This very same topic came up recently on the iBob list. Here is my take. I've been riding fixed since about 1996; almost exclusively fixed since 2004 or so, if not earlier. I've also ridden ss (1X1) off road, after trying fixed off road and disliking it. I ride in rolling terrain and in often windy conditions.
My brother offered me a converted Schwinn Tempo circa 1996. I scoffed, thinking fixed riding was a pose (this was 10 years before the hipster fixie craze, now long passed). I tried it, liked it (good thing the Tempo, tho' a tank, was a nice handling bike) and successively built of many different fixed variations, including a 60" 26" mountain bike using an ENO hub. I bought a custom gofast fixie from Riv in '99, still, if I'm honest, my favorite bike; and then converted 2 other Riv customs to fixed. I commuted for a number of years across town, 30 miles rt, on a fixed gear. 1. Try it and see. If nothing else, put your multigeared bike in a low-to-middle gear and don't shift. That will give you a pretty good idea of ss -- to state the obvious. It will give you a faint taste of riding fixed. 2. You will adapt to fixed. The easy adaptation is physical -- you'll find that you can climb surprisingly well in a gear in the 60s or 70s. Mental adaptation takes longer, at least it did me; to learn not to fight headwinds was the biggest lesson and took longest to learn. Now I fight wind far less than I used to. (Note: A drop bar or a bar that lets you tuck in and down is very useful as a "headwind gear.") 3. What is so nice? For me -- and I emphasize that this is my own peculiar (in sense of "individual" and also in sense of "odd") taste -- is the simplicity and "elegance," which basically comes down to doing more with less, and second, to adapting to conditions rather than (in a sense) making conditions adapt to you. I love having to, so to speak, plan ahead for hills and back off early so that I have energy to make it all the way up. I like the huge variation in cadence and torque -- in fact, both now, and even before I rode fixed, I generally shifted far less than I could have for hills and winds and loads. A second pleasure is the feeling of smoothness and efficiency. I don't believe in the "flywheel effect" but there is indeed something particularly smooth about riding fixed; this all the more as your wheels get taller and heavier -- I actually feel it less on my 26" wheel Riv fixies, not to mention my Dahon Hon Solo. One memorable fixed gear bike was a 1960s Paramount track bike borrowed from my brother; at one point he had -- I have to laugh -- shod it (simply because he flipped scores of bikes and wheels and wanted to try these on something convenient) with 48 spoke wheels laced to oh-so-utterly-smooth Campy Record hubs (the 1960s kind). That was like perpetual motion, and I only exaggerate a bit. I cannot say that I ever "felt at one with the bike" as so many fixed gear enthusiasts claim. Gearing: I started out on the road with a 63" gear and quickly found it too low. Went to ~67-8 and then to 70"; I find 70 good for commuting and errand riding in the conditions I described. I like 75" or so for my light gofast bike. I will be 64 shortly, and I can't stand and climb for several miles like I used to, so I've added lower gears on the flip side of my flip flop hubs. 60" is a good climbing gear for me, but the main lesson is a 10" or so drop from your flatland cruising gear. All of this is for pavement and rolling/windy conditions. Steep technical dirt: 50" or thereabouts has long been a gear of choice. Me, with my Monocog 29er ss, I used a 63" gear that got me up most hills and through most sand. You shouldn't mind walking. On Sat, Jan 19, 2019 at 12:52 PM Friend <jtpc...@gmail.com> wrote: > Rivendell Friends, > I have rarely ever experienced a single speed bike. I can count the > number of times one one hand I have ridden one. I know have the > opportunity to build up a AHH and am considering a single speed, or a > 1x9(or 10,11,12). Then reading Rivs email today I saw Will rides a 2x1. > > *What do you like about riding a 1x(X) or a single speed?* > > *What are pros and cons of different gear configurations?* > > -- > 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. > -- *------------------------------------------------------------------------------------* *Still 'round the corner there may waitA new road or a secret gate,And though we pass them by today,Tomorrow we may come this wayAnd take the hidden paths that runTowards the Moon or to the Sun.* --- J.R.R. Tolkien ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, and letters that get interviews By-the-hour resume and LinkedIn coaching Other professional writing services Expensive! But good. http://www.resumespecialties.com/ Patrick Moore Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Auditis an me ludit amabilis insania?* -- 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.
