Originally Posted by
TimothyH
I don't know.
I spin down a long hill and try to relax as much as possible but heart rate still goes up and I breathe heavier than at the top of the hill. That tells me I am doing more work, not less. My bike has brakes and I'm not talking about pedal back pressure to slow down.
The bike never simply drags my legs in circles. There is always tension in the muscles. Legs are always doing some work, even when traveling downhill and using brakes to slow down.
Contrast that to coasting where zero work is being done. The only way to do zero work on a fixed gear bike is to unclip.
-Tim-
I got lazy and didn't go on to explain that, as you say, a fixed gear never purely drags your legs around without your own power input of some sort in the first place. So we agree there for sure. But I still don't think coasting has much to do with whatever final training advantage a fixed gear has.
I came here to reply to the version of your comment that I read in my email notification, but you already edited the other part out, so I'll stop here.
