A few years ago, Paul from Paul Component Engineering deemed November 2nd International Singlespeed Day. We’re helping to announce it a few days in advance this year, as a few prizes are up for grabs. Read on below for the annual lowdown from our friends at Paul!
Every Monday at 11am, the entire PAUL Component shop staff have an “All-Hands” meeting to catch up on any changes, shop news, or projects. Two years ago, around this time, Paul announced to everyone that November 2nd was now International Singlespeed Day. We all looked at him like “Huh? Says who?” Then he said it was he and his friend Amanda’s birthday that day, and it was Amanda’s idea, and why the hell not?
Having never created an International Holiday before, I wasn’t quite sure what to do, so I got on the phone with a bunch of framebuilders and weirdo bike nerd friends and said “Hey. It’s Paul’s birthday on November 2nd, and he wants everybody to ride singlespeeds. You down?” And of course, everybody said yes, why the hell not?
And so, for the last two years, when the magic day arrives, a bunch of folks go riding on singlespeeds with friends or alone, share their experience on Instagram with the #InternationalSingleSpeedDay hashtag, show off some cool bikes, wish Paul and Amanda a happy birthday, and everybody has a good ol’ time.
So yeah, let’s do it again! This year we’ll sweeten the pot by choosing our 3 favorite #InternationalSingleSpeedDay IG posts, and the winners will receive a PAUL Barbarian hoodie, a handlebar from BTCHN’ Bikes, or a Radavist Feldspar Jacket.
Don’t have a singlespeed bike? Zip-tie your shifters, take the battery off your derailleur, or ride your grandpa’s beach cruiser? Get creative, there are no rules. Careful though, you might realize in the process that you don’t need a bunch of fancy new-fangled shiftamabobbers to have fun on a bike…
