Master the Single Speed Game: Fuzzy Mylne's racing tips | News | mountain bike, mtb, mountain bike racing, freeride, Downhill MTB, bike tests, MBA, Mountain Bike Action, Ask RC, XC mountain bike, trek, specialized, giant bikes, mantis, ellsworth, foes, pump tracks,

For most single-speed racers “success” means finishing well against the rest of the single-speeders. 29er’s John “Fuzzy” Mylne is a notable exception—he regularly places among and even beats geared riders. At the 2008 Sierra-Tahoe 100 he won the single-speed class AND took 6^th overall against a field that included such luminaries as Chris Eatough, Tinker Juarez, Josh Tostado and Jeremiah Bishop. And in ’07 he posted the second fastest time (geared or otherwise) at SoCal’s legendary Vision Quest. So when it comes to getting advice to make our MBA readers better single-speed riders, who better to ask than Fuzzy?

Fuzzy is all about single-speeding, “It’s more pure,” he says. “It’s quiet, you don’t hear bike rattling, and it’s more in tune with nature, more man against the trail. But single-speeders don’t tend to get the credit. We’re the people on the fringe. We don’t shave; we like to drink beer before, during and after a race. We don’t take ourselves seriously. So geared guys don’t expect us to do much beyond getting in their way on a downhill.”

1. A SINGLE SPEED RIDER ISN’T BUILT IN A DAY: We’ve all heard the claims that single-speeding is hard on knees. Which is why Fuzzy advises easing into the scene, “Take it easy in the beginning and avoid steep or long hills until you get the rhythm of it and learn how to climb without overdoing yourself

every time. I didn’t follow that when I first got into single-speeds and I went too hard and was hurting for two weeks. Then I rode again and hurt again for another week. And then no problems ever since.”

“Strong arms and overall upper body strength is a definite advantage for getting a little extra power for getting up a hill by working the bike back and forth like a sprinter out of the seat, but in slow motion. Wide riser bars will give you more leverage for working the bike. And I’m big on bar-ends—just pull on those as hard as you can to help leverage the cranks around.

All that tugging at the bars and lunging into the pedals can make it hard to keep the front end planted. So Fuzzy advocates using a lower front end on a single-speed, “I put fewer headset spacers and a flatter stem to help me to keep my weight forward when I’m climbing and standing.”

Realize that your thumbs are going to get really bored.I tell people to bring some
finger puppets with them so their thumbs have something to do! Vic Armijo photo

If you’re one of those riders who rides gears AND single-speed, when the going gets muddy, opt for simplicity. “Single-speeds are definitely an advantage in wet conditions,” Fuzzy declares. “I did a race last year that was really sloppy and in the first lap there were 15 or 20 broken derailleurs, people carrying their bikes when they couldn’t get their wheels to turn, but the single-speeders were just pedaling right through.”

Popular wisdom is that the sheer torque of a strong single-speeder can destroy a drive-train. “That’s true to a degree,” Fuzzy says, “So I always run Niner’s Cogalicious single-speed specific cogs. They’re made with a wider base flange than a standard cog so that they don’t dig into the free hub body. And they have a taller tooth for more engagement with the chain. And I use DT Swiss single-speed cassette hubs—bomb proof. But instead of using a heavy BMX chain I use regular nine-speed chains to save weight. I’ve never broken a chain on a single-speed—knock on wood! And since I change gearing a lot I use a SRAM Quick Link so it’s easier to add or take out links. SRAM advises to not re-use a Quick Link, and I try to follow that, but I have re-used them without consequence.”

Fuzzy is among a growing number of single-speeders using Rotor’s elliptical Q-Rings. “They really work, and forget anything you ever heard about Bio Pace,” he says, “Q-Rings are designed to pull more chain through the part of the arc where your legs produce the most power and less through the ‘dead spot.’ Bio Pace was just the opposite. And no, you don’t need to use a chain tensioner. The difference between the high point and low point is really quite small—you can see the chain kind of going up and down a little bit when you turn the cranks, but barely.”

“Tire choice is always a trade-off,” Fuzzy says, “There’s a balance between a light weight tire that lets you accelerate and get up the hills easier and a beefy tire that can get traction and let you keep your momentum over the rough stuff. A minimalist tire or a semi-slick that a geared rider might be able to finesse up a loose climb might not get traction for a single-speeder digging deep and powering up.”

Many single-speeders ride converted geared bikes and use a tensioner or a locked out derailleur to take up chain slack or are lucky enough to have just the right chain-stay length to allow good chain tension without a tensioner. Fuzzy, however, likes the quiet simplicity of a single-speed specific bike like his Niner. “It uses an eccentric bottom bracket to adjust chain tension, which I prefer over horizontal drop-outs. With a horizontal drop-out you move the wheel forward or back when you change gearing, which affects how the bike turns and the force needed to get the front end off the ground. With an eccentric your wheelbase remains consistent.”

While some riders do fine pushing big gears, Fuzzy chooses gears lower than other elite single-speeders. “I like to keep a higher cadence. When I was a junior roadie and we’d have spinning drills I could crank like 200RPM, bouncing like a rag doll. You’ve got to put the miles in at a high cadence for your body to get used to that.” And he gears down even more for a long race, a hundred-miler or a twelve-hour, “I want to be able to sit and climb as much as I can to save energy.” He generally makes his gearing variations on the rear, “I use the same chain-ring, a 32 tooth on my 29er, and I used 34 when I was riding 26-inch wheels, then use anything from 17 tooth cog to maybe a 21 or even a 22 if the course is really, really steep.”

“Learn to embrace that,” Fuzzy says, “You’re never going to always have enough gear. And walking can be a bit of recovery ‘cause you’re using different muscles. If I’m walking, 99% of the time I’m going just as fast as the guys with gears who are spinning their granny gears.” To help with those pedestrian moments, Fuzzy does a bit of trail hiking. “You need to have those muscles.”

The accepted method of making a wheeled vehicle go fast is: keep the power on, brake late and hard, release the brakes, corner, apply as much power as possible to accelerate out. But as Fuzzy observes, “On a single-speed you might find that your gear is too low to really accelerate out, so instead keep your speed up and stay off the brakes.” He adds, “Momentum is key for a single-speeder in other ways; keep your momentum on the rolling hills, especially the short steep ones. And truly I’m only working half the time compared to the geared guys. I work on climbs, but every where else I’m drafting off of them and recovering.”

10. KNOW THE COURSE: Pre-riding for familiarity of what’s ahead is important for maximizing your single-speed efforts, not just in making gearing and tire choices, but in keeping that ever-so-important momentum. Fuzzy explains, “For instance, if there’s a series of short 30-second climbs, and you know just where and how many there are, you might be able to power over all of them and then recover, where if they were a surprise you’d likely not attack them as hard. And I can’t stress enough what an advantage it is to know what’s around the next corner—if you know there’s a berm or that it straightens out, then by all means, stay off the brakes and carry your speed.”

“Single speeds make you work smarter. Even if you’re a geared rider at heart, riding a single-speed occasionally makes you a better, more efficient rider. Being efficient is key to single-speed and why I’ve been able to compete with geared riders.”