Reason to get a fixie?

[Steve O]

BTW – I hate, hate, hate you guys for this thread. A fixie is, at best, N+3 away. But I find myself oddly compelled to keep reading about your descriptions of what it’s like to ride and thinking, “hmmm.”

I realized yesterday that I once rode a “fixed gear.” In fact, more fixed than fixed: a direct drive. A unicycle. I used to be able to ride one as a teen. Like reji, I remember downhills being a bit of work. Not as much work as uphills, but requiring a certain level of deliberateness. Also, you can’t get out of your saddle on a unicycle.

Then that got me thinking about gearing. Is it possible to “gear” a unicycle? Wait – let me google it . .. . ..

Yes! Look at this.

So which N+1 is next? Do I try to relearn unicyling? Join you crazy fixies? Or throw myself into the cross crowd?

Or just lie down until the feeling passes?

[Subby]

I road my fixie down to Prince William County yesterday on a new, difficult 35 mile route that I had never tried before. I didn’t even consider taking anything else. For the life of me, I never thought I would be at this point.

[Tim Kelley]

@Steve O 112735 wrote:

BTW – I hate, hate, hate you guys for this thread. A fixie is, at best, N+3 away. But I find myself oddly compelled to keep reading about your descriptions of what it’s like to ride and thinking, “hmmm.”

I realized yesterday that I once rode a “fixed gear.” In fact, more fixed than fixed: a direct drive. A unicycle. I used to be able to ride one as a teen. Like reji, I remember downhills being a bit of work. Not as much work as uphills, but requiring a certain level of deliberateness. Also, you can’t get out of your saddle on a unicycle.

Then that got me thinking about gearing. Is it possible to “gear” a unicycle? Wait – let me google it . .. . ..

Yes! Look at this.

So which N+1 is next? Do I try to relearn unicyling? Join you crazy fixies? Or throw myself into the cross crowd?

Or just lie down until the feeling passes?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8229[/ATTACH]

[vvill]

@Steve O 112735 wrote:

BTW – I hate, hate, hate you guys for this thread. A fixie is, at best, N+3 away. But I find myself oddly compelled to keep reading about your descriptions of what it’s like to ride and thinking, “hmmm.”

It’s actually not odd at all! Read Sheldon Brown’s articles on fixed gear riding (and those were pre-“fixie” hipster craze). It really is my favourite bike to ride. If I had to really trim my stable to less than… 3, I would keep a FG (with wider tire clearance!)

Plenty of advice/experience available on this forum too.

[jrenaut]

If I had to trim my stable to less than my current 3, I’d get rid of one of the kids.

[dcv]

@vvill 112718 wrote:

Wait… are you doing KB fixed this year?!

No, stop putting crazy thoughts in my head.

maybe

i don’t know

[ShawnoftheDread]

You’ve already done geared and SS, so it’s really your only option. Have fun storming the castle.

[Phatboing]

@Phatboing 111727 wrote:

The myth is that you get extra power by pulling up, but if I remember correctly, any observed benefit is because your pulling-upping-non-power leg isn’t dead weight on the pedal, so your power leg doesn’t have to fight against that weight.

After two straight weeks of fixie commutes, I finally tested this theory today, and I seem to have successfully trained my legs into a smoother pedal stroke.

I seemed to have gone too far, though, because my legs are also now intensely suspicious of bikes that keep moving even when they’ve stopped pedaling.

[vvill]

Forecast for Sat has relented a bit in temp/precip, but increased in terms of wind. Fixed gear pacelining?

@Phatboing 112776 wrote:

After two straight weeks of fixie commutes, I finally tested this theory today, and I seem to have successfully trained my legs into a smoother pedal stroke.

I seemed to have gone too far, though, because my legs are also now intensely suspicious of bikes that keep moving even when they’ve stopped pedaling.

Yeah going from a bunch of fixed gear rides back to freewheeling is weird. My experience is that on FG you tend to skip over the weakest parts of your pedal stroke (since the pedals turn themselves around) – when you go back to freewheeling you notice where you’ve been slacking on the FG, and expect the pedals to have spun themselves around more/faster. But conversely you do get used to spinning faster.

[dkel]

I’m feeling like I finally got my fixie mojo back today. Still, I’m slightly terrified for all the climbing on this Tri360 ride, mostly because I don’t want to be the chump that is a burden to everyone else on the ride. I’m also hoping my 18T cog comes in soon, because I want to try it out before Saturday!

[ShawnoftheDread]

@dkel 112844 wrote:

I’m feeling like I finally got my fixie mojo back today. Still, I’m slightly terrified for all the climbing on this Tri360 ride, mostly because I don’t want to be the chump that is a burden to everyone else on the ride. I’m also hoping my 18T cog comes in soon, because I want to try it out before Saturday!

The sweep group on this ride tends to be really far back of the lead group. Worst case is you’ll get dropped by the other fixie riders and drop back to the sweep group. The more likely scenario is that you’ll do just fine and you’ll smoke several tri guys on geared carbon bikes.

[vvill]

The official Shake Shack Tri360 event is up:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1405664823075722/

Here’s the route last time I did this edition of the ride. Note that you go back to the shop before heading to Tysons, so if you don’t want to do the Shake Shack part you can depart after the usual 22 miles.
http://www.strava.com/activities/251657948

[dkel]

@ShawnoftheDread 112859 wrote:

The more likely scenario is that you’ll do just fine and you’ll smoke several tri guys on geared carbon bikes.

Ha! That’s the desired outcome, in any case! Thanks for the vote of confidence.

(Are you riding this, too?)

[dkel]

18T cog is on the bike. An initial ride up the very steep hill that is my street indicates the new gearing is much easier. Going to try my commute in for the late shift shortly: I have a feeling 18T may be too low in the long run.

[ShawnoftheDread]

@dkel 112866 wrote:

Ha! That’s the desired outcome, in any case! Thanks for the vote of confidence.

(Are you riding this, too?)

Nah, I only ride in winter and summer. I take the mild seasons off.

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