Fixie Food For Thought

[mariacycle]

I was chatting with an employee at my LBS who was the state champion for the 10 mile time trial yesterday and he gave me some interesting food for thought. He was telling me that at the time of winning that race he was riding 50 miles every morning on his fixie, which forced him to ramp up his cadence and never coast. He admitted, of course, that it was a hard transition over and he had some big crashes off the bike as he had to get used to not coasting. In any case, he recommended trying it to me because for him it took him to a much stronger level of cycling (although he continued to note that it is a completely different type of riding). Anyways, I just wanted to share that food for thought with you ladies and hear your thoughts.

[Becky]

I don't own a fixie, but I've had a similar experience with my singlespeed mountain bike in that it makes me a smoother, more efficient rider. I can tell when I've been mostly riding my geared bike. My pedal stroke is choppier and my cadence is slower. IMO, singlespeed offers almost all of the benefits of riding fixed with a smaller penalty for failure. Either way, give it a try- it's fun!

[thekarens]

I wouldn't mind trying a single speed, but hell no to a fixie and/or track bike. I'm not very coordinated to begin with.

[mariacycle]

Becky you put it perfectly with "smaller penalty for failure." I have been coasting since I was a child and I'm not sure I want to unlearn that painfully :D Actually now that I think about it, the guy is about my height and just fixed up his track bike, so maybe he'd let me take a short spin to try it out. I'll let you know if it ends in disaster!

[OakLeaf]

I've never ridden a fixie so take this FWIW ... but I really thought that the fitness benefits of fixies came from (1) never being able to coast, and (2) using the antagonist leg muscles to slow down. You don't get either with a singlespeed. As far as smoothing out your pedal stroke, a set of rollers is way cheaper than redoing your drivetrain (or buying another bike) - and likely more effective for that purpose, too.

You could always get one of those reversible rear wheels that has a fixed cog on one side and a single-speed freehub on the other, so you could ride fixed when you wanted, but without the commitment.