In the first part of September 2022, I developed a strange idea: I should ride a fixed gear a really long way.
Background
I don’t know what it says about me, psychologically, that I enjoy riding fixed gears as much as I do. The overwhelming majority of my road mileage in the last couple of years has been conducted on a fixed gear bike. I believe I got somewhat lucky with the influence of the now-apparently-defunct Red Hook Crit series when my interest in fixed gear bikes began because there were plenty of choices available with less track-focused DNA.
Without wasting too much ink on a justification for this choice, I believe my interest in making my bike markedly more inconvenient stems from the fact that it just makes riding the road more interesting. Given the choice, I tend to select singletrack or some neat gravel for riding. I don’t always have that choice, though, and there is just so much road to ride that it becomes a question of convenience.
My riding has been primarily quick jaunts when I could fit them in, or all-day affairs at a trail. In practical terms, this means that I’d rack up a lot of rides but they’d all be relatively short, mostly falling under 40 miles.
I do have a competitive streak, tempered by a strong desire to avoid the hassle of packing a bike up and hauling it, with all my gear, to a race. This means I don’t, and will probably never, have great finishes to my name. It also means that I look for other, potentially more ridiculous ways to challenge myself as the mood strikes.
The Idea
After a major career development in the early summer of 2022, I found that my competitive desire had been sapped almost entirely. It turns out that succeeding at a job search and beginning a new career track taps into much the same reservoir of energy and drive that competing on a bicycle would (for me). I was entirely uninterested in additional challenges of any sort, and that’s fine because riding bikes doesn’t pay my bills.
By September, the desire had come back and I wanted to do something I hadn’t tried before, just to see if I could. Cyclocross and cross-country mountain bike is fun and all, but it’s old hat! I resolved to shoot for 100 miles, and I wanted to do those miles on a fixed gear. After a few hours of turning that idea over and over in my head, good sense prevailed and I set my focus, instead, on the Metric Century. That works out to just a hair over 62 miles and I definitely found that number to be more immediately achievable.
The Execution, Part 1: Preparation
I hadn’t been on the bike much so I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t going to get absurdly saddle sore and bail before I completed the mileage. I’ve been through this over and over and I know that, at this point, it only takes me a few rides to get the required toughness.
Beyond that, I thought about food. I really, unironically, enjoy the flavor and texture of these ridiculous things. I had read accounts of people finding sweet, syrupy things hard to get through later in rides and I adopted the attitude of crossing that bridge when I came to it. I also had a stroopwafel with me, in case I was seized by the desire to eat one of those.
I figured that I would want something more substantial before the ride, but honestly, I’ve forgotten what I ate. All I remember is that I started the ride figuring that I was going to gas out because I was way too hungry.
I took a single bottle of water. My route wasn’t designed to be interesting, it was designed to keep me close to home in case I needed to call for a ride or stop by the kitchen sink for additional water. This was my first ride of this size and the focus was really on getting it done while reducing what I had to think about with regard to carrying stuff.
Lastly, I had a neat little CO2 tube inflator, a spare tube, tire levers, and a Trixie along with me. I really hoped that I didn’t have the occasion to use them.
The Execution, Part 2: A Bunch of Time On the Bike
When the day of the ride came, I wasn’t actually planning to do the Metric Century. I had strong doubts about my ability given that I’d never tried anything like this before. Instead, I resolved to just go as long as I could on my usual roads. I wasn’t looking for “interesting”, I was looking for a proof of concept.
Luckily, I finished right around 66 miles later wondering why I was thinking so hard about this. I also have some useful insight into what it feels like to go that far without coasting.
It’s Not as Hard as You Think
I was initially a bit worried about just how much moving my legs would be doing. Without the ability to coast and maybe let them rest a bit, I figured that I might be entering a realm of fatigue I’d never before contemplated.
It turns out that legs are designed to move, though. They’re actually pretty good at it. When I unclipped from the bike 66 miles later, I experienced right around a minute of wobbliness before I was walking around like normal.
I didn’t finish my entire bottle of water. This was most interesting to me because I figured I was going to be wildly thirsty. It didn’t turn out that way, though I did make sure I drank more water than I thought I needed after the ride was over.
I also didn’t get nearly as hungry as I thought I was going to get. I suspect a lot of this stems from being in generally pretty good shape for such an attempt, as though it wasn’t demanding a lot out of me, physically. Also, it’s worth noting that I was absolutely not pushing for a fast time. I just wanted to get the ride done.
Flat Land is Rough
I live on the plains. I initially thought that the extreme lack of elevation would work in my favor, after all, I only have one gear. This wasn’t the case.
We do have some small climbs that are barely “climbs” in the way that a cyclist would think of them. There may be a rolling section where you go up and down the same couple of dozen feet for about a mile. Or a very slight false flat where you gain about ten feet over a mile.
I found that I was looking forward to those rolling sections with every fiber of my being. They were an opportunity to comfortably change my cadence and the distribution of my weight on the bike. The key word is “comfortably.” I could stand whenever I wanted, or shift around a bit, but without a demand from the drivetrain (that I was always, always engaged with), I would have limited opportunity to change the distribution of my weight on my feet. Going up a small hill helped.
Tailwinds are a Mixed Blessing
This is in keeping with the point above. When the wind was at my back, I was able to focus less on power output and catch a bit of rest. I was also not able to fully support my weight through the saddle/handlebar/pedal setup because I was moving faster. A bit too much responsibility fell on my sit bones, and a long section with the wind at my back was more painful than I imagined it would be.
The flip side to this is that pedaling into the wind was actually dramatically more comfortable than I imagined it would be. It wasn’t necessarily easy from the perspective of power output, but you can’t have it all.
Bike Fit.
I imagine some of my issues with hills and wind and weight distribution would be fixed by having my bike fit fine-tuned somewhat. Immediately after finishing the ride, I raised my saddle ever-so-slightly in an attempt to eke out a bit more support on subsequent rides. There are things that I simply would not ever notice on my normal, sub-40-mile rides that become very evident beyond that.
Gears and Freewheels are Nice
I always knew that there were huge advantages to gears, derailleurs, freewheels, etc… But knowing intellectually and feeling are wildly different. I now can feel the difference.
For instance, if I had been able to shift into a more demanding gear with the wind at my back, I would’ve been able to shave time off my attempt and also maintain a more comfortable degree of weight distribution. If I had been able to coast, I would have been able to plant my feet and rest in relative comfort, as well. These options were closed off to me, and as a result, I get it now.
Hand Positions are Nice But It’s Really About…
Weight distribution. I no longer view bike fit as a series of independent variables. I’ve lived it. I see the big picture now.
For instance, if one were to ask about drop bars, one might hear the justification for using them as “hand positions are nice.” That’s true, but it’s not the whole story.
Where your hands are, on the bars, also determines how you’re perched on the saddle. It also determines how much of your upper body is being supported through whatever part of your hand is in contact with the bar. This is probably wildly obvious to anyone who’s ever performed a bike fit for someone, but I suspect there are more of us that haven’t really thought about this. I was definitely in that camp.
My bike was equipped with bullhorn bars for this attempt. This meant that I had quite a few options but lacked a key one: the drops! In retrospect, being able to lean forward and down enough to move my weight to a different part of the saddle (and a different part of my anatomy) would have been as comfortable as a couch, relatively speaking.
My Bike Isn’t Set Up For This, Really
I encountered a wide variety of pavement conditions, and my bike fits about 26mm tires. I would have loved the comfort that a bit more tire volume would have provided.
In one of the most peculiar design choices that I don’t understand (and haven’t tried to understand), I have one bottle mount on the seat tube of the bike. That’s it. If I wanted to carry more water, I’d have to get creative. I have no doubt that I will be able to solve that problem, but it’s strange that I can’t just toss another bottle on the downtube and call it a day.
What Next?
This kind of ride definitely satisfied my competitive drive. I am excited to do the next one, and push either a bit faster or a bit farther; I’m not sure which I’ll choose.
I may try to ride with a bike with a more sane drivetrain just to compare the relative effort involved but I definitely think the fixed gear distance attempts are going to become an integral part of my self-imposed challenges going forward.
I am going to take what I learned from this initial experience and tweak my setup in a way that makes it more comfortable to try this kind of riding.
I may also look into acquiring an actual road bike and continue the century efforts, metric and otherwise. It’s good to have options!
Gradually Faster 