The reason I ask is because I was just dusted by a guy on a cervelo. I kept up for about 10 minutes but my legs were just killing me. Im running a 44/14 and only had my fixed gear for about a month but still i consider myself in pretty good shape. He claimed to be running "something similar" to mine gear ratio wise but I seen him spinning much faster.

If the guy is riding a Cervelo, there is a decent chance that he's a dedicated rider- no guarantee, by any means; there are plenty of posers out there. Maybe some fixed gear riders will disagree, but you're simply not going to be able to keep up with a rider who has 20+ gear choices under all conditions. Especially when you're turning a gear that is maybe larger than ideal for the situation, as opposed to the inverse.

Maybe he was doped up.

You have drops? rollin on 23s?

maybe if the terrain was flat as **** the entire time and the fixed rider is riding a somewhat steep gear, but any kind of hills and road bike is def faster. I get dropped by my out of shape, non serious cyclist friends on old road bikes on longer rides with lots of descents.

i dunno about the doping, but he did have a number on his bike and some sort of a matching uniform. so i bet he was serious, but im hoping to get serious too thats why it was a little test me. and yea i got 23s and bullhorns

I like to ride with roadies on their recovery days.

i frequently use the fix on group rides...40-100mi, 17-22mph. 46x16, drops, 23c, brake, clipless. i'm often doing the dropping uphill, they can usually take me on the downs, and the flats are pretty even.

your 44x14 is a bit higher gear. maybe he was just faster?

If we're dodging through traffic, yes.

If it's open road, most likely not. I have to chose a gear that I can accelerate with and climb hills, while the roadie is free to accelerate in a 60 GI combination and then drop down to a 93 GI combination once he's up to speed. I'm a good cyclist, but any good cyclist on a road bike has the potential to be faster than I am.

I wouldn't even try it. I doubt I could keep up with kids on BMX bikes.

I thought I was the only one. I ride with a couple of wicked fast roadies for longer (for me) 30-40 mile rides, 16-24 mph (fast for me), but what's recovery for them is a hell of a workout for me.

I straight drop sorority broads on cruisers.

Is this thread a joke?

i run 46/16, 23's, and have trouble keeping up with some of the roadies. on fast rides (fast for me), they cruise at 20+ whereas that's near my upper limit. but i'm not a stong rider btw. i'm usually at the end of the pack on both medium-fast paced roadie and fixie rides but that's because people slower than me get dropped.

I am a road biker too so did I just divide by zero?

I ride a '06 Fuji Roubaix road bike and also a fixed gear. i use the fixed gear to commute/have fun and I take my road bike out for weekend rides. I could NEVER keep up with my road bike friends while on a fixed gear. It's a joke to think that you could ever beat a road biker while on a fixed. Uphill, downhill, flat, it doesn't matter. Road bikes will ALWAYS be faster. The only exception is if you had some carbon fiber track bike and you WERE ON A TRACK.

I've ridden a few of the slower paced group rides on my fixed gear. I showed up for a road ride but only two other people were there and they said they pace wouldn't be over 15mph for the ride so I rolled the roadie back in the Element and pulled out the San Jose. We did 50 miles with 3 stops and I had no trouble keeping the pace. We climbed a few small hills and hit some rolling territory and I did fine; going downhill was a bigger challenge. But I've got brakes. We finished the ride with a 14.7mph avg. speed for the ride. (42-15 gearing)

With the faster riders? No way. And if the route has steep climbing, no way.

I did a ride where we went up Monte Sano(Bankhead road) which was a 3+mile climb of an average 5.6% grade. One steep section then it eases off. I stayed with some of the guys, a couple went on ahead and a couple fell behind. We regrouped at the top then I flipped the wheel to the free side for the ride back down.


I just had a thought. Recumbent riders LOVE to tout how they are so much faster than DF roadies. Why not a fixed gear recumbent? Or is that just so far off the Jackass Tarck scale as to be unthinkable?

Search and ye shall find.



more pics here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/3120646...hoto3216658496

I was riding on the street on my way back from a mountain bike ride last weekend and passed a guy on a fixed gear going down hill. He was spinning so fast he couldn't stay on his saddle because he was bouncing around so much. I seriously thought he was going to fall off his bike. It was pretty funny.

Unless you are a very strong rider, you're not going to keep up with any road bike with gears. You might for a while, but you're spending a lot more energy to do the same amount of work, so you won't last long...

I do 40 mile roadie ride on weekends. There are three groups that ride the first one is legit racers that are too serious for there own good. I think they ride 26+ the entire time. I ride with the second group which is 20+ and last weekend we did 28-30 for a mile or two which was killing me on 52/18. I find it moderately difficult to keep up but when you are drafting the entire time its a lot easier. Just hang in the middle of the pack and make sure you dont fall behind at all or you cant catch up. Any chance I got I would try to sprint up to the front and ride in like the 4th position. Then if a hill comes you can fall back to 10th+ and not get dropped.

The last time I road I got dropped for a half mile to a mile and struggled to catch up. At the point of max HR and lactic acid burning the **** out of my legs. This weekend I couldn't decide whether to go with my 17 cog or the 18 but threw on the 18 to be sure I wouldnt be dropped. After the 28mph+ section I regretted my decision but I didnt get dropped and we slowed down to 23-24 which gave me some time to keep from throwing up.

Another mistake I made the first time I road with them was trying to pull in the first part of the ride. I just cant "pull" at 22+ for any amount of time without getting worn out.

"Road biker" is a pretty indefinite term. I've passed plenty of "road bikers" on the ol' Worksman (see avatar), and been passed by plenty, too. It's more a function of the particular rider and circumstances than of the bike itself.

I think it's about 10% bike and 90% engine. If I go on a 50 - 70 mile ride on my fixed, my average speed is usually about 1 mph slower than a similar ride on my geared bike. That's a pretty minor difference. So whether or not I'm getting dropped has a lot more to do with who I'm riding with than what I'm riding or what they're riding.

Yeah, me too. This question confuses my little brain. My fixed gear bike is a road bike, just one that happens to have a single, fixed gear.

Today I took the bike out for some super-tempo work and spun along at 22mph in the drops for a good 15 miles. Man, that was hard. But I can see why many old-school time trialists prefer a fixed gear. Once you get rolling, there's a momentum that takes over.

OP, guess it comes down to the skill level of the roadies, I agree over moderate terrain a FG can keep you in the group with a little strategy. I actually rode fixed with a pace line today(it was super windy), buncha Freds, but I sucked their draft for a bit and when I heard the shifting start I dusted them on a little uphill without even raising up out of the saddle in a nasty headwind. Yeah, they were riding high end carbon stuff, but obviously they were beginners/posers...Still, I get the same adrenaline rush whenever I pass anything, old ladies walking, cars in traffic, dudes in spandex on Cervelos and I still hate it when they pass me...

right on! seems like you know where im coming from...that just fuels me to work harder in the gym and on the bike

I get hosed by all real roadies even in the flats, the fat guys in their sausage casings and young children don't stand a chance against me and my 1 1/4" tires though.