Oklahoma's not famous for hills, but I'll toss in what I've learned from reading and short climbs.

On a long climb, you're going to go anaerobic, which means your heart and lungs won't be able to keep up with the demand for sugar and oxygen, which means your muscles will use their locally stored starch. Therefore, you should use as many muscles as you can. Burning out two muscles while the rest ride along as dead weight won't get you far. Don't just thrust by straightening your legs. Straighten your back and bring your glutes into it. When you stand up, lift yourself on the pedals so your knees are almost locked on the down stroke. When your leg is pushing down, the arm on that side should be pulling up on the hoods. Arm muscles can do useful work. Maximize respiration by relaxing your lower torso and breathing with your diaphragm. Do not suck in your gut (in general, not just when climbing).

Lennard Zinn's "Primer" has a chapter on climbing. It's worth seeking out.

$0.02

I used to run the exact same setup, and it worked well for me.
Now I'm running 72gi (41/15), with 700c wheels and 172.5mm cranks.
Its a little tougher, but I think moving to the longer cranks moved my torque curve down a bit in the RPM range, so it actually feels alright just grinding up the hills at a steady pace.

Regarding the freewheel.. I 'just' put a 16T bmx freewheel this week, along with my bmx platforms, as I was having clipless pedal issues. It felt really weird coasting down the big hill to work. I don't think I like it

On the QR subject, I have had regular nuts slip on me, so I wouldn't trust a QR alone.

I tag 30 on one hill (That has a radar box at the end... ) Safe to say theres a lot more going on at 30 on a fix than somebody that can coast... or pound the big ring down.

The benefit of being locked in a huge gear is that it hurts to go slow. When you pull up behind someone that drops in to the granny ring, you have no choice but to pass them. Instead of going slow enough to have to worry about falling over, you've got to go fast enough to keep the pedals turning without feeling like a quad is gonna pop and smack you upside the head.

Its like going up stairs two at a time, about the same speed too.

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I dont climb mountains or anything, but the rolling hills we get around here Ive been doing with 48x18

I have never riden fixed in Colorado ( i have mtb'ed and road riden) but I do ride fixed in Michigan. I am thinking you could do fixed/fixed but you would need at least a front and probably a back brake. The mountains out by you are just too big not to run a brake

I get rpm's up in the 180's (172.5mm crank arms and 42x16/15). I do not use a front brake. When I start getting up over 160 rpm's for any extended time, it isn't too much fun. You just have to deal with it.

I have found that crank arm length has a lot of effect for riding fixed on hills. The longer you go the easier it is. If you go too big your knees will scream, too little, you don't get the leverage. I ride 175-180 cranks on my road freewheel bike. On my fixed I have found the 172.5 work for me.

The other effect of longer crank have is that they slow you down on fast descents. From my experience you just can't spin as fast going downhill. I like this because I don't like spinning high rpm's for extended times. Has anyone else noticed this??

I do use a fixed/fixed hub with a quick release. I tried a new DA QR and it was OK but slipped occasionally. What you want is an old school QR. I have one from a 1979 Shimano hub. It is heavy and beefy with big knobs to grab the drop out. It doesn't slip. I don't do a lot of skidding but when I do, it holds. Flippping the cog is easy but usually messy!!

I have never ridden fixed in Colorado ( I have mtb'ed and road ridden out there) but I do ride fixed in Michigan. I think you could do fixed/fixed but you would need at least a front and probably a back brake. The mountains out by you are just too big not to run a brake. The f/f also gives you a back up plan, which is always handy.

I get rpm's up in the 180's (currently 172.5mm crank arms and 42x16/15). I do not use a front brake. When I start getting up over 160 rpm's for any extended time, it isn't too much fun. You just have to deal with it.

I have found that crank arm length has a lot of effect for riding fixed on hills. The longer arms you have, the easier it is. If you go too long your knees will scream, too short, you don't get the leverage. I ride 175-180 cranks on my road freewheel bike. On my fixed I have found the 172.5/175 work for me.

The other effect of longer crank have is that they slow you down on fast descents. From my experience you just can't spin as fast going downhill. I like this because I don't like spinning high rpm's for extended times. Has anyone else noticed this??

I do use a fixed/fixed hub with a quick release. I tried a new DuraAce QR and it was OK but slipped occasionally. What you want is an old school QR. I have one from a 1979 Shimano hub. It is heavy and has big knobs to grab the drop out. It doesn't slip. I don't do a lot of skidding but when I do, it holds. Flipping the cog is easy but usually messy!!

If I lived where you lived, I would probably put on a front brake give it a go!

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I use three on my road bike but I also use three on my track bike(sitting standing and walking)

I second that! Your gear inch calc is the best I've seen. I have it bookmarked from https://grit.homelinux.net/gi/index.php, an old url?

Fixed gear bikes climb more efficiently than geared bikes. Personally I find that I can push 1-2 teeth less in the rear cog on my fixie than on my (much nicer and more expensive) road bike. Hills that I would normally take using 42x17 on a geared bike can easily be swallowed on 42x16 or 42x15 (on a good day).

