Gone double, getting geared bike withdrawl symptoms...

[King Boonen]

Finally fitted a double chainset to my road bike, one came up very cheap so thought I'd jump on it.


My year of only riding fixed/SS is going well but I'm getting withdrawl symptoms and want to ride my road bike...

 

[JackRabbitSlims]

Focus......stay on target!!

Surely a wee spin on the road bike won't hurt at all??
Can you off set it by punishing your self for this "geared" indiscretion by doing twice as many miles on the SS??

What happens if you have a mechanical on the SS and you can't ride it for a few days??

You've set your self some very narrow / tight parameters to ride within......which i think is pretty cool btw

 

[King Boonen]

Re:

Focus......stay on target!!

Surely a wee spin on the road bike won't hurt at all??
Can you off set it by punishing your self for this "geared" indiscretion by doing twice as many miles on the SS??

What happens if you have a mechanical on the SS and you can't ride it for a few days??

You've set your self some very narrow / tight parameters to ride within......which i think is pretty cool btw

If the fixed wheel bike fails I'll ride the road bike. As much as I want to complete the challenge I've set I'm not going to give up riding for weeks when I have a lovely bike that's been relegated to turbo work!

I think the problem is that I'm looking at Strava and seeing I'm as fast on my fixed wheel on my own as some of the guys I know who race are on their summer bikes, I'm itching to see how I go when I get back on gears.


Although, every time I get out on the fixed wheel I forget about it and just ride. Maybe I need to ride a bit more, my time has been cut down a bit recently.

 

[Bustedknuckle]

Finally fitted a double chainset to my road bike, one came up very cheap so thought I'd jump on it.


My year of only riding fixed/SS is going well but I'm getting withdrawl symptoms and want to ride my road bike...

Had a MOOTS built as a fixie..no der hanger, cable stops. Rode it for about 6 months and got tired of riding the same, flat-ish places. Tried SS, same stuff..had the frame modded for rear der, shifter bosses, cable stops, rear brake..put on $20 ders, friction shifters..done. Much happier, wet weather bike.

 

[King Boonen]

Finally fitted a double chainset to my road bike, one came up very cheap so thought I'd jump on it.


My year of only riding fixed/SS is going well but I'm getting withdrawl symptoms and want to ride my road bike...

Had a MOOTS built as a fixie..no der hanger, cable stops. Rode it for about 6 months and got tired of riding the same, flat-ish places. Tried SS, same stuff..had the frame modded for rear der, shifter bosses, cable stops, rear brake..put on $20 ders, friction shifters..done. Much happier, wet weather bike.

This is probably where we are different then fella. I ride my fixed wheel everywhere I ride my geared bike. 140km and 2,100m climbing is the biggest so far this year I think, will be doing longer and bigger rides as the light returns.

 

[avanti]

I used to ride a fixed gear bike around the north of England Youth Hosteling - I had a double sided fixed gear (69" and 59" as I recall) and wingnuts; I would change gears for long or steep hills. Still had to walk up several Lake District passes.

 

[King Boonen]

Re:

I used to ride a fixed gear bike around the north of England Youth Hosteling - I had a double sided fixed gear (69" and 59" as I recall) and wingnuts; I would change gears for long or steep hills. Still had to walk up several Lake District passes.

74", 81" or 91" for me at the moment riding around Glasgow and the surrounding area (North to Aberfoyle and the Dukes Pass, West out over the Rest and Be Thankful and Sound to Largs and Healy Brae). Currently sticking with the 81" and 91" as training gears, will drop to the 74" or a 70" for any Sportives with more than 2500m climbing. Loving it so far!

I can imagine Hardknott is in the list of walked passes. I've not got down there yet on a road bike. Just my mountain bike, same with the Peak District and the Dales. Done a lot in North Wales though.

 

[ray j willings]

This is exactly why I ride a bonkers light bike. I just ride the rest takes care of itself.
Who wants to hack around on a big heavy bike with no gears.
I want to climb with speed and ease and that's exactly what I do.

 

[King Boonen]

Re:

This is exactly why I ride a bonkers light bike. I just ride the rest takes care of itself.
Who wants to hack around on a big heavy bike with no gears.
I want to climb with speed and ease and that's exactly what I do.

