I've played with dinglespeeds and tringlespeeds and the thing is that nothing feels like a 1FG bike.
I mean, 1x6, 1x7 with a single ring, super-short cage rear derailleur, and a similar range to the 15-36t I'm running here would be awesome on a hardtail but it still requires rewiring the brain.
I've a half-drafted MEATengines piece about my experience with single-speed gearing as I've aged out of pushing the biggest f***ing gear I can drive up climb-X, and maybe you've already tried this, but have you played around with lower gearing?
I hurt my ankle bizarrely about three years ago trail building and I could ride comfortably (and hard) within a couple of days but unclipping was uncomfortable/inconsistent so I switched to running flats and that required a much easier gear than I could throttle up the hill clipped in (I obviously pulled up a lot as I was destroying shoes fairly regularly ripping the cleat pockets out). I switched to 22t cog in the back and it was awesome. I was certainly slower but hey - I was getting out on the SS.
When my ankle was better I went back to clips but left the gearing and other than the road I was happier everywhere and then when I started running flats all the time on my Walt V2 I dropped the front ring to a 30t oval so I'm now running 30x22t. Honestly, 30x22t isn't any more frustrating on the road than 32x22t was and I'm having a riot on the trail. When I can't push that I'll put on a 23t, then a 24t, and so forth.
Anyways, if you've already tried different gearing then try 1x7 but if you haven't tried putting a less-macho gear on the SS then I highly recommend it!
March 15, 2021, 9:53 p.m. - Andrew Major
I've played with dinglespeeds and tringlespeeds and the thing is that nothing feels like a 1FG bike. I mean, 1x6, 1x7 with a single ring, super-short cage rear derailleur, and a similar range to the 15-36t I'm running here would be awesome on a hardtail but it still requires rewiring the brain. I've a half-drafted MEATengines piece about my experience with single-speed gearing as I've aged out of pushing the biggest f***ing gear I can drive up climb-X, and maybe you've already tried this, but have you played around with lower gearing? I hurt my ankle bizarrely about three years ago trail building and I could ride comfortably (and hard) within a couple of days but unclipping was uncomfortable/inconsistent so I switched to running flats and that required a much easier gear than I could throttle up the hill clipped in (I obviously pulled up a lot as I was destroying shoes fairly regularly ripping the cleat pockets out). I switched to 22t cog in the back and it was awesome. I was certainly slower but hey - I was getting out on the SS. When my ankle was better I went back to clips but left the gearing and other than the road I was happier everywhere and then when I started running flats all the time on my Walt V2 I dropped the front ring to a 30t oval so I'm now running 30x22t. Honestly, 30x22t isn't any more frustrating on the road than 32x22t was and I'm having a riot on the trail. When I can't push that I'll put on a 23t, then a 24t, and so forth. Anyways, if you've already tried different gearing then try 1x7 but if you haven't tried putting a less-macho gear on the SS then I highly recommend it!