For me, that feels impossibly fast already - and it scares the crap out of me.
At that speed, I'm not pushing, I'm just letting my legs spin away as fastas I can. 170-ish is all I've managed.
When I first started riding fixed (only a few years ago), 150rpm was scary. I've got used to spinning a lot faster but 190rpm is still pretty terrifying - there's one particular local descent where I can hit that speed without much difficulty, but it's mercifully short. I don't think I'd like to be spinning that fast for more than very brief spells at a time. I'd like to break the 200rpm barrier one day though - I've been close a few times.
1. Do people actually push at those sort of cadences? I mean actually gain speed through leg power rather than gradient?
Maybe some people can but not me!
2. I reach higher cadences now than before I put the fixopholous together. Will I gradually be able to creep up towards 190-ish on descents if I keep plugging away at it? These are descents where even my modest levels of skill and courage bring 45mph+ with gears. It's my footspeed that keeps the speed down on fixed.
I've mostly learned to just go with it. Riding a short fixed gear has had other knock-on effects on my cycling. On the flat, my "cruising" cadence on fixed is now around 120rpm, and I find my pedalling style on gears has changed so I now naturally prefer a shorter gear and higher cadence.