Brighton/Brookline area vs. Somerville/Cambridge?

[timberline742]

Yet Somerville is like home base to fix gear bike riders. Over half the bikes I see in Somerville are fixies now.

[semiurbanite]

If you live on top of prospect hill or spring hill, gears may be in order. But if you don't, there isn't much reason to go up those hills and it's usually not a problem. The thing about gears on commuting bikes is they are high maintenance- they get out of tune, rusty, make alot of noise, the chain then derails. Especially if you ride every day year round like I do - the salt in the winter is rough in a bike. With a single speed there are far fewer moving parts and therefore much less maintenance and an overall smoother ride.

[dapeaz]

Originally Posted by 495neighbor

No, you need a really good 21 speed, lots of turns and uphills and downhills all around here and good ability to weave in and out of traffic as you will be switching lanes with the cars in some spots.

I already bike in that environement : )

Originally Posted by semiurbanite

The thing about gears on commuting bikes is they are high maintenance- they get out of tune, rusty, make alot of noise, the chain then derails. Especially if you ride every day year round like I do - the salt in the winter is rough in a bike. With a single speed there are far fewer moving parts and therefore much less maintenance and an overall smoother ride.

This is exactly why I gave up my gears. After biking in the rain so many times, the maintenance got expensive. I even recently gave up my cable brakes and installed a coaster brake. I just got home from a trip to Chicago and they're designing a bike just for snow-heavy weather that's geared but very resilient to the elements, a special chain, etc. It looked like something that would benefit Bostonian bikers, too. For any of y'all bikers:

Chicago bike-design team unveils its 'Blackline' - Blue Sky Innovation

[osric]

There's a company based in Providence, RI -- Dynamic Bicycles -- that makes bikes with a gearset that's completely enclosed and chainless. They're supposedly using it on the bikes for the Providence bike share system.

I tried one out at the Boston Bikes festival a few years ago and it rode pretty well (on the flats of City Hall Plaza). I'd love to buy one of their bikes when I replace my daily rider sometime in the next year, but the $800 starting price is a bit steep for my meagre budget.