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After many derailer-free miles, it’s time to announce the winner of the greatest of all the pointless prizes. Some may visit fire stations. Others look for flags. But it takes a true champion to ride through the winter with but one gear to carry him forward.

And our champion is…Alex K with 1709.4 miles! I would be amiss not to mention the other riders that ascended the lofty heights of the virtual podium. Pete C with 1117.0 miles and Casey Bailey with 814.7.

After searching far and wide, I was able to purchase an 8-pack of Frozen temporary tattoos at Party City for $1.50. Our champion will be forcibly tattooed with his choice of one of the 8 tattoos at the closing happy hour—will he go for Elsa, Anna, or perhaps Olaf? And by forcibly, I mean only if he wants to. Second and third place get their pick of tats as well, and then any other singlespeeders at the happy hour can grab one of the leftovers.

Thanks to all for participating in this year’s singlespeed pointless prize.

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Congratulations for the big mileage everyone. Hopefully your knees are okay. Maybe I should have included a disclaimer: do not wreck your knees mashing away in pursuit of the singlespeed pointless prize.

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Broke a brifter (left side). Not sure how, just stopped working mid ride. Was too cheap to buy a new one, so I’m going with a microshift bar end shifter instead. Hooray for affordable friction shifting.

A bottom bracket cartridge. It started out as a barely noticeable creak a couple weeks ago. Slowly got louder and louder until I couldn’t take it anymore. Too much riding in wet, salty sludge.

Not sure if these count, but I had to replace a chainring, cassette and chain. Just normal wear and tear over time, mostly attributable to pre-FS miles. Was hoping to wait until spring, but skipping under load isn’t much fun.

Almost forgot the tube. I fell turning onto a slippery wooden bridge. The tire hit the bridge railing in such a way as to tear the tube. It all happened so fast in not exactly sure how it went down. But I know I went down though.

And the front tire. The discontinued schwalbe marathon supreme (RIP). Plenty of tread left, but a big nasty cut in the tire necessitated replacement. I don’t think it was bridge crash related, but who knows.

 

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Yeah, I’m not even going to attempt catching up to your teammate. He’s throwing down some serious derailleur-free miles.

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I’m glad that @blackbikedc figured out how to tag his rides. That’s a lot of miles, wouldn’t want them to go to waste. And mostly fixed gear!

Keep up the good work everyone.

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Nice to see some dirt singlespeed. Most of my singlespeeding has been singletrack, but I switched the tires and gearing to make my mtb more road friendly for FS. Continental Top Contacts 700×47, and 34×16 gearing. I’m not strong enough for the 42×16 gearing that some of you are rolling…and fixed is also a bit much for me as well. I enjoy coasting downhill, 😆.

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Does anyone know how to change the pointless prize leaderboards? Singlespeed is ranking by number of rides, but this year it’s by mileage only. Maybe the easiest way to fix it would be to delete the number of rides column?

 

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Looks like we’ve got some substantial singlespeed miles already. Our supreme singlespeeder is currently at 152 miles! I suppose I’m ineligible to win this pointless prize as the sponsor. Not that it matters anyway…no way I’m catching up to the leaders.

Thanks to all for participating. Here’s some inspiration from a few singlespeeders taking it to the next level: https://www.apidura.com/journal/cycling-at-its-most-basic-the-appeal-of-fixed-and-single-speed-riding/

 

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Pure genius.

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I happy to report that my cheap singlespeed is up and running. The shimano ultegra QR skewer worked fine in the track ends, no slipping at all. Although I’ll probably have a QR-lever-shaped imprint in my hand forever. I’ve never pushed that hard on a quick release before…

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Burke Volunteer Fire and Rescue (Fairfax County). Home of the world famous yellow fire engine. And fire engine Santa. That’s right kids, Santa travels from the North Pole every year and rides through the neighborhood on top of a fire engine.

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Glad to see some singlespeed miles already. I’m waiting for a new rear wheel to arrive for my singlespeed, so I haven’t logged any miles yet. I just don’t have the discipline to refrain from shifting on my geared bicycles.

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@SarahBee 227097 wrote:

1/2/24 #singlespeed
Got this a few years ago because I never worry about it being stolen and all you really need is 1 gear to get across the mall. That said, I’m a big baby and had to put on a smaller front chainring and larger freewheel in the back. Fingers crossed haven’t had any meetings at the postal museum yet…

The cheaper the singlespeed, the more fun it is to ride. Mine is a Nashbar. And there’s no shame in low gearing.

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