Not to pick on this post in particular, but you can in fact ride a fixed gear on most offroad trails. Real ones.

There are folks out there regularly doing xc races, both official and underground, on fixed gear bikes. Some of them are mighty fast. With the right technique you can ride a fixed offroad just fine.

It depends on your definition of just fine. If you mean skidding around like some 14yo redneck on his brand new magna then obviously that's possible. If you mean riding slowly and deliberately and savoring each challenge like a muni rider I can't argue with that either.

There is no question however that fgmtbing without doing excess damage to the trails is substantially harder then ss. There are plenty of descents around here that I doubt are possible without skidding.

Yeah, I forgot to clarify... fixed MTB on *trails* is problematic on trails, especially steep downhills. I'm of the school that says 'if you're skidding on dirt you're doing it wrong', and try to keep as light of a touch on the trails as possible.

Swoopy singletrack, street, whatever else... knock yourself out.

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You asked for it...

I'm willing to believe the Dirt Rag staffer's experience over anyone else in this thread, but why fixed on the trails? Disregarding the need for skidding (which newbies, myself included, can do with brakes and gears), you're going to annihilate yourself on a log sooner or later. It's easy enough to do on a freewheel if you don't orient your pedals correctly, but on a fixed it's almost inevitable..

Falling down is a part of mountain biking. It happens to dudes on 8" travel DH bikes and guys like me on SS hardtails. Nobody is immune. You probably fall a little more on a fixed. So what? Odds are if you're riding fixed offroad, you're also rigid, so the trails won't be too insane.

All I ask is that if you do ride fixed offroad, you use at the very least one, hopefully two, brakes.

Are you 100% sure it's fixed and not single speed?

I'm 100% sure that myself and others have successfully raced fixed gear bikes in all sorts of mountain bike events. Personally, I've done the usual xc race and was part of a four-man 24hr fixed team. Friends have done solo and team 24hr racing, ultra-endurance events, singlespeed worlds etc.

Feel free to hold whatever opinion you may have on riding it offroad, thats neither here nor there to me. Saying its impossible just makes you look ignorant though. I mean, the Hugh Jass guys were racing fixed mountain bikes in the 24hrs of Canaan back in the early-mid nineties. This isn't a new phenomenon.

Read all about fixed offroad at www.63xc.com.

your trails on the east coast must be ALOT different then here on the West. We have long rock gardens where sometimes it's almost impossible to pedal through cuz of pedal clips. And how do you go down steep drop ins where your butt is over the rear wheel and while pedaling???? Just doesnt seem feasable here. SS yes. I ride SS all the time out here.

I ride east coast mountain bike, fully geared and full suspension, and still have my share of problems. I for one can't even imagine riding anything difficult fixed, so I guess I got a lot of work to do.

if anything our "technical" trails are more technical... we got all the rocks you have but then we add the fun of downed trees which you don't have so much.

the guys who can do this well are no joke! i rode behind a few in the punkbikeenduro and was blown away.

for me though singlespeed is enough.

this summer i vow to try fixed offroad but on the swoopy lowtech trails first!

I think fixed would work if you had the balls to try it though, but the trail selection would be small. Mostly fire roads or singletrack that offers no technical sections. I thought you guys on the east had all those roots and logs to get over, we're in the desert so we got rocks and lots of them. LOL one of my favs is called Rock It, pics taken from our group of 20 on Saturday.

^^^^^ anybody want to give that a go fixed?

as you can see, some of my friends didn't even want to give it a go on normal bikes Very fun trail!!!

IRO also has a 135mm fixed/fixed hub. I've been running it for over a year on my commuter. Works great

i'd try that fixed... your right it is the logs i am more worried about!

Do you have jumps over the logs or just logs alone? In the mountains here, all the fallen logs have jumps that makes it easier to clear, though I'd think jumping on a fixie would be a lil hard LOL.

more than a little hard, in my opinion. but there are people who can do it quite well...

huge +1.

and getting over the logs is all about having the pedals set and being able to lift your rear wheel. if i can get my front wheel on top of it i am 95% guaranteed to get over it. factor in the rotating cranks (i usu hit logs with a quick half-pedal to give me enough speed to put the front wheel on top and hop to the other side landing the front wheel on the ground and the rear wheel on top, all while the cranks remain relatively level) and it becomes more difficult, but not impossible.

flow. it's all about flow.

i really hope to try this soon...

Or riding snowy or icy trails.

We ride all kinds of technical trails here on fixed. You just adapt.

no, snow and ice in no way change the requirements of mtbing. You have less control fixed. You may adapt enough to cope with having less control but that does not mean you have more.

Sorry, I've got to disagree based on experience. Once you start heading downhill in the snow and ice control of your speed becomes much easier with the fixed. The adapting comes in play for logs, obstacles, etc.

how? you can't apply even force to the rear wheel. You have less freedom to move your weight around.

How? Come on, I know you know how to control your speed through your cadence on a fixed gear. It is no different on an MTB and no different in the snow. The benefit comes from not relying on your brakes to control your speed on a snowy trail, especially when negotiating turns.

Sure, you have less freedom to move around but once it snows your speed tends to drop in the situations where you need to move around as much. Now, I'm not sure if I explained that as clear as I would like to, but hopefully the idea comes across.