Does riding with gears cause laziness?

[PaulF]

I celebrated the start of 'Summer' by switching from my singlespeed to my geared Peregrine and noticed that my average speed dropped significantly.

The Peregrine is a little lot heavier but I don't spin out at about 24 mph so the 2 should balance each other out. Looking at my riding I realised that whereas on the singlespeed I just push harder when the road got steeper or the wind blew on the geared bike I'd just drop a gear or 3 and spin. So today I deliberately pushed myself, staying in a higher gear and managed to achieve a higher average speed (I also achieved a new top speed of 80 mph but suspect that there might be a degree of measurement error ).

Anyone else find the same?

[Wowbagger]

Yes. The first time I rode my normal loop on my Trek single speed the 16 or so miles took me 1h 4m compared to a best of about 1h 15m on a geared bike.

[TimO]

Yes.

My fastest commute times have been with Sid the Singlespeed.  If I use a geared bike I'm generally slower.  However when it's late at night, and I'm tired and knackered, it's so much nicer to be able to use gears on the way home.

Similarly with rides like the FNRttCs, I can do them on Sid, but with the Brighton run, when I hit Ditchling at 7am, I cannot be arsed to kill myself cycling all the way up.  With gears I just change down and twiddle, rather than cough up my guts.

[Sergeant Pluck]

I think one just rides at a natural cadence. I note that there was a significant and lasting drop in my average speed when I changed from 46 / 16 to 46 / 17 fixed.

[PaulR]

I kind of agree that gears encourage slacking off - on the rare occasions when I have raced on singlespeed, I've really enjoyed the uphills as the geared riders clickety click down their gears.  But sometimes I hanker after that blissful feeling of switching down a few gears and winching myself gently up a slope rather than mashing up it.

Wowb, is the Trek still rolling along OK?

[andygates]

I'm faster on gears.  I can freewheel down hills at speeds my legs can't possibly turn over.

[PaulR]

But us london folk don't have decent hills to spin down.  (And some of the above folk have these new-fangled freewheel things on their bikes.)

[mattc]

I kind of agree that gears encourage slacking off - on the rare occasions when I have raced on singlespeed, I've really enjoyed the uphills as the geared riders clickety click down their gears 

.... then glide past you near the top (if it's a PROPER hill).

[MSeries]

No. A lazy person will take any opportunity to be lazy.

[iakobski]

Gears are overrated.

Ocassionally useful, but not enough for the extra faff.

I'm faster on gears.  I can freewheel down hills at speeds my legs can't possibly turn over.

True, but the OP was on s/s.

[Greenbank]

To the original question; yes, definitely. I've noted a big difference now that I'm back on the geared bike for a bit.

I'm faster on gears.  I can freewheel down hills at speeds my legs can't possibly turn over.

I'm just a wuss descending, my fastest speed is about 60kph on either gears or fixed.

My absolute V_max was 61.4kph in rural Buckinghamshire.

My V_max in Richmond Park is higher on fixed than it is with gears. Same for the Elenith, which has it's fair share of monumentally steep or long Welsh hills. Even traversing the peak district North and South I failed to top 60kph.

[Chris S]

Riding fixed (not SS) can encourage a laziness at the top of each pedal stroke - caused by the feedback through the chain driving the unpowered leg over the top of the stroke. When I was mixing free/fixed riding, I would find there was a dead spot in my "action" that needed a few hours of riding freewheel to overcome.

Not even a freehub on a tandem helps - because you get a very similar feedback from the stoker. Some practice with a freehub on the turbo helps minimise it. And concentration on technique.

[Charlotte]

Coasting makes you weak<sup>*



_{*</sup>(c) Kent Peterson}

[Polar Bear]

No. 

If there was no such thing as gears then I wouldn't go fully-loaded cycle touring with the tent.

So, if anything, not having gears would make me lazy      

[citoyen]

Cos it's so nice out, I've brought the posh bike today. With gears. Somewhat lighter than the fixie.

I've been getting pretty quick on the regular commuting route on fixed and tonight will be the first time I've done it this year on gears. Although as andyg says, I should be quicker on the downhill bit, that might well be balanced by being slower on the climbs - I admit to being a lazy type when it comes to climbing, so I do tend to drop down into a low gear and just twiddle my way up when I have that option. We'll see...

d.

[Exit Stage Left]

Alan Vance reckoned he rides fixed because he is lazy, in this interview at Brest on PBP 2007.

      YouTube
            - Alan Vance.avi
   

[MSeries]

Alan Vance reckoned he rides fixed because he is lazy, in this interview at Brest on PBP 2007.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/aNc5OaLuI74&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/aNc5OaLuI74&rel=1</a>

I thought of that too.

[Kim]

Gears prevent knee exploding and subsequent weeks of enforced laziness...

[Chris N]

Alan Vance reckoned he rides fixed because he is lazy, in this interview at Brest on PBP 2007.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/aNc5OaLuI74&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/aNc5OaLuI74&rel=1</a>

Sounds about right to me.  Less to worry about, less weight to carry round, less to go wrong and you're always in the right gear.

[токамак]

I laugh at the pinging of gears in the bunch as we approach the hill. I am on fixed, and I am relentless - see you at the top, loosers!

 

[MSeries]

I laugh at the pinging of gears in the bunch as we approach the hill. I am on fixed, and I am relentless - see you at the top, loosers!

 

That is to do with the riders not the bikes.

[MSeries]

PS, it's losers

[L CC]

I ride slower fixed. It's because my natural cadence is low. On the geared bike I push whopping big gears and struggle up hills because I can't make my fat legs spin fast enough for low gears to be any help. I just can't seem to do twiddling.   
On the fixed I gurn up hills and have to brake down them...
I don't know if I'd describe one or t'other as lazier though.

[Polar Bear]

I laugh at the pinging of gears in the bunch as we approach the hill. I am on fixed, and I am relentless - see you at the top, loosers!

 

I laugh at the arrogance and pious pomposity of the fixers who, peering down their noses, sneer and believe themselves better than me because they ride fixed...  

<serious question>

Why don't the pro's ride fixed in events like TdF?  

[Frenchie]

Anyone else find the same?

No, of course not. And I am a committed fixed gear rider. Fixed makes me "strong" and forces me to better work my gear and pace. When I switch(ed) to the Cannondale recently for some summer fast rides I am noticeably faster, on the flat or in the hills, but I work at a similar level -- I don't just switch off because it is windy. I like to ride both, though as others have pointed out fixed is somewhat easier: easier to just jump on and made do with, easier to maintain too.