Fixed riders on a club run

I went out on the Bristol South CC club run with my neighbour yesterday. He's a member and races time trials which I've been thinking of having a go at come the Spring. I took my geared bike, as I generally do on longer journeys (bite me!). A few of the guys on the run were riding fixed.

I guess most of the fixed riders I've met until now can be broadly be put in the same category because they generally come off this board; they've generally been into city riding and the aesthetics of track bikes. The guys on the club run were much more roadie's riding fixed for winter training. But they can seriously ride!

Their bikes weren't stripped down track machines, made to look as light and fine as possible, they all ran two brakes and full mudguards, and even mudflaps on the end of their mudguards. One even had the classic naked lady mudflap ornament! Some of them had racks too.

The run we did was a 40 mile hill ride out of South Bristol and down to Farrington Gurney then around through Midsomer Norton and the Chew Valley and back. Fook, did it have some hills! Those guys riding fixed were heroes, they mashed up the hills so frickin' hard and then span so fast on the way down. I was super-impressed!

It was good to see another side of fixed gear riding. Just thought I'd let you know!

did they have arrospoks?

Doublespoks - every man jack of 'em!

Evenin squire. Interesting, what sort of ratios were they rocking?

I'm looking at training for some big distance stuff this year but need to mix it up so I don't get in a rut. Something like this would be great, and I'm shit at tricks, more likely to get good at speed and endurance, leave that other stuff to the whipper-snappers!

One guy was on 42-15, and had 16 on the other side. He did say that he should have gone with 16 for the hills! Not sure about the others.

What sort of pace do they tend to go at? I'm thinking of heading down to join them for a Sunday ride some time but if it's anything more than 15mph average then I'd better wait a few months!

haha yeah likewise :)

awesome man, thats real good to hear that side of it. its all good bike fun, so nice to hear the variation within the fixie world!

The average speed according to my computer was...
checks data
...a pretty low 13mph!

There was a lot of stopping and starting. And hills!

That suits me - might have to come along for one soon.

Yes I'm keen too, can you let us know whn you're planning to go along? I've always fancied a bit of a group sunday ride through the valley..