Justin, Fixed lifestyle? Ha. I’ve no idea what that means. Naught ‘bout me lifestyle is changing because me dropouts are rotating 90ish˚. Double grin. The shift is entirely selfish, given the benifits to my brain and body. I jest, but I think I know what you mean, taking “lifestyle” to be “riding style.” And there is a definate difference in style of riding, though in my experience so far no particularly significant (to anyone but a racer) difference in time for each ride. I suspect I am faster climbing (smoother ride increases traction and less having to compensate for deceleration of a freewheel. I also suspect the speed difference is small, but of course on a 10 mile climb/descent, 2/3 to 3/4 of riding time will be on the climb. I know I ride slower down hill, but again that has minimal impact on average speed, because dropping from a 30mph average to a 25mph average is negligable to anyone but a racer, especially given the gains climbing.
Numbers from the Tour de France bear this out. I read somewhere on the interwebs (so you know it’s true) that the first year the Tour de France allowed freewheels (singlespeed) in addition to fixed the average speed jumped a whopping 0.3 or 0.4 mph (or close to that) over the entire 1,500 whatever miles of the race. For me, nothing important is lost by losing the freewheel and a lot is gained. I’ve actually considered this jump (to either all ss or fixed) for a number of years, but never pulled the trigger because just shifting less on the Hunqapillar made it a singlespeed that could shift on the fly. Not the same, but close. I didn’t try fixed because I had to try it on a bike I know (even handlebars can mess with my brain and I need days to recover, so a whole new bike that was fixed? No what to know what was due to what.). So when I did try fixed on the Quickbeam, I was ready to jump all in if it worked. It did, and here I am. Grin. Philip, Ha! Aye. Well, I wondered as I confidently rode over miles of slick snow on today’s ride if these were conditions that I would have ben far more trepedatious in with a freewhell. I make it through 99% of the technical stuff that I did on the SS plus I can climb 2% more of the stuff I couldn’t SS, so I come out ahead in a way noone cares about. Grin. Bill, I appreciate the vote of confidence. Grin. I’d add to that list clearence for widish tires of 2.1”. As someone mentioned, I’m getting the equivilant of my ideal custom frame for bikepacking and hauling. With abandon, Patrick -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
