Singular Performance: Get in Gear With Single Speed

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IN THE SPRING OF 1998, Eric Gilliland had a revelation.

"I remember exactly when it happened," he says. "I was riding down E Street, and I saw a guy pass me. He had this absolutely beautiful bike that he had built up on his own. Just watching him and the way he rode through traffic — it was a very clean way of riding."

What impressed Gilliland was that in lieu of shifting gears, this cyclist was riding on a single — and unalterable — chain. Something Gilliland, then a bicycle messenger, decided to give a spin.

Now the 37-year-old director of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association rides his fixed-gear bike regularly. Whenever he needs to make a quick jaunt from WABA's Logan Circle office, he hops on the titanium-toned wheels he had custom-built in a Boston bike shop. "It's my getting-around-town bike," he says.

Single speeds come in a multitude of makes and models, but once you know where to look, they're easy to spot. Whereas geared bikes have chains coiled in a circle on their back wheels, single speeds have just one simple continuous chain loop.

And although single-speed riders have a tendency to use the terms "single speed" and "fixed gear" interchangeably, there's a wee difference between the two riding styles. Single speeds have a "free wheel" that allows riders to coast without pedaling. Fixed wheels, however, are connected to the pedals (hence "fixed") and rely solely on pedal strokes for movement. Just think of the tricycle you rode as a kid. What happens if you try coasting?

"You can't," says Eric Swanson, 60, a D.C. commuter who has biked for the last 29 years and who switched to a fixed-gear bike four years ago. "The bike will literally throw you off if you forget and lock up your legs."

That sounds scary, but the added challenge just eggs on adventurous Washingtonians. Just ask Chuck Harney. Since he and Wayne Lerch opened the Bike Rack (1412 Q St. NW, 202-387-2453) in May 2007, he’s seen sales of Swobo, Surly and Giant brand single-speed bikes ($450-$750) remain steady — four or five are sold per month. What's surprised him is who is buying them.

"I used to think there was a type who would gravitate toward those bikes," says Harney, who once associated them with bike messengers, the asphalt aficionados of the cycling world. Now, their appeal has broadened to all types — from students to business owners.

For Joel Gwadz, who blogs on cycling at Gwadzilla.blogspot.com, it was a change of pace. He'd been mountain biking for 15 years before he tried the rocky courses near Annandale, Va., in Wakefield and at Schaeffer Farm in Germantown, Md., on a single-speed. "To keep the sport fresh, it's good to alter it. The same set of trails are very different on different sets of bikes," says the 41-year-old.

Hills are the greatest test, as there's no easier gear to downshift to when one starts huffing and puffing, he says. (That's why beginners usually start with their bikes set to a low gear.)

The wheel appeal for others is simplicity. Fixed-gear bikes are lighter and faster, which is why they're used for velodrome racing.

But Heather Ross doesn't just use a fixed-gear bike for zipping around a cycling track to practice for the Bike Rack's velodrome team. The 21-year-old uses another as a city bike, too, whenever she's headed the six blocks from her place to bars on 14th Street. "It's the perfect thing to ride," she says. "There's no hill, and I won't have to worry much [about getting it stolen], since the wheels are bolted on."

And if they're as secure as D.C. denizens' attachment to this riding style, they're not going anywhere.

THE FIX IS IN
» Looking to take a single speed for a spin? Start with some surfing.
Head to DCfixed.com, an online single-speed community forum that offers maintenance advice and event info, and Singlespeedoutlaw.com, a site run by 38-year-old Joe Whitehair of Frederick, Md., that covers everything from product reviews to the Single Speed World Championship.

» Pictured above: John Claman, left, and Keith Alsop ride down a trail off Michael Faraday Ct. in Reston, Va. Claman and Alsop are part of the Washington Underground Single Speed Society (WUSS), an informal group of single speed bike enthusiasts throughout the Metro area.