today i was talking to a guy
 

who was convinced that riding a fixed gear makes you have a smoother pedal stroke.

i believe it doesn't, because you don't have to pull the pedal back up, it does it automatically., therefore making your stroke less smooth on a freewheel.

fixed gear helps other things, but not so much this. am i right?

Fixed gear gives you a way better spin so the guy is right. That's the only reason you really see or hear of roadies getting track bikes is to improve their spin.

ya fixed gears helped my spin 300 hundred percent! after my first year on one it was like nite and day !

It helps your spin...
Unless your lazy.

You do get the slack point just as the pedal's point to 12-6 o'clock on a freewheel, which I really only noticed after having a fixer. Higher cadence too, although depends on the gearing ratio e.g. I'm on 80 gear inches at the mo, and find I don't get to spin up too much apart from longer rides!

Overall, I think it's nice to have both! :D

No he's not right.

The only thing it really does is make you pedal all the time. Whether you want to or not. This makes you lazy on the deadspots on each crank rotation. Depending on the gearing it may or may not force you to spin faster than you normally would for the terrain. You DO get better riding a wider range of cadences than you normally would.

You're both right and you're both wrong. Fixed does indeed force your feet to follow the pedals, but once the cadence gets up, you MUST pedal well or you'll find yourself bouncing on the saddle. To be honest, I find freewheels a recipe for lazy riding ... but only because they never force you to do it properly, it's all your choice. Point your fixed gear bike down any sort of incline and sooner or later, you will be forced to pedal properly.

Richard

like everyone has already said. track bikes have the effect that when i hop on my road bike i am always pedaling although it IS nice to coast through sharp bends esp with a lower bb and longer crank arm length. ;)

if you want to improve* stroke, ride rollers

Wrong.

I already addressed this "must pedal at high cadences down hills" point in my last post.

It won't give you better cadence, but if you pay attention and try to make sure everything is smooth you can certainly work on it.

don't judge others cover book! its their things... ;)

i made my conversion in order to work on cadence. i went from barely able to spin 120 to being able to do short sprints at near 150. i geared my bike LOW (42x17). spin is great, i hardly ever bounce unless im just exhausted. i can maintain 140 for about a minute, then i have to slow down.

going back to road bike, its much easier to spin at 100-120 for long distances. i used to be in the 80-90 rpm range. all this change in 6 months- not too bad.

im currently looking at gearing up my conversion to a 47x17 to work on power and longer rides. it gets boring spinning out before 30 mph.

It helped me lots with my spin, so it does work.

fixed on rollers is a great way to develop a smoother cadence. sometimes when riding fixed out in the world ill unclip one foot and pedal for a while with just my right, then just my left, then put them together.

spinz.......barspinz

I'd like to see someone barspin on rollers.

I run about 130rpm on the spinners at the gym. I dont have a cyclo computer so i dont know how fast i can spin on the road.

after riding fixed

on a road bike

you'll find yourself pedaling constantly

lifting the rear wheel at intersections to reorient the pedals

removing important parts of the bicycle

and showing up to the sunday group ride in daisy dukes

You may learn to 'spin' better, but riding nothing but fixed can also make you a lazy peddler. You might evidence this if you get on a freewheeling bike after riding nothing but fixed for some time.

Well the way i ride my bike i feel that it gives me a better spin because i am constantly spinning and i'm always putting effort into my strokes and am not lazy about it. So i guess fixed gear does not improve you spin because you are lazy about peddling.

Having a FG and a dirt jumper in my dorm room provides that delicate balance of laziness and spinning. That said, I often FORGET that I can coast on my dirt jumper.

i don't see how getting better at different cadences = no he's not right, you're pedal stroke does not improve.

its like saying, YOURE WRONG....EXCEPT WHEN I MAKE YOUR POINT FOR YOU.


if you can explain to me how to get better at different cadences without improving your pedal stroke, you win the internet.

and i think the guy OP was talking to is right. fixed gear at low speeds means nothing compared to a freewheel. but when you push yourself to your highest cadence ability on a freewheel, theres very little feedback when you have imperfections in pedaling form (if you're going faster than you can pedal, you can switch gears or coast). a descent on a freewheel bike is not impeded by pedalstroke either, your top speed = how fast you can pedal + coasting and letting gravity take over. with a fixed gear, your feet are forced to keep up with the spin of the bike (at high cadences/descents/speed changes) or you suffer a bouncy ride. this also means there's a self imposed limit on top speed, which is how fast you can spin with the bike. improving your spin, you'll see a higher top speed. you can't easily see that change with a freewheel. when you learn to manage all the issues in your form, you have better power output throughout the range of your stroke and throughout any cadences/changes in cadence you'll likely encounter. higher top pedaling speed too. its not like you cannot learn these things on a roadbike, but the feedback from a fixed gear is helpful for a lot of people.

win

I found thus to definitely be true. If I ride my road bike after riding fixed, I get a little bang in my pedal stroke from not having momentum pulling me through the stroke. This is just for a few minutes, though until I get reacquainted with a freehub setup, and then I smooth down into a really, really nice spin. :D

On longish road bike rides, the folk I'm riding with also literally marvel at how little I actually coast (read, almost never). :p

Being lazy will make you lazy.