Originally Posted by 79pmooney;[url=tel:22830520

22830520[/url]]Two thoughts here. 1) For a given level of effort (effort being all your resources, not just what a power meter shows), gears are faster except in conditions and speeds "right" for your chosen gear. That's why all racers use them. If you are staying with the geared folk it is because you are riding a lot harder than they are and you will pay a bigger toll.

2) Long and hilly rides have been done on fix gears and single speeds forever. This country has been crossed using both many times. The English have doe all sorts of marathon rides fix gear. But the age old key to it is to ride gears that work, for you. And be hard as nails. That might well require being young. Or do as I have done. Set up bikes with the means of changing gear ratios for major climbs. (Descents too if you are running fix gear.) The stops to change gears are a tradition going back 120 years. Fun, both uphill and down, goes way up when you are geared better. (42-12 down can be a blast.)

I've done the week long Cycle Oregon 5 times on fix gears. (This photo was taken on my second CO. Day 4 and maybe 5000' of climbing.) But I was not young when I started and even less so last September when I rode my last one. I brought all the cogs commercially available and used about half. 12 to 24 teeth (though I'd ridden the first two COs before I learned where to get the 24). In that photo, I have 17 and 23 tooth cogs on the hub and you can just see the 12 on the far side of the tool bag. Chain whip strapped to the top tube. Pedros "Trixie" hub nut wrench and lockring spanner under the tool bag. (Good tool, excellent spanner; better than the Parks for fix gears.) You can also see that this hill took me by surprise. I was too far into it to stop and start again (very steep) before I realized this "is the big one!" so I just muscled up it in the flat ground gear, 42-17. I paid. 61 years old then.

And to your question: Day three of my first fix gear CO was up to and around Crater Lake. Billed as 80 miles and 8800'. I took a wrong turn and descended 5 miles and over 1000' that I had to turn around and climb back up. So, 100 miles and about 10,000'. Using 42 x 17, 23 and 12. Same gears as the photo 2 years later.




That red bag? A reflection of how hard riding fixed is relative to the usual geared. My feet took a beating pulling so hard and for so long on the toestraps and shoe straps. (Mostly the shoe straps.) Bag contains TEVA sandals so my feet could get complete relief at the rest stops. I still had to visit the doctor every year I rode fixed until I rediscovered that ancient shoe trick - laces!