That pretty much answers itself fella.

 

[ray j willings]

Re: Re:

This is exactly why I ride a bonkers light bike. I just ride the rest takes care of itself.
Who wants to hack around on a big heavy bike with no gears.
I want to climb with speed and ease and that's exactly what I do.

That pretty much answers itself fella.

I do admire your one cog antics . Today I went up a short steep hill (Springhill)
30 times. I even dropped a guy on a Brompton on climb 27

 

[avanti]

Re:

This is exactly why I ride a bonkers light bike. I just ride the rest takes care of itself.
Who wants to hack around on a big heavy bike with no gears.
I want to climb with speed and ease and that's exactly what I do.

When I rode in the UK (many years ago) my fixed gear bike was lighter than my road bike (A BSA with 3-speed Benelux derailleur and steel rimmed wheels).

 

[winkybiker]

Re: Re:

This is exactly why I ride a bonkers light bike. I just ride the rest takes care of itself.
Who wants to hack around on a big heavy bike with no gears.
I want to climb with speed and ease and that's exactly what I do.

That pretty much answers itself fella.

I do admire your one cog antics . Today I went up a short steep hill (Springhill)
30 times. I even dropped a guy on a Brompton on climb 27

Is life not too short to ride the same hill 30 times in a row?

 

[kwikki]

Those are pretty big gears to be turning all the time. Do you have a stretching regime? If you do big miles on a big fixed gear you can get into all sorts of trouble. Not putting you off, but I'd hop on a geared bike now and again just to check your pedalling style is what it should be and you havent been over compensating on one side. You'd never notice on a fixed, but a free wheeled bike will show it up straight away.

 

[ray j willings]

Re: Re:

This is exactly why I ride a bonkers light bike. I just ride the rest takes care of itself.
Who wants to hack around on a big heavy bike with no gears.
I want to climb with speed and ease and that's exactly what I do.

That pretty much answers itself fella.

I do admire your one cog antics . Today I went up a short steep hill (Springhill)
30 times. I even dropped a guy on a Brompton on climb 27

Is life not too short to ride the same hill 30 times in a row?

I was desperate to go for a ride but the weather was looking dodgy , so I thought instead of going for my usual ride of climbing around the hills of north London I thought I would ride the short steep climb of spring hill which is quite close to where I live so I could get home before the onslaught of rain which eventually arrived with the sound of glorious thunder later in the afternoon. I quite enjoyed it and its always good to mix things up. It was quite tough I managed to dig hard on the first 20 climbs after that I had to ease up and got some good digs in the last 3 climbs. The only bummer was near the end when my chain kept coming off my bottom jockey wheel.The wheel kept sliding off the bearings , that's what you get for using a 2grm jockey wheel. I will fix it tomorrow.

I must have a go at the everesting one day , I would need to get some serious miles in. climbing for 2 /3hours 3/4 times a week around north London ain't going to be enough.

http://cyclingtips.com/2014/03/everesting-climbing-8848-metres-in-a-single-ride/

 

[ray j willings]

Re: Re:

This is exactly why I ride a bonkers light bike. I just ride the rest takes care of itself.
Who wants to hack around on a big heavy bike with no gears.
I want to climb with speed and ease and that's exactly what I do.

When I rode in the UK (many years ago) my fixed gear bike was lighter than my road bike (A BSA with 3-speed Benelux derailleur and steel rimmed wheels).

That's true ,what was I thinking about. Check the WW thread on this site and the crazy light commute bike that a guy on the WW site put together. Its pretty sweet.

 

[King Boonen]

Re:

Those are pretty big gears to be turning all the time. Do you have a stretching regime? If you do big miles on a big fixed gear you can get into all sorts of trouble. Not putting you off, but I'd hop on a geared bike now and again just to check your pedalling style is what it should be and you havent been over compensating on one side. You'd never notice on a fixed, but a free wheeled bike will show it up straight away.

I ride my geared bike on a turbo at least once a week and check to make sure my form is still good. When I started on fixed I was running a 66" gear and I've slowly progressed up to pushing these bigger ones. I'm pretty careful about where I got out on which gears. The 91" gets used for mainly flat runs and any climbing I do rarely goes over 10% on that gear. The 81" is a club run gear, it lets me stay with the group averaging 18-20mph over the run, I mainly need that gear for the downhill parts so I don't fall too far off the back. If I'm doing much longer, hillier runs I will generally drop to a 74" gear and take it much easier.

