Sincitycycler

I saw some triathalon-looking chick (i.e. hot! ) ride a metric century on a fixed gear last spring here in Vegas. Nothing too severe, some rolling climbs, no big gradients. Her feet were going about 120 rpm on the downhill portion and she wasn't bouncing at all. Pretty impressive!

I'm in the process of acquiring a 48x16 track bike and may just try to do the same thing.

62 miles is just right- full centuries are starting to bore me. I'd rather ride harder for a shorter distance and get the damn thing over with.

Anybody else attempt a fixed gear distance ride?

bdcheung

one of my teammates used to bring his Pista on our training rides... 60+ miles, lots of hills. He'd always sprint ahead of us going up, and then look like a wet flopping noodle on the descents.

The most impressive part, though, was when he learned how to unclip/re-clip on the descents

jschen

Talk to The Fixer, who did a double century on his fixie last summer, and did several centuries on fixies.

Surferbruce

48x16 is a hard gear to push up hills. i ride a 44x16 but often wish for a 42.

atomsuite

Only thing about long distance on fixed is your bum. You can't take breaks and coast with your butt in the air and off the saddle like you can on gears. So make sure you can ride that long sitting down, or take butt breaks. Otheriwse a fixed century is no more difficult than a geared century (extreme hills excluded of course). I've ridden two fixed centuries on 42x16 gearing. 118 miles in Traverse City Michigan I barely made it through. Only reason I made it was because I was allowed to suck a lot of wheel. Some of those hills really did me in.

bbattle

I ride my fixie a lot; have done 30 mile rides with no problem but to get out of Huntsville you need to climb so I use the roadie for that.

Should be no problem on mostly flat terrain but I'd go with a flip-flop hub with some real difference in the cogs should the need arise. It's possible to have two cogs on the same side of the hub to give you another option. Keep one side singlespeed just in case you are really tired.

btw, this is a popular topic in the SS/FG forum. Be sure to use the Search function.

flipflop

Did 64 on mine... If i'd known a metric was 2 more miles... I would have done laps around the living room to make it happen! (Grin)

Coyote2

A metric century would have been two fewer miles. Doesn't anybody understand the metric system?

shapelike

48x17 ... done and done (in Ontario, ie. only hills to contend with).

flipflop

Coulda swore it was 66...

Oh well, been wrong before, will be wrong again! Thanks for the correction

(Means I did a metric! Wooo)

chzman

i ride fixed gear 75% of my road rides. actually put 2000 miles on the fixed gear by july last year.

probably have completed 15 centuries on it. the favorite is TOSRV... 2 days, 210 miles

bigskymacadam

gonesh9 did a double century a couple years ago.

E !

All i ride is fixed. I'm in Vegas. century no problem. I ride 46x17 and works great around the area. In matter of fact we did a group ride today with mostly fixed gears and a couple of SS. Think we only did about 35+ miles though. I usually will do my solo rides at about 40-50 miles keeping an avg of 18-20mph. Next month we paln on a 50 miler out to JEan and back.
Give a shout out if interested in riding the Henderson area.

Sincitycycler

Do you do the Red Rock Charleston loop? Do have brakes on your fixie?

chzman

you must like to spin... to ave ~20mph on 46-17, you need to average a cadence inbetween 90 and 100... for 50 miles! How do you keep up if you are in a pace line cruising over 20mph? I have trouble sometimes when pacelines get over 23mph, and i'm running bigger ratios at 47-16 or 49-16.

steaktaco

I've done 2 centuries and a metric on 48x16... but that's in chicago where it's FLAT. I would sugget 48x18 at the most if there are rollers, I also reccommend front brakes—saves your legs yo.

E !

Yes i do like the spin. Actually i live in a very hilly area of town. I will not ride fixed in a paceline of over 22-24mph due to the safety factor. Also, the avg of a hilly ride is about 14 mph on climbs. 20mph feels just great spinning along the flats. I have to find the calculator but i think i can safely spin out at the high 150's rpm going down hills, without launching off the saddle.

E !

Yes, i use brakes. I have rode the red rock loop. It is not really something i do regular. If i head out that way i usually ,aghum, mountain bike at cowboy trails or cottonwood. I'm closer to boulder city.

skin flute

I did a full century on a fixed gear 3 years ago. I think I was running 42x16, which was a pain on descents but good for everything else. It wasn't awful, but it isn't something I'd want to do again fixed.

Oh, and brakes are a neccessity if you have to contend with hills. By the 75 mile mark my legs were so wiped I relied heavily on my front brake when descending. Without it, those hills would have been absolute torture.

Bluechip

I did a metric last year on my fixed gear. It was the Tour de Dounuts in Katy, TX. I skipped the doughnuts but had one of my fastest rides over 50 miles. I averaged just over 21 mph without any drafting. Well, maybe the first mile or two I had some company. It's hard to stay clear at the start of a ride. I think I was in a 48 x 18. It was a pretty windy day. Headwinds are a pain but a tailwind can be worse. The last 10 miles I had a very strong tailwind and was easily doing 25+. 125 rpms can get a little tiring after a while.

xthugmurderx

i ride a 45-17 off track. I've actually never ridden a century geared. max is 147 miles fixed. do it. it's great.

FrankBattle 

As an aside, there is a reason Google stock is as high as it is:

type "Convert 100km to miles"
or "Compute 3 + 5.4"
or "Define: metric"

As for fixies, it's not for everyone.

el twe

Metric, 49x16, bullhorns, brake.

kmart

What kind of bullhorns? I have been having trouble getting comfy on the Profile Aerowings since they have a good 2cm of drop and therefore much less flat real estate, unlike a normal drop bar...I really want to fix this so I can go for longer rides on the fixed like you guys.

VT to CA

Yes, without intending to, and to my great annoyance. Rode (a fixie) for a courier service based near Faneuil Hall, in Boston. This one day they had me out and back to the Naval base where they keep the USS Constitution SIX TIMES. Out and back to Bunker Hill community college FIVE TIMES. After my regular routes my computer had me at 71 miles for the day... the reason was a new girl dispatching- she didn't know where anything was, and she hadn't developed a route rythym... (like a number of pickups and dropoffs in a row that all correlate location-wise to save time and energy)