I've done it a few times now and I guess I never learn.

I had a single speed Surly Cross Check for a while and decided I need to qualify for RAAM and would have a better chance with gears. Now, I've had the geared bike built up for about 3 months and am already missing the single speed. Gears are so...frustrating and noisy. And stuff always breaks + more maintenance.

anyone else do the flip flopping? I'm already contemplating having an ENO built up and using it on the current frameset and dumping all the geared stuff in a box for a while.

I live in a dinky NYC apt so I can't have 6 bikes sitting around unfortunately.

Why six? Why not two? One geared and one fixed?

Jon Sturgeon did the RAAM on a singlespeed. It's possible.

You don't need six bikes.

One geared road bike.
One fixed gear.
One single speed road bike.

That's only three road bikes.

Nah you don't even need the single speed, just add a freewheel to the fixed gear.

Nah, I hate flopping wheels. Besides, the fixed bike has fixed cogs on both sides.

Ha, well i was exaggerating a bit. We already have two bikes in the kitchen on a stand that stacks them on top of each other along with a ton of bike parts taking up space in the ONE closet! The wife would not be so thrilled coming home and finding another bike just leaning against the lower bike!

I just had a huge surprise - odd I post this today. The wife came home and I was complaining about how expensive it is to maintain the silly geared bike with the miles I'm putting on it so she said I should get another bike to ride for commuting and some of the training rides.

So...single speed it is! Surly Steamroller, Bianchi San Jose or Redline 925?!? Any others around that price range?

what "stuff" are you breaking on your geared bike?

The gears.

One chain a month right now. A set of tires a month. Right there that's $150. By July it'll be double that with the miles I'm doing. My three month old crankset (fsa k-force) is dead, I hope to warranty it, but in the meantime I had to buy another crankset so I could keep riding.

Ha, probably. I don't shift so well. I remember getting on the bike back in March and riding around on the street a day before my first 200k brevet and making sure I knew which lever did what to the cogs and rings.

how many miles per month? Sorry but I really can't imaging wearing out a new chain and a set of tires every month.

What exactly are you doing? A chain and a set of tires a month? You killed a crankset in 3 months?

I call shenanigans!

Seriously, I don't think I've worn out a set of tires in a year let alone a month. And the only chain I've ever broken geared or fixed was riding singletrack on the mtb.

I ride a lot of miles. for example, this saturday is a 250 mile ride. 10% progression each week until two weeks before a 24 hour race in late july. add in commuting and two week day training rides of 50 to 100 miles and you have a lot of miles burning through chains(dura-ace) and tires (gp4000 contintental)

The crankset failed due to, I guess, a bad manufacturing design, or something along those lines. They should've probably had a recall but are too cheap to do so. Instead, they quietly replace their $500+ cranksets and move on. Both pedals installations (the metal interface inside the carbon crank arm) have come loose making the pedal wobble. the bottom bracket is also chunky feeling. this may be from riding quite a few times in the rain...i don't know.

so just to be fair, if you put the same amount of miles on a fixed/single speed, would that chain last longer? what about tires?

Yeah, the chain seemed to last longer and it's also a lot quieter, and requires less lube. The big thing with the chain is you aren't locked in to using a stupid expensive 10 speed chain. The duraace goes for fifty dollars. KMC chains go for less than $10.

the tires also lasted longer because I used some tires geared more towards touring since I had a bit more clearance. If I were racing, or something, I'd use the 23 or 25c tire, but for normal riding I prefer a bit larger size around 28 so flats are basically not a concern.

unfortunately my geared bike can barely even take 25c.

You can stick a bike uner your bed. I would do that with one of mine in college. Just a little hastle fixing the handle bars each ride.

No. And stuff doesn't just break.

maybe pansies like you don't break things.