I'm taking Elephant Tranquiliser Grade pain killers at the moment, following a knee injury. These make me spacey and more than a bit delirious.
Most of last night, in my fevered way, I was playing the same scenario over and over again in my head, and it was this:
If riding my fixed on an Audax, I swapped the wheel around to a freewheel sprocket for a section of the ride (say, a hilly section for example) and then swapped it back to fixed afterward, so most of the ride was fixed, and it was all single-speed, would that disqualify me from claiming fixed wheel points for that ride?
I'd say "yes", but the more fevered part of my brain says "no".
Hi Chris,
Sorry to read about your problem on the Manningtree 400 and hope everything soon reverts to normal.
I think the short answer is "Yes" As Ian has pointed out, it is a Fixed Wheel Challenge, not a Single Speed Challenge, so 100% of qualifying rides must be done on fixed. If we imagine a hypothetical ride where the first part is steeply uphill, and the second half equally steeply downhill, on your logic, you could twiddle up the climb in a nice low gear, then at the top switch to a freewheel (or simply remove the chain) to enjoy an effortless descent, having deleted part of the "Challenge" of that section.
It does not nececessarily follow that you would be limited to a single gear; ISTR Mal Volio used a D/S fixed hub on PBP with two different size sprockets - the larger one for when his legs were tired. I cannot now remember if he used both, but would not have a problem with validating the ride had he done so. The same would apply to other riders using this option on other rides, although the potential range of gearing is limited by the length of the dropouts, and not everyone wants to cart round a bag full of dirty cogs. OTOH, if it were a Single Speed Scheme you would be restricted to just the one height of gear.
All that being so, like many AUK claims, it is self-certified, and therefore a matter between you and you conscience.