fxdwhl

400 miles across pennsylvania on a 42x18 fixed. twice. just add a tooth or two out back and you're good to go. only consequence of riding fixed is the increased saddle time and subsequent saddle sores.

TheBrick

Nice setup. Here is my ropey (as you can see by the warn though handlebar tape) old but loved fixed in tour mode.

gregw

Single speed touring self-help site.

https://www.selfinjury.com/

If a regular touring bike is not simple enough for you, just walk. Maybe barefoot, shoes are pretty complex. Maybe naked, clothes can really gum-up the works. Walking requires a lot of complex balance, maybe crawl naked, that's the ticket.

TheBrick

Wow what on earth is your problem? Just because it does not suit you dies not mean it can't suit someone else.

StephenH

I ride a single-speed, and enjoy it. I don't tour, but do pick my routes for the bike. I can ride up a hill, I can ride up a couple of hills, but going up and down hills all day would do me in. My single speed is geared sort of low (2:1, 52 gear inches), and I might could handle some of the long steady climbs on it (haven't tried!). But, riding through something like Arkansas with five million little steep hills would sure do me in.

As far as choosing the route goes, you can tour all along the gulf coast from Florida to Mexico and never have much of a hill (other than occasional bridges!)

Libido

On a side note, I'm getting ready to tour to AR from FL. Depending on when you're leaving, it could be helpful to have someone else starting out the trip. I'm new to touring and expect there'd be a lot to learn.

Libido

Randochap

I built my first bike in 1960, from parts in my Granddad's shed. It was fixed. I've occasionally ridden fixed since. But, I must say it has never occurred to me to tour on one. I especially couldn't imagine not having variable ratios on the unpaved 20% grades I encountered in Northern BC, on my "three borders" tour.

Some people like doing things the hard way, I guess.

I'm not going to argue against using a fixed gear for touring though. Paul de Vivie (AKA Velcio) did that, at the end of the 19th century.

delver

[QUOTE= riding through something like Arkansas with five million little steep hills would sure do me in QUOTE]

I live in the boston mountains of Arkansas. it sucks. its like riding intervals for hours. But its still great riding. Thats what the freewheel side is for. flip it to get that last couple miles home.

nun

Here's my Quickbeam set up for credit card touring; I just leave my tent, sleeping bag, pad and cooking equipment behind. The gearing is not strictly single speed, it's more like a 4 speed manual shift. The crank is 40/32 and on the back I have a 16/18 double freewheel and a 23t freewheel on the other side. The combos I use are

40x16 90% of the time
40x18
32x16
32x23 for nasty hills

mijome07

I have a few questions... what kind of wheels do you have? How much weight (including rack) on the rear? And how much do you weigh?

danmckenzie

I did my first tour on my fixed-gear. I did about 195 miles in 4 days while I was in Australia. I had a great time but certainly learned some things. My particular bike is not suitable for any touring not because it is fixed gear but because it is a classic track frame so it is very tight geometry. Also my saddle isn't great. Anyway, there were multiple times where I wish I had a freewheel but very rarely did I want other gears. I wasn't hauling a whole lot either though. Just a bookbag worth of clothes, food, and cooking stuff and then my tent and sleeping bad on rack. I definitly say don't shy away from single-speed touring though it doesn't sound like you are about to. Obviously you can go as low of a gearing on a single-speed and not have to worry about spinning out as you might using a fixed-gear when going downhill. Also of note is that for some hills I was standing to get up them and weight on the rack made it a little awkward because of the swaying so just another reason to be mindful of weight. Long story short, go for it and just like with any touring bike, really as long as it's comfortable you can do it.

Dan

nun

I strongly agree with this point for touring on a single speed and on a derailleured bike. For credit card touring my gear weight is around 15lbs and for fully loaded it's 20lbs. Also using a saddlebag that puts the weight close to the rider allows for easy riding out of the saddle on those long climbs.

TheBrick

front is a ultegra on a mavic MA3 or something 36 spoke, 23 mm tyre.

rear is on one double fixed (zero dish), on a mavic open sport, 36 spokes 25 mm tyre in the photo now on a 28 mm and it's much better with weight on the back.

There was about 15 kg in the panniers according to the scales at the airport, it would be a little more than that in total because of a few things we chucked into the bike bag but not much more. I don't know the weight of the rack I am afraid.

I weigh between 70kg and 73kg. (2.2 lb to a kg or use "google x kg in pounds"). I also had a small rucksack on but that prob only had about 5 - 7 kg.

I would not use this setup for a long time but it was only week in rural France, I was carrying more weight than I wanted to but it was a last minuet holiday so had to grab a few inappropriate items. Also if I was traveling on my own I would have had less weight some of the stuff was my girlfriend's.

