I've caught roadies on occasion, when I'm feeling strong and in a good rhythm the ones I've caught and passed never passed me back, but I've been caught and passed by geared riders before and either way it doesn't really do anything for me.

My old Lemond that was set up for time trialing (aero aluminum/carbon fiber) was WAY faster than most anyone out there, and I certainly couldn't keep up with myself on that lemond if I was riding my IRO.

Multiple gears are just flat out more efficient.

but at what cost...

at a cost less expensive than some of the 'town bikes' that are posted on this particular subforum...

As BSNYC puts it, you could buy a town for the same price as some of those 'town bikes'.

I kept up with and passed a lot of people on geared road bikes in my triathlon a few weeks ago. It helps that the course was flat as a pancake. I'm running 48/17, which turned out to be perfect for about 22 mph at 90 rpm's or so. I ended up averaging just over 22 mph for the 12 mile course, and managed to pass quite a few cervelos and other nice triathlon specific bikes.

I love this thread! I do a 20 mile loop here in Orange County about 2-3 times a week on my fixed gear bikes. One has 52 x 16 gearing and the other has 42 x 14. The ride consists of roads, beach path and the Santa Ana river trail. The river trail section is about 10 miles long and depending on the time of day may have no wind at all or a strong head wind. With the 52T gearing I can usually hang with, and even pass, most roadies but I have also gotten smoked. My cruising speed is about 23 mph for the 10 mile section. If I'm riding the bike with the 42T gearing my speed drops to about 20 mph but I can maintain it longer.
Either way, I love passing other people and hate getting passed. Sometimes there is nothing I can do when I just don't have the legs to keep up.

Only if they are 208Lbs's and just getting back in shape like me, then maybe I have a chance! :thumb:

I ride with people on geared bikes on my fixed gear. I did a few cyclocross races fixed gear and did alright against a geared field...but I do better with my geared bike.

^^^
Uh Oh BikeForumsness creeps into another totally innocent thread...it was fun while it lasted

As long as I can go faster than cars, I'm happy.

I do a ten mile loop nearly every day, and pass a lot of road bikes-- but that's probably because I'm really pounding along and they're not. The ones who do pass me tend to be grim-looking spandex-covered die-hards who I wouldn't dream of trying to race anyway.

I'd say a lot of roadies take speed more seriously than your average urban fixed rider, who is more concerned with agility.

My singlespeed cyclocross bike is currently set up 38:18 with knobbie tires, so no ... it's not happening.

That said, send those punks into the mud after me and I show them what's what. ;)

There's a quick 15 mile ride I do sometimes that I often wind up leading a random pack of roadies that I'll meet/pass along the way, but it's a completely flat, short ride. Also I'm 23 and these guys look like they're 50. We cruise at around 20, so I think that if they really wanted to they could definitely blow by me.

The hell are you talking about?

I had posted a big long downer post reminding people that you have no idea how long other riders are our for, what they're goals for riding are, or how hard they're working, so comparing yourself to a random rider you pass doesn't do much. But, then I edited it out because I didn't feel like arguing and being dumb.

Any chance this is BB.com reference?

Haven't seen one in months, I guess I won't find out until they come out of hibernation.

(But probably not. Not my scrawny, slow ass)

the road bike is capable of higher speeds than the track bike *assuming you're riding a track bike you can actually move on the street and not something with gear inches rival an actual bike used on a track

I was riding home one night after a group ride with a bunch of mostly FG riders, I had 3 guys from the Cycle Solutions/JetFuel team go by me, on their wind down from a training ride. I caught and chatted, and was incredibly impressed with the spin these guys did up the hills (Bloor St. rollers, near High Park).

There's no chance in hell I'd be able to stay with these guys on my geared road bike, let alone my FG. The difference is too much. I enjoy the challenge of trying to stay/keep with guys on a serious run, but most of my city riding is on roads that aren't used for training rides (guys go north/west for proper no-lights-little-traffic training rides, I believe).

I've ridden with roadies on the Ride for Heart both on my road bike and on my FG, and can undoubtedly say that I'm not at all in the same kind of shape as these guys - they just left me for dust once the peleton cranked it up. I'm striving to get there.

That being said, I want to try the donut ride on my FG, but I'm under no illusions about my speed compared to serious roadies.

Not gonna happen ...

Roadies "drop", each other all the time. ( both WITH, "geared" bikes ... durr ... )

You would have to be superman or doping/be on steroids. Either way your heart will give out ... ( If you do manage to be faster. )

IF your ego still needs checked, show up for a Sun morning ride ... in jeans. *sniker*
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i prefer khakis and a baggy hoody ;)

"Eddy can win on my bike but I can't win on his"---Merckx' teammate, 1968

48x13, clipless, steel frame, straight bar, 23's. Only got dropped by a roadie once, super windy day and he was on a tri bike, and i was getting over a cold.

I feel comparable in the flats and uphill, but when it comes to downhill, i cannot keep up at all with the roadies.

It's not about the bike. :)

On my old 20+ year old road bike I used to pass some spandex & carbon fiber guys now and then and I made believe that I could tell it pissed them off because I was a kind of chubby guy in jeans and a T-shirt on a cheapie no-tech machine.

And then one day a 15 year old kid with no shirt on a downhill bike just absolutely smoked me - this is on level ground, he blasted by me and I thought "I didn't know I was going that slow", and decided to catch up, but was never able to do it.

If you're talking about equally matched riders, then the road bike is going to be faster than a fixie. But the riders are almost never evenly matched.