Geared vs Fixed - average speed

Ok, so I've never ridden a geared road bike and I'm looking for some experience from anyone here who does....

The question is, for those of you that ride both fixed and geared, how much higher is your average speed on your geared bike over the same route?

Dave

I stopped riding fixed as I realised I could ride much faster geared, particularly spinning away from traffic lights. Also it is much easier to do a kind of unstructured interval training on a commute on geared, sprinting and then waiting at lights. I don't have a speedo/powertap though, so no official way to measure this.

Personally I find it more about relative pace. If I'm riding fixed with a group riding geared we're usually at the same pace but I often have to 'attack' (puff and pant up) a hill faster than the geared riders and they can usually descend faster than me.

Around London fixed works much better for me as I run quite a low gearing and while I lose some top speed, it's much easier for me as I'm often pulling away from lights.

That said I've just ordered (through the 'cheap' bikes at work scheme) a geared road bike but mostly to keep the same pace as my geared friends. :)

I have found that I average just about the same on my SS as when on a geared bike. But it's not as straightforward as it would appear.
On short steep uphills I am usually faster than the geared group I ride with. On longer up hills some pass me. Downhill there isn't much in it as most people seem to stop pedalling at higher speeds, so F = ma takes over.
Where the geared guys really win is on flats with a tailwind, I can only spin flat out for a couple of miles then they start to pull away. On headwind flats I tend to pull away.
This is on a 50 mile Sunday morning hilly loop with my local road club.

On my commute to work, approx 18 miles, I think my best time geared was 51:30, fixed 52:08

Of course there are other variables.

It depends on the topography as well of course. I descend faster on gears than fixed, and you can corner faster, brakes on the geared bike as well...

Then I've done 70 mile fixed rides where my average speed on the same ride with gears has been just about the same. As Mark says though, riding fixed with a group of experienced geary riders is tough work though.

Personally I find it more about relative pace. If I'm riding fixed with a group riding geared we're usually at the same pace but I often have to 'attack' (puff and pant up) a hill faster than the geared riders and they can usually descend faster than me.

This^

My average doesnt deviate very much. But I can ride further on a geared bike. I guess the repeated big efforts take there toll.

It depends on your route and bike and a ton of other variables.
For my commute, if I ride on my fixed gear (track frame, 48x19) which is more responsive and "zippier" than my geared bike (Surly Cross-Check), because of all the stopping and starting, fitting through spaces etc etc I'd say I'm faster but only by a couple of min. This is a 4 mile ride from Upper Holloway to Old Street.
Obviously a geared bike has the potential for a much faster top speed, but I only get near it on open fast roads.

I got lazy on geared. When I started riding fixed on my 18 mile commute my time improved by around 5 minutes. My explanation for this is that I tend to try to maintain momentum on the flat to carry into the inclines, and when on the inclines I dig in and get on with them rather than finding a lower gear. I'm in no doubt that commuting on fixed has made me stronger when I return to gears. On a geared bike I find myself further down the block than I used to be. 48x18. The only downside is when theres astout headwind, it gets a bit gnarly on those days.

About the same, 455mph on either.

About the same, 455mph on either.

What Gear Inches do you run?

When I had a geared bike I found I was slower over my usual routes than I was fixed but I think this was down to me changing down all the time, I would always go be in a lower gear than I needed to be. If I kept at it I'm sure that would have changed though, when I ride with my geared friends it seems fairly even with fixed and geared being faster over certain points but at the end making it in the same time.

it would be interesting if they had a sort of fixed gear tour de france.. to see what ppl average speed was etc... bet the geared riders must be avrging alot more spd tho

It would be cool to see an old style TDF take place, pro's on old bikes no gears etc. See how much has really changed.

I'm slower on geared generally, but that's mainly because my geared Crosscheck weighs as much as ten Earths, and my fixed Langster weighs only slightly less than Kate Moss. I can obviously descend faster on gears but the gains are soon wiped out through hauling the epic mass of myself+bike up the ascents.

