rusholme

it can be treehouse club too (i.e., your friends).

just wondering - anyone do long rides on a fixed? if so - how long of a ride and what gears?

or do some of you hide road bikes in the basement?
got a friend talking me into a road bike....but all those gears and brakes have me skeered.

cheers

pitboss

long ride - https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...highlight=ides

riderx

A few recent ones I put together - no club, just like-minded riders. You might need to scroll down on the links:
- 75 in O-five - see the post with the same name.
- 193 miles in 2.5 days - see the posts: Flat city and How it was Done. Also see Making it Happen
- Westside Fixed Fifty, see the Stick a Fork in It post. Route Map

schwinnbikelove

rusholme- I wish I had a club to ride with!

Meanwhile, in my 'stay fixed till spring or try singlespeed' or something like that thread, I talked about perhaps getting a multispeed rear wheel for my bike for an MS 150 ride. So, you're not alone.

dolface

i ride fixed and geared, usually do a fixed ride on saturday, longer geared ride on sunday.
i like mixing it up.

filtersweep

I can't imagine showing up at a club ride on fixed- they'd as soon kill anyone who has aerobars...

Long rides are great... what could be the problem?

rusholme

no problem, filtersweep. i was just wondering if there's any truth that having other gears makes it easier, or are we all as badass as we claim to be? from everything i've seen so far, longer rides on a fixed should have higher gears if you dont want to kill your legs.

riderx - thanks for the links. but what's your gearing?

i think these make me want to ditch the gears and go 48-16 on a pacer or something like that. cheers for the input.

Plow Boy

Around here there are a few of us that show up to group rides on a fixed. Sometimes we lead them out and other times we let them go and reel them back in.

bostontrevor

Actually your gearing is going to depend on your distance (duh), but as you get a longer distance you'll want your gearing to go down. You can always spin a shorter gear, it just takes longer. On the other hand as you get tired it gets to be harder and harder to mash a tall gear and eventually you start to have problems with leg cramps.

At least that's been my experience.

Anyhow as long as there isn't anything too hilly, a 48/16 should let you take a pretty decent roll.

riderx

44x17 - I can barely grind it up the super steeps (think 18%) and it works pretty good everywhere else. I'm to lazy to ever switch gears up for different rides. I suppose big gears are fine for short, around town jaunts, but most of my rides involve distance and hills.

Smorgasbord

Hrm, I have aerobars on my fixed, that'd be sure to be a hit

Yeah yeah, they probably look dumb while jetting through traffic, but ooh those times that you can stretch out and either hammer or just relax...

Plus garage sale for 3 bucks.

jgsjr

That's all I ride now a days club rides, rallies.........

I usually ride 48x16, but I will adjust gears to the terrain.

Moonshot

The problem with aerobars and group rides is it takes a second or two to get out of the aerobars and hit your brakes if necessary.

I don't think a fixed gear with aerobars is a problem.

mrwhite

THE HELL RIDE

In Melbourne there is saturday morning ride that is around 90klicks (50 miles) and has up to 200 riders at times. Its an absolute bullet ride sometimes. Ive ridden the flat part (they do a 10km hilly loop) on my brakeless (got told to **** off many times) and braked track bikes. 48x16 i think i rode. They get up to 50km an hour at times, and whatevever that is in miles, it means legs are going CRAZY.

Ah, to be young and dumb again...

Fun stuff.

gravityhurts

Well, the nasty storms that pledged the west and claimed a few lives have passed. It's been in the high 70s along the cost of southern California and that means big crowds at the local mass starts. As always, it's my steel cable- less fixer stealing looks from the techno thoroughbreds. That alone elevates my game a notch or two. An honest game where "the buck stops here" attitude. I'm having fun again.

