I have been doing the off-road SS thing for about 9 months, with some touches of 1x9.
When I used the 1x9, I found myself keeping it in a gear similar to the SS, especially when climbing. I preferred to stand for the majority of climbs. I only shifted when I was on the flats. Otherwise, I was stuck in one gear. Now both MTBs are in SS mode!!
Now, I find myself converting my "road" bike to a 2x1, because I have two front chainrings and I want to climb some hills, occasionally.
With nine months of SS, I feel like whatever spin I had is slowly going away, but now I feel that I have more power.
How has riding SS effected your geared riding? Or do you even ride geared anymore?
when i ride geared i find that I always have to tell myself to shift. I will be spinning away on the flats when I realize that i can actually shift to a harder gear. Then I find myself coming out of a corner in too hard of a gear, standing and mashing for awhile to get back up to my comfort spin and settle in again.
Off course after a little time on a geared bike i find myself reaching for my shifter on the SS whenever I need to speed up and catch someone. Muscle memory is a *****.
ss made geared bikes seem to boring/easy, so now I almost never ride bikes with gears, but when i do you better believe i make motorcycle noises as i work through the gears.
I find geared bikes too hard. Always having the power on is tough on your Quads. SS is much easier, most of the time. Unless the hill is really long and steep.
I started riding ss in February this year, and in June I had to switch back to geared for about 3 weeks. That's when I had the same feeling. And that made me like SS even more.
I have been doing the off-road SS thing for about 9 months, with some touches of 1x9.
When I used the 1x9, I found myself keeping it in a gear similar to the SS, especially when climbing. I preferred to stand for the majority of climbs. I only shifted when I was on the flats. Otherwise, I was stuck in one gear. Now both MTBs are in SS mode!!
Now, I find myself converting my "road" bike to a 2x1, because I have two front chainrings and I want to climb some hills, occasionally.
With nine months of SS, I feel like whatever spin I had is slowly going away, but now I feel that I have more power.
How has riding SS effected your geared riding? Or do you even ride geared anymore?
I don't down shift when preparing for a hill, I get myself in higher gears and put a max of momentum in the beginning, then slowly downgrade as the climb goes on... If I downgrade. Heavy bikes are good at keeping momentum when climbing :thumbsup:
I basically found shifters really annoying; and moved them so far inward that it takes effort to shift them... last time I rode it, i stuck it in 32x16 and rode it the entire way
I haven't ridden gears in a long time. I tried 1 x 9 and really disliked it. I'm not saying one is better than the other. It depends on the individual as some love gears. I can't stand them.
I think that I used to be pretty good at timing shifts, but now I'm useless at it. My rides are spilt about 50/50 geared/ss, but on the geared bike the only time I shift now is to gear up on flats. On hills I stand and mash my way up, and occasionally I'm geared too high and then I'm hooped.
I ss from nov-march, occasionally getting in a road ride and less frequently still, a geared ride. I find ss helps my core and upper body strength considerably yet doesn't provide the same cardio workout quality as my geared bike. shifting/not shifting takes very little time to readjust.
I built up a SS in Jan of '07 and put gears on it for a few weeks prior to and for the Hut Trip that summer. Went back to SS as soon as I got home, and that was the last time I have ridden gears off-road (except for demo days or test rides) since. I do ride gears on the road, but tend to ride a bit taller than I did years ago. I work better at a slightly harder/slower effort when climbing anyway... I still like having gears on the road, but a totally different experience. SS is the way to go off-road for me.
SS made me, in a matter of days, pick better lines even on my geared/suspended bike.
And it made me appreciate momentum more, making me hit the brakes less.
Two of my three bikes are singlespeed: the mtb is a simple singlespeed, and the commuter is a simpler fixed gear. I have the mtb geared a bit higher that most, and the fixed gear geared a bit lower than most, so I end up spinning 120+ RPM when commuting. It provides a nice enough balance between anaerobic and aerobic workouts.
And then I hop on the geared road bike, and I keep forgetting to shift. I'd rather spin hella fast on the flats and then charge up the hills. I'm thinking I'll see some intervals on the road bike soon, though. I hate having to actually train for races.
SS riding has made me get rid of my full susser because i always want to stand on hills and a hardtail is much better for this, i also always seem to push a bigger gear on the geared bike now.
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