Single speed bikes

[jim_the_chin]

I think they should be banned on London streets.

My experience of watching other cyclists daily suggests they are responsible for the majority of law-breaking behaviour. The riders are not motivated to stop at lights or zebra crossings as they lose momentum. In doing that they give us all a bad reputation and make other road users more aggressive towards cyclists.

Single speed bikes are designed for tracks and should not be allowed on public streets.

[snowy]

"The riders are not motivated to stop at lights or zebra crossings as they lose momentum"

Surely that applies to all bikes, and also to cars in my experience.

[Annette Curtain]

Whatever next Jim.

Mothers with phones/buggies.

Uglys in bars looking at pretty people.

It's human nature i'm afraid.

What kind of bike do you ride BTW ?

NETTE

[katie1997]

So Nette obviously got a new single speed bike for Christmas....

I don't think the cyclists that whizz through red lights are restricted only to those with single speed bikes either.

[womanofdulwich]

but bit not having gears does make it harder to start off again.

[jim_the_chin]

I ride gears, I thought about joining the cool kids once and tried sticking in one gear to see what it was like. Obviously, it was totally unsuited to stop/start riding.

I'll do a fair poll tonight on my ride home and count who busts lights/crossings. I'll include my one transgression (i'm not a saint)

[snowy]

Its the people riding Penny Farthings that I don't trust. Not only is it a fixed gear, but it takes ages to climb up and down on to them.

Ban Them! Ban Them! If I Don't Understand Gear Inches, Ban Them!

[granadaland]

You mean Fixed Gear bikes I take it.

Single speed bikes can freewheel, have brakes, and are not allowed on the track.

[jim_the_chin]

Well, results are in and the score on the ride home tonight was 11-3. That's 11 geared bikes and 3 single speeds breaking the law. But that was 3/5 single speeds that I saw.

I'll repeat this in the morning when all the meeja types are out and about on their singles.

[ultraburner]

Agreed, fixies (but not singlespeed) are not fit to be on the road imo, at least the state of the bikes that I see some people riding.

Five inch wide handlebars... wtf? I know its for squeezing through gaps etc, but how does that work when your waist/shoulders are at least double that eh(?)

Imagine trying to drive a car with a steering wheel the size of beermat:-S

[Undisputedtruth]

jim_the_chin Wrote:

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> Single speed bikes are designed for tracks and

> should not be allowed on public streets.

Not true, the single speed phenomenon these days originated from courier bikers. Extra gears meant extra maintenance costs.

[Annette Curtain]

katie1997 Wrote:

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> So Nette obviously got a new single speed bike for

> Christmas....

Well...

I actually prefer...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/images/episode/b00vkw55_640_360.jpg

[jim_the_chin]

Aren't the five inch handlebars for getting bikes in and out of city dwellings? I could certainly do with less bars when bringing the bike through my terraced house hallway.

What has suprised me a bit about this counting law-breakers thing is there aren't many. By far the majority of cyclists are law abiding.

[Senor Chevalier]

It is idiots on bikes that run red lights at silly times when pedestrians are crossing or when it is utterly inappropriate that give all cyclists a bad name and encourage people to object to all rule breakers - even conscientious rule benders who carefully roll through left hand turns on red lights or through cross roads to get out of the way of a revving white van when there is a green man in the side street so you know it is safe to cross whilst of course deferring to pedestrians at all times and being polite. If cyclists used judgement and only broke the rules carefully and respectfully rather than selfishly things would be better. I realise that as I sit there cursing the tosser cyclists behaving like idiots there are others who probably curse me for my misdemeanours (rules is rules) but I think there genuinely is a difference.

[Huguenot]

"Not true, the single speed phenomenon these days originated from courier bikers. Extra gears meant extra maintenance costs."

That has to be an award winning case of post rationalisation. The best I've seen in years. This is going to be followed by several posts with UDT furiously defending this patently ludicrous statement.

[nashoi]

I thought the current fashion for single speed bikes started in Kingston (Jamaica, not upon Thames) where it was about cost, then spread to New York and London via the courier scene.

