Originally Posted by
mrvile
To all of those who thing riding fixed will improve your pedal stroke, I have to disagree. A fixed drivetrain actually hides many imperfections in the pedal stroke because the momentum of the wheel will keep the cranks going, whether you're putting power down or not. And when you start to really do work, it gets hard to tell when you're moving the cranks or when the wheel is doing it. So what seems like a smooth pedal stroke on a fixed drivetrain may not be. The only thing riding fixed is good for regarding spin technique is that it will force you to really move your legs once the speed leaves your comfort zone, and you'll know when you start bouncing all over the saddle trying to maintain 35mph @ 75GI.
I personally think that the best way to improve your stroke is to just gear down and spin. Keep your butt still. The rest will come over time.
I know a good number of older racers and work with one who was never a spinner and at 76 still pushes some big gears at a lower cadence than one would think was efficient... but when he and these other guys were racing here and abroad they started every season on their fixed gear with 75 gear inches and spun that for 1000 miles before they started shifting gears.
It got them in racing shape and got them spinning very smoothly efficiently... and there was no slacking off.
If your fg is set up perfectly and your pedal stroke is smooth there will be no bouncing in the saddle and I have spun out on descents at 180 rpm @ 45 mph with no issues with me bouncing in the saddle.
Watch track racers when they sprint... super high rpms and no bouncing.
I have to be able to maintain a high cadence these days as I have one leg that does not work as well as I would like it to and one leg that does a lot more of the work... I run some lower gears and spin faster to stay within my aerobic range (which has gotten better), to maintain speed, and not over stress the good leg.