fixed-gear technique

Pecky said:

Hi people,

Looking for some advice on fixed gear technique. After reading Sheldon
Browns pages and much perusing of the fixedgeargallery I've been
tinkering around building a fixie since the start of the year. Finally
finished it and have ridden it to work twice. (Greenborough to Richmond
20km each way)

I don't seem to be able to apply any reasonable amount of resistance
when going downhill and end up riding the front brake quite a bit as
I've had a couple of "moments" when my cadence is getting too high and
I try to "resist" only to feel like I'm totally losing control. Is this
normal? Is there a technique I need to learn?

Data points; Gearing 39:15 700C wheels 172.5 cranks about 68 gear
inches from memory, is this too low? don't know if I can push much
higher through Burke Rd Eaglemont cutting.

I've got my seat post at its upper limit and I'm still at least an inch
shorter than my other bikes, this likely to have any effect?

I had a lot of fun buiding the bike, built my first wheel etc, and am
having great fun on flats and gentle hills but steep downhills are
freaking me out a bit. Any comments from the FG experts out there?

Cheers Pecky

Gear inches sound reasonable.

Having previously ridden fixed on the track I still found downhills interesting, and did indeed use the hand brakes down hills as necessary, what i have found is that I actually need to focus on pedalling faster down the hills and going with the flow rather than trying to hold the bike back.

Quoted message said:

Having previously ridden fixed on the track I still found downhills
interesting, and did indeed use the hand brakes down hills as
necessary, what i have found is that I actually need to focus on
pedalling faster down the hills and going with the flow rather than
trying to hold the bike back.

--
PiledHigher

I've still got to sort mine out as if I try that, the bike pedals me for a
bit and then throws the chain, wedging it between the cog and the hub flange
(where it's a right [censored] to get out again). Granted, the chain's a little
slack at the moment, but it did that with the chain quite tight too. Chain
line's not perfect, but not bad, and if anything I'd expect it to drop the
chain on the outside of the cog, which would be vastly preferable cos I'd be
able to get it back on more easily and it wouldn't lock the back wheel on
me. Hence, I use the brake on hills.

PiledHigher said:

Gear inches sound reasonable.

Having previously ridden fixed on the track I still found downhills interesting, and did indeed use the hand brakes down hills as necessary, what i have found is that I actually need to focus on pedalling faster down the hills and going with the flow rather than trying to hold the bike back.

Yeah. its a confidence thing. you'l lfind after a few more rides you 'go with it' more and actually push it more rahter than your natural habit of wanting to stop pedalling/resist it (dont. you'll become pavement pizza 😄)

The hilly commute dont help. I go North boring to the CBD and its a [censored] as your either stompin up hills or frog-in-a-blender-ing down the other side.
On the positive side Imsure its helped my sprint (for 3rd. grrrrr. quick change subject before the red-haze falls...)

read here. As hippy lectured me, there will be a test...

63xc.com101 1.htmOpen ↗

F"one gear to rule them all"Dutch

Pecky wrote:
[..snip..]

I'll start by saying I am no expert. I have been riding fixed for about
2 years now, but I bought my first cycle computer early September and it
is now only up to 950km :-(

Quoted message said:

I don't seem to be able to apply any reasonable amount of resistance
when going downhill and end up riding the front brake quite a bit as
I've had a couple of "moments" when my cadence is getting too high and
I try to "resist" only to feel like I'm totally losing control. Is this
normal? Is there a technique I need to learn?

I had exactly the same experience.

Quoted message said:

Data points; Gearing 39:15 700C wheels 172.5 cranks about 68 gear
inches from memory, is this too low? don't know if I can push much
higher through Burke Rd Eaglemont cutting.

I found that a very small change in gearing made a big difference to my
ability to control downhill spinning. I went from 39:15 with 170mm
cranks to 41:15 with 165mm cranks. Now I can still climb everything I
could before and I can also spin as fast as the bike wants to go on the
downhill and not feel like I am out of control. This goes with what
PiledHigher says as well - I got the same advice but just couldn't do it
with the gearing I was running.

