Singlespeed/Fixed for your Exercise Routine?
 

Anyone do it? Seems like it would be hard to have a fixie and get exercise, go for long rides, etc just because if you hit a super steep hill you might not be able to keep it up.

Any hints, suggestions, or discouragments you'd like to give me? I'm about to jump on the fixie wagon and would like to know if any of you are able to ride your fixie's to stay healthy. I recently sold my road bike (old Trek 2200) and regret it. Ended up buying a folding bike for the commute (Dahon Speed Pro) but want a big bike I can really womp on.

Recently got an offer for Specialized Langster Comp for $900 (2007 model)... so I'm deciding if I should go for it.

That's the whole point. You have to work harder on a fixie to do what you do on a road bike. You want to go farther in a shorter amont of time? Pedal harder, spin better. You want to make it up a hill? Stand up and mash through that ****.

Buck up, man.

WTF**********


I commute to work almost everyday on my fixed gear and ride 30 + miles on the weekends to "get exercise." Why wouldn't you be able to ride a fixed gear for exercise. I mean, I suppose if you set up some crazy harsh track gearing ratio, you wouldn't .... but come on-----Its a bike---you ride it. Whats the big deal?

WTF**********


I commute to work almost everyday on my fixed gear and ride 30 + miles on the weekends to "get exercise." Why wouldn't you be able to ride a fixed gear for exercise. I mean, I suppose if you set up some crazy harsh track gearing ratio, you wouldn't .... but come on-----Its a bike---you ride it. Whats the big deal?

Not true. A fit young person does not really need variable gears on a bike. If your goal is just to finish various routes (ie you're not trying to win a race) they're nice but definitely not necessary. I haven't found a hill that i can't get up fixed, though there are many in my area that i thought would be impossible. I do fixed centuries, big hillclimbs etc and don't really find it much harder than riding my geared bike. If you try ss/fg you will be surprised how rare it is to really, really need a low climbing gear.

Fitness and exercise was the primary reason I got a FG/SS. It is an excellent workout tool and alot of fun at the same time. I'm in LA and riding around the city is alot of stop and go. This type of exercise simulates interval training which I believe is a very effective technique for building fitness.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_training

So go for it

I can practically go anywhere and any distance on my fixie that my road bike can. Sure, I gotta work a little harder....

me and a friend are riding across PA, he is doing it fixed, i am doing it singlspeed. there will be lots of hills. if we do it in 2 days, as we hope, it will be close to 200 miles a day.

i commute daily on a fixed gear to help me train for ***** like this and for racing my singlespeed mountainbike.

fixed gear for extra exercise.

Thanks for the responses everyone. Yeah, as a little kid riding a BMX I never had a problem being singlespeed. But 20 years of gearing and I don't know if I can handle it anymore. One big thing that concerns me is that my commute to work is all uphill, and I wonder if I can hang. The draw of the singlespeed, of course, is to just do it! I also like how quiet they are and how much less bull I'll have to do in terms of maintenance. I should also note that I live in San Francisco and go to school in Berkeley --- not exactly flatlands. But yeah. I figure I can work my way up to it with a big cog at first and just keep buying smaller cogs as I get stronger!

I wanted a bike that was a reliable commuter/rainbike/winter trainer. The setup that fit that bill perfectly was a fixed gear road bike with fenders. I bought an '89 Trek 660 off eBay for a song, bought a good fixed wheel set, set up the fit to approximate my race bike, and put full fenders and lights on it. A nice low gear ratio (42 x 16 = 69 gear inches) and beefy commute tires meant that I really had to spin it up to get over 20 mph.

I rode it all winter and when the first crit of the season rolled around, I was very pleased--VERY PLEASED--with my fitness. So, to the OP's question, yes, yes I do ride a fixed gear for fitness, pleasure, and to get me to work on time.

And by the way, now that it's spring I've removed the fenders and put on nice light 23mm race tires on it, and it just scorches!

My bike is the only exercise I enjoy. Fixed makes you a stronger climber, and slowing down without braking - especially going downhill - uses muscles in your legs that wouldn't get much use during normal cycling. If it wasn't for my bike, I'd be a blob...wait...I still am kind of a blob.

Now that I'm back in training mode, I'm completely convinced that to really get a serious cardio workout, it's senseless to try and do it if you run a commuting/city ratio (I'm at 49x18). Even on my bike with a 63" gear, my usual training grounds (Mt-Royal, a 6km light climb) are just too punishing to get any cardio at all - either I go slow and dragass it up, or have to hammer to go at the same speed I'd go on a geared bike. It's still fun, but my favorite gear is probably something like 36x20 with some variation on flatter/steeper bits.

I can still easily do it, and it's still fun, but I don't get to work on my breathing, pedal stroke, vary my heart rate, etc which is a lot more important to me than pure muscle-straining mashing. I have lots to say about why fixed training is senseless, but it's too much for a message board. The only advantage I can think of is doing the 6km decent downhill, which is great for working on extremely high rpms fixed and also for controlling speed with backpedaling (I usually go like a third of the speed I do on my geared bike on the fixed bikes on this hill, unless there's nobody out that day).

Long story short - if just being outside and getting exercise generally is the important thing, just use the bike you have. If you want to train train, use a geared bike unless you're in a very very flat place, and even then, I'd rather not personally.

you should give citations man. these are definitely sheldon's words

I still feel that varable gears are only for people over forty-five.
Isn't it better to triumph by the strength of your muscles than by the artifice of a derailer?
We are getting soft...As for me, give me a fixed gear!

--Henri Desgrange, L'Équipe article of 1902

[but you're right: I copied and pasted from http://www.sheldonbrown.com/fixed.html]

I ride for exercise all the time in group rides and do not have a problem keeping up. As you mention, you can always start in a low gear and work your way up. As mentioned, even on the steepest hills, I have managed to climb without walking. The harder part tends to be "keeping up" with geared bikes on the downhills when they are traveling at close to 40mph and my legs are spinning like mad. If they slow down afterwards, I can always keep my rythm and catch them, but if someone attacks at the end of the hill (if I'm riding with racers), I can't always keep them within reach.

I general keep up with the regular riders very well. In fact, I am usually in the lead when I'm not on my tandem. Having said this, I have had some trouble keeping with the fastest group in a different group of riders that race a lot. I rode with them last weekend and there were many times we were spinning at close to or above 30 mph. Even with my high gearing, this means I was pedaling at 120-140 rpm. I might gear up even higher and try again.