Is fixed faster?

[Amanda P]

I was just looking at my mycylinglog cycling log:

Totals by Bike
Moulton AM 64:37:13 1477.46 20.53 57
Dawes Galaxy 18:45:39 463.68 20.14 32
Bentech SWB USS 22:48:45 515.66 20.35 36
Peugeot Single/fixed 15:13:36 380.11 23.21 31

The columns are time, distance (km), average speed (km/h) and ride count.

First of all, it's clear that the Moulton is my favourite bike. I'd have said that either it or the fixed were the quickest, and that the Bentech (short wheelbase recumbent) was the slowest.

I had no idea that the fixed was so much quicker than the others though. On my 11km commute, I often seem to arrive well under 30 minutes total, while the others are usually a minute or two over. And speed-wise, there's not much between the 'bent and the Galaxy - maybe that's not a surprise given that both are set up as heavy tourers and both are sometimes used to haul a loaded trailer, which would bring the mean speed down a bit. I generally use the Moulton for audaxes (although I've only done three this year) so you'd expect those to be fairly brisk rides, and, being long, to pull the average speed up if anything.

This is the first year I've used a GPS pretty systematically on every commute and almost every ride. I'm not that interested in speed, or in getting faster, but it's curious to see how much quicker the fixed is - despite being used on pretty much the same route with the same load as all the other rides.
I suspect fixed or single-speed is often just that: single-speed. Sort of: you can only go so slowly or you'll stall or your knees explode, and you can only go so fast or you'll spin out. So perhaps on fixed, one's speed is restricted to a narrower band of speeds than on a geared bike, and you'll get up to that comfortable cruising speed/cadence from starts and junctions much more quickly than on a geared bike where you might work your way up through the gears.

Thoughts, comments, discussion?

 

[Boris Bajic]

My two faster (relatively) bicycles are a steel Claud Butler fixed (69" currently) and an aluminium road bike running Siroccos, nice-ish Campag. Both bikes have a fairly aggressive riding position.

Bear in mind that I was never fast and am now less so.

The geared bike is less fun, but it trumps the fixie over every distance above about five miles. I wish it were otherwise, but it is not.

I know people who can go faster fixed. I wish I was one such. I'd make a lot of noise about it. But I am not, so I cannot.

 

[HLaB]

Are the routes identical, situtations (weather, traffic, etc) are the frames identical, etc if not you cant really compare. My fix is slower than my geared bikes because it weighs a lot more so stop start in traffic makes it lose out. But even that I have taken on a fast flat sprint of about 19.4mph for 11miles on the same circuit the geared bike was only 19.6mph whilst in the last year the gap has got wider they aren't radically different (drafting in part also helped to close that gap, the geared time is solo). The same fixie in town can average as little as 10mph.

 

[Archie_tect]

Do you use a free wheel on your fixed Phil? I can't get used to the non-free wheel and have nearly come a cropper whenever I've tried a friend's fixed wheel.

 

[Amanda P]

The routes are not identical, since, as I say, I tend to gravitate towards the Moulton for longer rides. However, the bulk of the mileage is going to work and back: an almost flat 11km each way (7 miles in old money). The frames certainly aren't identical - one bike's a recumbent, one's a Moulton spaceframe and the others are diamond-frames. But the engine is always the same: me. What I'm comparing is how that engine appears to perform in different chassis. I didn't expect the performance to be the same, but what surprises me is by how much the fixed seems to be quicker.

My theory is that the gearing on the fixed (67", I think) obliges me to maintain a pace that allows a comfortable cadence -and that's a couple of kmh faster than I'd naturally settle into on a geared bike (originally I built the fixed up specifically as a winter commuter for a flat route). And this makes me think that if I upped the gear ratio a bit, I'd probably have to go faster still to maintain that comfortable cadence. Mrs Uncle Phil, who normally pushes the pace relentlessly when we ride together, thinks I'm faster on the fixed, and even struggles to keep up a bit sometimes.

