I've been toying with the idea of a Fixie for my commute. Problem is, I don't think I'm strong enough. It's 18km long, and both ends have hills, so that I hit the climb after riding 17km. The one into work is steep enough that I'm in 22 - 30 combo. Total weight for me, bike and gear is about 260 lbs. I figure I can drop that by 30 lbs, would I be able to do a flip/flop hub set up to give me enough gears to make the hill? How quick/easy is it to flip the wheel on the road? I think I might do it anyway because I can walk the hill in about 2-4 minutes.... hmmm.

Stopping to flip your wheel is pretty dumb.
You'll get stronger and lose weight as you said anyway.
I say go for it.
2-4 minutes is nothing. Set your alarm 2-4 minutes earlier and youre golden.

I would do it. and just ride as far up the hill as you can and walk the rest. in 2 weeks you'll be able to ride up the whole thing

if you can walk up these hills you sure as hell can ride up them with a reasonable ratio. i ride a 46 to 16 and i get up some hills.

Go with the above advice. As for gearing, keep an eye on what gear you spend most of your time in on your commute. Try the hills in that gear. Try your whole commute without shifting. That should give you a decent starting point if you decide to go fixed.

Good luck, and have fun.

Thanks for the fast replies, I've just thought about it from the other direction, at the start of the journey, I'm obviously going downhill, I mix it up with traffic at this point, and the hills give me enough speed to get across lanes without me getting caught up with irritated drivers, No way I can spin fast enough to keep up that speed on a Fixie, that means an SS, which means rear brake as well ( was gonna use a front on the Fixed ) Going riding to think about this.

Thanks again

Do it. Get strong. You will like it.

bf

When I first considered commuting with a fixed gear, I did as krusty advised.

I did my ride on my geared bike, but in only one gear.

As for hills and fixed gear bikes, we have a hill here in Bend that even geared bike commuters dread.

At first, I thought I would die on that hill, either from a heart attack or from my lungs turning inside out and coming out my mouth.

Now I do it in the saddle and wonder why I ever feared it.

As for gearing, last year I geared way down to 60 gear inches (39 X 17) so that I could continue to ride through chemotherapy, and my spin improved so much that I now commute as fast at 60 gear inches as I ever did at higher gear inches.

Commute fixed and you'll never go back to geared.

I run 76.6 (48/17). I'm 270 with about 20-30 lbs in the mess bag. 20 mile RT with a good 1 mile climb of 8-10% for the last bit to work. I do my commute anywhere from 26-35 minutes in good weather.

You'll be fine.