denver to portland, thoughts?

I remember hearing about 1940's tour bikes having a flip flop hub with two freewheels - a regular gear ration and a gear ratio for climbing, has anybody heard of that?

flip flop hubs are all over the place. whites has a flip flop hub and crank. Overall, why. Your a better man than me, as long as you are enjoying the experience as much.

The Rivendell Quickbeam is a sort of singlespeed tourer, however, I've set mine up with 4 gears using an 16x18 double freewheel, a 22 freeweel on the other side and 40 and 32 chainrings. I have to change gears by hand and tension the chain by moving the back wheel

40 x 16
40 x 18

32 x 18
32 x 22

go to sheldonbrown.com for references on singlespeed and fixed gear stuff and see kent peterson's stuff here, https://kentsbike.blogspot.com/. flip-flop hubs are used mostly with a fixed/free setup; some use a fixed/fixed setup as well. whatever works.

The beauty of singlespeed is its absolute simplicity and minimalism - just get on and pedal, comletely fuss-free. Seems like you're missing the point if you have to stop at every hill and change the rear wheel!

I agree that having multiple gears is not pure to the single speed ethos, however, 95% of the time I'm in 40x16, even on the hills. I only change to 32x22 when I'm faced by something really nasty. Also having a bail out gear makes "single speed" touring a practical possibility for the average rider. You can enjoy the simplicity secure in the knowledge that if you get really tired you have the insurance of a lower gear.

If it makes you happy, go for it. That said, I don't see why anyone would want to ride a single speed while carrying a load in the mountains. It sounds very unpleasant to me.

Actually if you choose the right ratio, and have enough time, then only the flat bits are unpleasant! Not even unpleasant - you just feel like a bit of a lemon.