single speed or gears

[ajay]

i'm currently building up a hardtail for street/jumps etc, but i'm tossing up between single speed or hanging a rear mech - single speed seems less messing around but not the range - any thoughts :?

 

[CHEWY]

is DJ/street ALL you are going to ride? If it is, deffinatly go SS..
If you ride trails/XC or have to ride hills a fair bit, stick with gears..
I've been going SS for a fair while now, but Im putting gears back on. Mainly cause I found a new riding spot and its about 7ks away..

DH is fun as SSing tho, don't have to worry about a thing.. just ride.

 

[curtisrider]

go gears cos chances are you will end up doing stuff sooner or later that you will be glad you had them for.

 

[ajay]

Ive got a demo9 aswell so yeah, it will pretty much be street&jump - maybe 4X

 

[naz]

SS, the reduced range only makes your pedalling more effeciant and beefs your legs up, no more dropped chains, no more chain slap, riding around you can enjoy the sound of your freewheel, less thinking about dropping a chain or gears skipping, more time focusing on jumpn, NO CHAIN GUIDE is needed :wink:

 

[Ride_Guy]

SS is the shit for DJ/Urban riding. Nothing better, but if u wanted to do a few trialsy sorta stuff gears make life better.

HAHA i remeber when i went back to gears I had such a hard time choosing what gear to ride up jumps with :shock:

 

[LTR]

maybe if your frame has horizontal dropouts or something you could run SS for a while. If you arent liking it, change to gears!

 

[riderigid]

if it is for 4X then you will have to have gears because there is a rule against SS. i have SS and it is sick, soo quiet.
i would say SS for everything unless 4X

 

[armpit]

i'm tossing up

haha

 

[mtbmx]

hmm i want to go single speed so do i need new ?

 

[S.]

SS, the reduced range only makes your pedalling more effeciant and beefs your legs up, no more dropped chains, no more chain slap, riding around you can enjoy the sound of your freewheel, less thinking about dropping a chain or gears skipping, more time focusing on jumpn, NO CHAIN GUIDE is needed :wink:

Yeah, but then you don't get to run your rear axle in the shortest CS position (unless you happen to get lucky). = bad.

 

[lotec]

yea my chains all of .5 mm too short to run my axle in the shortes CS position so i gotta add a link and run it like an inch back :evil:

 

[S.]

yea my chains all of .5 mm too short to run my axle in the shortes CS position so i gotta add a link and run it like an inch back :evil:

Is there any room to file out the stays a tiny bit? Might be able to do it just enough to run the chain tight properly there.

 

[naz]

SS, the reduced range only makes your pedalling more effeciant and beefs your legs up, no more dropped chains, no more chain slap, riding around you can enjoy the sound of your freewheel, less thinking about dropping a chain or gears skipping, more time focusing on jumpn, NO CHAIN GUIDE is needed :wink:

Yeah, but then you don't get to run your rear axle in the shortest CS position (unless you happen to get lucky). = bad.

i got lucky :wink:

 

[Dane]

hmm i want to go single speed so do i need new ?

you certainly do!

 

[_J_]

Single Speed all the way. As they say "one speed is all you need" is true, i have 2004 P1 and luuuv it, I'll never go back to gears. Reason: no chain bounce, smoother, lighter and silence!!

 

[ajay]

I put gears on.

But i think i dont want em anymore.

Too much noise and skipping gears and chain bounce etc

But i want to race 4x

FARK(in)

Back to square one

SS or gears? hhmm[/quote]

 

[jays_5000]

If you already have the gears, just go to your LBS, pick up a bunch of cassette spacers, if you need a chain tensioner, it's probably better to buy a proper one, maybe even buy a beefy BMX chain and then you can quite cheaply swap between SS and gears no hassles at all...

 

[wombat]

SS is tough and simple, great for some things, but it really comes down to the sort of riding that you want to do. If by urban you just mean gaps and manuals and some grinds you'll be fine, but if you're interested in linking it together with some trialsy type stuff then you'll be much happier with the extra range offered by a 8/9 speed setup.

 

[Dougy]

I'm running SS for urban, steps, gaps, etc and also for dirt jumping. It's really good for all of the above reasons but if you want to ride trails you may want to think about gears. With 60psi slicks and 38/16 my bike is super smooth and great to ride on pavement/park but with 35psi dirt tyres it can be a bitch to climb on single tracks. It's great for DJ but on loose or root-covered single track gears make life much easier.