mixed feelings on geared bikes

[FRANSIT]

So I got this sick Colnago cross bike, my first geared bike since a Peugeot mountain bike in 5th grade, and decided to waste away this morning bein' all shifty and impervious to the weather.  Great fun, went through Fair Park over to Oak Cliff, and decided to cap it off with a trip to the Lakewood area Whole Foods for some coffee and much-needed (by then) hippy deodorant (orange and patchouli!  delicious armpits!) and I JUST ABOUT MADE IT, like a quarter-mile left up Gaston when CRUNCHUNKA some damn thing or another in that rear derailleur fell off, encouraging the rest of it to wrap around the cassette and slow me way down way fast in the misty monday morning rush hour. 

Shit Fuck Balls.

There was literally no way I was going to walk the however far back to the shop with those slippy roadie tap shoes on, so I rearranged the thing into a not-for-shit single speed that periodically decided to shift anyway (for fun, I guess) and gimped back here to dry clothes.

I mean, I had a blast anyway, but damn.  Fixed-gear does sometimes seem legitimately practical.

[mikey]

Ouch! So sorry to hear the troubles! Glad u made it back!!

[Jaegerwulf]

Yeah, that can happen.  I frequently find myself riding my Dahon Boardwalk Single Speed (has a coaster brake... kinda cool more than my trek hybrid.  Especially in Dallas where the only hills are overpasses, single speed and fixed gear pretty much cover it.

[jjo5656]

yeah i had a old 80s road bike that i thought was fine until i took it to white rock with some friends and the rear dérailleur wrapped around the cassette and the front derailleur snapped...

so i'm done with road bikes

[mikey]

yeah i had a old 80s road bike that i thought was fine until i took it to white rock with some friends and the rear dérailleur wrapped around the cassette and the front derailleur snapped...

so i'm done with road bikes

That sucks.

[519]

Set your shifters/derailleurs up properly!

True, there is very little that can go wrong in a ss drivetrain.

There is also very little that can go wrong in a properly tuned geared drivetrain.

I'd bet any of you could ride much faster on gears.

SS is great & adequate for most DFW applications, but why make a point of swearing off geared drivetrains?

Selectable gears were a technological development meant to make YOUR life easier as a cyclist.

[FRANSIT]

I guess the liberal sprinkling of irony above was less clear than it should have been.  For the record, I am not fast.  But I am way less unfast on a geared bike.  And she's back up and running now, courtesy of the redoubtable Omar.

Hot damn.

[519]

Irony not detected.
You will be fast on gears.
Is there any more humor I can suck out?