it. i live in flat-as-a-pancake chicago, but i find that i still NEED gears because i ride directly along chicago's windy-ass lakeshore. on a moderate day i find that my comfortable cruising GIR is 82, but when i have one of those days with a 30 knot headwind on the way into work and then a 30 knot tailwind on the way home, an 82 GIR is woefully inappropriate for both of those conditions. i need to drop down into the 60s (or even 50s) to battle the stiffest headwinds for 15 miles, and then i'll be over 100 on the way home to take advantage of the tailwind pushing me along.

being locked into one GIR all the time would make my rides less fun for me. that's why i got an IGH for my winter commuter, SS-like simplicity, but still allows me to battle the wind on the worst days.

more power to all of you that can do it.

I live in hill country. The only flat ride I've got is on the MUP, and everything else is just up and down. Even so, I've managed to gear myself such that the singlespeed isn't a tough option. For the road I'm using a 44/17, which puts me at right around 70 gear inches. Unless I'm really loaded down with a lot of stuff in the panniers, that's low enough that I can handle the 12% grade section on the way to work (it's only a quarter mile) and the long 7% slogs that the region is so good at doling out.
I've gotten accustomed to not having a choice of gears. When it's windy, I push harder and go slower. When it's steep, I stand up. Sometimes I just stand up to give myself a different cadence and a break from pushing hard. It was odd at first, and I ran a lower gear early on. I started with a 42/18, then a 44/18, now the 44/17.

I do believe it is a personal thing and everyone has their reasons to do it. I totally understand your situation and you shouldn't be questioning it at all. It works for you and that is the most important thing. For me, headwind is what I hate the most. I also think that most SS or SSFG do think the same too but we all get used to it after a while and deal with it as much as we can. Believe it or not but after some time on an SS, hills are 'somehow less difficult' than if I was still riding my FX 7.3 but head wind is still a b*** no matter how you are used to riding SS/SSFG. However if I had headwind like you do on a consistant basis, I might go IGH too. Prompts to you too for still commuting even with those variables.

Cheers!

^ it's not that i'm riding into 30 knot winds everyday, it's just that it can be that obnoxious along the lakefront some days, and i like having a bike that can not only let me drop down a bit to save my knees going into a strong headwind, but also one that allows me to shift up so i can really take advantage of a strong tailwind. to keep ahead of a 30 knot tailwind with a 70 gear inch bike would mean you're spinning at like 150rpm. being able to shift up to 125 gear inches and effortlessly fly across the lakefront at 30+ mph being shoved forward by an unrelentingly strong tailwind is pure joy. we don't have downhills in chicago (sooooo flat), stupidly strong tailwinds are all i ever get for going super-fast, and i really like having a bike that can take advantage of them when they roll around.

^ I hear you. That is also something that I really miss about geared bike and it is the reason why I have mine setup as an SS and not an SSFG. During my commute, I pedal about 90-95% of the time and I will be spinning like crazy if I have a tailwind or going downhill on a SSFG. Those moment I trully wish I had my geared bike.

Although people can and do ride SS in all kinds of environments it may not be the best tool for the job... it is really dependent on how fit you are and after commuting about 10,000 km on a fixed gear I was even fitter.

Prefer fixed over ss for that little bit of extra efficiency and I rarely ever coast on any bike.

My fleet is ixed and has everything from 1 speed ss and fg bikes to 3 speeds to 9 speed... cannot see why I would ever need one of those newfangled 10 speeds.

My primary commuters are now a 3 speed with a dual drive (6 speed) and a 24 speed XC mountain bike... my health does not allow me to rock the Ss/ fg bikes as much as I used to and I need some variable gears.