To Single Speed or Not to Single Speed

What makes an ideal commuter bike? For years I have been sporting what could be called the classic geared setup. It's ingredients include:

• Road frame
• Geared rear end
  
• Inexpensive Shimano rear derailleur
• Single ring front
  
• 25-28mm tires
• Front and rear brakes
• MTB bars

Over the years I have come to refine these requirements a little:

• Must be a steel or titanium frame - I haven't found a aluminum road frame that has lasted me more than 4 months without the bottom bracket failing (yes I'm a Clydesdale)
• I like Shimano 8 speed stuff, but it's getting hard to find
• Chris King headset (set it and forget it)
• Selle Italia Flite Classic saddle - I'm not sure if it's the perfect shape, or if my ass just thinks it is since I've been riding one for 17 years.
  

With the general popularity of singlespeeds (fixies will be the topic of another post) these days, I thought I would give it a try. So I ebay'd up a nice Titus FCR singlespeed that came equipped with the aforementioned King headset, King hubs, and disk brakes. Not to mention a Flite saddle and a pair of carbon bars. I chucked the suspension fork in favor of a carbon 700c disk fork and added some slick tires and away I went.

Does anyone want to guess what I forgot - yep - gear ratio. Being a singlespeed newbie, I didn't change the mountain bike ratio which was 34-18, giving my legs a nausea inducing ratio of 1.89. My cadence was north of 100 and I hadn't even hit 15MPH. I ordered up a 14 tooth rear stainless ring and tried the bike out again with it's new improved 2.43 ratio. It's much better, but I still don't like it.

I do think I've given the bike a fair shake, riding it for about 4 months of commuting, and you know what, I still think gears are the way to go. I'll put the for sale add from Craigslist up as soon as I get my new commuter built up.