I've heard alot about the advantages of riding a fixed gear bike, can anyone give me some more of the benefits, so I can justify buying one? I do some road racing & just started 'cross this year.

1. Your feet never stop moving. Although one learns to soft-pedal and let the wheels turn your pedals, your feet are moving all the time which is more work than coasting. I get a definite increase in cardio-vascular benefit from riding this way.

2. Spinning really fast down hills. There's no reason to do this on a shiftie bike, but more than that, on the fixie there are times where the wheels are driving your feet faster than they want to go, forcing you to learn to spin faster.

3. Adapting to the gear you're in. I found it remarkable how quickly my body learned to be comfortable at any cadence from 60 to 125. I can spin faster and grind slower than that, but have learned to ride easily for long stretches anywhere in that range. This is a huge help to my regular riding, especially getting over little hills without losing speed.

4. Muscling up hills. I was forced to find a posture on the bike that is painless and sustainable to stand up and hammer some pretty steep grades. As a result it works for me much like resistance training. I believe my legs are stronger than they were before riding fixed which is quite something at 56 years old.

5. The biggest benefit may be that it gives me another source of enthusiasm about riding. Going out on the fixie has increased the incentive to commute by bike which gets me lots of base miles that I would have been jogging.

because you want to. I'm mean really, really want to! If you read through most of the posts in the fixed forum, you'll see a general theme: most fixed riders are f3456ng crazy about fixed, and have gotten it into their head they must have one! No logic or reason enters into it, just a feeling.

With that said, first see if you like single speeding. Take your road bike, and if you have hills, put it in , say, the 39 x 15-17 , and leave it there for the whole ride. Oh, and try and pedal all of the time, esp. on the downhills. Report back with the results!

Having just finished my second fixed-gear ride ever, I feel eminently qualified to authoritatively bloviate about the physical benefits of fixed gear riding.

My quads ache.

Yep. Can you believe that? I have sore muscles. Best I can figure, the act of trying to slow down 240 pounds of out of control clydesdalian man-beef with one's legs (the bike only has a weak front brake) is like being on the eliptical trainer at the gym and reversing direction for a few minutes.

Hills take on a new meaning. Going up is an exercise in existentialism. You stand up, you pedal, you make it up the hill. That old feeling of "breaking the back" of a climb, when you click out of the granny gear, take a swig of water, and get ready to coast ... is now replaced with "uh-oh. How am I going to slow this sled down enough before my legs churn off at 150 rpm" (some people report pedalling at 200 rpm!)

I dunno. There are total fixie fanatics who claim they won't ride anything else. And yes, it's conventional wisdom that real cyclists sit on the fixie during the winter to build strength and refine their pedaling stroke. All I know is it kicks my butt as well, if not better than my shifter-bike, gives me something to do in the new england winter other than go to a spinning class or sit on my rowing ergometer, and saves my nice bike for better conditions.

Here's a good article:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/fitness/fixed.shtml

5. The biggest benefit may be that it gives me another source of enthusiasm about riding. Going out on the fixie has increased the incentive to commute by bike which gets me lots of base miles that I would have been jogging.
I've noticed the same thing - my Fuji 10 speed->fixie has become my dry weather commuter and fun ride bike of choice. Now if that old steel frame was just as light as my road bike's carbon...

An added benefit - I discovered I worry way too much about gear selection - the fixie eliminates that, so I pay more attention to enjoying the ride, and makes it much easier to wear WARM gloves on cold mornings and not worry about how I'm going to shift.

rusa1586,

Can you tell us what it is like to stop? Can you make emergency stops?

The other day on our group ride (regular road bikes), the leader decided it was time to turn left RIGHT NOW :eek: as we began to pass over the cross street. So we were *just a little* off guard. There was oncomming traffic so he stopped dead. I think every bike on that ride had squeeling tires and who knows how we got out of that with no collisions or falling over.

Anyway, stopping is the one issued I've been wondering about when considering SS or fixed. I would appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks,
T-shirt

post number 100

I <b> love </b> my fixie. The beautiful, organic simplicity and connection with the bike is wonderful. It's geared low, 42 x 18, so I'm learning to spin like a madman downhills... it's enough that sometimes, in hilly areas, I think "great, a climb, I was getting sick of 150 rpm..."

With the triple I had before, I didn't learn anything on hills, I just clicked down into the lil' chainring and sat and spun.

Last week I did a fixed 60-mile ride up to the local waterfalls; 45 degrees out, and up the steep hills there was a punishing headwind ( weather report said 20 mph gusting to 30). And then, it was time to go down, suffering slightly less as I my legs fought gravity and the tailwind to keep myself from running off the side of the mountain.

