Physiology question
 

I have started commuting on my FG over 8-10 miles hilly road -up to 12%, half a mile ascents and descents.

Why all these hills seem to be easier on 50x19 FG than they are on my geared road bike?? I am getting better times overall, too.

It can not be the performance of the bikes, my road one has decent Campy drivetrain, and, at 8,3kg, is almost as light as the FG and my fix is more of a Frankenstein bike than pure breed track cycle: http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/2005...iechBurkot.htm

Any of you riding both higher end road bikes and FG feel the same or is it just an excitement of a newbe?

1. placebo
2. efficiency - the momentum of the rear wheel kind of pushes your legs past the dead spot, making it seem a bit easier.

nice bike.

also i bet that 50x19's a bit stiffer than what you're spinning up the same hills on your geared bike. ...probably has you up out of the saddle more, hence the better times. and to me hills always seem easier when the pain goes by quicker, even if i do put out a little more effort, if that makes any sense.

nice lookin bike, by the way

You are right, I am usually on my 39T small ring on the geared one and you're wrong - I am seated on both. Looks like my legs want to maintain similar cadence, regardless of the gearing. The reason might be that I conditioned myself to spin fast even before I started riding FG in an attempt to rebuild the knee after skiing accident back in January, so I was using overly short gears.

>hills always seem easier when the pain goes by quicker, even if i do put out a little more effort

I am with you here.

Thanks,
v.

No way. If you wait for the drivetrain to push your leg around on a _hill_, you will not even make it to the top, let alone clock a fast time.

The way I see it:
1. You are forced to push a higher gear so you put more effort in

2. The fixed drivetrain is quite a bit more efficient, as the chain doesn't bend all over the place (crosschaining esp. drains a lot of energy). Figures like 5 to 10% are quoted by some, and low cadence, high power situations with the chain crossed will definitely be the most ineffective ones. 10% is an _immense_ difference.

(drivetrain test: put a gearie and a fixie on reapir stands beside each other, put the gearie in the same gear as the fixie, and spin both rear wheels backwards. Fixie drivetrain spins forever.)

Clearly, the difference is the wheels. They are nice.

Thanks and LOL - Actually I am riding my FG now with the wheels of my roadie :-), not the ones pictured.

When I tried to ride to work one morning, after having a nice evening ride the previous day, I discovered the flat in the front (I am running 23x700 Kenda's on FG) so easiest way to go was to borrow the tubular front Shamal from my roadie. You would not believe, but the same happened the following day - this time the rear. Since my rear Shamal had Gipiemme casette body (for 10x drivetrian compatibility) anyway and since I just have finished the adapter to fix the Campy wheel I used it.

BTW
My FG rear wheels are real abominations - they are all dished :o Yet it allows for a great flexibility - I can fix all the wheels I use between FG and a road bike: pictured in FGG Gipiemme Grecals (so, so and noisy b/c of very stiff rims and high spoke tension), beautiful and fast silver 12 spoke Shamals which originally were 9 speed, as well as black, 10sp 16spoke Shamals (strange the rim profile is different then the silver one, also internals of the hubs are different).
The adapters grab the casette body by the way of a piece of an old cog fitting the splines bolted permanently to the adapter and they are fixed to the hubs' bodies by bolts.
Perfect chainline each time :)

I am using Uniglide cogs which fit the bodies two ways and are less likely to throw the chain then HG ones. I tried to use dedicated SS 18T cog fitting the splines, but it was crap.

For the adapter, are you using a Surly Fixxer? I'm thinking about converting my Rolf Vector Pros if/when I upgrade my wheels on my roadie...

-s

No, mine are DIY and fit Campagnolo type hubs with pawls on the casette body. My understanding is that the surly one fits Shimano type hubs with pawls on the hub itself:
http://www.pbase.com/wojtek_burkot/i...615/medium.jpg
http://www.pbase.com/wojtek_burkot/i...4419/large.jpg
larger size images in:
http://www.pbase.com/wojtek_burkot/biking