I ride my fixed road bike off road on farm tracks, occasionally on easy MTB trails, and pretty much anywhere I can take it. I'm riding 700c x 25mm tyres, a 42 x 18 drive train, no suspension, drop bars, and rim brakes. I use pinned MTB pedals.

It is a different sort of challenge. You can't do the steep climbs you could manage on lower gears, and you can't do the fast descents that a freewheel would allow. On deeply rutted farm tracks or anywhere where there are rocks, ruts or roots you have to "find your way through the maze" to avoid pedal strikes. It becomes a game of planning, tactics, and determination. You read the trail and "fence it with a foil" rather than "hacking it with a broadsword".

I very much enjoy it, but it may not be for everyone.

Earlier this year, I found myself on a "short cut" through a bridle path/farm track, riding through deep muddy puddles that were up over my feet, losing traction from time to time, and, on one occasion, going over the bars at low speed when the front wheel suddenly dug into a "wheel trap". I loved every minute.

The five problems I face are pedal strike, limited downhill speed, limited climbing ability, loss of traction in the wet, and mud clogging the gap between wheel and frame. Only the first two of these are related to the bike being fixed. The third is because it has a single ratio, and the last two are because it is a road bike.

However, I also own a 2 x 10 gravel bike which of course has a freewheel as well as wider frame clearances, slightly fatter tyres, and disc brakes. This gets ridden considerably less often. Tracks that are a challenge on the fixed are just mildly diverting on the the gravel bike.