The fixed bike has a flipflop hub with an 18-tooth sprocket on one side and 18-tooth freewheel on the other. I tend to gravitate towards the freewheel in winter because I tend to be carrying more kit to work with me in my panniers then and it's a pain to lift the rear wheel and get the cranks ready for starting off again when I stop at junctions on the fixed. Also if things are icy, it's nice to be able to stop pedalling and concentrate on staying upright.

In summer, I use the fixed side, since I've never had major grief* with fixed and with less kit to carry, it's no hassle to put the front brake on and just push the bike forward to lift the rear wheel and get the crank at ten-past-twelve, and ice isn't usually an issue. Having said that, I'm too lazy to flip the wheel over unless I have to take it out anyway to fix a puncture or something, so I often end up riding singlespeed well into the summer of fixed well into the winter.

*I say major grief: if I've not ridden it for a bit, there may be a dodgy moment when I forget to keep pedalling and the bike pedals me for a second, but it only ever happens once, and it's never caused anything more than a surge of adrenalin.

Fixed or single, riding it has definitely improved my technique. Pedalling all the way around the cycle, pulling back and pulling up on the pedals and pushing them over the top as well as pushing down, is a great way to get more power - which you need when climbing with only one gear available. This transfers well to a recumbent (on which honking isn't an option) and a Moulton (on which honking causes pogoing). It's also rather satisfying to be able to produce a lot of extra power to move ahead of another cyclist without apparent visible effort...

 

[edindave]

On my regular flat out-and-back coastal run (50km, 200m ascent) I'm about equal on fixed and geared.
But if you add any terrain the road bike wins. Eg. 5.2km, 89m ascent lap of Arthur's Seat: Fasted Fixed - 16:10; fastest geared - 11:45. That's with a similar ave HR for both times - within 5bpm anyway, rides a couple of months apart. The ascent times are quite similar, but the descent is always faster with gears.

I'm working on getting my cadence up after swapping from 48x16 to 48x18 last week, and it certainly feels a lot better for around town riding.

 

[MrGrumpy]

can climb faster on my fixed at times but find the limitations are the rider However as Edindave says, going down hill is where I gain time on a geared bike. On a 48 x 16 can max out at approx 34mph but feels well out of control down hill

 

[Smurfy]

Do you use a free wheel on your fixed Phil? I can't get used to the non-free wheel and have nearly come a cropper whenever I've tried a friend's fixed wheel.

It takes a while to get used to fixed-wheel. After around 500 miles I found I'd settled in OK, and the 'reminders' to keep pedalling were few and far between. My worst ever 'reminder' was when I tried to turn around to see if my back light was switched on. Non-stop pedalling is rather difficult when your hips are twisted around in the saddle, and I swerved violently with only one hand on the bars, almost slamming into the kerb as my legs and the fixed-wheel fought against each other! For some people, pedalling automatically, totally non-stop, no matter what else is happening to the rider or the bike takes a while (I'm not proud of the 500 miles it took me, which is probably around 15 rides at an average of 35 miles per ride). It takes time to work through all the scenarios where you'd normally stop pedalling, and correct your behaviour. Some of the more obvious ones are sharp cornering, speed bumps, removing bottle from cage, scratching an itch.

On the plus side, one thing I noticed is that descending steep hills on fixed requires so much effort and concentration, when you get back on a bike with a freewheel it all seems so easy that you can go flying past all the riders who only ever ride bikes with freewheels. It also gives you one hell of a workout, so if some of your riding mates are a tad slow you can still push yourself.

Best thing is to get your own machine, and start by riding some quiet routes you know well (e.g. location of potholes etc. etc.) so there aren't too many surprises all at once.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Fixed isn't any faster, but its a lot more fun.

 

[Sharky]

Is Fixed faster? - After years of experimenting, I am still not sure. When I was young, I was racing on a Mercian track frame, but with gears bolted on it. I changed it to fixed for a couple of races and went slower. Now as a mature rider and on a low budget, renovated the same Mercian frame 40 years later as pure fixed and my times were more consistant than my road bike and certainly not slower. Another 5 years on, have swopped almost every component on the old Mercian and it is now a Nelson track frame with a 50*14 gear for racing. Still not a quick rider, but times are not that much different from some of my clubmates who have spent over £3k on carbon everything and 20 gears.

