how many gears?

Quoted message said:

If you want to practise on hills, a fixie with a freewheel will allow

you to

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get a better workout, because you can get back down the hill faster
for the next "up" interval.

Actually, spinning the DH pumps blood, it doesn't affect your speed
significantly. You should try it.

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It's an interesting exercise to climb hills with a 36 (and lower)

cadence.

Is that a magic number?

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Climbing is probably a safer workout than going 20+mph, because
you're going slower when you keel over.

If you're prone to keeling over, you should probably switch to golf.

Peter Cole said:

The Wogster said:

Sheldon Brown said:

Peter Cole indiscreetly blurted out:

>If you do any fixed gear or single speed riding you'll find that

gears

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>don't have that large an effect on average speed. I have gone so

far as

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>to time trial with my fixer. My relative speed was 10% slower on a
>rolling course, not a lot when you consider that a significant

portion

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>of that was the no-coast and no-tuck penalties.
>
>I see lots of strong riders having no trouble keeping up on a fast

club

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>rides (20+ mph) on fixers. People think it's heroic, it's not.

Shhhhhh Peter! That's supposed to be our little secret, only

shared

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among the elect!

Doesn't this depend on the rider? For example if your 17 years old,
ride 100 miles a day, with back to back double centuries on the

weekend,

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and hold the gym record for the leg press at 1,500lbs, then 20+ MPH

on a

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fixie is probably going to be easy, especially on a flat course....

However if your north of 40, in typical American shape, and ride

maybe

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50 miles a year, and your heading up the steeper face of big ass

hill,

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then doing 20MPH on a fixie is probably going to land you in one

place,

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the cardiac ward.... Then again doing 20MPH on any bike under those

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conditions, will probably land you in the same place...

I had to drive a couple of places this morning, and was wishing I had

a

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bike, I am getting back into it, after last riding in 1984....

Getting

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older, and gas prices that are climbing out of this world, are my
motives, however I don't think I will start with a fixie.....

I wouldn't necessarily recommend starting with a fixed gear, either. On
the other hand, fixed gear bikes are a lot of fun and offer an
opportunity to learn a little bit more about biomechanics. Ideally, a
fixed gear should allow a favored cadence up a very slight incline.
This will make you slightly under-geared on the flats and over-geared
on steeper climbs.

Climbing with a fixed gear involves different techniques as the grade
gets steeper. First, you stand to pedal, next, you start pulling up on
the opposite pedal, finally, you start zig-zagging across the grade --
terminally, you walk.

If your local terrain is flattish or gently rolling, fixed gear bikes
can keep up with geared bikes in all but a complete hammer-fest.
Keeping up with any serious group will require you to be in shape, no
matter what you're riding.

Anything but flat, Toronto, Ontario (where I live), has lots of rolling
hills, and at least 2 river valleys (the Don and the Humber, I live
between them)..... However riding is getting more popular, especially
as gasoline is now north of 90cents/Litre -- Europeans will think that
cheap at around (.58 Euros), Americans will think it an outragious $2.60
per gallon, and that's for the cheap stuff, we are expecting it to be
well over $1/L by the end of summer....

Quoted message said:

Oh, BTW, I can time trial a fixer on a rolling course at over 20 mph,
and I'm considerably "north of 40". Like I said, it's not heroic. Since
you're getting back into things, you might be better off not psych'ing
yourself out with age [censored].

There were three conditions in my message, first was over 40, second was
typical American shape, to explain further with a spare tire -- and not
a bike tire either more like something off a Sterling.... And who does
not ride often or much.....

I have been working on my spare tire, got it down to something off a
Crown Vic, and I want to ride more, but not today, it's dreadful out
there.....

W

The Wogster said:

Quoted message said:

Oh, BTW, I can time trial a fixer on a rolling course at over 20

mph,

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and I'm considerably "north of 40". Like I said, it's not heroic.

Since

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you're getting back into things, you might be better off not

psych'ing

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yourself out with age [censored].

There were three conditions in my message, first was over 40, second

was

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typical American shape, to explain further with a spare tire -- and

not

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a bike tire either more like something off a Sterling.... And who

does

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not ride often or much.....

