Single speed racing

[3narf]

It seems that people have a single speed bike for training or knocking about on, but is there any kind of competition we can do with one gear?

I'm thinking time trials, hillclimb etc.

 

[Pennine-Paul]

the only single speed competition I know of is ssuk,It's not quite the usual cycle
event seems to involve the consumption of copious amounts of alcohol

There are hill climbs but these tend to be for fixed wheel not single speeds,

If you want to do more cycling s/s than just your commute you could join up

with some of the informal rides at the weekend, was out last weekend with colinj

and a few others and had a great ride

 

[palinurus]

TTs: Some time-triallists ride fixed. No reason why you couldn't ride single speed either, but you'd need to run a bigger gear (probably, for all I know you might train and knock about on an 84" gear)

Cyclocross- if you have clearance for 'cross tyres (and mud) then cyclocross is possible on singlespeed (and there are some advantages with this setup too- less stuff to get clogged with mud). You will probably need to run a smaller gear, although one of the riders from my club does it on 42x16- and does it fairly well too. Season starts around September (although there are some summer leagues too)

Hillclimbs: Yeah, but the season is short. Many clubs run their hillclimbs in Late Sept, early October. There are some events at other times.

Grass-track racing? You couldn't really do this on your knocking around bike though.

Bicycle Polo?

 

[Supersonicscientist]

There is cycle speedway which is single speed track racing with no brakes .

 

[palinurus]

Oh yes. Search for that on YouTube- it's nuts.

I'd have a pop at that if I wasn't such an old bastard.

 

[Bayerd]

Haha, not seen that before, basically it's last man standing!....

 

[Smokin Joe]

Now there's an opportunity for someone. The Single Speed Racing Association.

I reckon it would take off for those who wanted a cheap way in to the sport. Metal frames only, no sprints and tubs or carbon wheels.

 

[Rob3rt]

TRACK! (If you ride fixed)

Other than that, you can ride in normal time trials, hill climbs, triathlon/duathlon, possibly even road racing (not sure of the rules re. single speed), all of the above suggestions etc



Or if you dont want to race "properly" there are loads of alley cats for hipsters who like to risk life and limb dodging through traffic in messenger style checkpoint races.

There are also a few fixed only criteriums around.

 

[mickle]

There's the Single Speed World Championships of course .... and BMX.... and the VCC with their penny farthings...

 

[2old2care]

Why not google the Medium Gear League, they time trial fixed/singlespeed bikes. Plus you can enter ordinary time trials on a fixed bike.

 

[totallyfixed]

I occasionally race my fixed against full TT bikes and have twice raced a hilly TT on it [75"], on one of those times I actually beat 11 others on gears which I am still chuffed about. The real test however is to ride a medium gear fixed [72"] over 25miles and beat the hour, not been done by many as it requires you to maintain a minimum average cadence of around the 115 mark.

 

[2old2care]

I occasionally race my fixed against full TT bikes and have twice raced a hilly TT on it [75"], on one of those times I actually beat 11 others on gears which I am still chuffed about. The real test however is to ride a medium gear fixed [72"] over 25miles and beat the hour, not been done by many as it requires you to maintain a minimum average cadence of around the 115 mark.

Yeah there is a site with similar feats, just shows that you can have too much choice as regards gears.

 

[frank9755]

Chris Boardman's record for 25 miles was set on fixed. It stood for a long time - was only beaten in 2009.

 

[iendicott]

I know someone who rides a single speed bike on time trials, he does well out of it.