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faqsThere are several questions people ask about singlespeeding. We'll aim to answer (some of) them. How long does the feeling of wanting to change gear last? Aren't you just being Luddite? How long does it take to put one together? How do I put one together to try it? What about a proper rear wheel? What about horizontal dropouts then? No, we don't believe it either, but there's a real singlespeed gear chart in this answer!
How long does the feeling of wanting to change gear last? There's a great diffence between riding a bike with the gears disabled and riding a true singlespeed. Ride a bike with disabled gears and your mind knows that if it really really wanted it could sort it out and the pain would go away. But on a true singlespeed you mind is freed from looking for the easy option. And it copes. Freed from gear choices your only decision is where to get off and push. Which happens a lot less than you might imagine. So really it depends on whether you're riding on a "true" singlespeed, or a geared bike that just happens to be restricted. But about 5 minutes on a true singlespeed is enough. Aren't you just being Luddite? No. Singlespeeders can be as tech-weenie obsessed as the next downhiller. Singlespeeders are often just sick of fixing bikes instead of riding them. Or lazy if you prefer. Singlespeeds need about the least looking after you can get. Hydraulic brakes are a singlespeeders best friend 'cos that leaves only the chain to worry about oiling. And since when have hydraulic disks been Luddite? Why do so many singlespeeders have expensive bikes? I thought singlespeeding was supposed to be cheap. Those singlespeeders probably started off with cheap bikes. But after a year of riding singlespeed and not having to pay for parts just to keep their bike rolling they ended up with more spare money. So what do they do with this money? Well most of it probably goes on increased alcohol consumption. The rest is there to be spent on high end exotica, free from worries about component obsolescence. How long does it take to put one together? Depends what you've got and how competent you are. We just put one together in an hour from an old cross frame, and a pair of wheels but we didn't have to worry about chain tension. That's the beauty of old-fashioned horizontal dropouts instead of modern vertical ones. Reckon on a couple of hours to put together with an old derailleur as tensioner. How do I put one together to try it? From scrap and the old parts bucket. But here are our assumptions first: - You are a reasonably competent mechanic who pays no attention to warnings that puncture repair must be carried out by a fully degree qualified certified cycle mechanic or the warranty is void. You can at least tweak your current gears when the adjustment goes. - You're going to run your existing wheels - because lets face it they're already spaced and you don't want to have a one-speed wheel led around if you decide you don't like it. - You may want to put the gears back on. With that out of the way, here goes... Take off shifters and gears. Combined brake/shifters? Just whip off the shifter pods. Throw the cables away. You can treat yourself to new ones if you have to. It's probably about time you did anyway. Whip off everything but the middle ring from the chainset. Now running just one ring can cause problems with getting the chainring bolts to hold that sucker tight. Heres's a tip: put the bolts in backwards. It helps a little. If that doesn't work you'll need to use some old chainring washers to pad it out. Take the casette off and find a single rear sprocket with half as many teeth as your remaining chainring. Now put this on your hub on it's own, spacing it out so it sits roughly centred. A decent local bike shop should be able to reward you for your loyal custom with some spacers, and may even let you have a dead cassette to rip apart and get the gear you're after. No local bike shop? What are you? Some kind of mail-order cheapskate. Now you're paying the price and we can't help you. Look for a bike shop in yellow pages, or ask around for a good one, go in there and grovel. Take food as bribery - find out what the mechanics like first. If you've been riding bikes long enough you should have an old rear mech led around somewhere. Failing that you need to go back to your local shop and beg for one. Take the mechanic some offerings of his favourite food to grease the deal. Split your chain. If you don't like singlespeeding you can treat your bike to a new one anyway when you put it all back together. Now run that chain as tight as you like round that single cog and through that old rear mech. Play with the limit screws to get it aligned right. Ride it. What about a proper rear wheel? Singlespeed hubs are made by shitloads of companies in standard 135mm spacing. Once you have one get yourself a BMX freewheel and chain and you're laughing. Except when you're still running a chain tensioning device. To run a BMX chain through an old rear meach you will need to find some washers to space out the cages. And this will mean finding some longer bolts to hold it all together. What about horizontal dropouts then? Starting to see where it all leads? Horizontal dropouts mean that you can finally do away with the chain tensioner. Here are your options: - Get horizontal dropouts fitted to your current beast. Ask a friendly framebuilder. See our makers list - Buy a cheap frame and fit horizontal dropouts to that instead. Better. Some places will sell frames that have been pre-hacked for you in this way. Konas seem especially popular. - Buy a dedicated singlespeed frame. See our makers list What gear should I run? Who would have thought that we would put a gear chart on this page? Certainly we didn't. But here it is. The merits of various gears discussed. Personal experience is limited to 34:16 and 32:16. We have heard favourable words about 32:17 in hilly conditions.
Where are you? We genuinely keep getting this question. Which kind of makes us happy. We like to think that it really is the world wide web. (It's a wonderful thing and is going to save the planet. No. Really). So when you don't know where we are we like to think we're doing our job (this is a job?) properly. Several people have correctly inferred from our sense of humour and taste for beer (well that's how they tell us they deduced it) that we are in Britain. For those requiring more information - though not enough to come stalking us - we live in the North West. Geologically it's an area of gritstones and limestones. The tree line is about 1600ft, so lots of our more rugged rides are kind of windswept and interesting. The soil at this height tends to be thin acidic peat, which ruins paint jobs if you don't keep your bike clean. When mixed with millstone grit this soil forms about the most abrasive, clinging paste we've encountered, and can eat through a pair of fresh V-brake pads in 20 miles. We also have a phenomenon called spaghnum moss which loves water, and rises above the level of the surrounding land. So the raised bits are the wet boggy ones into which your bike will disappear. Work that one out. Below the tree line the soil turns to clay and clings to anything. Mud clearance is important to us. Our local rides are a bit sparse (though we know some nice illegal singletrack), we have a quarry to play in, and there's a good BMX track a half hour ride away. And we hate to admit this, but whenever we ride there we have to agree that Yorkshire is Gods Own country. But then God created Yorkshiremen so that those people who couldn't live there wouldn't get too hung up about it ;-) Any more questions? Send mail to our singlespeed expert, mortimer the cat.
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