Add to this that I almost always have a bigger sprocket on the other side of the wheel so if I feel I've gone out on too big a gear I can flip it over. Hope that sets any worries you might have at rest

 

[King Boonen]

Re: Re:

I was desperate to go for a ride but the weather was looking dodgy , so I thought instead of going for my usual ride of climbing around the hills of north London I thought I would ride the short steep climb of spring hill which is quite close to where I live so I could get home before the onslaught of rain which eventually arrived with the sound of glorious thunder later in the afternoon. I quite enjoyed it and its always good to mix things up. It was quite tough I managed to dig hard on the first 20 climbs after that I had to ease up and got some good digs in the last 3 climbs. The only bummer was near the end when my chain kept coming off my bottom jockey wheel.The wheel kept sliding off the bearings , that's what you get for using a 2grm jockey wheel. I will fix it tomorrow.

I must have a go at the everesting one day , I would need to get some serious miles in. climbing for 2 /3hours 3/4 times a week around north London ain't going to be enough.

http://cyclingtips.com/2014/03/everesting-climbing-8848-metres-in-a-single-ride/

Everesting holds absolutely no interest for me, it's like cross-fit for cyclists. Might as well just spend 8 hours at high resistance on a turbo. Fine for those who like that sort of thing, but the idea of looking at the same things 40-odd times just completely destroys the whole point of cycling for me.

Spring Hill is the one at Walthamstow Marshes? I like the way the gradient just increases on that.

 

[ray j willings]

Re: Re:

I was desperate to go for a ride but the weather was looking dodgy , so I thought instead of going for my usual ride of climbing around the hills of north London I thought I would ride the short steep climb of spring hill which is quite close to where I live so I could get home before the onslaught of rain which eventually arrived with the sound of glorious thunder later in the afternoon. I quite enjoyed it and its always good to mix things up. It was quite tough I managed to dig hard on the first 20 climbs after that I had to ease up and got some good digs in the last 3 climbs. The only bummer was near the end when my chain kept coming off my bottom jockey wheel.The wheel kept sliding off the bearings , that's what you get for using a 2grm jockey wheel. I will fix it tomorrow.

I must have a go at the everesting one day , I would need to get some serious miles in. climbing for 2 /3hours 3/4 times a week around north London ain't going to be enough.

http://cyclingtips.com/2014/03/everesting-climbing-8848-metres-in-a-single-ride/

Everesting holds absolutely no interest for me, it's like cross-fit for cyclists. Might as well just spend 8 hours at high resistance on a turbo. Fine for those who like that sort of thing, but the idea of looking at the same things 40-odd times just completely destroys the whole point of cycling for me.

Spring Hill is the one at Walthamstow Marshes? I like the way the gradient just increases on that.

That's spot on KB . Its more of a short power climb but after about 15 /20 reps you can feel it. I'm definitely going to do it again. I went for normal ride today and felt ok and fixed my jockey wheel so all good. I just need to lose a bit of easter egg weight chocolate feast of joy.

 

[kwikki]

Re: Re:

Those are pretty big gears to be turning all the time. Do you have a stretching regime? If you do big miles on a big fixed gear you can get into all sorts of trouble. Not putting you off, but I'd hop on a geared bike now and again just to check your pedalling style is what it should be and you havent been over compensating on one side. You'd never notice on a fixed, but a free wheeled bike will show it up straight away.

I ride my geared bike on a turbo at least once a week and check to make sure my form is still good. When I started on fixed I was running a 66" gear and I've slowly progressed up to pushing these bigger ones. I'm pretty careful about where I got out on which gears. The 91" gets used for mainly flat runs and any climbing I do rarely goes over 10% on that gear. The 81" is a club run gear, it lets me stay with the group averaging 18-20mph over the run, I mainly need that gear for the downhill parts so I don't fall too far off the back. If I'm doing much longer, hillier runs I will generally drop to a 74" gear and take it much easier.

