Happy Feet

I'm going to check that out. Thanks 😊

JadeHel

I live in the land of the steep hills - Northwest Indiana.

I also ride exclusively fixed gear. The real key is in your gear ratio. My bikes are 46x16 and 48x17. These aren't really great for climbing but they're perfectly serviceable with a bit of effort. I won't lie to you, there are some between where I am and where I need to be that are steep enough to make even the most dedicated fixed gear enthusiast reconsider (there's one hill that I swear has 300 feet of elevation and is just long enough to be annoying).

But even moreso than your gear ratio, you need to have the right attitude. It'll do you no good to focus on how much it sucks to climb hills. Instead think of how fun it will be to reap your rewards and absolutely bomb the hill as you come down the other side!

Sorcerer

I'm 61 and SS mtb in the SF Bay Area, and it is hilly here. Been at it for more than a decade. I still have a couple geared bikes for certain things, like the gnarly stuff, but mostly I like flowy trails.


I'm fairly new to this forum and it's interesting to see others here around 60 years old on this thread. Makes sense though. Maybe like me, I've been riding for decades and just before I turned 50 I decided it was time to really see if I could push an SS gear on the trails here while I still had a crack at it, and was a little bit over the "arms-race" of ever improving mountain bike stuff and the same old basic trail systems. Trails are more interesting on a rigid single speed to me.


At the moment I'm recovering from an ankle surgery which was needed because apparently I had an old heel bone chip which grew of years and started to wedge into the joint and lock it up. Otherwise I'd be riding right now.


I'm pretty sure I'll be back to riding hard again.


A couple of years ago I built a single speed bike to ride to work on. I've always commuted on a geared bike for more than three decades, using gears because that's what one does, and also thinking that it saves time to have the gear range.


At first I switched back and forth between the gears and SS. But now the SS (actually a dingle that stays in the tall gear) has become the go to commuter bike. I guess the next logical step is to go fixed. Maybe next year. Makes sense to me. I'd need to build a new wheel or get a different bike or flip flop one of the mountain bike SSs.


But back to being in a hilly area, honestly where I live it's both. The city is flat, but the hills around it are hilly. We have small mountains. I live on the west side of the valley so when I ride onto the dirt I head west from home about 245 feet above sea level into the Coastal Range Santa Cruz Mountains which go up to about 2,800 feet. The dirt roads and trails have a variety of challenges for which I think 34x20 or lower is around where I want to be. Since it's not too far to the dirt, the pavement on the way up takes 15 minutes of warm up in that spinny slow approach.


I don't see a lot of other riders on SS around here. Nowadays the Gravel bikes, and especially the eBikes are in the ascendant. Most of the trails aren't very technical around here. This has it's up and down sides. The up-side is that the big travel enduro cyclists don't come here because of the hills that they must climb for the wimpy flowy downhills, which means there are less mountain bikers here (there are other places they go, which require an hour of driving to get to). Actually there is no downside as far as I can tell.


Being a lucky person who has been able to travel the world a little and ride trails in various places I am struck in retrospect with how good riding is and can be no matter almost anywhere people live. I used to think riding must be so good somewhere else and spent a lot of time going to places to ride far and wide. But it's all riding, and we can make it any way we want.


Usually I'd rather spend 6 hours on my single speed riding from home than loading up, driving an hour, riding for 2-3 hours and then driving home. And if I lived on Manhattan or Lenexa KS, or whatever, I would have a bike just for riding from home that matches the situation.


Of course variety is the spice of life. That's why I have 4 single speeds and some other bikes.

Sorcerer

Hey Miele Man, what kind of elevated chainstay frame is that? Is it a Nishiki Alien or what? I recently saw an old Alpine Stars elevated chainstay bike for sale, but I think they wanted too much for it, not to mention that I can't think of a good way to make it a fixed gear bike unless I sought a magic gear. Anyway, nice dog too.

Miele Man

It's not an elevated chainstay. that frame is an old Velo Sport that has an aero seatube and downtube and was originally equipped with the Shimano Adamas AX aero groupset circa 1981 - 1983.

Here's an image of the entire bicycle after conversion to a single-speed.


Cheers

trail_monkey

This is what I have around me and yes I single speed. The pic with the cyclist going down the hill is not me. It's a competitor from my 2020 gravel race.

sorenmad

I started riding SS in Vancouver [after 2-3 decades geared, 51yo] regularly in early May. Im 175cm [a bit under 5' 9"] small boned, and weighed about 190 at the time

36 jeans were getting too tight.. My gut was bigger than Randy on trailer park boys..

by july I had a 2 pack abs [150 lbs] and upgraded my fuji feather for a ratty 08 felt TK2.

In late September I unexpectedly moved to North Vancouver, which of course has much more climbing than DT.

Turns out just doable with the gear I showed up on,, [49] front ring, I think 17 rear. 172.5 cranks make it possible..

but unlike a the other guy, roadies [and commuters on cross bikes] blow by me uphill, but thats ok, im having fun and not in a hurry.

I can crawl up Keith hill without getting winded or sore, but [crawling] riding up Chesterfield is a good workuot.

and ya the exercise, my legs have gone from 135 pound weakling legs to almost roadie legs.

that never happened with a road bike.

and oh, never bomb Lonsdale in the daytime..