[Annette Curtain]

I do rather fancy a go on this single speed "contraption"

http://www.einradladen.com/shop/images/product_images/info_images/ei1046.jpg

[ultraburner]

Huguenot Wrote:

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> >

> That has to be an award winning case of post

> rationalisation. The best I've seen in years. This

> is going to be followed by several posts with UDT

> furiously defending this patently ludicrous

> statement.

No, he is actually right.

The tw@s you see bombing red lights with tiny bars, rolled up jeans and wearing a rapha courier bag arent really trying to emulate track cyclists, are they?

Sure, track bikes have only one gear and have been around for longer, but its not the reason everyone rides these stupid things.

Still, anything that gets people onto two wheels must be good i spose.

[Huguenot]

Nah - it's like saying everyone started wearing Nike Air because the athletes started wearing them for their performance advantages.

It's all spin from top to bottom. It's just posing and one upmanship. The performance thing is just something you claim to make you look like a cool hyperperformance athlete that attracts lots of girls.

It's like the red light jumping - it's only part down to he need for speed. It's just as much a macho demonstration that the rules that apply to everyone else don't apply to them, because they are supermenand they are immortal.

[snowy]

Huguenot Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> It's all spin from top to bottom. It's just posing

> and one upmanship. The performance thing is just

> something you claim to make you look like a cool

> hyperperformance athlete that attracts lots of

> girls.

>

It depends on your level of one upmanship. I have bikes from the fifties with a six speed block on one side and a fixed cog on the other - the cassette was used for summer club runs, the fixed side for winter training. I don't suppose they were doing it for the adulation of their East London peers.

I'm more concerned by trendoids riding single speed with only a front brake.

[trizza]

People I know who have single speeds buy them for one or more of the following reasons:

- Style

- Price. A SS bike with a good frame is usually cheaper than a good bike with gears - why? The cost of the gears of course. It's possible to get a decent light SS bike for the same price as a low end hybrid with gears.

- Maintenance. No gears = lower maintenance costs, particulary if the bike is being used frequently and left outside for extended periods.

As for red lights, yes those on SS bikes may be more included to skip them because of gearing issues, but that's the same for many cyclists who want to keep their momentum going. Another big factor is whether the bike has clip in pedals - stopping means unclipping. This is a bit of a faff, particulary at busy junctions.

At the end of the day a lot of cyclists skip red lights but as a daily cycle commuter I don't think those SS bikes are any worse than those on racers, hybrids or mountain bikes.

I do not think fixies are a suitable commuter bike - pedal backward to brake!! That said' I wouldn't commute on anything that didn't have disc brakes...

[binary_star]

Yup, I ride a single speed bike for a few reasons, none of which have anything to do with style...if you saw my bike there's nothing 'cool' about it, it's a brown turd-like colour for a start. It's cheaper to maintain though - I get a ?20 discount on servicing and don't have to worry about those pesky gears. Oh and I don't jump reds. I'm not a fixed rider though maybe if I was I'd turn into a law breaker, who knows.

[malumbu]

Perhaps those of you who loath single speed bikes, and blame the riders for the financial crisis may wish to take it up with the London club that represents them. They have a forum and no doubt lots of helpful info: www.lfgss.com/

PS my last single speed was when I was 6, but I also rode a lovely postie's bike when doing Xmas deliveries in the 80s.

[Huguenot]

Maintenance? A bike? Make me laugh....

[binary_star]

Well I'll grant that bikes don't need that much maintenance but having only one gear reduces that to near zero! My bike is my commute, so it needs maintaining more often than the car. I only commute 75 miles a week, but even still it needs servicing every 6 months. I used to have a geared bike and I would never go back, not for commuting in London. You can laugh but if you've less parts to break, you've less to replace so save time off the bike and money too. My local shop services my bike for a mere ?40, but that goes up to ?60 for geared bikes. It's not that much money, but a 50% markup adds up over time. I've gone through a fair few chains as well but derailleur gears cause much more wear to the chain and are a pain in the ass all round for going wrong. It's a no brainer to me.