Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - 240+ km ride on my fixie

Hi,

I'll be doing a very long ride today on my fixie. I did this trip (from my home town Arnhem to my mother's place in Middelburg (Netherlands, if anyone is interested) last year and the year before on my roadie. My ride is an old Batavus Criterium (how do I change my nickname, by the way :) fixed with a suicide hub and geared 49:18, soon to be found on the gallery. Luckily it's all flatland, but the forecast is a force 4 headwind all the way....Right now I'm drinking coffee and mustering up the courage... I'll let you know how it turned out.

Yeah maing, keep us posted.
I have a friend in Arnhem. :-)

Wow good luck! I have a 160km ride coming up on Sunday...I've never cracked 200km in a single ride before...

Well, the cyclecomputer I bought just for this occasion ( I think the're fugly) told me it was 234,5 kms exactly. My god what a torturous ride! The wind was more like a force 5 to 6 and HEAD ON for 75% of the ride. Jeeezz!!!

I had to mash the hell out of the bike just to keep something of a pace. Still, it took me only 30 minutes longer than the same trip on my roadie with normal winds. I attribute this to the more constant pace that a fixie forces you to ride at. All in all it took me 14 hours, including about 4 hours of stops. That would put my average speed around 23 km/h. Not fast, but hey I frigging made it!

My knees are hurting a bit because of the ridiculous amount of mashing I had to do. But I feel great otherwise. At around the 200 km mark, I even had the energy left to draftt a roadie at 30 km/h for about 6 kms, and yes, I took the lead several times in order not to be considered a drafting jackass :-)

I will be going back the same way in a couple of days, but only if the wind is at my tail!

PS. Solostyle, who is your friend? I know Arnhem has a couple of fixed messengers, but I don't know them in person, just from the bikes they ride.

Thanks for letting me share and good luck to you all!

Yeah maing, keep us posted.
I have a friend in Arnhem. :-)

all messengers have friends in arnhem..

Is Dirk (Diggler) Dykhuis still running Velocity Couriers in Arnhem?

Hey Batavus, I'm from Arnhem too! What an amazing trip you did. I'm planning on riding on my fixie from Arnhem to Delft in a few weeks. Perhaps the first part of that route is the same as yours? Care to share any nice roads/paths you took?

I'm seeing more and more fixie's and single speeds here in Arnhem. A few years ago only the people at Velocity used them but now some other folks as well. If you see a blue Concorde (soon to be in the fixed gear gallery), that's me!

PS. Are you the same guy as "atala" from the FGG forum?

PS. Are you the same guy as "atala" from the FGG forum?

Hi Erik, That's a friend of mine who rides an Atala roadie and i recently fixed him up by converting an old Peugeot frame. Maybe the three of us could get together and go for a nice fixed ride sometime. That would be fun.

Is Dirk (Diggler) Dykhuis still running Velocity Couriers in Arnhem?

Velocity is still in business, I recently bought a nice set of Miche Primato hubs through them, but I don't know who is actually running the business at this point. I heard that the boss (maybe the Dirk you mean) moved to Spain with his gf.

Hey Batavus, I'm from Arnhem too! What an amazing trip you did. I'm planning on riding on my fixie from Arnhem to Delft in a few weeks. Perhaps the first part of that route is the same as yours? Care to share any nice roads/paths you took?

I'm seeing more and more fixie's and single speeds here in Arnhem. A few years ago only the people at Velocity used them but now some other folks as well. If you see a blue Concorde (soon to be in the fixed gear gallery), that's me!


I just took the river route over the dykes which is beatiful on a nice day but otherwise pretty straightforward. Tiel and Gorinchem are nice towns to stop for refreshments. But I guess if you're going to Delft, the straightest way would be to go via Utrecht , Zoetermeer etc, but then you would have to go over the Utrechtse Heuvelrug which = not nice on a fixie. about two weeks ago My friend Atala and I went to rotterdam on our fixies and we took this route: Arnhem-Rhenen-Wijkbij Duurstede- Vianen-Schoonhoven-Rotterdam, which is also nice and meandering. This was about 150kms one way. I think this would be the most convenient route to take to Delft. Good luck and maybe see you in Arnhem!