Jobst Brandt a bit of an arrogant (non-)know-it all
 

*yawn*

Please share your wealth of knowledge...........

Jobst Brandt has a terrible name. He should change it to Rex Painford or Clayton Hateface to gain credibility.

fixed gear riding IS good for fitness

ditto to everything sheldon and others posted after him...

and although no one mentioned it in the google thread, my hamstrings get way more strengthening than they ever could possibly on a freewheel bike

:roflmao:

That is a rather dusty old nugget.

I wonder if he still feels that way.

I agree that he is a bit of an arrogant know-it-all... my fave is his scientific analysis of resonant frequency in frames that causes high speed shimmy. Pure comic gold.

If Jobst Brandt is a "(non-)know-it-all", then I'd love to hear what your other sources of information are... opinions are like a$$holes, and just because he doesn't agree with you (or Sheldon) on this point doesn't make him a valuable resource. Don Walker (another great resource) says he doesn't think GT track bikes are worth $300. What slander is he deserving of?

The dude is a mechanical engineer, and has 30+ years racing and working with bicycles. I'm going to hazard a guess he knows a bit more about bikes than the average BF member.

You have obviously never witnessed the miracle that is MERTON.

I didn't see what was wrong with what he said. There isn't anything specifically harder about riding a fixed gear unless you just don't have self control to stay in one gear. And also heart rate monitors are the only way to go to really really train aerobically and otherwise go to the gym!

Ahh yes MERTON. Has he actually ridden a bike yet? Or is he still talking about someday, when they let him.

I have talked to him a couple of times, arrogant is a good word.

MERTON or Jobst? :p

Jobst. Talking to Merton is like walking after getting off the Tilt-A-Whirl

Fixed gear riding IS a fetish. Does anyone here seriously deny that? I always had the sense that many fixed riders insist on fetishizing the fixed gear bike above any other form.

Is there any credible evidence that fixed gear riding holds any health related advantages over riding a conventional bike? Does it matter? If you need that kind of justification to ride fixed, that's your issue, not his.

Brandt is arrogant, but he's right on this topic, as he seems to be on most.

This was the only jewel i could find from that link:


"Some people used to claim that, if enough monkeys sat in front of enough
typewriters and typed long enough, eventually one of them would reproduce
the collected works of Shakespeare. The internet has proven this not to
be the case."

has no one addressed the issue that fixed gear riding does way more for your hamstrings than freewheeling?

Stretching my hamstrings does a lot more for them than a freewheel or fixed gear bicycle does.

your statement comes from the fact that a fixed gear "may" improve your spinning. Someone on a freewheel can benefit their hamstrings just as much as on a fixie, it just depends on your stroke; or if you really know how to pedal a bike.

Next time you get on your fixed gear, make a consious effort to purely ride by pulling rather then pushing. (where it is applicable of course, push when you go down, which is a bit more then a quarter of a full stroke and pull the remaining stroke) Only then will you have really used your hamstrings.

So does doing leg curls, unilateral squats and single leg presses at the gym.

I don't know the man, but there was nothing inaccurate in what he wrote in the above link.

nah...I'm actually referring more to backpedaling

I agree.

I think endform hit the nail on the head. Fixed gears are less versitile training devices than geared bikes for a number of reasons, but offer other advantages that geared bikes don't.

I also don't lift weights.

Jobst Brandt has been around a long time.

I have his excellent book, "The Bicycle Wheel", I have applied his advice, and in the very few cases where I looked carefully into the statements he made, he has always been correct in technical matters.

The guy is strongly opinionated, but he does support his opinions with at least reasonable arguments. I don't particularly agree with his statements on fixed gear riding, but training often crosses into the realm of the subjective-- there is no universally right answer and everyone is different.

He also doesn't like eyeglass mirrors, so what?

Jobst flunked out of charm school. Like so many engineers, Jobst is convinced that the rest of the world is incapable of rational thought and, while he is usually correct about mechanical engineering, he can be a bit of a boor.

backpedaling, hamstrings, backpedaling, hamstrings...no one has yet responded to this