Winter training, geared or SS?

^^^ The issue with doing club runs fixed is it gets tricky staying on the group when you've a tailwind or the pace increases for whatever reason. All but the steepest climbs are a nice excuse to change up the effort or get out of the saddle.

I found 66-70 gear inches good but everyone is different. You'll probably want gear that has you spinning at around 90rpm for your average speed. Remember your average speed is likely to be higher in a group.

**I agree with this.

**And that's why I wanted to let people know that we had a fixed wheel group.

If the stronger riders are on fixed they will set the pace from the front of the group. It seems to me that the rhythm of a group on fixed is different from one that's on gears. So although the fixed riders may be a bit slower on the easy sections they probably climb a bit faster (as long as the gradient is not very steep), and the time taken to get from the rendezvous to the cafe is probably no different whether fixed or geared. However the fact remains that fixed does not mix well with gears.

As to the size of gear, I agree with Miro_o that 66-70" is what suits most riders. However I guess that the truth is that you just need similar gearing to your companions; so if everyone agreed to use, say, 60" or 80" they would still get to their destination, and if they did it long enough they'd be sitting in the cafe together complaining that 'the youth of today are using the wrong gears' (i.e. not what they used)

It's interesting to note that in the 1911 century competition (see my posts elsewhere) most of the riders were on single gears in the mid 70's, which would seem high to riders of my generation, especially considering the bikes they had and the road surfaces they rode on.