Ha, Ha, that's funny since a fixed gear is a single speed by definition!

Unless it's a three speed fixed gear...DAMN, this is harder than I thought!

yeah, my comment was a response to baxtefer's assertion. if he wants to consider cogs on both sides of a hub more than a single speed (which you've already addressed), then i'll just stick with the fixed gear label.

Bah...The essence of single-speeding is simplicity and we've just made it complex. How about this thinking, if you only have one possible gear, its a SINGLE speed. If you have two gears, but no shifters, its a Singlespeed/fixed with and option. Nuff said?

At any given moment in time, any bicycle is going at one speed.
This is true regardless of whether we define "speed" as actual physical motion or as a gear ratio.

Hence, they are all singlespeeds if we fix time.

If we allow time to vary, we can clearly see that any bicycle can have its gear ratio changed, or can move at a different speed than it was moving at some other time. This might be easily done with a grip shift and a derailleur, or done with greater difficulty by replacing the rear wheel or front chainwheel. Hence, allowing time to vary, they are all multispeeds regardless of whether we define "speed" as actual physical motion or as a gear ratio. It's only a matter of the degree of difficulty.

In the face of the semantic and pedantic madness I've just foisted on the group, we need an operational definition. I'd suggest this one: while a non-handicapped person is in motion riding the bike, can this person change the gear ratio? If so, this is a multispeed bike. If not, it is a single speed bike.

By this definition, a multispeed bike with broken derailleur cables becomes a single speed bike, since it cannot be shifted. I can live with that.

whatever. i ride fixed.

the end.

Holy crap!

how long's that beard gettin these days?

Wait a second. I've got a penis and two balls. That doesn't make me a man, does it?

one time, i watched my dog chase his tail for hours and hours.

Well, my old Triumph doesn't have shifters, but it's an SSP three speed.

1-Sitting
2-Standing
3-PITBULL!!!

:)

I wanted to punch myself in the face.

Then I read the last three posts.

Here's a spin: would a fixed gear hub on one of those old Schwinns with a bottom bracket free wheel still qualify as a fixed gear?

I'd say "no" according to my belabored definition above. But enough about that.

My daughter has one of these, an old Schwinn Caliente with a Shimano Positron II drive chain that we rescued from a dumpster.
You are correct. The back wheel is fixed -- even though there are 5 gear wheels on it for multiple speeds, it is rigidly attached to the wheel and the gears won't move relative to it. That's to force all the free wheel movement to the bottom bracket.

The advantage of this design is that you could change gears while coasting because the chain continues to move. I always wondered, though, what happened if your pants cuff got caught.

my thing about that was always, hey, what if you're flying down a hill in a low gear? It can't be good to have your chain going that fast.