The single speed

I have two bikes – one with a zillion gears and one with one gear.

I randomly ride one or the other to work and back but I am increasingly finding that I am choosing the single speed. Which is odd because it is a lot less efficient to ride because I can’t keep a constant cadence by changing gears to suit the terrain.

However the time to work and back is about the same on both bikes because the single speed forces me to step on the peddles going up hills whereas I might coast up hills in low gears on the expensive option. This gain in time up hills is offset by the losses going down where the geared bike allows me to crack down in overdrive whereas the single speed is maxxed out and I just coast down.

The bikes weigh about the same (7.2kg) despite one being worth a fortune (the carbon fibre one with gears) and other costing me $175 on eBay; the gearing and associated engineering weighs and costs that much!

The very nice thing about the single speed is that it doesn’t need maintenance; I never have to adjust the gears when the cable stretches and both the chain and chainrings do not wear out. The chain never pops off the chain ring and I feel very secure that the machinery will stay in one piece and operational, no matter what I do to it.

The small challenge in getting on a single speed bike in Sydney is having enough torque in the legs to get up hills; but this is simply a choice of gearing and as you get better you can crank up the gearing by changing the chainrings.

All up, the single speed makes sense.