I had QRs on my fixie for a while. They sucked, they were constantly slipping. the beauty was that I could just hop off the bike and tighten it back down again, 15 second job. I have bolts now, and they dont slip, and its lovely.

I had QRs on my fixie for a while. They sucked, they were constantly slipping. the beauty was that I could just hop off the bike and tighten it back down again, 15 second job. I have bolts now, and they dont slip, and its lovely.

damn son you are tough. I'm rollin with a 39/16 and 175mm cranks. I still break a sweat on the way to class. perhaps I'm too fat.

I had a 42-18 on my fixed/free wheel. I would flip the wheel on a decent that went into the 40mph range for any ammount of time. Just the damage to your knees alone @ 200 + RPM would make this a good idea (not to mention the cornering disadvantage to riding a fixed at high speeds). I wouldn't use a QR (IMO).

For descents, just unclip and rest your feet on the chainstay. Don't get your foot caught in the spokes or chain. Then when you hit the bottom of the hill and your pedals start to slow down from a continuous blur, you can clip back in.

I rode with a QR for a short time with a 70 gear inch (44x17) set up. I had to go up a short, maybe 6ft. section of sidewalk once to get into the cul-de-sac from the main street. So I crossed the street, went up over the curb, and started the about 45degree climb from a dead stop, as I got to the top my QR rear slipped causing me to scrape my ankle pretty good on the crank and land on the top tube. I got rid of my QR shortly thereafter. Never had any problem with my front QR. Always paranoid about sticky fingered passers-by though. ymmv.

Maybe I'm a wimp and didn't crank down on the little lever enough, or my rattle can paint job on the frame made a good lubricant. When my QR slipped, I scraped my ankle pretty good on the crank arm and landed on the top tube going up a short little steep hill. I got rid of the QR pretty soon after that. Besides I was always paranoid about sticky fingered people.

If this posts twice with a somewhat similar text, it wasn't me, sort of.

Absolute BS. QR's were used on those bikes with horizontal dropouts for years by guys with legs that can ****ing crush you, and they didn't slip (think Merckx, Lemond, etc.).

The reason QR's have a bad rep is because of the change in application. When vertical dropouts came into vogue, the clamping strength necessary for QR's dropped, so external cam-type became popular, since they are lighter weight and easier to manufacture. Here's the external cam type:


If you use an old QR (one designed for the higher clamping strength horizontal dropouts require) it will be an internal cam-type QR. Like this:
https://www.ukbikestore.co.uk/acatalog/HUP220RX_150.JPG

My fixed gearing is 48 x 18. That gets me up any hill I've run into here. My freewheel has a 20 tooth cog. I have used it on mountain passes with sustained climbs. I flip the wheel before the climb and again after the descent. You may find after awhile that you don't need the freewheel anymore, as I have.

The best change I've made for climbing was switching to bullhorns. The grip is way better while standing and it feels like you get more leverage from your arms too.

Yeah, but that's because the mountains get out of his way.

docbluedevil,
where in colorado do you live? i live in the springs and ride around here and manitou... i ride my brakeless fixies around here using 40:15 on my conversion and typically run 48:16 on my track bike for around town, but just changed my racing ratio to 50:15 (from 48:14) and have been riding that for track and street... i'll even ride through garden of the gods fixed, but i leave my serious climbing to my road bike. i love gold camp road and riding up to the zoo... etc. the hill up to my girlfriend's house in manitou is damn near impassible on my track bike. it's a face shaker for sure.

an old road rider i know used to train with the oylmpic road team in the 70's and they used to do steep climbs and even passes on fixies with brakes and ran 42:18. i think with that high of a spin i would want a freewheel on the decents...

Tyler Hamilton trains in the colorado mountains on a fixed gear.

https://www.bikeforums.net/singlespeed-fixed-gear/259151-new-crank.html

There might be some info in here.

I commute every day to SFU in Burnaby, a nice campus on top of Burnaby Mountain (elevation 300m). I have settled on a 69" gear. I have a 72" gear on the other side of my flipflop but since I learned to spin the 69er back down the mountain without riding my front brake (getting un-aero helps a lot) I have pretty much stuck with the 69. This summer I want to try some fixed climbs on the North Shore in Vancouver---there are two community ski hills up there with wicked hardcore ~1000m climbs up to the base lodges.

Also, holy ****, macg's gear inch calculator is awesome!! Hands down the best I've seen for SSFG applications---Sheldon's is pretty darn good but is really meant for multigeared bikes. This really ought to get linked to more on this forum.

https://www.basementfreaks.com/members/karl/gearing/

One suggestion macg---can you add a metric function for those of us who think in kph?

A good starting point for the rockies. I used to live in Co. I ride in very steep hills area and have done road mountain climbs on my fixed/ss. When you are talking of descents of 40mph i would recomend using the freewheel for sure. I started as a ss mountain biker and can tell you that a fixed going uphill is pretty easy as long as you have the physical capacity to pull it off. The downside of course, is going down. I'm not sure how it would be spinning out at 40mph at 75 gear inches,never tried it.
Good luck!