Fixed gear keeps up to high end roadies
 

So I went for a 55 km ride with two friends on nice road bikes. One is a Colnago CX 2.0 (brand new), the other is a Cannondale Super Six (http://www.bikeworldnews.com/2008/08...009-road-line/).

Both of these are VERY nice road bikes and very light.

Me? I ride Mercier Kilo TT Stripper in Chrome geared at 81 inches. Just this week I mounted a rear rack and trunk bag. For the ride with the boys today, I even removed my helmet mirror to avoid looking too Fred.

I am happy to report the bike was able to more than keep up on the flats and the bike was the first up every hill and the first off every sprint.

Those Kilos are fast! :)

I was beaten by a fat old guy on a hybrid with panniers in a faux race last week, that hurt my ego.

Yea it happens; now just imagine what a higher end track bike can do. You must've been in better shape than them. As I/ any seasoned road rider can easily put a fixie kid in their place with a twitch of my finger on a brifter.

Wow and like you drink PBR too so not only are you faster but you're like way cooler too.

We all worship you.

:rolleyes:

coming from a guy who quotes himself

do not see this thread going anywhere productive.

:lol::lol:

BTW, puppypilgrim is fast and I'm pretty sure he doesn't drink PBR.

and/or they don't understand how to use their derailleurs. Especially if they are losing in sprints from a dead stop, this might be the case.

are you sure it wasn't another case of the "your wallet can't make up for your legs"?

Yeah!!! High Five!

:rolleyes:

What an idiotic post. Sure sure, I congratulate you for keeping up w/ your friends who both ride considerably nice road bikes, but since when did A BIKE MAKE YOU FAST?

Try keeping up on a fast weekend group ride. If you were all mounted up w/ wattage meters you'd be putting out way more wattage for a lot less ummmf

Victor, this is the other Victor I've been talking about.

I'm also Victor.

1) Congrats

2) Did they know that they were in a race?

3) A 20 year old Mustang 5.0 can beat a 2 month old Mercedes C-300. The point is: You are probably a stronger rider.

4) Don't get caught up in the Nice Gear = faster/stronger/better thing. We are too old for that. Some people (even slower people) like nice gear. There's nothing wrong with that.

What's your vector, Victor?

My bad, I meant remove back wheel and derail chain, remove lockring, remove cog, reinstall different size cog, replace cog, replace lockring, replace wheel, replace chain; tension chain. Sowwy if I lost you back there.

lol these threads, OP come out to socal and ride with the "high end" pro / semi pro roadies out here :)

while I do enjoy mashing my fixed gear past roadies up hills, etc. they will always destroy me on pace. the gearing just is not there.

Sorry that sarcasm\irony\black humor is often lost in translation on the internet...

I thought I would just combine some asinine flavors of stereotypical topics in one post. Truth is, I was the strongest rider in the group - especially on the hills. And yes, a decent roadie on a road bike of any sort with a full set of gears would beat me every time due to my mechanical limitation of a fixed gear. Doesn't have to be a $6000 bike to beat me. Even an equal rider on a road bike would have advantage over me. - Especially on a very steep hill or a very fast downhill.

Having said that, I was very pleased as this was my first group ride on the fixed gear with my two road friends. I wasn't sure if I could keep with the two of them. So it was a test for me. We weren't pushing it all out, I had lots in reserve. But here's the thing, both the guys are mashers and not spinners.

Squirrelli,

We rode from the Richmond Oval, to Arthur Laing Bridge, up Granville Street before cutting over west to Cypress heading north to 41st and Granville to eat a dim sum lunch in Kerrisdale. From there west to marine Drive heading to UBC all along the coast before connecting to 4th avenue. The big downhill from UBC to 4th was interesting. From 4th east till about Willow or so (can't remember) before continuing east on Broadway to La Bicicletta. Then 41st and Fraser, then Cambie Street and 41st to CanadaLine bridge back into Richmond. About 55 km in total.

The point about saying those Kilo bikes are fast is of course, the height of absurdity. The bike is not a particularly light steel frame, geared at 81 inches stock and I had a rack and a trunk bag with pump, repair kit, chain breaker, wrenches and some spare clothing. Not exactly ultralight either. What I did notice is that I kept spinning while they tended to coast a lot. I also feel that having an FG gives the rider some momentum from the turning of the wheels and crankset. I would be slower than them on the downhills. They prefer to fly down the hills turning their biggest gear. Its the rider who makes the bike fast.

The point is that a reasonably fit fixed gear rider can keep up with roadies unless they start going all TdF.

Can truthfully say the body feels great after yesterday's ride. Bit of tiredness in the quads that's all. Bike fit was good and I was pleased about that. I'm planning to ride fixed for the 200 km Ride to Conquer Cancer which goes from Vancouver to Seattle in June.

:)

Just goes to show that when all the money is spent, 90% of the performance is in the engine.

And the other 50% is tactics.

You've never actually been in a bike race have you?

it's all about the engine...but when you couple a good engine with gears...it will invariably beat out the SS.

Geez, with all the roadie support here, one would think this WASN'T the SS\FG forum! LOL.

so my theory of them not using their derailleurs properly was correct! :lol: