Dan The Man

With all due respect, why on earth would you want to tour on bike? I just don't get it. It can't be a cost issue, can it? Bragging rights? To me it just seems like unnessasary self inflicted punishment. Will someone please edify me as to the motive for wanting to do this.

irwin7638

Sturmey Archer now makes a three speed fixie hub. I just meet somebody who is really happy with theirs. I hope you plan on using brakes.

Marc

D.B. Cooper

Did I hit a nerve or something? I am genuinely interested as to why someone would tour
on a fixed gear with no brakes. Does that offend you? Maybe you don't have a rational answer.

JordanD

I run brakes, so I cannot comment on that, but I have considered touring on a fixie. My daily commuter is a fixed gear. As I got used to the commute I stepped up my exercise level by switching from a 21 speed bike to a single speed to a fixie as I felt my body getting used to the ride. I have a wonderful Panasonic touring bike that I love, but I have been wondering lately if I could do touring distances on my fixed gear, if I could do that it would surely provide a very high level of exercise.

AdamDZ

I've seen a guy once attempting to tour (?) on a singlespeed in upstate New York. I was eating pizza next to a window overlooking a train station and saw him leaving the train station, mounting the bike and the first block was a hill, he stalled within seconds. And to make it even funnier, he had one of those huge backpacks with internal support packed to the brim. Talk about top heavy. I don't know how strong one needs to be to be able pedal a loaded singlespeed bike up a hill like that. He tried standing on the pedals and pushing hard but he just was unable to overcome the physics of his setup. He seemed very confused, ended up walking his bike. I mean, a little imagination would save him a lot of misery. Upstate NY isn't a place you would call flat by any stretch of imagination.

It did seem like a self inflicted punishment... or total lack of common sense. I can't even imagine riding a singlespeed bike without any cargo in a hilly area. A fixed singlespeed bike might have a use but majority of people ride it because it's a fad and they don't have the skills to pull it off safely. And I don't even remember how many times I saw fixie riders slam the pavement on the bridge because they couldn't control the bike on the down ramp or hit the ground with a pedal while turning. I owned a freewheeled singlespeed bike once and I didn't like it, it was too limiting in too many ways.

And because TDF was won on singlespeed bikes decades ago it doesn't mean anything. Races were won on bicycles without pneumatic tires too. There is a reason why cycling took off after brakes and derailleurs were introduced.

zoltani

Please come back when you actually know what you are talking about instead of just giving meaningless anecdotes and personal opinions.

AdamDZ

And destroy your knees in the process?

AdamDZ

Oh, personal opinions are not allowed here? Since when? Did I miss anything? Yeah, I have no clue, sorry to offend, I'll crawl back to my hole now and let your genius shine on these forums.

I just had a quick look at your posts zoltani, they mostly appear to be "meaningless" personal opinions. Why the attack on me?

zoltani

1) you're anecdote about the guy you saw "touring" on a SS bike is meaningless since we don't know his gearing. Why don't you tell us his ratio and discuss why it was poorly chosen for upstate NY? Otherwise your story means nothing.

2) Please enlighten me of why a ssfg bike is any more inherently unsafe than a geared bike. Saying that a bike is unsafe because you saw a rider crash means nothing also. In that case you could say that riding a full carbon geared bike is unsafe since a racer died recently while riding one. Is it the bike that is unsafe, the conditions, or the rider?

3) Cycling started to take off when the safety bicycle replaced the high wheeler.

Dan The Man

I was pointing out the hypocrisy of criticizing someone for attempting something impractical and pointless (to you) on a forum about traveling and camping by bicycle, something which the majority of people would consider to be impractical, and pointless. If you want to get somewhere fast and with little effort or hardships, consider driving.

I rode the 42 Below vodka tour a few years ago across the US with a guy on a brakeless fixed gear, he was faster than most of the riders there.

Carbonfiberboy 

Because one of my best and extremely experienced (several 1200k brevets) riding buddies broke his collarbone on a fixie? Fixed gear riding requires completely different emergency reactions that a bike with a freewheel. My friend was catapulted off his bike completely airborne during a traffic difficulty. He said, "Why would one spend decades developing reflexes to prevent accidents, and then throw all those reflexes away by trying to ride fixed?" I've had two very experienced friends injured on fixies, who would not have been injured on freewheel bikes.

I spent one winter leading a SS/FG ride series, just to see what it would do for our fitness. Nada, that's what it did. We all got very good at climbing 10% grades in big gears, and at pulling at 130 rpm, but found we had gained absolutely nothing when we went back to geared bikes. Most modern coaches have come to the same conclusion.

