I'm addicted

[Gus]

For the first time since I got my steamroller I didn't ride it.
I took my old trusty winter racer and quickly learned :

Riding with gears and coasting are weird.
I lack the feeling of being one with the bicycle.

So I must say it's official, I'm addicted to fixed riding

Gus

[woollypigs]

I know what you mean   Haven't done much more than 220miles on Dirty Pia since Stella arrived last February, clocked up over 7000miles on her. And every time I use Dirty Pia it takes a few miles to get used to the idea that I can coast and that there are cheats(gears).

[Greenbank]

Really hilly rides may cure you of a love of fixed. Or they may just make you love fixed more.

[woollypigs]

I don't mind hills and the odd walk up them if the fixed gear is too hard for me. What I didn't like on the hills/gears is that you didn't get the full benefit if the push on a fix and the full pedal stroke.

[Frenchie]

For the difference is on hills, acceleration and final speed -- I am faster on my geared bike in the hills and will accelerate faster, so in the summer as I ride harder, I ride my geared bike a bit more. But I do pedal most of the time!

[Charlotte]

Really hilly rides may cure you of a love of fixed. Or they may just make you love fixed more.

+1.  This man knows of which he speaks.

[julianbramley]

No. Fixed is for the dull long hard cold winter rides, its preparation for the real thing, which is speed, speed and more speed.
Much as I love my 68 inches you cannot beat snicking into 53x12 and doing 30mph+ in a rabid chaingang once the tarmac gets warm.

[Jakob]

Much as I love my 68 inches you cannot beat snicking into 53x12 and doing 30mph+ in a rabid chaingang once the tarmac gets warm.

Then change your 68" to 76-78" and you'll get your 30mph+.

[Wendy]

Then change your 68" to 76-78" and you'll get your 30mph+.

*cough*  66" has been good for 38mph so far for me, so 30 is easy, even on the flat.  I'm not even a spin monster like FWN!!!

[Paul D]

It's distance that's turning me off fixed at the moment. I've happily done up to 50 miles on my Merckx, but a hilly 60 miles on Saturday meant painful shoulders. If you look at FGG it's pretty obvious who actually rides their bike, and who just does half a mile to work & back.   So I'm uglifying my bike by raising the bars at the moment. A sad day, but I want a useable bike, not a showpiece.

[Frenchie]

Distance is fine for me; again acceleration is key. You will not accelerate in a fast group with a 78'' (a fixed gear in general) as you would with gears when the terrain varies. Cruising at speed is not so hard; even I can stay with the chain gang on my fixed and hit mid to hig 30s, esp. on the downhill sections; when things get serious, the profile changes a bit, I cannot any more. And I love riding fixed! A lot of FGG bikes are "cruisers" more than road and/or distance bikes indeed.

[julianbramley]

I love fixed and ride it the most but you're kidding yourself if you think you're going to keep up with a geared bike on a fast ride.
Its good, but it's not that good.
Horses for courses I guess.

[Mr Larrington]

I love fixed and ride it the most but you're kidding yourself if you think you're going to keep up with a geared bike on a fast ride.
Its good, but it's not that good.
Horses for courses I guess.

I'm fairly sure that I've never outpaced Mr M Volio of this Parish

[blackpuddinonnabike]

Done a couple of 100 mile fixed rides now, and a few hundred hilly Edinburgh miles each month, and I love it.

But I have to say I'm looking forward to having a geared road bike back in the stable soon.

[Frenchie]

I love fixed and ride it the most but you're kidding yourself if you think you're going to keep up with a geared bike on a fast ride.
Its good, but it's not that good.
Horses for courses I guess.

I'm fairly sure that I've never outpaced Mr M Volio of this Parish

I guess the nuance (it is all relative) might be in the fast ride; not that I am suggesting you ride slow (peace!), just maybe slower than in a chain gang. But again I haven't joined one in a while!

And again I love fixed, owning 3. I just can't respond fast enough on a flat out and undulating type of ride.

[francisbarton]

I rode my fixie out with the CTC pub ride on Tuesday evening (first time I have taken it on a group ride except for ACF rides); I got dropped on one long hill, but otherwise I was fine at keeping up.
Although this was no mere pootle, it was just a pub ride and definitely not a chaingang.

[Si]

Shuffles out nervously from under the carpet.

I don't love fixed*.

I like it sure, but it's not been any great revelation that has transformed me into a zen like state of enlightenment.

Perhaps it's because I came from riding a road SS so the step wasn't so marked as if I had come from a 30spd rd bike?

I tend to use my fixed the most (apart from my 'work' bike) but that's because it's got less on it to go wrong and to clean, and that it makes me cram the max effort into a short time.  Practical rather than emotional considerations.

And I am missing the chuckability of the SS round the tight fast switching corners.

*anymore than my other types of bike.

[bobajobrob]

I love riding fixed, but not on hills. I'm too heavy to get up the hills on a 70" gear, the hills round here can be steep (think Cotswold Corker). I know people like MV ride stuff like this on fixed, but I just don't have the legs for it. I use my fixed for a flat commute and for pootling around town. When I take to the hills, I take my geared bike. I do sometimes use the 63" freewheel on the flip side of my fixed, but mostly it's geared.