Login | September 26, 2024
Fixed gear cycling Part 1
PETE GLADDEN
Pete’s World
Published: February 27, 2017
I’m going to dig down into my cycling roots for the next two columns, to a time in the 1970s when we had no, and I mean zero, zilch, nada electronic training devices with which to rely on for feedback. Heck the first heart rate monitor wasn’t used commercially until 1977, power meters were still a concept, and our only real indoor stationary trainer devices were simple belt-drive drum rollers and old fan powered wind trainers. As you can see, our training gizmos were pitifully archaic when compared to the sophisticated gadgets today.
Anyway, having very little in the way of training apparatuses back then, we simply trained according to these “established” norms which had been handed down from a plethora of professional cyclists through their many decades of competitive cycling. Some of those traditions are long dead and gone, but, a few continue to survive into the 21st century. Yup, and a few stone-age coaches such as myself continue to believe in several of those Neolithic ideas as doggedly as we did all those decades ago.
Okay, so where I’m going with all this is right here, to my favorite old school cycling dictate: that at the beginning of each new season, in late winter/early spring, you get out your fixed gear bike and put in at least 1,000 miles before you ever touch a multi-geared bike. Sounds barbarously obsolete doesn’t it? I mean think about it, fixed gear riding in an era when it’s chic to do early season workouts on all the fancy, high-tech gadgetry - Computrainers, Johnny G spin bikes, Cyclops Spin bikes, Tour De France spin bikes, etc., etc. – where you kind of get this amazing stream of sensory titillation.
And there’s no denial that these avant-garde goodies provide you with a much more palatable training option when compared to the prospect of doing not-so-comforable fixied gear rides outdoors. But, and I’m speaking as a coach not as a stubborn old curmudgeon, some of this ancient stuff is just as relevant today as it was back then…because it absolutely works. Period.
Okay, so let’s explore this idea of fixed gear cycling a little bit more. As the name “fixie” implies, the rear wheel and the cranks are fixed together in their movement, which means your legs are always moving when the rear wheel is moving. In other words you cannot “freewheel,” allowing the rear wheel to keep turning when you're not pedaling. Couple that with the fact that a fixie has no gears with which to change pedaling resistance. Thus, terrain and that single gear alone dictate your resistance.
Now at first glance, making the decision to ride a fixed gear bicycle seems counterintuitive. You’re giving up 20-plus gears, you’re suddenly forbade to coast, and you’re forever forced to be cognizant that your legs must continue to pedal no matter what the terrain, no matter what the circumstances. So yes, those first few maiden voyages on a “fixie” can seem like a rough and treacherous endeavor indeed, an activity that borders on masochism really.
Yet this rather odd mode of cycling ends up providing the rider with an intuitive sense of the speed at which the bike is moving - because the cranks are spinning at a speed in direct proportion to the rear wheel. On a bike that is able to coast, the rider can simply stop pedaling, and when it comes time to start again, there’s no guarantee that the gear which bike is in will be the right gear. This leads to a sort of tentative game of catch up and surprise. Granted, the experienced cyclist is able to adjust without much effort, but that bike-to-rider symbiosis is never as direct a connection as it is on a fixie.
Those who become familiar with fixed gear cycling soon learn it’s something that has to be experienced to be appreciated. Not coincidentally, those who do go fixie more often than not never go back to the fancy studio workouts on multi-thousand-dollar spin bikes or back onto high priced indoor trainer devices. They gradually come to view the fixie as the “gold standard” with respect to learning impeccable pedal technique and efficiency, and for gaining muscular leg strength and endurance.
All right, now that I’ve explained just what the fixie is, in my next column I’ll discuss the many benefits derived from its use.