Add to this that I almost always have a bigger sprocket on the other side of the wheel so if I feel I've gone out on too big a gear I can flip it over. Hope that sets any worries you might have at rest

Yes, worries rested, thanks

Didn't mean to sound patronising, but I've seen what I described on a number of occasions.

As for Everesting, I wish you hadn't mentioned it, as now I'll have to do it and I know it will be a bit of a ***.

 

[avanti]

Here is a great "Everest "climb in California - great scenery.
https://www.t.bike/2006/09/everest-challenge.html

Lots of great rides and climbs in the Owens Valley including one up to the Bristle Cone Pines and several with alpine switchbacks(unfortunately some of the switchback roads are not maintained and are deteriorating - maybe better suited to a mountain bike).

 

[Bustedknuckle]

Re: Re:

This is exactly why I ride a bonkers light bike. I just ride the rest takes care of itself.
Who wants to hack around on a big heavy bike with no gears.
I want to climb with speed and ease and that's exactly what I do.

That pretty much answers itself fella.

I do admire your one cog antics . Today I went up a short steep hill (Springhill)
30 times. I even dropped a guy on a Brompton on climb 27

Is life not too short to ride the same hill 30 times in a row?

I was desperate to go for a ride but the weather was looking dodgy , so I thought instead of going for my usual ride of climbing around the hills of north London I thought I would ride the short steep climb of spring hill which is quite close to where I live so I could get home before the onslaught of rain which eventually arrived with the sound of glorious thunder later in the afternoon. I quite enjoyed it and its always good to mix things up. It was quite tough I managed to dig hard on the first 20 climbs after that I had to ease up and got some good digs in the last 3 climbs. The only bummer was near the end when my chain kept coming off my bottom jockey wheel.The wheel kept sliding off the bearings , that's what you get for using a 2grm jockey wheel. I will fix it tomorrow.

I must have a go at the everesting one day , I would need to get some serious miles in. climbing for 2 /3hours 3/4 times a week around north London ain't going to be enough.

http://cyclingtips.com/2014/03/everesting-climbing-8848-metres-in-a-single-ride/

"No such thing as a free lunch"...

 

[ray j willings]

Re: Re:

"No such thing as a free lunch"...[/quote]

Things can go wrong with any bike /any part. Its no big deal just put a bit of super glue on and its all sorted.
I think in future I will consider the Fibre lyte Carbon jockey wheels a bit heavier "4grms " But they have no bearings as such. Stephen came up with a pretty unique idea that works great. I still have a load [ 3 unopened] of 5grm jockey wheels that I use as well in combo with the AFC plastic jockey wheel. But all good went for a normal ride yesterday and jockey wheel is groovy. Thanks for your concern
AFC do state that going across the rear cog on the big ring can cause the wheel to slip of the bearings under load.
This is exactly what I do but I find a bit of superglue sorts that issue out. The AFC on my trek has not come off in over a year and a half I expect the same for the one on my Guru. It was new on just a few weeks ago so now I have glued it all should be good like the one on my trek . I'm sure all my ww fans would like me to keep them posted on this critical and vitally important issue

 

[King Boonen]

Really, how has this ended up as another WW thread?


Couple of turbo rides on the bigger gears (that's all they'll see for the rest of the year) and I have to admit the closer gap between the chainrings has resulted in much smoother FD shifting (Shimano 105, the FD works great but it can be a little clunky, especially as I refuse to change the cables until the bike seems the roads again) and the smaller gap does mean a lot less shifting at the back as I ramp up the resistance. I'm also pushing what would have been my biggest gear on the 50 for longer and using the two extra gears as well so it seem like a win win.

The two gears lost at the low end are considerably lower that what I ride fixed so I'm hoping that when I get it back on the road I won't care about them

 

[kwikki]

You've inspired me to get back on fixed for the first time in two years.

Commuted in. Enjoyed it immensely.

 

[King Boonen]

Re:

You've inspired me to get back on fixed for the first time in two years.

Commuted in. Enjoyed it immensely.

Good man/woman! I am getting withdrawal symptoms from gears but every time I go out on the fixed wheel I forget about it, I just love riding fixed, even in the hills around Glasgow. Mainly I just want to see how I'd go against some of the racers I know if I had gears