When you were young and you got a new bike the first question anybody asked was 'how many gears has it got?'. As mountain bikes developed this number started to increase until the average mountain bike now has 27 gears (although in reality there are only around 14 different gear ratios available with those 27 different gear combinations) and it is even possible to run 30 gears.
Initially this seems counter-intuitive. Why make things harder for yourself when you could ride easy gears up the hills and push bigger gears faster downhill? For me it's one of those things that you need to try to fully appreciate. Once you've overcome the certainty that you need all those gears then you can start to enjoy the ride. If you want to go faster you pedal faster. If it gets steep you stand up. It's like riding a bike when you're a kid, it's all so much more natural. The bike is quieter as there's no loose chain flapping around banging off the chainstays. It responds more quickly too - partly because there's less mechanics between you and the back wheel so every pedal stroke has an immediate result, partly because you never end up at the bottom of a hill in a high gear or spinning out when you try to muscle the bike over an obstacle. Ok, that last points is more a result of my bad riding style!
Riding a singlespeed requires a bit more muscle than a geared bike but that's something that you quickly develop. It also uses more of your body - you sometimes have to pull your body down into the handlebars in an attempt to keep the pedals turning, so you come back from a ride aching as much in the arms as you are in the legs. Ironically it can often be faster than a geared bike over the same distance - you can't change down & take it easy up the hills so you need to keep a certain speed up just to keep the pedals turning. This of course makes it more fatiguing to ride. And if your regular ride involves a lengthy flat road section before you hit the hills then it may not be a wise choice - it's hard to find a gear ratio that's big enough to allow you to cruise comfortably on tarmac and still small enough to let you climb on dirt.
One of the benefits of singlespeeds is that the lack of gearing makes for a lighter, less cluttered looking bike
Although it's possible to buy a singlespeed off the shelf the majority of them have been built up by dedicated cyclists, which can lead to some fairly specialised & blinged-out bikes . Some people have built up blinglespeeds that not only jettison gears but also suspension
The carbon fibre forks on the front of this beauty flex slightly, which gives a modicum of suspension over rough ground. You would think that this makes it harder to ride, but the owner of this bike regularly smokes me on every downhill section of the trails. Then again he would probably do the same if he was riding a pogo stick.
You can also build blinglespeeds out of strange and exotic materials like titanium
The picture doesn't do this bike justice - if you look carefully you can see it has twisted top & down tubes. It's a stunning bike - you can't help but continually pick it up, just to remind yourself how light it is. Ti also apparently has a flex to it which gives it a unique feel.
I've switched the Scandal to singlespeed for an upcoming event but I like to keep things simple
Well, apart from the Ti pedals & wheel skewers, Renthal chainring & Teflon coated chain 
oh - and the titanium seatpost and the carbon-fibre based saddle, which weighs in at around 125 grammes
Nothing like the cheap simplicity of a singlespeed bike.
There's been a bit of a backlash in the riding community against this rising technology and a lot of people are now starting to ride singlespeeds. A singlespeed is exactly what it sounds like - a bike with a single gear 
Riding a singlespeed requires a bit more muscle than a geared bike but that's something that you quickly develop. It also uses more of your body - you sometimes have to pull your body down into the handlebars in an attempt to keep the pedals turning, so you come back from a ride aching as much in the arms as you are in the legs. Ironically it can often be faster than a geared bike over the same distance - you can't change down & take it easy up the hills so you need to keep a certain speed up just to keep the pedals turning. This of course makes it more fatiguing to ride. And if your regular ride involves a lengthy flat road section before you hit the hills then it may not be a wise choice - it's hard to find a gear ratio that's big enough to allow you to cruise comfortably on tarmac and still small enough to let you climb on dirt.
One of the benefits of singlespeeds is that the lack of gearing makes for a lighter, less cluttered looking bike
Although it's possible to buy a singlespeed off the shelf the majority of them have been built up by dedicated cyclists, which can lead to some fairly specialised & blinged-out bikes . Some people have built up blinglespeeds that not only jettison gears but also suspension
The carbon fibre forks on the front of this beauty flex slightly, which gives a modicum of suspension over rough ground. You would think that this makes it harder to ride, but the owner of this bike regularly smokes me on every downhill section of the trails. Then again he would probably do the same if he was riding a pogo stick.You can also build blinglespeeds out of strange and exotic materials like titanium
The picture doesn't do this bike justice - if you look carefully you can see it has twisted top & down tubes. It's a stunning bike - you can't help but continually pick it up, just to remind yourself how light it is. Ti also apparently has a flex to it which gives it a unique feel.
I've switched the Scandal to singlespeed for an upcoming event but I like to keep things simple
Well, apart from the Ti pedals & wheel skewers, Renthal chainring & Teflon coated chain oh - and the titanium seatpost and the carbon-fibre based saddle, which weighs in at around 125 grammesNothing like the cheap simplicity of a singlespeed bike.
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