I have ridden predominantly fixed for over ten years, I bought a geared TT bike last year and still have not beat my personal best from last year so I am still faster on fixed.

What Gear Inches do you run?

That's a secret.

I'm slightly faster on my SS compared to my geared Hybrid, but this may be something to do with riding style. I chase down geared riders when on the SS just to see their faces when a fat old bloke spins past them :) The Hybrid's about 4 KG heavier too, which clearly must make some difference.

Thanks for the responses guys. The reason I ask is I'm thinking of getting a geared bike to take up cycling more seriously and maybe enter some races. Having never ridden a geared road bike I have no clue about how fast or otherwise I might be.
Background...
I've been doing a lot of training on the langster (fixed) for my big ride (this coming weekend) and I average 16.5mph on rides up to about 80miles even with 2000-3000ft or so of climbing. Yesterday I went out with a local road club and averaged 17.8mph for 60miles with 2100ft of up... my highest ave for that distance (Riding 48x18). The only area I suffered was the long flat with a tailwind - I just couldn't keep up with a 25mph average for more than a couple of miles and that's made me think even more about gears. I know I'll be faster downhill (spinning at 180rpm gets tiring fairly quickly!), but on the flat I'm not expecting big gains. Uphills I think it'll be about the same on short rides, but maybe the gears will give me a bit more on longer rides.
So overall, is there much gain in anything other than fatigue? Mmmmm.

I guess what I was hoping for was for someone to say "well, I'm 'x' faster or slower on my geared bike, all other things being equal" to give me a gauge!

And yes, as others have said, I'd like to see a fixed TdF too. That'd sort the men from the boys :-)

If all other things are equal then the time it takes for you to fatigue is basically the only difference.

Realistically your speed increase is going to depend on your gearing - the way to increase your speed without increasing your cadence is to use a higher gear. You'll probably end up settling on a gear that's close to 48x18 for normal riding on the flats anyway, as it'll allow you to maintain the cadence that you're used to. If you want to increase that speed without increasing your cadence, you'll need to shift up higher and push harder. How happy you are with that depends on your gear range and thus how much difference each shift actually makes. It could be that your gear range doesn't really have a matching analogue - my crosscheck (for eg) doesn't have an analogue to the gearing on my langster as the closest two configurations are geared either slightly lower or slightly higher.

Don't discount fatigue as being a small factor, though - a decent gear range is going to use your energy reserves much more efficiently, and fatigue over long distances will kill your cadence stone dead.

You should try putting a 17T cog on the rear, I found it made a a noticeable difference to top speed and the speed I could maintain over distance. I don't think fixed holds you back in anyway, its a different style of riding. I think it's a case of working out some sort of training and play around with different gear ratio's over different distance/climb combinations and seeing how you get on.

I train on my own predominantly but ride with other club geared riders and I have no issues keeping with them and usually find myself leading out as on the flats and uphill I maintain a higher speed. It's only on the downhills that I think geared has the advantage, I think riding fixed with SPD's gives you an advantage on the climbs. Just my experience, not saying its correct.

Only minor differences in my average speed moving between fixed and gears... digs around in ride data for examples

Ride: The Elenith Audax. 308km. 4820m (15800') climbing.

Geared: Moving time 15h 50m 37s. Average = 19.4kph = 12.1mph

Fixed (67"): Moving time 15h 56m 20s. Average = 19.2kph = 11.9mph

Descending steep bits slower on fixed but I climb not studiply-steep (i.e <15%) climbs faster on fixed as my legs want to avoid a really low cadence.

I walk all my bikes at the same speed

I currently run 50x15 which i must say is a pain getting away from lights but i don't feel like i have any losses on top speed. I went out with a friend who was on geared who 3/4's of the way round our ride said that he couldn't keep up with me. That could just be that he's a shit rider (probably most likely) but i do find myself overtaking a lot of lycra ridden, logo'd up geared boys on the flat and slight inclines.

Just don't give me anything more than a slight incline !!

50x15 is a track gear.

48x17 spin to win, or even lighter.

42x19 is best