Why everything you think about singlespeed is wrong
It's the 21st century; we have gears now
I never know quite what to make of singlespeed reviews. Normally, the process is simple: reviewer tests Thing X, lays out the pros and cons in text that everyone ignores, and finishes with a score that everyone argues is wrong. See? Simple. It’s how the universe has always worked.
Whether Thing X is a mountain bike, a thermonuclear weapon or a wrist-mounted canister that can trap and cryogenically store clowns* (to name the first three things off the top of my head), reviewing remains simple: how well does Thing X do what it sets out to do?
But it’s only simple until you get to singlespeed mountain bikes.
The problem here is, if you review a singlespeed as a mountain bike, it should get a terrible score – no matter how well it’s built. That’s because it’s a terrible mountain bike due to having a 3mph operational window on purpose.
Yet nobody reviews them that way, despite many SS bikes combining the ability to be in the wrong gear almost all the time with an inability to soak up bumps, on account of having no suspension, either. Apparently this atavistic approach is all very pure. Strength through joy, and all that. Hey wait, that SS moniker is starting to make sense…