I built my single speed a few months ago and just never really rode it much besides a quick stroll around the block. I was always running out of gear when going down a slight hill and hated it. Recently my friend has showed interest in the sport so I let him borrow my daily ride(older 12 speed cannondale). Leaving me with my single speed as my commuter to work. The first day I felt like I was going good at a good pace. I loved how quiet/smooth the bike was. I got to work feeling good and not much slower than my other bike. After a week on my single I'm in love. The simplicity and quiet/effortless pedaling has made me a believer. My buddy and I were going to go surfing yesterday, but I told him to bring his bike(actually my bike) in case the waves were bad. He ended up not bringing the bike so I went for a ride. I started off doing the san luis rey trail, which is a popular paved biker/jogger trail. I was going great and passing people as I kept I maintained a 20 mph pace. The trail is about 6 miles long and with 3 miles to go I noticed some guy was slowly reeling me in. I picked up the pace to around 21-22mph but he ended up catching me with about 1.5 miles to go, then drafted behind me for about a half mile before taking the lead. I then drafted behind him for a bit as we caught up to another biker who as we passed him got behind us. As we were started to climb a bit the pace slowed down and I bolted. I wanted to be in front by the time the trail shot us out by the beach. We decended and went into a left sharp left turn(I managed to hit 29mph on the short decent)as I was pedaling out of the turn I noticed I built up 20 ft lead. Then I gassed on the next uphill and at the end I guy beat me by 20 ft. I just smiled and told him that was fun. I went and watched the surfers for a few minutes before deciding to ride to performance bikes to pick up a water bottle and a bag for under the seat. My first steep hill I gassed again and had to walk the last bit. On the way down I hit 35mph and was having a blast. I never really climbed any hills before. I rode some more and the same thing happened(had to walk, then fly down the hill). Repeat this another time. My final climb I was not looking forward to it. It was longer than the others but not as steep until the last part. While the last part I gassed and walked. This decent was the longest and fastest I ever went. I hit speeds of 45mph and had an absolute adrenaline rush. Talk about the need for speed.
My old centurion felt stable and the steel was perfect at those speeds. I hit a few bumps and potholes going around 35 and felt next to nothing.

oh my gearing for this 25mile ride was 44/16. I first longer ride, legs felt fresh. I learned that I can hang with most guys on a single speed. Riding is fun, so get out and ride.


some of you are wondering what is the point of this thread? Well just wondering what gearing you guys would use for a variety of terrain?

I like 30+ mile rides and i don't care about speed myself. I run two ratios. 40/16 if the terrain is fairly flat and when i feel lazy or i know there are going to be a few long hill climbs i run 34/16. 44/16 is a pretty standard single speed ratio.

For longer rides (75+ miles) I like a 44/18 combo. We've got lots of hills around here, and quite a few 2+ mile long climbs at 5% - 9%. It's a suck combo for long downhill stretches, but I wouldn't want to go much higher because of the climbing.

tl;dr

I regularly (about 3x a week) do about 35 miles in addition to a 10 mile round trip commute on 52x17, but there are not any steep grades, only slight hills.

My single speed is running about 66 gi (44/18 with 32C tires). I've done a couple hilly 200k rides on it and bunches of 50 - 100 mile rides. I'm pretty happy with that gearing for long rides. If I were running fixed, I'd probably go with something closer to 70 inches, but being able to coast down hills lets you cheat bit on the low side.