Re: Fixed Gear (Fixie) vs Single Speed Gearing

I ride in rolling hills (and in windy conditions) in 67" to 75" gears,
depending on bike and load (gofast, 75", groceries, 67" or 65") and have
found over years of fixed riding that you adapt tremendously to different
torques and cadences -- one of the pleasures of riding fixed and, to a
lesser degree, ss/coaster. In fact, I now find that uphills are often less
of a challenge than long or steep downhills. You learn to push hard and
slowly or, where one must be careful of one's knees (mine are almost 56
years old), you learn to stand for a mile at a time. And for the very steep
sections I don't mind walking.

That said, for very long hills, I do run flip flop hubs but rarely flip
unless the hill is 3 miles long or more and steady and steep; most of the
hills I ride are rolling, so that even long and steep climbs have respite
with half mile standing sections interspersed with shorter sitting sections.
AND, most of my riding is short distances -- sub 35 miles -- where a fixed
gear's liabilities don't appear. I am sure that for longer distances I'd
start thinking hard about coasting if not multiple gears.

I do love hills, though, on a fixed -- for me, one of cycling's great
pleasures. And again, to emphasize, you do adapt surprisingly to torque
demands.

I do realize that my cycling tastes are very peculiar, but I do indeed like
grunting up steep hills fixed better than flying down long inclines
coasting.



On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 10:11 AM, Andy Goodell <[email protected]> wrote:

> I've considered removing the pawl springs on the freewheel of a bike
> to see what happens. I liked the concept of fixed gear bikes, but with
> the hills here that's just not possible to pick a single gear and
> still be able to ride on flat roads. It would be neat to have a bike
> with all the gears, but still be able to control non-major speed
> adjustments just by changing cadence. For my racing and commuter
> bikes, this could theoretically work even on hills since I'm still
> pedaling at 30mph. Ultimately a type of clutch might be ideal so that
> I could choose whether or not to be freewheeling, but I'm not sure
> that currently exists.
>
> On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 11:56 AM, Win Allred <winallred-/[email protected]> wrote:
> > At age 74, I grew up in the era where very few people rode "racing
> bikes", defined as mostly 3 speed Sturmey Archer hubs and hand brakes or
> very rarely a derailleur geared bike all of which were able to coast and had
> brakes of some sort.  A Fixed Gear by defination does not provide for
> coasting and many do not have brakes installed, you slow them by exerting
> counter pedaling effort.  I damn near killed myself trying to ride a Fixie a
> few years ago with some of my racing buds.  I will say I was fairly warned
> but my ego got in the way of my common sense!
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-- 
Patrick Moore
Albuquerque, NM
For professional resumes, contact
Patrick Moore, ACRW at [email protected]