• If it's not true that the cranks carry more power through the deadspots on a fixed, then what are the benefits of a fixed gear drive train when compared to a single speed?

    No pawls to wear out or break, opportunity to ride on the road with only one brake caliper, which is good for TTs and hill climbs due to lower weight and less drag.

    Do you reckon a track cyclist would be exactly as fast on the same bike with a freewheel?

    Yes

    So the only reason for a fixed drive train in track cycling is the tradition?

    No, the reason is that it's hard to slow down on a freewheel bike with no other brake. It would take three laps to get the riders off the track after a sprint :)

  • Well, you're the expert so I won't argue with it. From a subjective pov, I steel feel like the cranks carry more force through the 12 and 6 o'clock position on a fixed gear bike. When switching to a freewheeled bike after riding a fixed, the pedal stroke feels less evenly than on a fixed bike. Then again, after a while you adjust your pedalling and it feels evenly on a freewheeled bike, too.

  • From a subjective pov, I steel feel like the cranks carry more force through the 12 and 6 o'clock position on a fixed gear bike

    They don't. What you might be feeling, if you're pedalling really incompetently, is the cranks sucking power from the back wheel and slowing you down. That should feel like a sharp clip round the ear for pedalling like such a dork, because there is inevitably enough backlash in a chain drive to make the point where you forget to pedal until the wheel tells you to a bang not a click. If you're not either useless or an invalid, the top run of chain will be tight all the time you're trying to make forward progress, and under those circumstances there is no way for a fixed wheel to be distinguishable from a freewheel.

  • Well, you're the expert

    Nah, just somebody who knows some stuff other people worked out. The original expert was presumably the person who originally persuaded cyclists that it was possible to use a freewheel on a bicycle. The freewheel must have seemed like magic to people with a 19th century understanding of pedalling dynamics.

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