Originally Posted by JohnDThompson (Post 14745813)

Riding a fixed gear breaks you of the habit of coasting.

Originally Posted by gregf83 (Post 14745873)

I don't have that habit unless I'm descending when it becomes quite useful.

Originally Posted by JohnDThompson (Post 14751189)

Don't be so sure. The first time you ride a fixed gear you'll be astonished at how often you try to coast when the bike doesn't let you. For most people, it starts to happen within the first second or two after mounting the bike.

Ride fixed exclusively for a couple weeks, then go back and ride your freewheel bike again. I think you'll be surprised.

Originally Posted by gregf83 (Post 14748132)

Yes, I've seen them. I've also seen major league batters spend 5 minutes in the box twitching and adjusting their sweatbands and helmet just so. Does that increase their batspeed?

If you still think swinging a heavy bat is the way to faster bat speed read this: Warming up with a weighted bat does not increase swing speed.

There's no question you can train on a fixed gear. You can also train equally well if not better on a regular bike. For example, if you want to do muscle tension intervals you want to find someplace where you can ride at 90-100% of FTP at 50-60RPM. You could do this on hills of a certain gradient with a fixed gear bike, but there are many more locations and conditions (i.e. headwind) that you can achieve this with a geared bike.

Originally Posted by Esteban58 (Post 14746072)

I'm riding a sort of heavy hybrid now, but was planning to upgrade to something nice as a reward for getting under 200 lbs. (or maybe just 207 - 'no longer obese' point for me)

Originally Posted by lhbernhardt (Post 14742920)

A friend of mine used to train with the East German cycling team back in the old days. They used to train on fixed gear bikes in the winter and early season. The coach would make them go up crazy steep grades until they fell over!

If I were to begin my racing career over again, I'd go out on group training rides on a fixed gear. You're working harder on the steeper hills, you're developing a fluid spin on the flats, you're spinning like a fool on the descents. You're unlikely to win the town line sprints, but just staying with the sprint as long as you can gives you far better training that will pay off when you're on the geared bike. While everybody is coasting, you are working. You are getting a FAR, FAR better workout than everybody else, so why would you even think of giving up this advantage?

Back in the 70's I was out on one or two early season training rides with the Berkeley Wheelmen where Mike Neel (one of the top US riders of his day) would show up on a fixed gear bike (a track bike with a front brake attached and a 15mm Campag "peanut butter wrench" strapped under the saddle with his spare). He'd power away from the group on his 66" gear and win the town line sprints!

Now most of my riding is on a fixed gear. I think that in the longer events (like Paris-Brest-Paris), it's actually an advantage. On a geared bike, the temptation is to ride in the biggest gear you can spin, so you're always on the verge of "pushing" a gear. On a fixie, you have no choice. Most of the time you are spinning too small a gear. However, what this does is to flush out the lactic acid from your muscles. So after 150-200 km, your legs feel heavy on the geared bike, but you're still fresh on the fixie!

Luis