# Faster on Single Speed?



## OldZaskar (Jul 1, 2009)

I know this has come up before. But A. it's been a while and B. Not like this sub-forum is overrun with threads ;-)

I have been riding my Klein as a single speed for about 8 years. I alternate between it and a geared bike. On paper, it should be no match - the geared bike is a carbon Scott Addict SL, Dura-Ace / Ultegra mix, DA wheels, 2x11... The SS is a 1996 Klein Stage with the cast-offs from Scott as it's been upgraded, e.g. 6800 crank, Ksyrium wheels. 

But I swear (!) I'm faster on the damn single speed on any ride under 50 miles... well, not any ride. Mountains or the beach would suck.

I typically ride the single speed on weekday club rides - 20-25 miles, 1,500-2,000' of elev, pace around 21mph. 

Anyone else experience this? Think it's just that old "When you have only one gear, ya gotta gut it out" thing?


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## David Loving (Jun 13, 2008)

What gearing?


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## JCavilia (Sep 12, 2005)

OldZaskar said:


> Anyone else experience this? Think it's just that old "When you have only one gear, ya gotta gut it out" thing?


Probably that. And "I swear I'm faster" without any real quantitative data could just be a perception thing -- you may feel like like you're faster, but not actually be faster.


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## OldZaskar (Jul 1, 2009)

53:15 / 92.8

I do capture all the data from those rides - on both single speed and geared bikes, but the variances (I'm convinced) can be attributed as much to other factors, e.g. who else is on the ride that day, how many lights we catch...

To your point, without a power meter or a few solo efforts... it's going to be tough know


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## dwt (Apr 2, 2002)

Frankly no. I'll stick with the fact that it's counter-intuitive. I'm geared low @44:17 so I'd have to pedal furiously on flats DH or rolling terrain to keep up with geared riders. Uphill a tad easier to keep up. But overall a lot of effort and a recipe for bonking. So, being slower I usually ride my road SS alone, and when I flip the hub to fixed always alone. I'm better off on group rides on my mtb SS, than my road SS. Not faster but better able to hang on. 
Partly an age thing going on, and definitely a motivation thing I'm not into working so hard anymore 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## RRRoubaix (Aug 27, 2008)

For me, it depends. Lots of climbing and downhills? Nope. But a flatter route w/ minimal climbing? Yes!
Why? Well, I think it's mostly mental and always trying to keep on top of the gear, always striving to maintain momentum- I'm always "on it", rather than slacking off as I (apparently) do on my geared bikes.


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## Natedogz (Aug 25, 2010)

I feel faster in general on my SS fixed gear, almost feels like it's pedaling itself sometimes. But over longer ride I think from my general time observations with my phone, that I'm faster on the geared roadbike. Past couple years I mostly only ride my fixed gear road bike, I just like it better.


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## DrSmile (Jul 22, 2006)

dwt said:


> Frankly no. I'll stick with the fact that it's counter-intuitive. I'm geared low @44:17 so I'd have to pedal furiously on flats DH or rolling terrain to keep up with geared riders. Uphill a tad easier to keep up. But overall a lot of effort and a recipe for bonking. So, being slower I usually ride my road SS alone, and when I flip the hub to fixed always alone. I'm better off on group rides on my mtb SS, than my road SS. Not faster but better able to hang on.
> Partly an age thing going on, and definitely a motivation thing I'm not into working so hard anymore


Interesting, I have very similar gearing (44/18, I'm even more of a wuss...) and I purposely ride the SS bike on crazy hot days because I think it's less effort to ride. On flats I ride a comfortable 18-19mph spin pace, 17 if there is even a hint of headwind. and anything downhill I just tuck and coast. I feel the coasting is what keeps me from exerting as much effort, because I wind up coasting much longer than on a geared bike, partly because I wind up coasting uphill further before I can pedal, and partly because the top speed while coasting is lower because I can't really keep up after 23mph. There are many downhill sections where I coast on the SS while I pedal on the geared bike the entire time. Obviously this is a problem for fixie, no idea how I'd ride the steeper hills down so I don't really do fixie because I live on a giant 600 ft vertical climb. 

