[Closed] Riding Fixed Off Road - Gearing question.

Best to go with the same ratio I run SS

worked for me.

Why?

I ride fixed on-road, and single off, but fixed off road seems madness. You'll just be smashing your pedals into stuff all the time I reckon.

I have oft wondered about doing the same. I would go with same gearing as SS if not slightly smaller. BUT i would also run short cranks, this makes spinning easier.

I rode my track bike a few times on some bridleways and woody singletrack (in summer) and it was a hell of a lot of fun. albeit completely the wrong bike. Like, completely the wrong bike.

For 90% of my riding the chances of striking a pedal as very low. For fixed offroad I would be looking at giving the easier zero technical stuff ago first.

That said I do understand that its an odd question and concept for all bar a few weirdos 🙂

[i]I ride fixed on-road, and single off, but fixed off road seems madness. You'll just be smashing your pedals into stuff all the time I reckon. [/i]

It is.
You learn to ride through the stuff you've smashed into quite rapidly :0)

My typical SS gear was 32:17 but always ran 32:16 fixed which seemed to work out fine. Bit more grunt climbing and a bit more speed on the flat and downhill. (or less manic spinning)

Depending on where you ride I'd go with 2 brakes if you can. Will give your wrecked legs a chance on long downhills and in the mud if the front lets go under heavy braking your basically out of braking without a rear brake as your legs can't do the fine adjustment.
I found a pair of V brakes was superior to a single front disk brake in winter.

How do you lean over in a corner if you have to keep pedaling throughout?

Is it for very non-technical riding?

Set up will be normal disc front and rear as the hub is a fixed disc splined set up thingy.

Plan will be non technical stuff to help me concentrate on the peddling bit!

Single speed riders at no disadvantage on sections where no one else is pedaling like those annoying down hill bit

Riding fix should also wreck these bit of the ride as well

genius

PS doing this on fat bike could be the ultimate niche

But completely main stream on a unicycle...

I did Charlies Gravel Dash this year and bumped into Flashes from here on a fixed. He seemed to have no problems for the 93 odd miles of ride. I was on a 32:18 29er SS, and his gearing seemed similar on a 29er, maybe a touch taller, but not much in it.

I can see how it would push you on and you'd probably be faster in some ways, but there's so may situations where needing to keep foot/body position and avoid pedal strikes makes pedalling undesirable. I guess it depends what you're riding.

I'm running 32x19 on a 29er.

It's not for everyone but it has opened my eyes, improved my technique and been an absolute hoot to boot.

You quickly learn how to avoid a lot of the pedal strikes and to ignore those you can't avoid.

Is it for very non-technical riding?

Like everything else that largely depends your skills. I've had mine round the Laggan black and the Torridon loop. That said, I'm unlikely to repeat the latter.

32:16 on my SS, 32:16 fixed when I feel like a change.

Fun for a while but I usually end up switching back before too long...

I really like riding fixed off-road, especially on tamer local stuff.

I discovered that running the 700x42c wheels/tyres from my commuter on my 26" Inbred fixed was brilliant fun.

Edit: I run 32:17 on my 26" SS, so 32:16, plus marginally bigger wheel/tyre diameter, is a bit higher.

If you haven't ridden fixed much before then run it with a back brake to start with. Once you're confident you can do away with it.

This seems like a good point to link to [url= http://www.63xc.com/ ]63xc.com[/url] again - loads of useful off-road fixed inspiration on there.

Dave Nice rides fixed off-road: http://cellarrat.blogspot.co.uk/
Matt Chester's site is interesting too: http://5metresofdevelopment.blogspot.co.uk/

How do you lean over in a corner if you have to keep pedaling throughout?

You lean over.

Is it for very non-technical riding?

I can see how it would push you on and you'd probably be faster in some ways, but there's so may situations where needing to keep foot/body position and avoid pedal strikes makes pedalling undesirable. I guess it depends what you're riding.

The only stuff I avoided were a couple of specific trails which were rain ruts and you essentially wouldn't have been able to ride down them.

It's certainly a different kind of ride and sometimes not entirely in your control or fun.

Judging by the state of my pedals, I pedal strike even with a freewheel 🙂

i did it for a while.

same ratio as ss,

the best thing I found was a bolt on rear cog, velosolo do them, bolted straight onto my current rear hub, I felt it was a lot better than a threaded cog for all the dragging the back wheel down slopes.

Also try it with cheap parts bin cranks, you'll smash them a few times.