Went for my first mountain bike ride in a while last weekend, and I could not for the life of me stop pedaling and just coast. Fixed gear has ruined me; that's the only conclusion I can come to. The real reason I bring this up is to ask if riding fixed has helped anybody else's other cycling disciplines? Do you think it gives an advantage to riding offroad, for instance? I find myself changing gears less on my mtb, and carrying as much momentum as possible around turns and such. Just curious. I'm sure this has been brought up already, but I'll be damned if I can't find it with the soich-function.

It teaches you a better pedal stroke on freewheeling bikes. I found my road bike rides much more effective after I started riding fixed.

I ride fixed, SS, and geared bikes interchangably and usually ride a little of each every week. Its getting the the point where it doesn't even make a difference to me anymore. Riding is riding and all three drivetrains come naturally to me. Fixed made me a stronger rider at first, but the improvements came from just riding more, and not so much to do specifically with riding fixed. However, riding fixed on techy singletrack...thats just a completely different thing altogether. It requires skill, but not the kind of skill that will help you with other kinds of riding.

Since the pedals never stop moving, it can also teach you to have a lazy stroke too. I gave myself a dead point in my stroke after I first started riding fixed, because I could just let the legs go limp and the pedals would end up where they belonged anyways.

that's rough dude.

POST 666!!!!!!!!!!!! **** YES!

Thats because you were riding like a lazy hipster. Riding fixed properly shouldn't change your pedal stroke at all. You can pedal a freewheeled bike in complete circles without disengaging the pawls, can't you? Well, same thing with a fixed gear.

\m/

Is there a difference between riding lazily and riding "like a lazy hipster?" Because I definitely did admit that I was being lazy.

This should be common sense too.

But feel free to call me a hipster again if it makes you feel better about yourself.

Sacrifice is going on tonight!!!

Never actually called you a hipster, dude. Nor do I care if you are one. Learn to pedal.

I have. Learn how to interact with human beings.

Holy **** that post made me sound like a whiny baby.

Moving on.

Yep. Same thing happened to me when I first started riding freewheeled bikes again after a long stretch of just riding fixed. I found it pretty easy to correct, though, since I was used to continuously pedaling. To really get the most out of riding either way, I think it's important to ride both fixed and freewheel.

I seem to do nothing but coast whenever I ride my mountain bike now. And riding without clips is weird to me.