Uphill I have no doubt that SS is more efficient. The chainline and lack of derailleur make for the most efficient drivetrain possible. If you consider a 100% flat road like a track and you gear the bike to your most efficient cadence, you'd go the fastest on that setup. For real road riding you have to ease the gearing a bit to be able to go uphill, so your most efficient cycling is going to be somewhere on an uphill grade, for me it's on maybe 3 to 5% climbs where I can keep going 14-16mph where the geared bike might be stuck at 13. Overall I am slightly slower on SS, but the extra 2 or 3 minutes an hour are worth it if I can look around instead of shifting, plus I don't have to worry about very much maintenance. And I probably should add that my SS is a road bike conversion that weighs less than 14lbs with pedals so it's pretty nice to go uphill on.


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## RRRoubaix (Aug 27, 2008)

Did an easy 40 mile gravel ride today w/ my wife and a friend, a novice gravel rider. We took it easy.
It's railroad grade- 1% uphill for 20 miles. During all that time, I was spinning at 75rpm, really almost a recovery ride. 
So effortless I could have done it for many hours!
BUT
On the way back... simple -1% grade... but I had to spin at 100rpm to hold 17mph! MAN that was tough for 40 miles!
I was so happy to be done.


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## jason124 (Jul 25, 2006)

I have been pondering taking my single speed for my daily commute (now that its actually serviceable), and as a proof of concept, I used the closest ratio I have on my commuter (36:16 on the SS, 38:17 on my commuter, because I am the biggest wuss of them all), I did get home and get to work a little faster and I attribute it to maintaining a more stable average speed.

When I am using gears, my top speed is up to 27 mph, but then when I am slogging through sections, I am also slower. With the SS ratio, I max out at 21, but I am not dropping as low in my slower sections. Just my observations.


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## jtompilot (Mar 31, 2002)

RRRoubaix said:


> Did an easy 40 mile gravel ride today w/ my wife and a friend, a novice gravel rider. We took it easy.
> It's railroad grade- 1% uphill for 20 miles. During all that time, I was spinning at 75rpm, really almost a recovery ride.
> So effortless I could have done it for many hours!
> BUT
> ...


In 2001 when I started riding at age 44 Lance was spinning like a made man so I started training to spin. I was surprised how short a time it took to up my normal cadence to 100 rpm. After a year I could spin for an hour at 120. My SS gearing 44-16 I could hang in a group at 25 mph. I'm 5'10" and weigh 165 so maybe it's easier to spin for me.


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## KeithNorCal (Oct 10, 2016)

RRRoubaix said:


> For me, it depends. Lots of climbing and downhills? Nope. But a flatter route w/ minimal climbing? Yes!
> Why? Well, I think it's mostly mental and always trying to keep on top of the gear, always striving to maintain momentum- I'm always "on it", rather than slacking off as I (apparently) do on my geared bikes.


This is basically my experience as well. On my singlespeed I feel faster on everything but the hilliest of routes.


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## OldZaskar (Jul 1, 2009)

jAfter a year I could spin for an hour at 120. My SS gearing 44-16 I could hang in a group at 25 mph. I'm 5'10" and weigh 165 so maybe it's easier to spin for me.[/QUOTE said:


> Damn. I don't see how you do that - averaging 25 usually implies time at 15 and time at 30 mph.
> 
> I run the 53:15 because of that upper end. I do group rides (1-3 hours, 20-24 mph) and it's the times on the fast flats to slight downhills - just flat enough that the group's pedaling, but downhill enough that we're going 28-34 mph - that require (for me) that bigger gear. Keeping up on those sections has me spinning at 115-120. That'd have you near 160! I wouldn't be able to keep my ass on the saddle.


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