It's been said that water seeks it's own level. That holds true to fixers as well. The relatively few fixers here in San Diego (home to many world class triathletes and professional RR training camps) seek validation from each other. I liken it to being in a foreign land and finding others speaking your language. For ours is a culture of "man and machine," rather than "man and technology." Some have said to me "you must really like that bike" with emphases on "that." My reply has been "like it?...I love it!" I feel no need to apologize for my preference for a fixer; my steel companion. What I should say, what I really mean is that I came out here to ride, at the end of this ride I better feel it, I better not have anything left. If I felt like you, I'd pull out my road bike, coast when I could, listen to my dancing chain, and when I got home I'd do push-ups on my knees.

In this uniformed world of, index-shifting and NASA materials there is no rest, everyday is a work day for the fixer. In groups tows and or, drafting, is luxury lost on the brake-less. I'm not the best, but I'm game, and I do my best to hide the pain. I'll be damed if I ever let "them" perceive my FG as handicap. I want leave them scratching their heads. However, hard work can be fun too. We make it fun. In numbers we behave like a pack of wolves amongst the lycra herd. Outsiders branding a single gear urban assault, an asphalt riot with a clear message - spin class is officially over. Outsiders.

This is a role for which I am well versed. A role requiring patents, inventory of ones own weakness, an iron will, and the ability strike at opportunity. Wolf? Naw, speaking only for myself, I'm more like a weasel. It's not such a bad thing either. Have you ever watched weasels? They always seem to be having the most fun.

Smorgasbord

Nice post Gravity. Reads like it should be put to music. Well, not like a real song, more like a talking-while-music-is-played-in-the-background song. In the vein of Lou Reed or William Shatner.




Good point, I had forgotten about that consideration. I was thinking that it was more that I don't dress very aero, nor do I have my seat a couple of inches above my bars (more comfy, and large bike). However, performing an emergency skid while in the slam bars might be difficult. I do ride in them many times during Berkeley critical mass - but that's very slow speeds and not many riders.

Mr. Shadow

Almost all of my riding is on a fixed-gear now.
I have done many club rides on one, the longest
being a 67 miler filled with hills in North Carolina.
That was on my Van Dessel running a 44x16t.

little5guy

I have done a few club rides on the fixed. In my town, there is a dedicated fixie ride on Sunday mornings that is about 30 to 40 miles, depending on the ride. Most of the riders are racer types that use fixed as part of their winter training regimen. As an aside, one guy has an amazing Calfee with track drop outs. Apparently Calfee made a handful of these at the request of Greg Lemond or some story like that.

I do have a geared road bike that I also love to ride. If the ride is especially long and has lots of climbs (there are mountain ranges where I live) I will take the geared bike. Don't fear the gears! :-)

Moonshot

There's a weekly group of us riding together this winter and usually we are all on fixed gears. We are also comfortable riding with each other and have a lot of experience riding in groups. I'd be wary of a new person coming into our group with a fixed gear until I got to know them.

Most of my riding mileage is on a geared bike.

RainmanP

Depends on what you mean by "club". I have ridden a fixed gear on a casual city ride with a local touring (ie, NOT racing) club. These are generally just noodles around the city with stops for coffee, etc.

The more serious group (racer training type) does not appreciate someone showing up on a fixed gear, but there reasoning is practical. Fixed gear and aero bars are not allowed in mass start races for safety reasons so they should not be ridden in near race pace group rides.

SD Fixed

Have I run into you before?

Phatman

I think it'd be unsafe to run a brakeless bike in a paceline...if thats what you mean. but I think it'd be fine if you rode a fixed with a brake on a club ride. you might piss some poeple off if you took off on the uphills as to not stall in the middle of the climb, though.

auk

Do it as often as I can. Most typical reaction is a bunch of smart remarks about too much work and not going very fast. Both tend to lessen after you take extended pulls at the front at 27mph. After a while things settle down and they realize that it really is STILL a bike.

Ceya

When I first started riding because that was all I had at the time and motor pace rides.

S/F,
CEYA!

gravityhurts

Was that a pun?