Originally Posted by
LarrySellerz
I'm sick of my bikes breaking and I need to commute in the rain etc, don't like maintenance. I want my commuter bike to be the same bike that I race on.
Separately, there are training benefits to riding single speed with fast groups. It forces you to be comfortable with a dynamic cadence and exposes inefficiencies in your pedaling style.
I'm not sure the answer to frames breaking. Some riders can go a lifetime without a frame breaking, then others can destroy several, including different materials.
Starting with new, good quality, never wrecked equipment may help, as long as you don't crash on it. Continuing riding on a crashed frame with potential hidden damage can be problematic.
I think some of the professional track cyclists are hard on equipment, but then again, their sponsor would just replace whatever breaks and the cyclists keep riding. Perhaps even supply new equipment for major events. So it would be worth following whatever the pro track riders are riding.
I'm not convinced a single speed is the answer, that you'll always be jumping between too high of gearing and too low of gearing. I can, or used to be able to climb in pretty high gears. But, I'd struggle simply riding up my driveway with a 48:16. And undoubtedly it would put both myself and my bike under a lot of stress.