Spudmeister

Check out this story...

https://www.rusa.org/newsletter/05-04-04.html

Starts in Vancouver, does the Rocky Mountain 1200k, then rides to Boston & does the BMB 1200k.

Personally, the most I've done fixed is 75 miles.

StephenH

See also this post:
https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vintage/373402-he-traveling-around-world-old-ordinary.html

amorrow

Kent Peterson

bloodtypeoa

i know a guy who rode a century on a fixed. he was totally wrecked 75 miles but finished anyways. the longest i've gone is 30 miles...but i'm kind of a *****. i've gone longer on a single speed and, in my opinion, it's a smarter chioce to ride a geared bike when going over 50 miles.

indexdothtml

My quads are already huge just from putting around town on a fixed, I really want to go cross-country some time, maybe take a year to do it and stay somewhere I like... ANYway-- I have recently begun to consider doing so via fixie! Yay! Thanks guys! ^^

Now.. I just need someone to accompany me, anyone up? Har har v.v

roadfix

LA Wheelmen Grand Tour highland route, 200 miles, 46/18.

roadfix

I'll try that next time.

riotboy

same here.

Az B

It's all about condition. If you build up to it, you can ride a fixed gear as long as you want. The first 20 or so Tour de France's were done on fixed gear bikes... derailluers were illegal equipment, and some of the mountain stages were even longer than the ones they do now. A couple of them were 200 miles. That's 200 miles through the Alps with no team car, no team, on crappy roads, you have to be completely self sufficient for mechanicals, and you have a flip flop hub. One gear for climbing, one gear for descending.

Oh yeah, and no EPO.

Men were men in those days. None of them had pink deep Vs and TT protectors either.

Az

bonechilling

No deraillers ≠ fixed gear. Some did it fixed, but most had freewheels, often with multiple gears on that freewheel.

No EPO, but more amphetamines than the state of Iowa.

deathhare

I do recall reading the 20th Tour was over 3500 miles. Longest one ever. Was in the 1920s
Surely someone was fixed gear on that ride.

edit: it was 1926

ch0mb0

read first page & last page nuff said :|

LWaB

I thought amphetamines didn't find a use until the late 1920s and it was post-WW2 before it was commonly used for doping.

mander

Here's an article by Dave Moulton on the subject of doping:

https://davesbikeblog.blogspot.com/20...ospective.html

"I was once told first hand that dope was used in the 1930s six day races; one could suppose it was used before then."

Fixed gear is a suboptimal and less convenient choice in most cases, but that's part of the fun. if we wanted everything to be convenient and easy we would be driving or taking a helicopter or something. That said, a fixed 50 miler or metric century or whatever should really be no big deal for a healthy young person with a properly set-up bike. IMO, at those distances, pain issues are probably related to poor bike fit and not specifically to only having one gear.

LWaB

Doping of cyclists (and other athletes and the wider community) was commonplace back in the 1890s, I just didn't think amphetamines were used much pre-war. It seems I'm wrong though.