I have to add, that I am talking about a pretty short but steep hill. I
ride down it almost every time I go for a ride and stay at about
45km/h (about 130rpm) pretty comfortably for the whole descent. If I
was fit I could maintain this for quite a while, but I am not so I also
have 2 brakes and use them to give my legs a rest on longer hills.

Quoted message said:

I've got my seat post at its upper limit and I'm still at least an inch
shorter than my other bikes, this likely to have any effect?

I have read that a slightly lower saddle height helps with spinning fixed.

Quoted message said:

I had a lot of fun buiding the bike, built my first wheel etc, and am
having great fun on flats and gentle hills but steep downhills are
freaking me out a bit. Any comments from the FG experts out there?

I am far from being an expert - but me experience has been that a small
increase in gearing lead to a large reduction in the freaking out :-)

Brian.

Pecky said:

I don't seem to be able to apply any reasonable amount of resistance
when going downhill and end up riding the front brake quite a bit as
I've had a couple of "moments" when my cadence is getting too high and
I try to "resist" only to feel like I'm totally losing control. Is this
normal? Is there a technique I need to learn?

This is normal. I've ridden fixed for a couple of years, and still find I can spin faster when putting in power than when trying to slow down. Use the brake to slow down. Trying to slow down too much with your legs alone is bad for your knees.

Quoted message said:

Data points; Gearing 39:15 700C wheels 172.5 cranks about 68 gear
inches from memory, is this too low? don't know if I can push much
higher through Burke Rd Eaglemont cutting.

That's a good gear. Don't ride bigger than about 72" on the road. Fixed is about getting a good spin going, not mashing a huge gear. You may find everything gets easier if you drop the crank length a little. I run 170 on the fixed, and 172.5 on freewheeling bikes.

Quoted message said:

I've got my seat post at its upper limit and I'm still at least an inch
shorter than my other bikes, this likely to have any effect?

The bike has to fit you really well to get high cadence to work. Seat too low means you've gotta bring your knees up too far. Too high means your hips rock. I find a few millimetres lower than my other bikes is just right.

Quoted message said:

I had a lot of fun buiding the bike, built my first wheel etc, and am
having great fun on flats and gentle hills but steep downhills are
freaking me out a bit. Any comments from the FG experts out there?

Be Zen. When I panic, my pedaling action goes out the window. As long as you don't panic and stay flexible, you can get really high cadences going. It all comes with time.

Regards,

Suzy

Pecky said:

Hi people,

Looking for some advice on fixed gear technique. After reading Sheldon
Browns pages and much perusing of the fixedgeargallery I've been
tinkering around building a fixie since the start of the year. Finally
finished it and have ridden it to work twice. (Greenborough to Richmond
20km each way)

I don't seem to be able to apply any reasonable amount of resistance
when going downhill and end up riding the front brake quite a bit as
I've had a couple of "moments" when my cadence is getting too high and
I try to "resist" only to feel like I'm totally losing control. Is this
normal? Is there a technique I need to learn?

Data points; Gearing 39:15 700C wheels 172.5 cranks about 68 gear
inches from memory, is this too low? don't know if I can push much
higher through Burke Rd Eaglemont cutting.

I've got my seat post at its upper limit and I'm still at least an inch
shorter than my other bikes, this likely to have any effect?

I had a lot of fun buiding the bike, built my first wheel etc, and am
having great fun on flats and gentle hills but steep downhills are
freaking me out a bit. Any comments from the FG experts out there?

Cheers Pecky

I'm no expert but it sounds about right to me.

After only 2 weeks of fixed riding I was comfy spinning at up to 140rpm.

After another few weeks I could spin up to ~172rpm. Since then I haven't
been able to spin any faster than that, but I've just changed from 42:18
to 44:16 so at least my top speed is better 🙂

It's hard to describe but at some point I was suddenly able to 'unlock'
the legs and spin fast. I've got a feeling that fast decents are always
going to be challenging on a fixie.

--
Nick