Originally Posted by
79pmooney
I know all about what I am talking about here, I've been going up hills on fix gears 45 years. I've both "gone for it" like you see in my avatar; taken at a 14% stretch of a two mile climb and me in a 42-17 gear and loafed in the same gear up Portland's Germantown Road. There's a quick pitch on Portland's Rose Garden/Zoo climb that's around 20%. A test of my toestrap quality. Poor straps that slip and I have to walk it.
Same here. I've done fixed gear road riding, including steep hills, for 58 years. Slippery toe straps were always a pain. And I once broke a toe strap on the first climb of a hilly 50-mile ride. Riding with a toeclip and a nailed-on cleat but without a toe strap was tricky. A lot of zigging and zagging across the road for the subsequent hills.
Still love riding fixed, though. At nearly 71, I did around 20 hours of hilly terrain on my favorite fixed-gear bike in the last week.