bmxdan

This weekend I rode 50 miles in the hill country ride for aids.

so yeah, it was rad. (now that i think about it im not sure why im posting this) oh yeah, it was fun passing roadies on the hills, although it wasnt a race i still felt like a bad ass when they would do a double take at my drivetrain and then look back down at theirs. out of the 402 riders i was the only one fixed, although several guys said "yeah... ill ride single speed next year" ill believe it when i see it. and maybe the year after that they will try it fixed.

I was gonna ask you all if you found it easier to keep a certain pace when riding long distances like this, even if it meant charging up hills that would be slightly easier to go up at a slower speed? About 25% of this ride was climbs so i had a little trouble on that part, and going down the back of those hills was kinda hard too (48-16) trying to keep up with my pedals.

what kind of gearing would you suggest for long rides like this in a hilly area. I use 48-16 all the time around town (not many hills) and it works well for me. I thought maybe going up to a 17 cog would be better for that ride, but the downhills would only be that much more difficult to go down.

anyway yeah it was fun, go ride far. its fun.

sers

I ride 49x18, and it does me fine for the 16 miles of rolling hills that I commute every day. I feel that it's the ideal all-purpose gear, at least for me - nice for hills and descents, nice for hauling ass and for long and short rides.

mihlbach

I just rode a 100K this weekend for some sort of benefit...I don't remember what it was (aids or cancer, probably). I was thinking of doing it fixed, but I was intimidated by all the carbon and lycra and I wimped out and did it geared. I realize its not a race, but there were a lot of serious looking roadies there, and I surpirised myself by riding it faster than anyone else and now I'm sorry I didn't just do it fixed. Good for you for having the guts to get out there with other roadies on your fixie.

Anyway, regarding you question about hills and gear ratios...there's no simple answer. The more hills you have, and the steeper the hills get, the less suited a fixed gear is for the ride. No matter how you change it, its going to be harder to go up, or more tiring to go down..you can't have the best of both worlds on a fixie. However, I am riding with 76 gear inches (gain ratio = 5.7) (42/15 with 27 x 1 1/8 tires, and 170mm cranks) on my local hills and it works for me. I frequently pass roadies while climbing with that gear, but serious roadies easily pass me on the steepest local descents. If I geared up, maybe I could keep up with the roadies on descents, but the climbs would probaby totally wear me out, so I think I have found an acceptable balance.

morbot

take your feet off the pedals on the descent, that'll really freak out the roadies

mihlbach

Yeah, or pedal with one foot while standing..that'll perplex them.

juvi-kyle

people ride more than 10 miles on track bikes.

bigbikerbrian

its all about the hopping effect.

mihlbach

Kangaroo bike

https://www.fixedgeargallery.com/articles/haynes.htm

Anybody else ever tried this?

brunop

not to be an a$$hole or anything, but i rode 55 miles all over manhattan yesterday. even had time to take a nice nap on those nicea$$ piers in hudson river park. great weather yesterday fo' sho'. no biggie. . .

i typically ride 50 to 60 miles a day in good weather. (i ride way less in the cold or rain).

44x16.

keep ridin'!

captsven

I started using a 48x16 for long (60+ miles) rides. I found that when I geared down to a 42x16 I kept the same speed but my knees loved me. You work a little harder on the downhills but it's worth not having the knees achey. That gear works for me in the areas I ride. Everyplace and person has their own needs. Don't be afraid to try different ratios.

You also have to get used to spinning. When I first started riding on the roads I thought that 150 rpm's was fast. That number has gone up every year. I know there are people on this forum who can spin 200+. I think it takes a few years for your legs to get used to the high rpm's.

You may also want to try different crank arm lengths. A longer arm will make you climb better but the trade off is the spin (your knee has to make a bigger circle).

