Dissapointed...
- Thread starter Blonde
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Whaddya mean needs to be warm - it is warm! was at least 6 or 7 deg C today! Lovely weather.zimzum42 said:
zimzum42 said:
Basically if you really are up for it, I'll ride it with you - but do it for the fun, sorry I can't afford to give you any train fare or owt, as I am quite poor.
But I feel a bit guilty now - I don't want you to feel obliged to do it to stop me gloating that no-one's risen to the challenge - only do it if you want to. The fixie brigade won't have 'lost' if you don't - to me, cycling isn't competitive, but if I were to ever have a 'race' I would just go at my own pace and if I come first I come first, if I don't I don't.
The route (well, the route I take, there might be a better one) - basically, it starts out flat, then there's a moderate climb of about 3 miles that I spin up probably on middle/large (42x25), then it's flattish for quite a while, then it undulates for a few miles but slightly more down than up. Then it hits the main road, and it undulates some more, before there's a real bitch of a climb that I go up at about 6mph on my granny ring (30x25) which is probably just a bit less than half a mile. Basically, if you have your fixie on 48x19, then what gear's the equivalent on my bike... ermm... my middle ring's 42, so it's like me being on a sprocket of 19*42/48 = 16.625. My cassette goes 25,23,21,19,17,15,13,12. So that's just a bit higher than 5th! Bloody hell... I just couldn't do that at all, even standing up. Sitting down would be an instant clipless moment. If i'm honking up it, I'll go on 30x19 or 30x21.
If you can do it, then you are what I would class as extremely strong and powerful. What I'm trying to say is, whether you could do it or not, I certainly couldn't, so therefore a fixie is a wholly inappropriate bike for me - but given that I couldn't, if you can, then I'd obviously be mightily impressed - but don't feel the need to put yourself through a load of travelling and pain just to impress me. Thinking about it, if there weren't any particularly steep hills round where I lived, e.g. if I lived in london, I could probably get round on 48x19/16 all day in comfort and with much fun, but it just grates a bit when people say "get a fixie bonj - you don't know what you're missing!" and that I just know it wouldn't be appropriate for south yorkshire/derbyshire leads me instinctively to the knee-jerk reaction 'well YOU try it round here then'.
Canrider said:
yeah do that...no holding on to the back of a lorry and putting your feet up on the crossbar on the M1 mind !
Canrider
Guru
Heh.
So post your route (Googlemaps will do fine) and let us kibitz it, then! There is, of course, always the possibility that you're taking the hard short route where a longer flatter one may exist, no? So post it!
As I've said in the past, my first impulse to try fixed gear was precisely the knowledge that I was only ever switching from 52x17 to 39x17 on any ride I undertook, so I split the difference to 48x18=72" and was a very, very happy camper.
So post your route (Googlemaps will do fine) and let us kibitz it, then! There is, of course, always the possibility that you're taking the hard short route where a longer flatter one may exist, no? So post it!
As I've said in the past, my first impulse to try fixed gear was precisely the knowledge that I was only ever switching from 52x17 to 39x17 on any ride I undertook, so I split the difference to 48x18=72" and was a very, very happy camper.
Rhythm Thief
Veteran
I liked my fixie. (I've still got it but it's in bits.) I found I wasn't using many gears on my commute - I'd already built a commuter with a single chainring for simplicity - so I thought I'd go the whole hog and try something different. It needed much less maintenance than my geared bike, which is a good thing.
Fixies do feel much more part of you than geared bikes. You ride a bike with gears, but you wear a fixie.
Fixies do feel much more part of you than geared bikes. You ride a bike with gears, but you wear a fixie.
Canrider
Guru
Not to worry, I see what you're referring to: a climb of roughly 450m over a mile or so (If Googlemaps' pedometer function is to be trusted, naturally!).
Might I recommend you turning north off the A6135 onto Rotherham Road into the centre of what I assume is called either Mosborough, Halfway or Westfield, then L onto Station Road, leaving and rejoining the A6135 at the points you've indicated but flattening out that steep hill into a rise of a similar amount but over 2+ miles instead of just over 1.
You could spread it out even more by going all the way up past Crystal Peaks before making the L turn back through town to the A6135, but I can't assume where you're going to need to stop!
Might I recommend you turning north off the A6135 onto Rotherham Road into the centre of what I assume is called either Mosborough, Halfway or Westfield, then L onto Station Road, leaving and rejoining the A6135 at the points you've indicated but flattening out that steep hill into a rise of a similar amount but over 2+ miles instead of just over 1.
You could spread it out even more by going all the way up past Crystal Peaks before making the L turn back through town to the A6135, but I can't assume where you're going to need to stop!
Having no option of changing gear does make you attack a climb quite aggressively, which isn't to everyone's taste admittedly. Still, I'm one of those who tends to fly at everything a bit too fast, especially massive gyratories.
When i go to Scarborough, I admit I'd take a geared bike, it wouldn't be much fun doing some of that climbing on 81".
I guess your point is true, it wouldn't be that great riding around there with a fixie, especially when it's not geared for the flat, and i'd hate descending with low gearing on a fixed, you certainly wouldn't enjoy spinning that fast and trying to stay on.
But as for the 'it's possible on fixed' argument, it definitely is, but I think it would be a much more pleasant ride with a geared bike, just annoying to have to lug all the extra weight of the block etc when you know how light and nippy full of feel a ride on fixed is.
Damn, have we reached some sort of comprimise here?
When i go to Scarborough, I admit I'd take a geared bike, it wouldn't be much fun doing some of that climbing on 81".
I guess your point is true, it wouldn't be that great riding around there with a fixie, especially when it's not geared for the flat, and i'd hate descending with low gearing on a fixed, you certainly wouldn't enjoy spinning that fast and trying to stay on.
But as for the 'it's possible on fixed' argument, it definitely is, but I think it would be a much more pleasant ride with a geared bike, just annoying to have to lug all the extra weight of the block etc when you know how light and nippy full of feel a ride on fixed is.
Damn, have we reached some sort of comprimise here?
Canrider
Guru
You get used to it faaaaast.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/
I've never checked its accuracy, but it should work generally ok. Taking the Scarborough example, I know their topo sampling coverage misses the headland that Scarborough castle is on. Remember that this is the topo dataset that had to have the Matterhorn reinserted!
It's not through the usual mapsdotgoogle, it's
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/
I've never checked its accuracy, but it should work generally ok. Taking the Scarborough example, I know their topo sampling coverage misses the headland that Scarborough castle is on. Remember that this is the topo dataset that had to have the Matterhorn reinserted!
Canrider said:
ahem... nah, it can't possibly be metres. A mile is only 1555 metres, so if it climbed 450m in a mile that would be between 1 in 3 and 1 in 4 - and even then the steep bit is only about half a mile long. It's steep, but not that steep!
I think it must be feet...
it goes from 164.04 to 416.66, so that's a rise of 252.62 feet. That's in 0.7118 miles, and a mile is 22x80 = 1760 feet, so that's 1252.768 feet. So that's 252.62/1252.768 = 1 in 5, apparently. Christ, that's still quite steep!