I usually hang out in the roadie section but I'm thinking about getting a fg/ss and am looking for a bit of advice. I live in a pretty hilly area - mostly decent sized country rollers as opposed to prolonged inclines. My thought was to get a decent chromoly frame and put some nice light wheels and parts on it. It would be mostly a training bike as opposed to a commuter. How many of you tackle hills on your fg/ss bikes? Am I nuts to think this is a good idea?

its impossible to go uphill on a bike, don't bother.

You'll be fine, some people use fixed gears to train in the off season. They'll run lower, more spin oriented gears.

I think it is all a matter of gearing and your strength/endurance level. Seattle has some hills, probably more that toronto, but what do i know. Right now I ride a 42/17, and it works pretty well for getting up the hills, and brakes help me get down them safely.

What sort of inclines do you typically see on these "country rollers"?

If you don't already have a bike and you know that you will have to tackle these hills, then get an aluminum frame.

Pick a really small gear ratio (i.e. 48/19. I rode that in SF) for climbing the hills and then you'll have to learn to spin on the flats...which is the whole reason why roadies build fixed-gear winter training bikes in the first place. This will help your road riding game tremendously.

Get a front brake to help with descending.

It's not hard at all.

I moved out of the city - now live in Caledon - 50 min north of the city. Inclines would be maybe 5-8% - not usually long hills but sort of one after another without many flat breaks.

On my old Kilo TT, I geared 48/19 because back home my area has some pretty decent hills, and in here in Davis for college, it's very flat.

This ratio single-handedly greatly improved my spin game.

42/17 is my ratio, and it works for me on the hills I come across. But the hills in Louisiana are mostly man made elevations, such as bridges, overpasses, etc. I've never done any extended riding in an area with a lot of hills.

But there are plenty of fixed gears in San Francisco and Austin, both pretty hilly, so you'll be fine. You might just have to do a little more out of the saddle climbing than you would on your road bike.

Before I got my road bike I used to ride FG with roadies all the time. My gearing on my FG was 46x16 which is pretty good considering that I can hold my own with geared bikes. Going uphills is very doable. Where I live, we have rollers and long inclines. The most I can climb with my FG was around 2000ft elevation. I say, go for it!

This made me laugh really hard.

my new sig.

There's no room.

I kid. I kid.

tehe <3

I suck at climbing and I manage.

The question is, will it blend?

At this moment, my road bike is my fixed gear and I do plenty of climbing on it.

How does everyone run such low gears? I get tired on 46x16 spinning to keep up. Constantly pedaling through the downhills gets you crazy tired too

I felt the same way. Then I found out Raleigh splined their cogs and voila, new wheel set.

There seems to be a little bit of disagreement about skidding, so its your call. I do it because its fun, and I don't mind buying cheap tires de temps en temps. I can see how a lot of people would rather not. Since you definitely should run a front brake, you won't have to ever learn how to skid.

I suggest you go hardcore with your fixed gear. Put a pretty tall ratio (85-90 gi) and just do laps on huge hills. Come race time, just ****ing destroy everyone in climbing.

Some people are just spinners. I hate large gears, 70 gi is about as high as I am comfortable riding on. Currently on 52x21 ~ 66 gi. Spinning down hills is the fun part

I understand that many people like to spin and I know I could benefit on two bikes or two ratios (high and low) from all the spinning.

I just feel like if you're going to ride a fixed gear, why not run the highest ratio you can safely slow down on as well the highest you can handle? It only makes you stronger, which logically, will make you faster. At the very least, you'll be able to run higher gearings after a while and then just spin at a comfortable cadence while bombing down hills going ludicrous speed. And your bike will look cooler.

I don't think it's worth it to run over 80 GI in San Francisco.

Spinning is good training. And it's good for your knees.

Sure, but worth it on a drome.

I'm not sure how much riding you've done around these parts, but I feel like if it were even possible, my knees would go before my muscles would get bigger.

Squats, you need more of them.