Quote:
Originally Posted by sc_rufctr
Don't knock it until you try it champ. Fixed on the road is a totally different experience to the track. The track is nothing but hard work. On the road it's fun. If you have a flat road near you house you can get your gear ratio dialed in perfect. For hills you need gears IMO. I have a steel frame track bike with a front brake (so it's legal). I ride it 2 or 3 times a week on "my ring" which is about 6 kilometers total. 99.9% of the time slowing down or braking is done with your legs. It's also a great way to get your legs supple for the start of a new season although I ride year round.
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I rode a fixed gear for two winters back in 86 and 87. It was on my Casati with a track cog (both brakes were left on), 42x16 around a 3.3 mile loop around the RoseBowl. A pretty flat course with about 1.5% up hill on one side, then down on the other. That's when I needed to learn to spin and boy, did I spin. A few of us would do this in the winter to stay fit and work on our forms. We were a pretty discipline little group. No upper body movement just legs. It hurts like heck. This was a time no one knew what a fixed gear is. On my way home,there's a mile of down hill so riding easy and using my legs to brake as well as my calipers was done often.
I learn to spin and am really discipline after those two seasons where a fixed gear was no longer needed. I can spin at 110-120 rpm for twenty miles. Sure, it hurts like hell but I do it often during the first 5-8 miles of warn up during the winter months on our training rides.
I see these kids skid the rear wheel like crazy going down hill avoid getting hit by a bus. Crazy.