Are you faster on fixed ?

I've compared my times on fixed wheel and geared bikes and


  • Total voters
    16
  • Poll closed .
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tyred

Legendary Member
Location
Ireland
Most of my routes are hilly without being stupidly steep but I find little real difference between my fixed and geared bikes. My "good" fixed, a 531 framed Carlton has a 69" gear but is probably as high as I can go in this area.

For this winter, on the advice of an old club cyclist I've got to know well, I built an old gas pipe special with a 62" gear for winter training and it's insane on the downhills but somehow I find it brilliant fun and I can now spin well enough to almost match my times on the Carlton even though the bike is considerably heavier and my top speed is lower due to the gear ratio. I must be making up times on the climbing. If you really want to get fit, I think you need a low geared fixed.
 

ERic Stokes

New Member
Location
Wrexham
Most of my routes are hilly without being stupidly steep but I find little real difference between my fixed and geared bikes. My "good" fixed, a 531 framed Carlton has a 69" gear but is probably as high as I can go in this area.

For this winter, on the advice of an old club cyclist I've got to know well, I built an old gas pipe special with a 62" gear for winter training and it's insane on the downhills but somehow I find it brilliant fun and I can now spin well enough to almost match my times on the Carlton even though the bike is considerably heavier and my top speed is lower due to the gear ratio. I must be making up times on the climbing. If you really want to get fit, I think you need a low geared fixed.

I agree with your fitness comment but now lack the will to inflict such pain on myself to achieve the benefit. I road a fixed 68" many years ago but felt I was missing out on the thrill of downhill speeds so took to gears. Because of that ingrained experience it's only recently that I have stopped trying to kill myself getting up steep hills and discovered the joy of climbing virtually any gradient by means of an appropriate LOW GEAR. I can't believe it's taken me so long to unfix my mind!

At my age death by speed is preferable to the slog that could bring on a heart attack.
 
For me the fixed is slower for a very good reason. Its about the same speed uphill, on the flat its slower because I can't spin fast enough for long periods to maintain the speeds I can with gears and on the downhills my speed is limited by how fast I can spin. So overall its slower at all but the uphills.
 

Dan_h

Well-Known Member
Location
Reading, UK
I have not noticed much difference, although I expected to be faster on gears it turns out that over any sort of distance there is not much in it. Strangely even hills don't seem to change this. Perhaps this means I am not working hard enough when riding with gears! :rolleyes:
 
Location
Hampshire
I did the club reliability yesterday (57 miles, hilly'ish) in 3.11 on the fixed (72" gear), last time I did the same one on my geared winter bike in 3.10, so against expectations virtually the same.
 

ERic Stokes

New Member
Location
Wrexham
For me the fixed is slower for a very good reason. Its about the same speed uphill, on the flat its slower because I can't spin fast enough for long periods to maintain the speeds I can with gears and on the downhills my speed is limited by how fast I can spin. So overall its slower at all but the uphills.

I'm impressed, or to be completely honest demeaned that you climb at the same rate, straining my memory I can recall the immanence, the consequent challenge of a big climb on fixed did get the adrenalin flowing, essential amongst proper hills, as in Wales! Now I smile at the foolishness of my youthful masochistic endeavors and just sail up in an easy gear and hammer it on the descent for the thrill of the speed. More fun, less pain, and as I have discovered in the company of some much younger far superior cyclists, gears give me more than equality. I always have a wait at the bottom of a long descent feeling guilty that I appeared flash, knowing that I had made guys who are superior cyclists look slow.

There is no modest bias within my comments, I'm 15st, mainly attributable to upper torso, drink too much and have smoked all my life. Gears are my salvation, without them I would be denied the thrill of the descent and feel the need to clean up my act !
 

al-fresco

Growing older but not up...
Location
Shropshire
On Sunday I blew the dust off my Cross Check and did my usual 14 mile pub run on a geared bike for the first time in about 5 months. It's a hilly route and I reckon I was about 2 minutes quicker than riding fixed - I probably picked up most of that time on the downhill sections.

I chuffed to discover that I was about 6 or 7 minutes quicker than the last time I did the route on the Cross Check and that has to be attributable to improved fitness from riding fixed.
 
I can ride 'average speed' with gears, 'average speed' with fixed. The difference is you can play around with your legs more when the drive is direct - learning control and joining in with braking etc, learning where to stop so that it is easier to set off again... Unless I put a GPS on my (geared) bike, or stick it in my pocket when riding fixed, I have no idea what speed I actually do - it rarely matters. Pushing the speed/distance, it must be gears that win, unless one's aerobic endurance is phenomenal. I ride 48 x 17 whatever inches that might be...I only have a few slopes to and from work, and have done Southend, like Nigel mentions earlier, quite easily. And I'm over 100kg, so loads of 'inner cargo' to haul around!
 

DooBlood

New Member
Location
Warwickshire
I've just gotten myself a fixed cycle (Revolution Track 12 from EdingburghBicycleCooperative) to find out which bike I am fastest on (well, not really). The results are amazing. I cycled a 20 mile undulating loop on Tuesday using my 2x10 speed road bike (Focus Cayo Ultegra '09) in a time of 1 hour and 16 mins. I repeated this loop with my new Revolution cycle in a time of 1 hour and 16 mins! The Revolution ride was more intensive!
 

Dan_h

Well-Known Member
Location
Reading, UK
Today I did my usual route only fixed for the first time. I was surprised that there really was not much in it, definitely slower downhill but quicker on the uphills except the one point where I had to walk (it is so steep that that is probably not much slower than riding, also only a couple of hundred yards). My legs ache more, also my upper body is aching in ways that it does not riding gears (much more climbing out of the saddle I guess).

The grin factor of riding fixed is way higher than gears though!
 

phil120867

Über Member
Location
edenbridge
I've started commuting again on my fixed on a 52x18 Langster build, 17 miles of fairly flatish country lanes. The way there is slightly uphill overall and I'm doing this run in the exact same time as i would on the geared bike but my average HR is around 10% more (85% rather than 75%). On the way home I'm taking 4 mins out of my usual time and again my HR is higher. I prefer fixed, the bike is lighter, I feel like I've had a workout because when it kicks up a bit I can't sit and spin. I'm not sure anout the old zen thing but I haven't ridden fixed for a few years and I have really missed it. I'll be trying a 50 miler shortly, it'll be interesting to see how I feel after that.
 
I have found that I ride 5-8 mph faster on my fixie........ However this is on the flat. When going up hills I nearly collapse which, if I had gears would be a whole lot easier. So I guess as a fixed gear is built (really) for a track, then that is what it is good at doing. A racing bike is designed for climbing, flat and downhill riding and really, though not better, allows you to get more out of your body without killing yourself uphill. :smile: Hope it helps

Mark
 
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