A growing number of mountain-bike enthusiasts are shifting back to the basics and choosing single-speed machines.

While advancements in mountain-bike technology have seemed to bring more climbing capability with each model year, some aficionados have realized there can be too much of a good thing.

Fans of the new generation of one-speed mountain bikes rave about their dependability, quiet ride and sense of cycling purity.

"There was a moment in the mountain bike world when it had, like, a rebirth," says Gary Fisher, who gave the mountain bike its name nearly 30 years ago. "It's purist. It's practical. The bikes are light because they don't have all that other stuff on there."

While the latest machines are reminiscent of their ancestors, they have many improvements.

Mr. Fisher, who lives in San Anselmo, Calif., was among the original mountain bikers, young California daredevils who flew down hillside fire-roads on stripped-down cruisers in the early 1970s.

Mr. Fisher says he still holds the record on Repack Hill, so named because the rear hub of the racers' coaster-brake bikes would need to be repacked after each helter-skelter descent.

Old isn't new again

Mr. Fisher scoffs at suggestions the sport has come full circle with the revival of the one speed.

"To be full circle, it would have to have no front brake," he says. Also gone but not missed are the coaster brake, leather saddle and the heavy-steel frame. And the fork would have no hydraulic shock absorber.

Mr. Fisher says the new single-speed bike is an excellent vehicle for improving technique.

"They are a great way to learn how to pedal the bike," he says. "Part of the discipline of learning about the bike is riding a single speed. You learn how to spin fast; you learn how to push that big gear [up the hill] and how to carry your momentum."

Why less is more

A single-speed bike can also sharpen off-road skills, forcing a rider to negotiate a trail climb by maintaining forward momentum and balance.

"You don't have to put your foot down or stop at all, because you have no choice," Mr. Fisher says. "With a geared bike, you are always thinking you can gear it down even further. While you're making a gear change, you are not all out on the pedals; you've got to let up a little bit.

"With a single-speed, you can just be all out on the pedals – the whole way up. There's no lag time," he says. "It's one gear, but you've always got that gear, a gear you can just pound on and it's not going to skip."

On a mountain bike, more may not be merrier – when it comes to gears.

Mr. Fisher and his pioneering downhill buddies originally put a derailleur on a cruiser so that they could more easily climb back up the hills they loved to fly down.

If five speeds were better than one speed 40 years ago, then just think how much better 10 or 15 speeds would be, simply by adding a double or triple chain ring to the mix. (2X5 = 10 and 3X5 = 15 for the math impaired.)

The gearing advances became a component arms race, with manufacturers designing six-, seven-, eight-, nine-speed rear freewheels, making bikes with 18, 21, 24 and 27 speeds.

The options were fantastic for elite racers, who could quickly select the perfect gear ratio for their powerful legs in any given situation with the flick of a thumb.

But a more complex bike is harder to maintain.

Gears = high maintenance

Mr. Fisher says manufacturers have allowed their components to become too delicate.

"You make this stuff for the top racers, who have a mechanic," Mr. Fisher says he tells the manufacturers. "You make it for the magazine guys to review about it nicely. Well, they get a new bike every three weeks. All the product-review managers who work for the various companies – like mine – it's the same deal, they get a new bike every few weeks."

The water and mud encountered by an average rider can quickly mean a trip to the repair shop and time off the bike, Mr. Fisher says.

"The big joke is, 'I built up a single-speed as a second speed; and my primary bike, my geared bike, needed some repairs, so I just ride the single-speed all the time now," Mr. Fisher says. "The single-speed thing, it just keeps growing."

Single is simpler

While the narrower chains designed to be compatible with additional rear-cog gears wear out quicker, Mr. Fisher says the real problem lies with maintaining the shifter cables in an off-road environment.

The cable set-up to the shifter gets full of mud, which wears a groove into the outer cable housing.

"Then you've got a derailleur that starts to ghost shift," Mr. Fisher says. A ghost-shifting bicycle will quickly show its rider where his most delicate components reside.

Barry Bishop, a Richardson Bike Mart mechanic, likes the simplicity of his single-speed mountain bike.

"It's just the ease of basically being able to jump on my bike and go ride and not having to worry if the gears are tuned up or anything like that," he says. "I can just hop on my bike and go ride. I don't have to worry about any of that stuff. It just makes things real simple."

Mr. Bishop multitasks with his single-speed, riding it to work and racing it off road.

"It's the simplicity of it...," he says. "They get tired of riding on gears, and they go for the single speed. They get rid of everything they don't need and make it as simple as possible.

"You don't have a derailleur sitting there, waiting for a rock to hit it and break it," Mr. Bishop says.

"You just have one gear in the front, one gear in the back, and a chain and your brakes and that's pretty much it."

Ray Porter, 50, of Dallas has been riding and racing a single-speed for about eight years. He took up mountain biking to lose the weight he gained after he stopping smoking. He likes the single speed's simplicity.

"If I get on a bike with gears and [full] suspension, I just get frustrated," Mr. Porter said. "I just can't ride as well."

Mr. Porter, an active racer, is most proud of having finished third in the expert class of a 24-hour, solo, single-speed race in Smithville, Texas, last fall.

Nick Farrell of B&B Bicycles in Cedar Hill, said Mr. Porter is among his customers drawn to the
single-speed's more basic design.

"One of the reasons that it's catching on so big is there isn't much to mess up, as far as shifting components," Mr. Farrell said.

The single-speeds are also quieter, especially on rough descents, where riders often hear chain slap, Mr. Farrell said.

"It also helps build core strength a little bit better, because you have a lower gear to go to," he said. "You really have to hammer it up hills."

In to be outsiders

Mr. Fisher notes that there is a bit of an outsider culture many single-speed enthusiasts covet.

They often reject the importance of who finishes first, he says.

The idea is "just show up and race and drink your beer and have your fun, instead of like we're worried about who's No. 1," Mr. Fisher says. "It's an anti-hero type of thing."

Ken "Woody" Smith, Richardson Bike Mart general manager, says interest in single-speed bikes has grown in the last five years, but it is still a small segment of Dallas area sales. He estimates he sells 30 to 40 single-speed bikes a year, but says interest is growing.

When all is said and done, Mr. Smith notes that the bicycle and its gearing options are only part of the cycling equations.

Mr. Smith recalls spotting a one-speed mountain bike at last fall's Live Strong Challenge rally in Austin.

"I'm on this $5,000 road bike that's got 20 speeds on it, and he's on this one-speed mountain, hanging right with me," Mr. Smith says.

"I just smiled and said, 'Man, that tells you, it's the motor, isn't it?' "