Well folks ,there's a popular pastime called single speed mountain biking that has a lot of hard core bicycle culture behind it .The BMX kids develop great strength and handling skills and they like the simple bike. Other demo's also picked up on the single speed style so it's a rage now . Ted Ernst jr. pointed out that the 1896 safety bike was a single speed dirt bike with fat pneumatics ,a low single ratio and often 180 cranks and a high bottom bracket .As he put , you just tractored over the holes and ruts in the rotten roads.********Seth Finkelstein ,Santa Cruz CA(dirt central)