Texas - HH100 - Anyone tried it on a fixed gear?

I am close to getting serious about training for this century. This will be my first century. My only bike at the moment [and for the foreseeable future] is a fixed gear bike that I am pretty comfortable on; I have gone on some 25 mile [or so...] rides around Dallas [which is pretty flat] but nothing much longer.

I am not sure about the terrain of the HH100 course, but it looked pretty flat in the profile I found on their website.

I am sure it can be done fixed, but here is my question: I typically ride around Dallas with 46-17 ratio which puts me at just over 70 gear inches. For those that have completed this century fixed, what gear ratio did you choose?

Is this a bad idea to try this ride fixed?

I did it on a single speed road bike at 48/18 which is essentially the same gearing. Saw 1 guy doing it fixed. It is not flat......especially from about mile 80 on. I will be doing the metric century fixed this year.
For your first century, on foreign terrain, in 110* heat, do yourself a favor and throw a freewheel on the other side of your hub.
If you get by this year and are confident, then do it fixed next year.


My .02

I would suggest you go ride some other longer rides first and see what you think. For hills, maybe try the Beauty & Beast in Tyler this next weekend (I'm planning to try it for the first time). For flatter land, go try the Spring Fever ride in Sulphur Springs, also this weekend. I rode it last year; it was pretty nice.

I rode the HH100 on my Worksman last year. It's single-speed, but not fixed. It's heavy, I'm heavy. What I remember is there was about 5 miles of hills around mile 20 that about did me in, then a a few more around mile 60-70 or so. Seems like from 80 on, it was pretty flat, also got the tailwind again towards the end of it. I had heard it was a "flat" ride, but was surprised at how many hills it had.

I rode with a guy last year that rode it fixed. He's a strong rider, but I don't recall him having a super tough time. If it's the only bike you have, I say do it. The worst that could happen is that you attempt something great, and you fail. Still better than not making the attempt right?

Get training for it, and you'll be fine. Just be sure to include some modest hills in your training so that you're prepared.

Steve

I am the one Barlows is refering to. I ran 46/15 with him last year, and was undergeared for his pace. I was spun out the entire time. If you plan on staying under a 20mph pace, the gear you have will be fine. Go on a few metrics first, the FWBA does rides every saturday and sunday that will be good training, most of their rides are much more hilly than HHH, so if you can do them you are ready. The goat neck route is a tough one, HHH is easy.

Well, going off memory...if you go southwest from White Rock Lake on Santa Fe, there's kind of a long hill. And there's a nice little hill going south on East Fork Road between Town East and Tripp. If I remember correctly (and that's a big if), none of the hills on the HH100 were any worse than those two. Just there were several of them instead of just one. Anyway, I got to the first hill, and thought "I'll just crank right up this" and I did. Only there was another one after it, and another one after that, etc. And then those at the 70 mile area weren't so bad, except I was plenty tired by the time I got to them.

By the way, based on the numbers, I would assume there's been quite a few people to do the ride on fixed gear bikes- just I don't pay that much attention to bikes when I'm riding. People have done century rides like this on 36" unicycles, for that matter.

100 miles in 1 day in 110* heat on a unicycle?
That's kinda hard to believe.
Actually, its really really hard to believe.

Well, you just made me do some research.

First off, I said "rides like this". I know people have done century rides on unicycles. I don't know if anyone has specifically done the HH100. I do find a website from 2006 where a guy was planning to be the first to do it, which implies it hasn't been done. I find a post from 2000 that mentions a unicycle in the crowd, but the person could have been doing a shorter route, or could have dropped out.

They had a unicycle race last summer, Ride the Lobster- see website here. 800 km in 5 days. http://www.ridethelobster.com/race/

A couple of other links of interest:
http://dcuni.com/blog/?p=11
http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_6674733

By the way, last year was cooler than some of these rides. The "official" high for the day was 99 degrees. I know people will report 10 or 15 degrees higher from the bike computers and all, but consider there's been years when the official high was several degrees above that. I was watching the forecasts, and that's one reason I went ahead and gave it a try. Had they been forecasting 110 degrees, I would have stayed home sipping lemonade or something.

I actually got hotter at the Mesquite Rodeo Ride last year- not sure if the temperature was actually hotter, or just the humidity was higher. But I thought I was going to melt out there. At HH100, I just got tired.

A guy riding next to us had a registered temp of 116 on his bike computer last year. Pretty intense.
They don't take the official highs for the day 3' off the scalding hot chipseal in the middle of the desert in a pack of 10,000+ cyclists.

I plan on doing it this year on a fixed gear. I've done it the past 2 years with a geared bike. I would advise getting in some more miles, there's a big difference between 25 and 100 miles. But it's doable.

I did my first century on my Mtn Bike and it was HTH....

Go for it!!!

Well, it's intense until the official high is 109, then that bike computer's going to read 126 on the pavement. That's going from the "hot and sweaty" stage to the "fat old men shouldn't be out here" stage. And of course, the slower you are, the more you get to enjoy the afternoon heat.

I did it on my (at the time) single speed schwinn madison (bike is now a fixed gear). It was my first ride over 40miles. Took me and my buddy (who was also on a ss) 7 hours.
We plan on doing the metric century fixed this year.

you could just throw a freewheel on the other side for when you get tired, and a dingleberry cog on the fixed side to allow some gearing adjustment, if you want to change your pace.

I would highly suggest registering for something like the Tour de Paris in July and try the metric centruy there before attempting the HHH. Paris is slightly more hilly than the HHH, but not by much and will give you a good idea of what you'll be in for, only longer.

. . . That's going from the "hot and sweaty" stage to the "fat old men shouldn't be out here" stage. And of course, the slower you are, the more you get to enjoy the afternoon heat.


hey, I resemble that remark :D

marty

Another reason is my fixed gear is just a lot more comfortable than the road bike. I am going to try to do all my training on it and see how I feel mid-June or so.

Thanks for the help!