Comments on: Fixed vs Gear Bikes Hill Climbs

By: pj

pj — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:43:54 +0000

i’d be interested to know what GI danny was pushing up the coombe…

By: pj

pj — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:41:02 +0000

i guess burrington is a good climb for a reasonable gear – i rode 65″, working on the premise that i wasn’t going to spin out on the flat sections and the long corner, but also could cope with the three or four ramps.

am now making all sorts of calculations on weight and so on… a hornet’s nest indeed. i’m going with chris on this one for the time being, i’m not sure my geared bike is as suited as my fixed wheel.

By: tejvan

tejvan — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:15:03 +0000

Thanks for comment Dave, must give it a try

By: Dave Preece

Dave Preece — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:27:24 +0000

In my limited experience, Fixed bikes, on the right gear ratio, are great for hill climbs. It’s not only the light weight that helps but the bike actually seems to push the pedals through the natural dead spot when they are in the 6 O clock position. As the back wheel is moving and it is conected with no freewheel to the pedals you feel like you are getting a helping hand…

Fixed bikes also don’t give you the option of giving up and changing down a gear. Lots of people are capable of getting up hills faster than they do as they just keep changing down untill they are in bottom gear.

The down side with a fixed bike… you need to be super strong if the gradient on the hill is varied. If you gear down so you can get up the steep bits ok you loose loads of time when the road flattens out. So you have to gear up to go ok on the flatter bits and then suffer on the steep bits!