Re: SS vs Gears: The debate

i'm sure you could debate this all day long. i have both a 29er rigid that i ride ss and geared and a full 4in squishy geared 26in bike. So i do think the ss pushes you and makes you use a larger gear so you go faster most of the times (until you do spin out). The downside to using a larger gear is you use your muscle differently and different energy pathway for your fuel substance. The lower cadence you have to use on your ss to get you up the same hill will use up your "fuel reserve" or "matches" faster than someone using a higher cadence. You build up more lactic acid in the legs because the muscle is using less oxygen during the formation of ATP while using the fast twitch muscles a ss requires to go up the hill with lower cadence. similar to a sprinter vs a marathon runner. It is faster but over the long haul its gonna get more tired. So if your looking at shorter distances that doesn't require as much effort with hills i would say heck yeah my ss is faster. if your talking about longer mile mtb rides i would start to doubt it. Now other factors come into play with this as well. a heavier person vs a lighter person on a ss would be huge. the heavier person would require more from the fast twitch muscles on their ss to get up hills. probably why you don't see many clydsdale ssers.

Now on the fully rigid geared bike vs geared squishy bike. There are places that my fully rigid bike does better than my squishy bike. It is lighter and can climb like a champ compared to my geared bike. But when we are talking a rooty rocky trail. hands down my squishy bike is faster. Although sometimes it may not feel like it, it is. You hit square bumps with the rigid bike and you slow down sometimes your wrists even take the impact where you are slowing down. The squishy bike sucks them up and you keep going over with no wrist pain. Some argue with better line this better line that but thats not always the case. sometimes on some trails there is no better line.

So some places i think my 29er rigid ss bike setup is faster on other places my geared squishy bike is faster at other places my 29er rigid geared bike is faster. It all depends on the location, distance, and what you've been training on i guess. Not one is better than the other for everyone at every location.

Re: SS vs Gears: The debate

I ride for fun Jack ol boy...but I'll say this...most of the racing pros I see in MB mag run multi-gear set-ups...if SS were truly faster I think guys like Antslow would show up at Waverly sporting two gears... don't you think... tell me if I'm wrong, but there's my simple headed logic...

peace