I also would not have done fixed for the alps but it is fine where I was. Matching bike to ride.

rep

Sure, no problem. My wife and I have toured many places with many rigs, usually fully loaded (well, not her, she's Mormon). I rode around Maui 2 (?) years ago on a Huffy Santa Fe cruiser, pulling a trailer. The trailer was made out of a rubbermaid box (airline legal) with a James Frames base https://www.jamesframes.com/trailers.html . Naturally, I had to push the hills, but I do that even with my Rohloff bike sometimes (like in the Alps). I wouldn't recommend the Huffy, because it had only a coaster brake and I burned the grease out of it in downhills, but it was worth a try. My wife and I tried the Maui loop once before, and I was using a Dahon 3 speed (which folded up into the Rubbermaid) to pull the trailer. The Huffy time our plan was to buy used bikes at Salvation Army and then just donate them back afterwards. That worked for her, but we couldn't find one for me so spent the $99 at K-Mart for a new Huffy. Oh, for you wealthy types, it is more expensive to rent bikes, and way more expensive to bring bikes on the airplane. Anyways, the point is that if you are willing to push then your options really expand. I should say that I'm a singlespeeder, and ride the Rockies all the time, coaster not fixed, 34x17. I have also toured in Europe on 3 speeds and 7 speeds before getting my rohloff bike. The real reason for having gears is that it makes it much easier to ride with my wife. One gear is great when you are solo, but is a problem when riding with others in so much as the gear controls ones pace.

vik 

Kent Peterson had some fixed gear tour reports on his rando pages, but the link I had is broken and a quick google search doesn't show them. As I recall he traveled very light, seemed to enjoy the fixed gear tour and it didn't cause him serious problems in the mtns.

If you drop him an email he'd probably hook you up with his reports and some thoughts on the matter.

Winnershcyclist

What's a watch?...

staehpj1

I hope that is a rhetorical question since the person who posted it hasn't been around since 2010 and posted that in 2008.

vaultbrad

Speaking of dead threads, have any of you out there done any great tours on your single speeds, or fixed wheel bikes?

I intend to do some over-due, over-nighters on one of mine this year. I picked up a Carradice Nelson recently, that I am falling in love with for commuting. It should prove useful for short tours and over-nighters.

fietsbob

Theres a Guy who Tours on a Replica Penny farthing.. Not Me , But He did.

Repeat earlier Link https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?..._id=1451&v=2xU

Read Dervla Murphy's book She wrote, (during &) after a ride from Ireland To India in the early 60s.
https://www.amazon.com/Full-Tilt-Irel.../dp/1906011419
As I recall from My Reading it many years ago , she thought the 3 sped IGH may have lacked Reliability ,
so I presume her bike had 1 speed.

She, author of many Books, is 82 now https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-s...s-ts-1.1789737

Yes, and the second conclusion may be yes as well ...

Bring lots of Money and you wont have to carry Much. Credit card tours just delay payments , Debit Cards are like writing Checks.

bikemig 

'

There are a lot of things one can know quite well without ever having tried them. Otherwise we can just throw everything in books, etc. out the window and simply rely on trial and error to learn things. Gearing makes it easier to deal with hills, wind, etc. I know that and I've never toured on a single-speed bike. Obviously more than a few people have toured on single speeds and had a great time doing it. The OP can decide for himself or herself whether the trade-offs are worth it.

Walter S

Like think the OP probably needs to think it over a while longer.

bmike

go for. try some short overnights. plan your gearing based on terrain.
everything we do is a trade off (for those that think its stupid or misguided to tour ss or fixed... why don't you just drive? it would be easier!)

350htrr

I'm sure one could tour around the world on a tricycle or unicycle if one wanted to, but why would one want to... ?

bikenh

Rode a 5200 mile trip this summer in a 53x19 the whole way. I ride singlespeed full time anymore and if I had a track frame I would probably have ridden it all fixed gear. Singlespeed is the sweet way to go. I had 40 pounds of gear on me, mostly in a backpack and I rode from NH to NE NY down to Annapolis, MD for the finish of RAAM, on out to OH then ended up starting a ride, to kill 3 weeks of time, that was going to go through each of the 102 counties in IL. Turned out I screwed up the initial routing before I left my mom's house in NW Ohio plus her doctors appointment got moved up one week so now I was on a two week trip instead of three week trip so I cut it short. Every doing some other riding around in Ohio I brought the long way around on back up to NH. I had 4 days of at least 150 miles a day and one of those days was a 200 miler. Like I said above singlespeed is the sweet way to go. Get yourself in shape and don't try to throw yourself up the hardest steepest climbs you can find and you'll be okay. Yeah, I rode pretty much all of US40 from Mt. Airy, MD to the Ohio River...100 feet per mile average for over 100 miles. It's doable, just get in shape before you leave. Set big goals and go achieve them.

bikenh

Simplicity my dear Watson, simplicity. If things can go wrong, they will go wrong. The less you leave to chance the less chance that can leave you sitting. Singlespeed/fixed is about simplicity. Get rid of the extra crap on the bike that give you something more that can go wrong. Pretty simple isn't it.