Benefits of fixed ?

[PpPete]

Well I havn't had my fixed up together very long, and not done a big mileage on it at all, but it's clearly making a difference already......

Went out on the geared bike (triple) this pm, freewheeling felt really weird at first, but what I noticed most of all was I was suddenly much more comfortable in the big ring. Before I started riding fixed it was strictly middle ring unless downhill or decent tailwind.

Anybody else find similar effect?

 

[MajorMantra]

Hard to say because it's so subjective, but I've always felt at least a psychological boost in strength from riding fixed. Doesn't stop me ending up in my absolute bottom gear when necessary on the the geared bike though.

FWIW, with 53/39 and a 12/25 I ride in the big ring probably around 70-90% of the time (number pulled from nether regions ). I change down for headwinds and serious climbs.

One thing I have noticed is that the more often you switch between geared and fixed, the less noticeable it becomes. I used my fixed most days for riding to uni or the shops, and I ride the geared bike on longer road rides and club runs. The sense that something is broken or missing on the freewheel bike goes away after a while.

Matthew

 

[GrasB]

Yeah, fixies make you more flexible so you can do more over a given chainring. Anywhere between 70 & 120ppm is fine & up to around 135ppm on the flat for reasonably sustained periods is also fine. This makes a 50t chainring a very flexible tool, however it puts the middle chainring of a triple kinda in middle of nowhere for me & just an irritation as I'm always stepping over it.

 

[RedBike]

I found that when I switch back to gears after riding fixed I tend to forget to change gear. I'm far more prepared to honk a big gear up a hill or spin at 130rpm for a bit down a hill.

 

[Wocce Racer]

Fixed wheels teach you to pedal properly. Also the flywheel effect (no dead point on the pedal stroke) means that you actually do gear up on hills. I find that a hill that I would normally climb on a 42 x 18 (63") I climbe on a 48 x 18 (72"). This is also helped by the less weight that a fixed carries.

As I wrote on another thread, the key is to control the bike and not let the bike control you. As Red Bike says 130rpm spinning is not unknown and these skill subconciously transfer to your road riding.

 

[MajorMantra]

As Red Bike says 130rpm spinning is not unknown and these skill subconciously transfer to your road riding.

200+rpm is not unknown either. I've done 180 and I'm not even that good.

Matthew

 

[swee'pea99]

200+? Yegods - your legs must disappear into a blur!

 

[GrasB]

130ppm? I've done descents where I've averaged that on a geared bike as I tend to find the 130-140ppm area is where I start to think about using the gears. 200+ppm yeah done that, though you're not exactly in control of your legs at that speed.

 

[toekneep]

For me it is definitely the hill climbing that gets better with riding fixed. I climb the same hill pretty regularly on both bikes and it's much easier to measure the progress on the fixed. On the geared bike it was a case of realising at the top that I was still on the middle ring with three or four gears to spare at the back. I put that down to riding the fixed.

 

[yello]

I found that when I switch back to gears after riding fixed I tend to forget to change gear..

I find that too. I don't know if its "forget" so much as more comfortable to stay in one gear, or too lazy to change! But whichever, it amounts to the same - I'm happier to ride a greater range of cadence on geared.

My geared bikes are triples, and I find that I tend not to use the big ring (unlike GrasB) and sit on the middle, riding around 40x13 (81"). The fixed is 48x20 (63") so it's not as if I've just developed a liking for a particular gearing!

 

[tyred]

I do question whether the freewheel effect really makes hills any easier as I use the same bike with the same gear ratio with both fixed and freewheel and the speeds at the top of hills is much the same.

What it does do is to learn to pedal smoothly and efficiently at a wide range of cadences. When I rode my geared bike for the first time in ages, I was amazed at how fast I could go on the flat in top gear (and it isn't even a high top gear) compared to previously when I rode freewheel all the time.

 

[palinurus]

When I get back from, say, a 70 mile ride on a geared bike I'll be wondering how many miles I actually did- figuring that any distance achieved by freewheeling should be subtracted from the total.

 

[GrasB]

Why should freewheel time be removed from the riding distance? You put that power into the bike you're just using it in a different way. When I actually look at the same route ridden with my freewheel bikes & my fixie I see that on the freewheel bikes I'm quicker round the corners but I don't accelerate nearly as quickly out of the corner so I reach the same cruising speed at the same sort of distance from the apex of a corner.

 

[palinurus]

I guess my post could've been improved with a winky smiley.

 

[RedBike]

I've never noticed any real improvements in my pedalling technique from riding fixed.

I don't seem to pedal any smoother when I switch back to gears. In fact for the first hour or so back on a geared bike I seem to have this annoying sticky /dead spot. The pedals feel like they want to stop in the 1/7oclcock position.

I tend to get out of the saddle and push a large gear up the hills were I would be better off changing down a gear and remaining seated.

I pedal at crazy cadences when I would be better off just freewheeling.