Back in April I converted my Cross Check to fixed gear. It was all that I rode for 3.5 months. Then I all of a sudden the bike felt too limiting. Meaning that any over the top sized hill was a no go, most doable hills required extra effort and planning, no coasting down hills, no coasting down hills and no coasting down hills. You get the idea. Lately I’ve been thinking of converting it back and focus on the positives fixed gear riding offers. Like its fun and keeps me interested in riding just for pleasure! Anyone else go back and forth with similar thoughts and end up sticking with fixed gear riding?

I don't ride fixed on the road much anymore for a lot of the same reasons. Also because my track bike isn't drilled to accept brakes, front or rear, though I guess I could throw a fixed wheel on my SS. Maybe I'll pick up a couple hub spacers and do that some time...

Does the hub allow fixed on one side and freewheel on the other?

Or is lack of gearing a bigger issue?

Two bikes is clearly an answer but not always doable for everyone.

Yeah I have a flip-flop hub. My hangup with that is if I'm going free-wheel, I might as well have some gears. I do have other bikes but I like the Cross Check the most. I'll probably just keep it geared again for a while and track my thoughts and hopefully others'.

I only have a fixed gear bike and there are just some things you have to accept, like no coasting.
If you wanna give fixed another go I say do it. Don't compare it too much to riding with gears, they're just different.
Depending on where you live there are always good deals on CL for cheap fixed gear bikes. The crosscheck has dropouts which might be annoying to have to switch/shorten chains and properly tension it every time you want to switch.

lower your gearing if you want to ride hills on your fix'd

^ I think his main complaint was descending. Lower gearing is only going to make that tougher, unless they are a spin champ – which judging by this thread – I doubt.

Brakes

Yep, going down to 60 GI and I do have brakes. I've been riding 68 GI. So, not a huge jump down but enough to make it more hill friendly. I'll just have to spin faster to go faster on flat and rollers and use more brakes going down hill.

I dunno about that. Some folks really love riding single-speed (freewheel) bikes. I would put an SS freewheel on one side that is 1-2T bigger than your fixed cog, and you may find it to be a nice way to complete a long ride. A little lower gear for climbing hills that allows you to coast down the other side. Biking should be enjoyable, right?

This isn't the road bike forum. Sw8 fixie skidz only dawg.

I agree it does take some planning and bit of mechanical ability. I'll switch out the cog or chain ring sometimes depending on the ride I'm doing. I run lower gears for riding around town and put on a higher end when riding out on the flats with a group of multi-speed riders.

Having a variety of gears (and a few chains with master links) helps a lot.

But on hills, you're either going to grind going up or spin like a mad man going down.

Just removed all the gear stuff and should have the new "big" cog Friday. My thoughts, aligned with other here, are to be flexible with my gearing. With the flip-flop and multiple choices for cogs, the bike should be good to go for all situations. As a note: it felt very liberating removing all of the geared components.

Maybe like how the bra burners felt in the 1960's.

Why would you coast down a hill anyways? Freewheels are there to make stopping/starting and navigating tight places easier.

I'm back! My intention was to go down to 60 GI but I'm waiting for the 19t cog to arrive in the mail for that to happen. In the meantime I slapped a 20t on that was laying around. That puts the gearing at 57.7 GI. I know, what a wimp but I don't care. I'm basically riding my age in GI. I went for a 60 mile ride where the beginning and end have major hills. The hills, both up and down, were a breeze. Of course, I wasn't blasting down the path at 20 mph on the flats either but that is no longer a concern.

Sometimes it's nice to just spin. If you wanted to get there fast, you could drive your car, right?

With fixed gear, having a ratio either too high or too low can make BOTH climbing and descending more difficult, as I'm sure you've found. Still, it's usually best to err on the side of too low, especially if most of your riding is on generally level terrain.

As to your age comparison, I think there should be an inverse relationship between age and gear-inches. I'm 46 and like to do most of riding between 75 and 85 GI, but I won't be surprised if that number decreases as my age goes up. Maybe they'll converge in my 60th or 65th year.

Fix gears and braking have as little to do with each other as gears and braking. The term "fix gear" means simply a gear system of one chainring in front and one cog in back locked to the wheel. It says nothing about the brakes on the bike or lack of. Some of us have been riding fix gears with brakes on the road longer than most of today's fix gear crowd have been alive.

Ben

Preach it!
Maybe folks who coast all the time have learned better, but I've found that the worst thing about coasting for more than a second or two on descents is that one loses track of the cadence required for the speed one ends up going. It's an element of control, which is not wisely given up.

I'm not understanding this part.

??? You don't understand that losing control is unwise, or you don't understand that you control the bike to a large degree by pedaling, even when Gravity is providing most of the energy?

The first part I get.

The second part I don't. I have more control if I am pedaling downhill at 30mph vs coasting at 30mph? What am I missing?

Maybe you're missing the effect of acceleration and deceleration on balance and distribution of your weight over the front and back wheels.
If you CAN pedal fast enough to apply force through the drivetrain, you can control the back wheel and make sure it doesn't slow down unexpectedly and upset your balance fore and aft, and keeps rolling as fast as you want it to. Unless you have a clear road ahead, if you start to spin out, the prudent thing to do is slow down. If you start coasting before you spin out, you run the risk of attaining a speed that you cannot control without realizing it. You may need to pedal for speed but when you try, you'll find yourself bouncing around as your legs flail about fecklessly. You might have been thinking you could power through or past a hazard but find that the best you can manage is a panic stop.

Thanks for the detailed response.

I'm thinking you and I have very different riding styles/techniques.

Sorry, I thought the sarcasm was overt enough.