Single Speeding

01/03/25 17:52 Filed in: Riding

I looked at my maintenance app the other day and noticed I only had about one hour per month on my single speed bike over the past year. That's not much. Given I ride it about 2 hours at a time, that's like every other month for a ride.
No wonder it felt so "hard". The gearing never felt too hard for places like Stromlo (it is definitely too hard for Cotter Pines, with a few steep pitches that I couldn't get up on the SS even on a pretty good day). But it requires riding regularly to adapt to the big pushing as well as the timing of said pushing. I tried riding up a not-very-challenging climb segment twice and couldn't push through the final two pedal strokes either time. Only went 20 km and was tired at the end.
Maybe the single speed bike is the domain of the young rider - and somewhere I've gotten too old? I'm going to keep riding it. It's a fun bike and I like the challenge. Going from Stromlo event centre out towards the bush fire memorial I was spinning away at 160 rpm. It's hardly worth pedalling at that cadence - but fun.
Fun is really the reason for single speeding. Getting rid of derailleurs makes the bike super quiet (no flopping or crashing chain, no cables or shifters, no wondering if you're in the correct gear - just a quiet bike and a challenge to navigate the trail).

At one point I was short on a hop over some rough rocks and the rear wheel landed heavily. I heard a nasty noise. The sort of noise that signals something breaking. I got off and checked. Frame OK. Axle OK. Rim OK. What else could it be? Just the hollow frame echoing/amplifying the noise of landing on rough rocks.

As my only hardtail bike, I like jumping it but I don't want to come up short as the rear wheel thumps pretty hard if you case it on the landing. Suspension can take the sting out of cases.

Michael Hanslip Coaching

If you want to go faster, you have to pedal harder

Single Speeding