If this sounds as much fun to you as it was for me, then fixies are right for you!

Anyway, stopping is the one issued I've been wondering about when considering SS or fixed. I would appreciate your thoughts.

That isn't a leader, just a bufoon you put in front of the paceline. That guy is a threat to your safety. If you can't trust him to not miss an entire freaking road and panick when he realizes it, can you trust him to see glass and avoid it, or give warning before going around a pothole. You ride the front of the train, you gotta pay better attention than that. The safety of everyone behind you depends on it.

As for stopping, I don't know of that many non-track/messenger types who suggest going brakeless. With just a front brake, you can panic stop just as fast as a regular roadie with gears and a pair of calipers. I am currently running SS, but with just the front brake. I practiced some panic stops the other day, in preperation for going fixed soon, and I was getting stpped as fast, or probably faster, than I ever did on my roadie. I have been riding single brake for a few weeks now, and at first I had to concentrate on how hard I was braking, and getting my weight back. Now it is second nature, and I think I am actually braking more agressively than I did before.
Also, fixed gives you very fine control over speed. Especially in traffic, this can be great. I would suspect that the same is true in a pace line. Rather than three basic speeds, pedaling, coasting and sitting up, you get infinite control over speed, without any application of brakes.

Best,
Gordon

I agree with all said here, and really would have a hard time approaching such prose- thanks for voicing what we all are learning or finding out about the positive of riding fixie

[QUOTE=T-shirt][B][COLOR=Green]rusa1586,

Can you tell us what it is like to stop? Can you make emergency stops?

I have a front brake and ride a pretty big gear (44x15) which feels like it gives a bit more
oomph to back pedalling. I'm not sure this is true, but it does feel like it is. In solo riding, I find I have fewer emergency stops because I space out less when I'm riding fixed.

The other day on our group ride (regular road bikes), the leader decided it was time to turn left RIGHT NOW :eek:

Get a new leader. Imho, it's better to pass the turn than to leave a pile of riders behind me.

Fixed gear riding forces us to get out of our comfort zone that is otherwise enabled by controlling cadence via gear changes. As we spend time out of our preferred cadence range, our bodies are forced to adapt. We improve efficiency above and below the old cadence zone. Our power bands widen over time, allowing us to improve our overall cycling strengths.

Flying down a descent, in a fast group ride, with a tail wind or a sprint, we improve our spinning dramatically. Over time, we see the improvement compared to where we started as the bouncing lessens. We develop a smoother pedal stroke, not only when spinning, but at most cadences.

Grinding up a climb or into a strong head wind develops useable power. I'd rather do hill repeats than train inside doing squats and lunges. Climbing like this is cycling specific, unlike weights. On a hill, we are forced to keep the cadence "do-able", so we power up the climb and push the heart, not just the legs.

Switching back to a multi-speed bike, we find we don't need to shift as much. We can handle most anything that comes our way better than before.

I find that my fixed gear (39 x 15) average speeds on solo rides are a few MPH higher than on my multi-speed. I have more fun on the fixed gear, even though it is an old lugged 531 touring bike that weighs more than my new carbon bike. I can make the most of my limited training time, especially this time of year when I only ride 1 hour on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, other than the longer weekend rides.

A 40 mile fixed gear ride feels like a 50 mile ride on my other bike. Sometimes a fixed ride is intense enough to require more recovery time between rides.

I have two bits of advice for anyone starting fix. Mind you, this is just subjective opinion so I don't claim these to imperitive.

1. Get a front brake, especially when you are first starting out. They help in the rare panic stops in the city.

2. Don't start out with too big of a gear. I started out at 48/16t and should've gone with something smaller like a 42/16t. I gave my knees a hardtime and had to take time off to let them recover. Work yourself up the larger gears.

"Get a new leader. Imho, it's better to pass the turn than to leave a pile of riders behind me."

Amen, that's kind of what we were thinking.

Thanks,
T-shirt

Gordon,

Thanks, that is good information. Now that you've said that so logically I feel kind of dumb for not figuring that out. Braking slows down wheels which slows down the pedals. Sounds simple enough. I was thinking it all had to be done with the legs. I appreciate your help, I am trying to learn all that I can.

Thanks,
T-shirt

About the panic stops...

I don't know about everyone else, but every time I've done something I'd call an emergency or panic stop, the back tire was more or less dancing. There isn't much a back brake can do when the tire's already in the air.

Ron