Hi, Had a fun ride yesterday. A friend was celebrating his birthday by tagging along with a 60km (38 mile) mountain bike ride organised by the local bike touring club. I did this ride about 10 years ago and remembered to be pretty tame so I thought I'd do it on my fixie. I was pretty cocky so I put a semi slick on the back (no brake) and kept the commuter gearing (36x14).
Well, it turned out the route was completely different and instead they'd gone for linking together some of the steepest firetrail they could find in the area. The first pinch climb had my whole body burning and wishing I had something a little wider than my 53 cm (21 inch) flat bars. It got worse from there, but at least on the longer easier climbs I could just ride fast enough to maintain a decent cadence. I needed the lead as going down the deeply rutted and waterbarred descents was a little slower than I'm used to. Landing a jump while resisting the rear wheel makes for a lot of fun.
The steepest descent of the ride was so gravely that even with two brakes you would have trouble coming to a stop. To make matters worse an insect bit me on the lip as I started. At one point my foot clipped the edge of a rutt and came out, the front was in a controlled slide and I was borderline going over the bars. The rear wheel was oscilating between locked and turning as the slick had no grip. At that point I got an idea what it might be like to do downhill unicycling but somehow managed to get my foot back in.
My intention was to get some strength work done so I guess it was mission accomplished, I'm feeling it now.
Hi, Had a fun ride yesterday. A friend was celebrating his birthday by tagging along with a 60km (38 mile) mountain bike ride organised by the local bike touring club. I did this ride about 10 years ago and remembered to be pretty tame so I thought I'd do it on my fixie. I was pretty cocky so I put a semi slick on the back (no brake) and kept the commuter gearing (36x14).
That sounds brutal. Not sure what your terrain is like but it seems a fixie on MTB stuff around here would be asking for a beating.
"Duncan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
Hi, Had a fun ride yesterday. A friend was celebrating his birthday by tagging along with a 60km (38 mile) mountain bike ride organised by the local bike touring club. I did this ride about 10 years ago and remembered to be pretty tame so I thought I'd do it on my fixie. I was pretty cocky so I put a semi slick on the back (no brake) and kept the commuter gearing (36x14).
Quoted message said:
My intention was to get some strength work done so I guess it was mission accomplished, I'm feeling it now.
Cheers, Duncan.
Wow, and all on a high-geared fixie. If half of that is true, I'm really (no I mean it) impressed.
Hi, Had a fun ride yesterday. A friend was celebrating his birthday by tagging along with a 60km (38 mile) mountain bike ride organised by the local bike touring club. I did this ride about 10 years ago and remembered to be pretty tame so I thought I'd do it on my fixie. I was pretty cocky so I put a semi slick on the back (no brake) and kept the commuter gearing (36x14).
That sounds brutal. Not sure what your terrain is like but it seems a fixie on MTB stuff around here would be asking for a beating.
I was thinking about throwing a fixie rear wheel on my 'cross bike and doing Desert Classic (one of the easier rides in the South Mountain Park in Phoenix, Arizona)... and then I thought about riding through rock gardens on the thing and my self-preservation instinct kicked in and talked me out of it... thankfully!
