JOGLE on SS or Roadie

[Angry Balls]

Ive been communiting on a Vitus Vee-1 29er Single Speed for several years now. Bike has Kenda 2.1 inch Block 8 tires. Love the bike.

Just been roped into doing a supported John O Groats to Lands End. Dont need to carry anything and decided after visiting many bike shops and reading several forums that a geared road bike would be more suitable for the task. With a budget of £500 bought a BTWIN Triban 500se in Feb, added 25c Durano Plus tires, a charge spoon saddle and been training on that.

Im at the point where i can do 50+ mile back to back rides no problem. Generally on roads and hilly Chilterns cycleways on both bikes. Seem to be averaging around 13mph on the Triban and 12mph on the SS.

I feel much more comfy on the ss. I enjoy the ride better, happy mashing up the hills and flying down them with no fear of potholes. My body also feels less fatigued after the ride. No back or shoulder pain that i seem to be enduring on the road bike. Clearly my body is much more used to the ss but my question is this...with a couple months to go should i perservere with the Triban to get used to it and setup right? Or revert back to the single speed that i enjoy riding? I have around 14 days to do the ride. My sidekick is riding a flat bar hybrid and i outpace him on the ss so no problems there. I just want to be comfortable for the journey and thought that drop handlebars with the different hand positions along with the gears might make this so. How bad are the hilly days in the south and the north? Im new to long distance cycling but pretty fit. Before Feb longest bike ride was around 10-15 miles.

Any input appreciated!

[Vorpal]

Can you do a weekend trip someplace a bit hillier and see how you get on in LEJoG type conditions with your SS? If you can do a weekend trip on big hills with the kind of mileage you expect to do on LEJoG, it's likely that you can do the whole thing. If you google 'it (there are other search engines available ) I'm sure you'll find that others have done it on single speed. A few have even used that as part of their charity fund raising campaign.

For the road bike, have a read through the bike fit thread on here... viewtopic.php?f=5&t=74985 and see if there is anything useful for yourself in there.

[TimP]

Short hills in your area are nothing compared to some of the long climbs you will encounter on an end to end. I would say try to work out the geometry issues or differences between the 2 bikes. If necessary even consider changing your road bike for something with a more similar geometry to your old faithful SS. I don't know anything about your SS - would it be possible to convert it to add gears so that you have your favourite bike feel but with the ability to handle the long climbs? Comfort is an important thing and so since you are comfortable on your SS getting/retaining the same layout could be the key but gears will make the ride more enjoyable.

I have had bikes in the past that I have converted to/from fixed single to 5 to 10 to 12 to 14 to 15 to 18 to 21 speed setups and I even have one back wheel which has a 7 speed on one side and a fixed on the other (turn the wheel round, shorten the chain and bypass the rear changer and off you go again. Great as a backup in case the 7 speed unit ratchet packs up.)