I do believe though that riding fixed increases both your strength from riding at low cadences and your suppleness at high revs. Something you get every time you go for a ride. On gears, you keep the cadence fairly static, so don't benefit from the too extremes.
In time your torque increases and you are able to ride a gear 10" lower that you would on gears and 10" higher.

Apart from my racing steed, I have another single steed with a much lower 69" freewheel and at the weekend I did my normal 25 mile training circuit and was 5 mins quicker than a ride I did a few days earlier on my gears bike. So although I don't really understand why, I think a fixed or even a single speed bike makes you more versatile and stonger and this leads to bringing up your basic speed.

Another couple of points that no doubt will prompt further discusions - I have this year swopped all my cranks from 170mm to 150mm, raised my saddle by 2cm and the effect is quite amazing. It opens up the hip angle and gives my fat belly much more room and am able to get into the drop position much easier and my pedal action is more effective through the entire 360 degrees.
The other point is that I switched from fixed to SS free on my 69" steed as the hills in north Kent are just too severe for fixed, especially the descents and I added a pair of clipon tri-bars. The combination of being forced to power up the hills in a single speed, coupled with an aero position on the descent seems to be very effective.

Cheers
Keith

 

[Twelve Spokes]

I've done 10000+ miles fixed this time round.I had a fixie in the mid 90's.

 

[goody]

Fixed can be faster if the gearing is just right. Maybe you're quicker on the fixed on your commute because the gearing is right for most of that journey, it's a fairly short ride compared to the other rides you go on and you have to be at work at a certain time so don't hang about. I used to commute on fixed with two hills to contend with I had to put more effort in to get up them than I might have on a geared bike just to keep the momentum going. I stopped riding fixed because I didn't like spinning down the other side.

 

[TheDoctor]

Dunno about faster, but it's lighter.
Carbon Uberbike - carbon frame and forks, Mavic Open Pro, 105 - 9.2kg ready to roll.
Fixed - Dynatech frame and forks, wheels and bits from the spares heap.
Also 9.2 kg ready to roll. And that's with a rack.

 

[michaelcycle]

My theory is that the gearing on the fixed (67", I think) obliges me to maintain a pace that allows a comfortable cadence -and that's a couple of kmh faster than I'd naturally settle into on a geared bike (originally I built the fixed up specifically as a winter commuter for a flat route).

I think that sounds about right depending on your physical strengths and weaknesses.

From what I have read if you maintain a relatively high cadence and lower gear then you utilise mainly your aerobic and respiratory systems which most people can hold for a longer amount of time as it is generally more conditioned.

Lower cadence / higher gear taxes your skeletal muscles more and sap your limited amounts of muscle glycogen (unless you are topping it up suitably with an on bike nutrition strategy depending on how long the ride is) meaning it is more likely to stall out quicker leading to an overall lower performance on average.

Seems on your fixed you have found a natural cadence which suits your ability and physiology. Perhaps, if you use all your bikes with a cycle computer and keep an identical cadence using both the geared and the fixed bikes you could measure if it too see if it does in fact hold a true advantage. The route would need to be the same obviously (and ideally the overall weight!)

I am quite new to cycling but not to exercise physiology and like the geeky side of it

 

[Pennine-Paul]

I've played around with gearings on my commute,from a spinny 65 inches
up to what I cuurently use, 85 inches.I found spinning on 65 inches to keep
up a decent speed was a real pain,On 85 inches it's a bit harder setting off
but it's so much easier to maintain a decent speed.Comparing times of
the various gearings on my 11 mile commute home (600 feet of climbing)
65"..........53 mins
72"...........45 mins
85".............39 mins
Wouldn't go any higher than this as i have a 12% hill to climb and i can
climb this,just!