So, ever since committing to singlespeed a while ago I have been really hooked. I had a couple of post a while ago in regards to what makes them beat the way they do. Our dear friend A.G. has been studying Physical Therapy and she gave me the term "Law of Parsimony". I am going to look that up. I was thinking that when a geared bike of today, say with either 20 gears (2x10),30(3x10), or 2x11 always gives you the perfect gear to follow that magical cadence number that everyone professes.
So, if so rider is travelling at 20mph and the terrain is ondulating this rider uses his gears to keep that cadence and that speed. I understand that the rider uses the same muscles and muscle groups to achieve this. When the rider hits a long hill he will shift to the lower gears and try to keep that cadence up.
To me, and I might be completely wrong, the singlespeed rider is spinning like crazy to keep a certain speed. I think singlespeeding is like a Yo-YO. Speed up, coast, rev up again, coast, hill coming up, out of the saddle, crazy hill, out of the saddle and muscles. Extreme hill, off the bike and walk. Hey at this point you stretch your legs and gluts.
I am explaining my point or not?? After riding the death ride which was 140 miles I finished the ride tired but to be honest I was quite fresh. That was aboard the Selma pushing a 34x18. On the Demi Dirt I was aboard the Quickbeam turning a 42x18 for 200 miles. I am starting to become a believer that singlespeeds don't tire a riders a much as a geared bike. Do I use gears wrong? Is it Psychological??
I would love to hear more thoughts on this.
Ari
Headquarters for the Slender Fungus Cycling Association
Brewers of Hardy Rides.
4 comments:
Occam's razor. achieving the greatest results while minimizing inputs. the siglespeed is occam's razor applied to cycling.
K.I.S.S.--keep it simple stupid
i think parsimony is a good rule to have in your life.
Rode my SS this morning before work. Felt sore and shitty when I started. Felt great when I rolled back in the driveway. Minus my obvious climbing limitations, singlespeed is the way to go!
Bonk King
I have a simple one that I run at about 55 inches. Sometimes I run a sturmey archer 2 speed kickback, at 55 and 73 inches. Really love the 2 speed. Always thinking I NEED more gears, but when I ride a bike with gears it never seems easier. Just more fiddling about with the shifting, that gets old for me. The single speed is hard, but it never beats me down and I always arrive feeling tired but fresh? I don't understand it, although it seems a more natural way of riding, after all runners don't gear down on a hill they simply put out in a little more effort.
When i was a kid all we had were single speeds (we just called em bikes). Any bike with gears was called a 10 speed.
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