estratton

So just a question:

Has anyone ever heard of a fixed gear bike being used in the Ironman Triathlon? My buddy has been after me to do a triathlon with him in a year or so, and was wondering if this was totally insane, or just slightly.

Feel free to rate the insanity on a scale of your own making...

Moximitre

I did the ironman with my fg stayer bike strapped to my back during the run and swim. during the bike ride, I pushed a motorcycle in front of me, so I could take advantage of the slipstream.

slvoid

The iron man is slightly different than a regular triathlon, which is usually shorter.
It's 2.4 miles swimming, 112 miles by bike, and a full marathon afterwards.

If it's a really flat course, you benefit from being on a fixie because it's more efficient once you get into it. Otherwise, get a geared bike and save your legs cause almost no one wins or places on the bike, it's usually won on the runs. In fact, you can be a whopping 25% faster than someone (very hard) in 1st place and they might still chew right through that in the run.

dogpound

I've done 3 ironmans and officiated 3 or 4. As far as I know, you can not do a ironman on a fixiem there are specific rules on what equipment can be used that can be found here
https://www.usatriathlon.org/

like slvoid said, if you're going to do that distance, you're going to want to save you legs for the run

ranger5oh

slvoid, that is somewhat of a misnomer what you are saying.

The swim has aways had the cliche "you cant win a tri in the swim, but you can lose it there".. but I have never heard the same abotu the cycing portion. The fact of the matter is, if you are going to ride a fixed gear in an ironman, you arent going to win, or place... I think you would be lucky to finish.

Also, if you havent competed in a tri before, dont even consider an ironman. How bout starting with a sprint, or olympic distance to start? Work up to a half IM, and then a full IM later on.

evanyc

what's the milage in a typical triathlon?

dirtyphotons

pictures or it never happened...

freeskihp

"(j) There must be one working brake on each of the two wheels. "

this is out of the rulebook and is the only thing i can see that would stop you from riding fixed

estratton

Done a tri. before, was a rower in high school and first half of college, avid runner and cyclist. With 3/4 of a year training, I'm really not worried about an Ironman being out of reach.

Granted, I'm an optimist.

gregg

How would that stop you from riding? You can either: a) mount two handbrakes, or b) mount a front handbrake and use your legs as a rear brake.

dogpound

here I am, Ironman frankfurt 2004. THis is maybe 6 miles into the marathon.

freeskihp

i dont know how well the foot brake arguent would fly with them and I am pretty sure the P2T isn't drilled for anything. but it really isn't that big of a problem

dogpound

foot brake like coaster break?
if you could demo it, it might be ok. It really would depend on who's officiating.
We did have a guy a few years ago on a 3 speed with a bananna seat.
He also wore cut offs and ran in chuck taylors.
He was one bada$$

shishi

just stupid

shishi

sprint=swim - 0.6mi, Bike - 12.4mi, Run - 3.1mi
olympic= .93-mile (1.5 km) swim, 24.8-mile (40 km) bike and 6.2 mile (10 km) run
Iron man=2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26-mile marathon run.

No drafting...

evanyc

i could swing a sprint

slvoid

I guess it depends on the person. My friends and I are great cyclists (as I'm sure many people here are) but horrible runners.

wadajoobadude

not to hijack the thread or anything, but has anyone ever heard of a cross-country tour on a fixed? not quite as extreme as an ironman on a fixed, but it would be impressive none the less.

Ken Wind

I don't think it's that uncommon. Check out the Big Fix.

sivat

dang. ken beat me to it. There was also a group of diabetics who rode fixed across the country to raise money/awareness. https://www.cicle.org/cicle_content/p...try.php?id=898. I'd like to do that next year with them.

For the OP, i would guess that you would want the ability to coast a bit to recover from the swim/prepare for the run. Especially on the IM where you're body it put the ultimate limit. Then again, I'd be lucky to finish a sprint.

remorashadow

You would have to have a very very flat course for the IM if you wanted any chance of finishing on fixed, it just wouldn't be worth it to me.

At that distance it isn't so much the amount of training that makes you finish, it is your will to finish, amount of training only determines how quickly you finish assuming you do(though there are maximum time limits to finish so you should be trained enough to at least beat that time). I have not done full IM yet, but my first tri was half IM and it was pretty much hell. Everybody says I was insane for going that distance my first time, full IM would be a lot more insane. Then again insanity is fun, so go for it if you want to.

apotnolid

continuing the thread hijacking- i did a self-contained tour double fixed (flip-flop) all around the midwest. ohio, indiana, michigan, illinois, tennessee, kentucky, and west virginia. for light touring a fixed is amazing, but i wouldn't do a multi-week fully loaded tour on it again. fully loaded, self-contained cross country i would not do fixed.

if you had support (like on one of the "big" cross-country tours), then a fixed would be fairly righteous. i wonder if on the big fix they had a support car?

vomitron

Uh, I might also add that no matter what sports you may have done in the past (rowing, cycling, running, etc), if you're not a swimmer, you probably won't survive a 2.4 mile swim without some pretty serious training. I'm a water polo coach. I could probably get someone from little or no serious swimming to about a mile in about 8 weeks without much trouble. Really, it's the other 1.4 miles that ends up being hard. It would probably take you around 4 months to get that. Throw in marathon training, and training to do a ***ing century fixed and you're looking at potentially one of the most grueling aerobic feats I can think of.

If you actually consider doing it, godspeed to you. I can help with swim workouts if you want 'em.

k3nho

i did my first sprint triathlon a few wks ago. . . .


i considered doing the bike ride on my track bike- it was a pretty flat course, so it would have been ok, and nobody even checked out our bikes for compliance. . . . but it was nice having gears because my whole body was beat after the swim

dutret

seeing as triathaletes always complain about how restrictive the uci rules are and how that prevents real tri bikes from being made I find it highly unlikely that a fixed gear would be banned as unusual or untraditional.

lots of sprints allow drafting these days apparently.

Maybe for a couch potato. A fit person who knows how to swim can swim a painful mile with no training and reasonable one after a couple of weeks. 2.4 in a month or two. Swimming is easy.