I had a guy stop me last night...

... I say kumquat

My trouble ascending is that I'm always fiddling with the gears trying to find the best combination of effort and cadence to get up the incline. I'm sure that a more experienced cyclist doesn't have this problem.

With a fixed I don't have to worry about any of this - there is no excuse but to just build some speed up and mash it up the slope, frequently passing furiously peddled geared bikes.

Not very efficient, but I'm sure it's great training because I'm getting much better at hills.

That's the thing. IME if you ride a fixed for most of the time, when you get back on a geared bike you'll be surprised at how well you can go up hills.
It's not a case of spinning like mad and going nowhere, because your style should have been influenced by the fixed training. You just find a gear a bit lower than normal and power on up.

I've noticed a lot of geared riders do things like change down WAY too early on a climb, or change down just before they stand up (should do the opposite), or fiddle relentlessly and ineffectually with shifters whilst constantly losing speed, and not make best use of assorted body positioning on the bike.

All of these lessons are learnt quite quickly riding fixed, and can be transferred to a geared bike, but on a fixed you still have the advantage of drivetrain forces 'carrying through' the dead spot, and out-of-the-saddle your weight is kind of supported as you bring each leg round from 9 to 1 o' clock. Plus there's the efficiency of a straight chain, but mostly I think it's the way fixed alters your climbing psychology.

Gears are great for flexibility in the face of meteorological uncertainties, long (mountain) climbs, and so on, and 9 times out of 10 I'll be faster up a climb than my co-riders whether I'm on geared or fixed, but when it comes to archetypal British climbs (short, sharp, brutal, 1 to 3 minutes), if I'm using a reasonably apt gearing, I'll always be quicker fixed... and it feels much better too :)

I was riding a friend's bike in france a couple of weeks ago and the hills were surprisingly steep. His (cheap and heavy) bike had one of those mega granny rings which meant I basically had to turn the pedals round twice to make the wheel go round once.

Then I got chased by a dog. A little dog. I had to escape, uphill, in that teeny gear. It must have been the most ridiculously slow chase ever.

mdja Then I got chased by a dog. A little dog. I had to escape, uphill, in that teeny gear. It must have been the most ridiculously slow chase ever.

I see where French comedy film makers get their inspiration from, now.

cornelius blackfoot
What is underground, becomes popular goes overground, everyone buys into it, you either find some other form of cycling, unicycling anyone! which is underground.

Ah yes. It's more important to be underground than anything else. It's a bit like being 'an activist' and very reminiscent of teenagers just being 'against'.

i love angst

tallsam [quote]RPM

I also think it's easier because of the momentum you can carry up hills.

I never quite understood this argument. Fixed riders HAVE to go up hills fast due to their gearing, the slower you go the harder it is to turn the cranks etc...). Likewise SSers. Geared riders could do the exact same thing (stay in gear and keep pedalling) but it'd be stupid to do so. Why not conserve energy and make it an easier ride uphill (it's not a race after all). Fixed gear just limits your options when going uphill - which is great if you're training or whatever and have to exert extra energy to get over a hill.

You make it sound like geared riders don't have that momentum which is twoddle.[/quote]

bollocks, I just said how it felt to me, compared to SS.

i like to think of it as being one with the bike and not relying on mechanical props to support you...obviously to a certain extent.

it's easier to ride pissed too

. . and naked.

I feel more "at one" with the bike when I'm pissed and naked.

I feel 'zen like' (whatever that means) when I am drunk, naked and proud.

its harder to fart on a fixi

How true. Always satisfying to get that extra bit of propulsion and drop a bomb for the bastard slipstreaming you.

Getting back on track, I had a 'nice fixie' comment as I picked up my Wiggle Box in Sydenham this evening.

Youngish bloke, looked familiar, but hopped in his car and drove off before I could engage him in coversation.

Was it one of you?

your wiggle box?

i don't even wanna know.

from Wiggle.co.uk

Wiggle Box.

"there is no excuse but to just build some speed up and mash it up the slope"

you should be dancing on the pedals as if your cranks are made of glass.*

*i read that somewhere.

A market trader said to me today:
"That wheel's close to the frame. Could you get a bigger wheel?!"
Not heard that one before.
Made me laugh though. ;-)

MrSmith "there is no excuse but to just build some speed up and mash it up the slope"

you should be dancing on the pedals as if your cranks are made of glass.*

*i read that somewhere.

You should be heaving up on the bars and uppers of your shoe as if you're being nailed to the cross.*

*I read that in a cycling bible.

RPM [quote]tallsam [quote]RPM

I also think it's easier because of the momentum you can carry up hills.

I never quite understood this argument. Fixed riders HAVE to go up hills fast due to their gearing, the slower you go the harder it is to turn the cranks etc...). Likewise SSers. Geared riders could do the exact same thing (stay in gear and keep pedalling) but it'd be stupid to do so. Why not conserve energy and make it an easier ride uphill (it's not a race after all). Fixed gear just limits your options when going uphill - which is great if you're training or whatever and have to exert extra energy to get over a hill.

You make it sound like geared riders don't have that momentum which is twoddle.[/quote]

bollocks, I just said how it felt to me, compared to SS.[/quote]

I just meant I'd heard it lots of times before from other ppl or similar versions. I wasn't having a go at you.

never eat yellow snow.*

*i think mum told me that when i was a kid

Quite why you'd want to eat snow unless you absolutely had to is beyond me.