Jerseysbest

Get some foot pegs and a front brake for the decents...

mihlbach

You mean like BMX axle pegs? Do you put them on the front or back axle? Or are you totally talking about some other sort of foot peg?

bmxdan

Dont worry you are not being an ahole at all. Yeah riding far is so much fun, im gonna start hitting up all the small towns around austin on my fixed now that i am done with college. I usually ride about 10 miles a day but it is broken up into about 4 or 5 short mile and a half rides, two mile rides. The summer is heating up but with a camel back and sun block im pretty sure i can ride 50+ miles a few times a week, just to get out and do something different.

bmxdan

Yeah i am thinking about getting some longer cranks, i have 165s now and have never even come close to pedal striking the ground. I am fairly certain i can go up to 175s for longer rides since i am not going to be taking any sharp turns at 30+ mph.

bmxdan

yeah the ride organizers made me put on brakes for the ride but i didnt want to screw up my fake unmachined rims (spray painted the whole rim black) unless it was an emergency, i just let out about 5 long skids down the descent from the highest hill and i was pretty good for the rest of the ride, just pedal resistance on the rest of the down hills. I have my first set of bmx screw on pegs (from 91) laying around and it would be lots of fun to run them on my bike. maybe next time.

dirtyphotons

i'm seriously thinking of holding a kangaroo race at hains point this spring. i think it would be a blast, but i've only gotten lukewarm response from people i've mentioned it to. anybody out there in the dc area that would go to something like that?

youth

about all these long rides... i've been thinking about getting on my bike and riding west on patterson avenue until it turns into whatever road that is that goes through goochland and riding all the way until i get to highway 81. no maps, no bros, no nothing. just riding. i'm afraid of the idea but then again i don't have any reason not to at this point. i hear it's about an 8 hour ride one way. probably a couple hundred miles.

mihlbach

Go for it...last sumer sometime, I got this urge to take off on my bike and just not stop and I ended up going 125 miles nonstop...about 3 times further than any previous ride. Now I'm all about solo long distance..fixed, ss, geared..whatever..just go. When I first moved out here, I liked to just go out and ride until I got totally lost...then try and find my way home using the sun and whatever other landmarks I ran across..not really knowing how long the ride would be. Unfortunately, I know the roads too well now to do that.

MacG

Right after I bought a crank puller for the first time, I remounted one of my cranks 90 degrees off of the other one to see what it was like. Old John Deere tractor engines have a 90 degree phase on the crankshaft (they go blum blum ... blum blum ... blum blum ... blum blum ...) so this was my attempt at a John Deere bike. It rode quite nicely actually. Try it sometime if you have a crank puller and some time to waste.

les walters

I love just getting lost but cape cod isent that big sooner or later you hit the ocean or a bridge but its still fun!

Ready to Ruck

come with me on my rides to San Marcos! or we can try Bastrop. each are 30 miles one way.

lemurhouse

Weekend before last I rode 182 miles Houston > Austin. 2 day MS ride. I rode 42 X 15 fixed which I found to be pretty much perfect. 73 gear inches. I was seriously hammering the hills which were up and down but not so steep that I couldn't keep rolling the gear. Except for the state park near Bastrop that is -- the park had some seriously brutal hills where it was stagger the bike back and forth. It was good fun and I was glad I did it on the fixed gear. Once you get used to riding long, its really no biggie.

Kiecker

congrats on your ride.

Depending on how steep and the length of your hills, 48/16 could be a pretty big gear. I'm running 44/16 and it seems to work pretty good though I have thought about adding a tooth before my big ride (585 miles and about 20,000' of climb) but I'm going to keep training with this set up. You might be interested in some of the write ups I've been doing for my ride (www.aidslifecycle.org/6643). Btw just because you ride fixed doesn't mean you can't appreciate the benefits of lyrca I've contiplated dropping my legs on a decent or two but I don't feel confident with the brake on my road fixed gear....now on my mtn fixed gear no problem (juicy 7 rocks).

sivat

Every time i do rides longer than about 15 miles i find myself worrying about the ride back. Sure, 125 miles would be fun, but then you have to turn around and go home. I always end up riding home in a headwind. Stupid offshore winds.

AlamoJetWhiskey

I got asked to do that ride and I'm not sure why I didn't.
There could of been 2 of us fixed!