I have been working on my spare tire, got it down to something off a
Crown Vic, and I want to ride more, but not today, it's dreadful out
there.....

Six of us rode for a couple of hours yesterday, into a hard,
wind-driven, 38F rain. Four were on fixed gears. All of us were over
40, except a new woman who showed up after riding a dozen miles to the
start (and another dozen home), on a chromed fixed gear Pinarello. I
was impressed, not so much by her gender as by her youth, under 40
riders are usually not so tough.

'Nature is an old lady with few suitors these days, and those who wish
to make use of her charms she rewards passionately.
That's why there are riders.
Suffering you need; literature is baloney.'
Tim Krabbe "The Rider"

no more than necessary
actually u'd be surprised how nice a 5 speed freewheel runs when given
new bearings and cycle lube

"Peter Cole" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Yes,
you need to be careful with the terrain that you ride a fixed gear on.
A few years back a really strong member of our club was riding a 39X17
fixie on a hilly winter group ride. He lost control of the bike at the base of
a really fast decent which required free-wheeling. Luckily for him
he landed in a ditch - a relatively soft landing, although he ended up with
a face full of muck. On this short decent, you easily reach speeds of 57 km/h -
I calculated that before he crashed his leggs were spinning at > 198 RPM,
now that's what I call fast spinning!

Incidently I never saw him ride a fixed gear on the winter group spins again !

Quoted message said:

I wouldn't necessarily recommend starting with a fixed gear, either. On
the other hand, fixed gear bikes are a lot of fun and offer an
opportunity to learn a little bit more about biomechanics. Ideally, a
fixed gear should allow a favored cadence up a very slight incline.
This will make you slightly under-geared on the flats and over-geared
on steeper climbs.

Rik O'Shea said:

Yes,
you need to be careful with the terrain that you ride a fixed gear

on.

Quoted message said:

A few years back a really strong member of our club was riding a

39X17

Quoted message said:

fixie on a hilly winter group ride. He lost control of the bike at

the base of

Quoted message said:

a really fast decent which required free-wheeling. Luckily for him
he landed in a ditch - a relatively soft landing, although he ended

up with

Quoted message said:

a face full of muck. On this short decent, you easily reach speeds of

57 km/h -

Quoted message said:

I calculated that before he crashed his leggs were spinning at > 198

RPM,

Quoted message said:

now that's what I call fast spinning!

Incidently I never saw him ride a fixed gear on the winter group

spins again

We have a couple of spots on our weekly ride loop where that kind of
speed (35 mph) is reached. My fixer is a 39/15, so at that speed I'm
*only* spinning at 170 rpm or so. That's right about at my limit, so I
sometimes feather my brakes a little to keep my feet on the pedals. I
have never crashed from over-spinning, but on my first ride my feet
came off a few times, I just held them out to the side while I braked.

We had a rider show up for her *first* fixed gear ride. I highly
recommend learning to ride fixed before attempting to ride in a group.
There is a tendency to stop pedaling in a quick stop situation which
can cause loss of control. That's what happened to this rider.

Ken Marcet said:

This sounds silly, but I have 10 gears and I use about 6 or 7 all the time.
I ride on very flat roads, but it is almost always windy, am I using too
many gears? And it seems as though I am always shifting gears should I just
toughen up and use less gears and shift less, or do others do this too? I
think I am using the gears properly.

Ken

I have 3 bikes. One has 7 speeds, and I use every gear every time I ride
the bike. The other bikes have 16 and 18 speeds, and I'm sure I use at
least 7 or 8 (probably more) every time I get on those bikes. I live on
a hill, so I descend at 30-35 mph and climb at ~10-12 mph at the
beginning and end of *every* ride. Your conditions may be different.

I used to ride a fixed gear bike frequently, but as I got older, my
knees decided that this wasn't such a good idea. Fixed-gear riding sure
is fun, but it isn't worth the pain.

Summary: if you like to ride a single speed and it doesn't cause you
problems, go for it. If you like to use your gears, more power to ya.
Don't worry about anyone else's opinion of the proper number of gears to
use in a ride.

--
Dave