Why tour fixed? Because style = pain. The more pain, the more style. Look at women's shoes. Much maligned Style Man at Bicycling mag once pointed that out, and I've never forgotten it. Of course style is very important. It's one of the ways we define our humanity. No other animal would willingly choose pain.

As far as gearing goes, the average sport rider will do well in a 67" gear. Very strong riders can use larger, up to the 89" gear used by John Cacabelas in breaking the fixie record for S2S. I would suggest reducing one's gear ratio in inches by the formula "weight of current setup including rider/weight of touring setup including rider." That should give a good starting point.

Since we are making fun of anecdotes, here's another one: very near the start of a recent well-attended brevet there was a first hill, which was hit by a mass of riders. Oops, the one fixie rider couldn't pull the hill and dismounted in the middle of the pack. Ooops. Unfortunate to see that. Probably an inexperienced rider who fell for the "fixed is cooler" thing. Didn't see his gearing as I rode by.

late

Great post, especially that bit.

zoltani

Agreed, good post. I still don't understand the first paragraph, though I do run front and rear brakes on my fixed gear. So effectively I have three brakes if you include pedal pacing, resisting or skidding in an emergency (though i tend rely on my brakes).

Again, personally I would not tour on a fixed gear, but have met people going C2C on them, loaded.

D.B. Cooper

There was no critisizm, only curiosity.

Never called it 'impractical' or 'pointless'

Never said I wanted to go fast.

If you fixie guys are so tough, then how come you're so thin-skinned?

Dan The Man

This sounds an awful lot like a criticism to me. And I don't ride a fixed gear, I just get annoyed when posters here poo-poo the aspirations of other tourers.

AdamDZ

1) Are you for real or just trolling? So you think I am unable to make a valid observation? I didn't feel like chasing him with tape measure and calipers, his setup was clearly inadequate to anyone with even basic understanding of cycling. Your "logic" would invalidate most posts here since they're based on observations and opinions.

2) Because you can't coast while making turns, most of fixie crashes I saw in Manhattan happened because their pedals touched the ground while turning. Plus most fixie riders are posers with no skills. Very few riders can actually handle a fixie properly.

3) No, the real boom happened later when brakes and derailleur gears were introduced.

That still doesn't explain your dumb irrational attack (opinions not allowed?!? WTF?) considering your own posts being far less than helpful to anyone.

himespau 

If you're going to do this, consider a flip flop hub with fixed but different gearing on both sides for really big hills. I was reading "The Lost Cyclist" about Frank Lenz who (almost) circumnavigated the world on bicycle 120 years ago and that's how he did it.

D.B. Cooper

I just DON"T GET IT. I just want somebody to tell me WHY they do it. It's just that simple. I could give you a dozen reasons why I tour. I don't see what the big deal is.

zoltani

I tried to provide some information that could be useful to the OP, even though fixed touring is not my thing.



You followed Rowans predictions.

eddubal

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,



And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.



I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.



- Robert Frost -

zoltani

FYI, this issue comes from the cranks being too long and the BB being too low, not from the rider's skill level.

gorillagirl

Imho, the reason for touring on a fixed gear would be that you enjoy riding most when on your fixed gear, and you would like to experience the same type of joy in riding while touring. I can't see any reason not to run brake(s), and many reasons to run them -- you don't have to use them unless you want to/need to.

As to anecdotes, any unskilled or incompetent cyclist will ride like a doof and probably crash. Tons of cyclists ride without skills, and crash.

Style is a dumb reason to ride a bike with a fixed wheel. Cornering is easy on a fixed gear.

I have considered touring (lightly-loaded) on a fixed gear. I can't see any real problem if you have a f/f hub with a bailout gear or ss freewheel on the other side.
It will probably be like touring on a bike that doesn't coast or shift. Not that wierd.

-GG

gorillagirl

PS-- This guy tours on a fixed gear bike, https://www.carsstink.org/peterson/rando.html. I remember him from another forum, and he seems pretty cool, practical, and not a hipster.

-GG

Husar

Downhill is the hardest part over a long ride. By the 75 mile of century the downhill give a burn like no other. My worst fear is a chain break on a downhill when I am tired. If I do tour fixed I do agree that a front break is critical.

Husar

The moe I thought about the more I realized a fixed tour for me would have to be ultralight. The rout I would like to do this summer for 4-5 days would allow me to ship things to people I know. If I could make it to the halfway point self supported then I could pickup supplies twice before completing. That is my plan right now. Also, using my existing fixed gear bicycle. So I went a head and picked up a Surly LHT fully geared for more touring this summer.