Fixed Faster than Geared !!

Gav2000

I've only just got my first fixed bike and am still riding with old rat trap pedals and no straps as I occasionally forget to keep pedalling but I've been amazed at how easily and quickly I am covering the ground.

Last night I rode a 20 mile loop that I normally cover on my geared bike with an average speed of 16.5mph. I got round it very smoothly on the new bike at an average speed of 17.5mph. I am surprised by this improvement as (i) I was only going down the hills at about 22mph due to lack of leg speed buit would have hit 30mph+ on the geared bike, (ii) I was wearing running shoes on the old pedals and (iii) I got home and, daylight permitting, would have loved to go round again.

Why can I cover the ground more easily and quickly with 1 gear than 18? Also, is it possible to do without a multi-geared bike and ride fixed all the time?

Gav.

graham_g

Depends on the terrain - I did my first proper long ride on the weekend (Birmingham to Shrewsbury). I would no way have made it on the fixed. Then again, that's probably just because I'm a wuss

GaryGkn

I know what you mean. I have been commuting for the last two weeks on 2 different geared road bikes that I borrowed from my son. They were both quite nippy. I switched back to my fixed Carlton today and it felt faster and more effortless.

I think that once the momentum kicks in it pushes you along and you just have to top it up and maintain your speed. Climbing seems easier on a fixed if you can get your speed up before attacking. I have caught up with many people in Richmond Park on the hills which surprised me as they seemed miles ahead of me on the flats.

Overall I tend to feel less tired on the fixed. I don't think the fixed is faster but an old cyclist once told me that he had gears for a while but went back to fixed as he felt the gears only slowed him down.

gkerr4

I find the fixed faster - but a lot harder work!!

I seem to have a natural high cadence that I seem to settle at andwhile on the bike I can maintain this cadence and climb at, say 10-12mph - then on the fixed that same cadence works out at climbing at 17mph!! - i should say there are no real long climbs around Blackpool - just short ones which need a little bit of out of the saddle oomph

so I end up climbing the climbs I would normally do at 12mph on my geared - at 17mph on my fixed - so yes faster, but damn hard work!!!

if I try and climb slower btw, I get bogged down and have to stop - my legs feel like they need to keep spinning!

SilverSurfer

Gav2000 wrote:

Also, is it possible to do without a multi-geared bike and ride fixed all the time?
Gav.

My favourite thought at the moment as well. Question you have to ask yourself is: how hilly is your area? This will have the biggest impact on your decision.

Also, do you like to do fast group rides? I did one on Tuesday (with hills) and I thought no way could I have done this on fixed. On my own at my own pace - fine. But keeping up with a chain gang would be a challenge.

franklin pierce

SilverSurfer wrote:

Gav2000 wrote:

Also, is it possible to do without a multi-geared bike and ride fixed all the time?
Gav.

My favourite thought at the moment as well. Question you have to ask yourself is: how hilly is your area?

It is easily possible.

Four years in and (for myself) you start looking for hillier routes, sometimes even whilst grocery shopping.

And, yeah, I have neither an automobile nor a geared bicycle, and there are numerous 15% grades to climb around here. Two of which I have to surmount pretty much twice every day.

Gav2000

SilverSurfer wrote:

Gav2000 wrote:

Also, is it possible to do without a multi-geared bike and ride fixed all the time?
Gav.

My favourite thought at the moment as well. Question you have to ask yourself is: how hilly is your area? This will have the biggest impact on your decision.

I've already taken the computer off the geared bike for the fixed and may have the saddle at the weekend. I'm registered to do the 85 mile Oxford to Cambridge BHF ride at the end of the month and am considering doing it fixed. I'm sure it will exhaust me but it'll be a challenge.

One problem I have with hills on the geared bike is that I am rubbish at them. I seem to go through the gears at an alarming rate and still end up tired at the top. At least with only 1 gear I just have to get on with it, it's the opposite of Spinal Taps amplifiers I guess.

Gav.

jbindman

i very seldom use a geared bike by choice, though I have a very nice one i use for triathlon, because its the rules. but London is flat and fixed is OK for pretty much anything. I did find my limit this weekend though- I can climb parliament hill/highgate west hill fine on fixed usually but with a 14kg child on the back I ran out of gas just before the top.....

considering the physics, a fixed bike cannot be faster than a geared one- keeping 'the momentum topped up' will take the same effort on each. But I think there are 2 issues- one is the one referred to above, which is that faced with a slope or need to accelerate, the tendency is to go hard at it on fixed but to change down on geared. The second is that, if you ride like that all the time, you get fitter /better leg strength than if you change down to deal with every increase in resistance.

The result, of course, is that if you train on fixed but occasionally use a geared bike, and you use it like a fixed, keeping the gear quite high for uphills, but use an even higher one for going down, you will then be faster on the geared bike.

Gav2000

I found a situation where a geared bike would have been better on Saturday. I cycled away from home for about 20 miles at a good pace and then turned around to face a headwind that made riding fixed very hard work. My cadence dropped and it felt like riding all the way home uphill. I would have loved to have changed gear to spin more easily but instead I got home feeling exhausted with sore knees. If these winds are going to continue I'll have to purchase a larger rear cog.

Gav.

Graham O

jbindman wrote:

The result, of course, is that if you train on fixed but occasionally use a geared bike, and you use it like a fixed, keeping the gear quite high for uphills, but use an even higher one for going down, you will then be faster on the geared bike.

I have a hilly commute and it takes less time on fixed than it does on a geared bike. In my experience the two pedalling styles are so different that to climb on a geared bike at the same ratio as a fixed is much much harder. The momentum of fixed takes you through the top and bottom dead spots while the geared bike seems to almost stop at the same points.

One big improvement to my climbing has been in how I manage to keep going for longer on fixed. On geared, I tend to climb until nearly at the top and then sit back and relax too early because I can always change down. But on fixed, I ride hard up the hill and over the top.

bigflangesmallsprocket

Fixed is SUPPOSED to give you better blahblah for riding geared, but I think that unless you put plenty of miles in fixed trains you for riding fixed! When you ride fixed (actually Im mostly riding s/s freewheel at the moment, but still..) you ride at quite a large variance of cadence, so your legs get a bit of training for fast a bit for medium a bit for slow, but with geared your cadence is generally quite narrow unless you deliberately vary your cadence. I found that occasionally switching to geared over distances that I would tire and I believe thats because my legs werent trained to ride a set higher cadence over longer periods.

Talking about the windy bits, thats why I usually make a point of checking wind direction so that I do the harder windfacing part of my rides when Im fresh