Reason to get a fixie?

[baiskeli]

@dkel 111650 wrote:

No, no, no. If you ride fixed, you can’t climb as easily by mashing the hell out of the pedals as you can by utilizing the entire pedal stroke to generate power. The result is a smoother pedal stroke that uses more muscle groups in combination, as opposed to putting a lot of pressure on your knees by only maximizing your downstroke. If you’re like me, you never learned this on a geared bike because you don’t have to: you can just downshift. I learned it on a fixie because I couldn’t downshift; also, a smooth pedal stroke is required for spinning on descents, otherwise you bounce out of the saddle. So learning to climb fixed is better for your knees, and the same skill makes climbing on a geared bike easier, too.

But you can do that anyway by just shifting to whatever gear a fixie would have. You don’t have to force yourself to do it. A bike with 21 gears is just 21 fixies all combined into one for convenience. I can see your point about how you’re saying a fixie could train you to ride a geared bike better though. Spinning is also a good way to train for a better stroke on the real bike, not to mention building confidence in your muscles.

[hozn]

@Jason B 111664 wrote:

#1 reason for me: Pedal stroke on the turns.
Riding a fixie keeps me pedaling on the turns, thus increasing my speed when I have gears. Way smoother and confident on the turns.

Except for the whole pedal strike thing …. There’s a reason to keep the inside pedal up on [significant] turns!

[dkel]

@baiskeli 111669 wrote:

But you can do that anyway by just shifting to whatever gear a fixie would have. You don’t have to force yourself to do it. A bike with 21 gears is just 21 fixies all combined into one for convenience. I can see your point about how you’re saying a fixie could train you to ride a geared bike better though. Spinning is also a good way to train for a better stroke on the real bike, not to mention building confidence in your muscles.

You can learn all that stuff on a geared bike, but a fixie is a more insistent teacher!

[jrenaut]

@hozn 111668 wrote:

It always *feels* fast to stand on the pedals, but for any sustained climb sitting and spinning at steady cadence is faster.

This is exactly what climbing fixed taught me. That and hauling the kids up hills on the Xtracycle. I learned to spin faster and suddenly I was faster on hills on my geared bike.

[DismalScientist]

@baiskeli 111669 wrote:

A bike with 21 gears is just 21 fixies all combined into one for convenience.

Nope. A big component of the fixie thing is that you can’t coast.

That said, riding a fixie is really just an affectation. I do it to look cool and pick up chicks.:rolleyes:

[dcv]

@TwoWheelsDC 111663 wrote:

(with a few exceptions, like the Tri360 hill ride and things like that).

We should definitely do this fixed, say Sat 3/28? (sorry out of town this weekend)

• OneEighth
• Subby
• VVill
• jrenaut
• phatboing
• twowheelsdc
• culimerc
• dirt
• dkel
• dismal
• dread
• matt aune
• mwhatley
• jabberwocky
• Bilsko
• JasonB

These guys too, not sure if they’re on forum:

• Peter T.
• Brian M.
• Randall S.
• George L.

Did i miss anyone?

[TwoWheelsDC]

@baiskeli 111669 wrote:

But you can do that anyway by just shifting to whatever gear a fixie would have. You don’t have to force yourself to do it. A bike with 21 gears is just 21 fixies all combined into one for convenience. I can see your point about how you’re saying a fixie could train you to ride a geared bike better though. Spinning is also a good way to train for a better stroke on the real bike, not to mention building confidence in your muscles.

Actually, not having a freewheel makes a huge difference in the experience that you simply can’t duplicate just by not shifting. Sure, you can get a rough idea of what it’s like to stay in one gear up a hill or whatever, but the dynamics of the pedal stroke are different…and then there’s the the additional factors of momentum, potentially higher heart rate (particularly if there’s a downhill before the uphill, since you can’t coast and let your HR drop), and probably a few others that make the fixed gear experience impossible to duplicate on a freewheel bike, even if you try to just keep pedaling.

[jrenaut]

@dcv 111677 wrote:

We should definitely do this fixed, say Sat 3/28? (sorry out of town this weekend)

Are you trying to kill me?

[Phatboing]

@dcv 111677 wrote:

We should definitely do this fixed, say Sat 3/28? (sorry out of town this weekend)

Er, no.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@dcv 111677 wrote:

We should definitely do this fixed, say Sat 3/28? (sorry out of town this weekend)

I would try it. Although Quebec would require some serious zig-zagging and Rock Spring is almost a guaranteed get-off-and-walk at that point in the ride, and I don’t know if I can handle that kind of shame.

[dkel]

@dcv 111677 wrote:

We should definitely do this fixed, say Sat 3/28? (sorry out of town this weekend)

I’d love to do this! I don’t know that I could finish at all, but I’d try it with some other folks who might also fail miserably. Sadly, I will be at a Bar Mitzvah that morning. We should all do a FG ride together sometime, though, even if not a hill ride.

[baiskeli]

@DismalScientist 111676 wrote:

Nope. A big component of the fixie thing is that you can’t coast.

Okay. What’s the advantage of that?

That said, riding a fixie is really just an affectation. I do it to look cool and pick up chicks.:rolleyes:

I can see the advantage of that.

You do look awful cool and I always see chicks following you around.

[baiskeli]

@TwoWheelsDC 111679 wrote:

Actually, not having a freewheel makes a huge difference in the experience that you simply can’t duplicate just by not shifting. Sure, you can get a rough idea of what it’s like to stay in one gear up a hill or whatever, but the dynamics of the pedal stroke are different…and then there’s the the additional factors of momentum, potentially higher heart rate (particularly if there’s a downhill before the uphill, since you can’t coast and let your HR drop), and probably a few others that make the fixed gear experience impossible to duplicate on a freewheel bike, even if you try to just keep pedaling.

Yeah, Dismal said that too. So what’s the advantage of that experience?

[TwoWheelsDC]

@baiskeli 111693 wrote:

Yeah, Dismal said that too. So what’s the advantage of that experience?

I wasn’t saying that it was necessarily an advantage, just that it’s not accurate to say “just don’t shift” will give you the same experience as riding a true fixed gear, since the dynamics of the bike/drivetrain are dramatically different. There’s some debate over whether fixed gear provides some increase in drivetrain efficiency, more effective strength training, and better pedal efficiency, but the data is sparse and I’d hesitate to call it an “advantage.”

As for the subjective riding experience, I’d say it’s fun and different and requires riders to learn new bike skills and sharpen existing ones…so that’s kind of an advantage, but again, fairly subjective.

For me though, riding a fixay is all about rocking teh wickid skidzz.

[reji]

Wow, thanks for all the advice and laughter! I used to ride a unicycle a few decades ago and still remember the lack of freewheel thing going downhill, but I hadn’t considered the potential impact of pedal strike on turns. I’m still leaning towards that road bike and may wait for the Fall clearance sales. Even though it’s initially for the challenge of learning something new, my interest in the fixie has only increased after reading some of your comments. I’ll look to be opportunistic and see if I can find a beat up one to fix up or something I can build for the learning experience.

And when I get one, I can guarantee that she won’t be called Lenny or Squiggy. But Pinky has a nice ring to it.

[Author]

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