Looking for opinions
It's been years since owning/riding a road bike (late 80s Specialized Sirrus). Over the past year, I've again enjoyed riding road on a rigid mtb single speed with slick tires. Sometimes it's geared 48*16, or infrequently will swap the 16t freewheel for a 14t freewheel.
My question: Since the single speed is the only bike currently at my disposal for road riding, will it suffice for a 35 min cat 5 criterium on fairly level terrain? Concern is I don't want to involve myself in a race that I'm going to pose a hazard to the other riders or completely hate the experience due to the lack of proper equipment.
Should I give it a shot or wait until next year when I have a road bike?
Looking forward to reading your opinions.

I raced from 1987-2002 and remember a few single-speed riders in flat criteriums. They never shaped the race, but for the most part managed to hang in there for the duration. A 110rpm cadence in a 48x16 will get you about 30 mph, good enough for staying in most crits.

I'm not going to comment about riding in a crit as I am biased (rode one 15 years ago and said F**k that). Keep in mind your mtb has slightly smaller wheels when set up with slick compared to a roadbike so you may want to use the 14 rear instead of the 16 to compensate. If you finish in the pack on your mountain bike, everyone will have a lot of respect for you.

Need to add that all the single-speed riders I saw were on road bikes, not mountain bikes.

Thanks for the replies. Yeah, the 26" wheels are going to be a handicap.
To WIM, is there a particular formula you applied to arrive at 30 mph? I'm pretty balanced between mashing and spinning so maintaining a cadence of 110 over 35 minutes is going to be difficult. Is 30 mph the norm for beginners?
Guess I'll give it a go. Imagine the worst that can happen is I'll be told to leave before being lapped.

Thanks for the replies. Yeah, the 26" wheels are going to be a handicap.
To WIM, is there a particular formula you applied to arrive at 30 mph? I'm pretty balanced between mashing and spinning so maintaining a cadence of 110 over 35 minutes is going to be difficult. Is 30 mph the norm for beginners?
Guess I'll give it a go. Imagine the worst that can happen is I'll be told to leave before being lapped.
30mph is not the norm for a cat 5 crit, but speeds can get up around there for short periods in a pack. The whole thing about staying in these races is being able to suffer long enough so that when the pace slows down you are still there. A lot of speed changes.. Go hard, slow down etc.. You have to be ready to be able to hang with the accelerations when they happen, which usually is when you least want them to happen. I.E. you are hurting.
Some depends on the course and the actual field. Only thing to do is try it I guess. I'd be curious how it turns out. I know I'm a combo masher/spinner, and am not used to riding at 110rpms in any kind of performance setting. It would be tough for me...

I use this cadence-gear-speed calculator. It shows your speed in km/h, so you need to convert that number to mph by multiplying with 0.62. If you know your MTB wheel diameter in mm, plug it into the calculator. I used _700_ for road wheels.

http://www.endurancecoach.com/Cycling_Gear_Calculator.htm

I need to search for a better on-line calculator. This one says _cm_ for wheel size - it should say _mm_. It also has _53cm_ for number of teeth, pretty funny. Sloppy writing by the coach, but the math is correct.

I mentioned 30 mph because that's about the maximum speed of a strong pack riding tempo in a flat criterium. There are short periods of speeds higher than that, and longer periods of speeds much lower than that. My point is if you can draft for short periods of time in a pack at 30mph on your single-speed, you should be able to stay in the race, but probably not be able to contest the final sprint.

Check first.

Like the others are saying, you maybe able to hang in the pack if you have a good spin, but you won't be in the contest when it comes to the final sprint.

...My question: Since the single speed is the only bike currently at my disposal for road riding, will it suffice for a 35 min cat 5 criterium on fairly level terrain? Concern is I don't want to involve myself in a race that I'm going to pose a hazard to the other riders or completely hate the experience due to the lack of proper equipment.
Should I give it a shot or wait until next year when I have a road bike?

If you were a crit specialist, had lots of experience riding crits and found that for one particular event (crash, borrowed bike, etc.) you needed to ride a single speed then I would say go for it. There is enough sketchy riding going on in a Cat 5 crit and throwing a rigid mtb single speed with slick tires into the mix just adds to the potential hazards. You don't need some $5,000 rocket sled for a Cat 5 crit but you should at least have a road bike. Don't mean to rain on your parade but my vote would be to wait.

I'd try it, just take off the bar ends if you have them. Would be pretty cool if you smoked the other racers!

I might think about putting the 14 cog on, however. When is the crit? How hard is it to change gears? Maybe warm up with the 16 and put the 14 on for the race. How do you do with the 14 now? Can you get on top of it when it's flat/not windy? You'll need to spin alot higher than 110 with the 48 x 16, esp. with mtb. wheels.

Worse that could happen is someone goes hard at the gun and you're stuck spinning 130 for 5 minutes to catch the pack, and you get lapped. I would do it if the entry fee wasn't alot and you don't have to drive far to do it.