Cycling UK Forum

alexnharvey wrote:When was the last time the national was won on a fixed gear?

Are any of the contenders likely to turn up with one?

Fixed wheel was used relatively recently to win a national HC, certainly within the last few years I think. As mentioned earlier, a lot will depend on the course, but with the right profile a FW/SS will generally offer the most weight advantage. As for any contenders likely to turn up with one - there are always a few at pretty much every HC event.

Seen 2012 suggested as the last national fixed gear win elsewhere.

Some interesting discussion here. http://www.timetriallingforum.co.uk/ind ... ll-climbs/

I did a climb on Kent a few years on the trot. Rode gears for most of the attempts and fixie once. Being short and steep riding fixed felt right and gave me a bit more confidence in the bike as I wasn’t worried about involuntary gear changes messing things up, something that could happen when you really give it the beans out of the saddle with friction down-tube shifters and a large steel frame.
My bike spec back in the mid 90’s was 753 frame, S Record cranks, hubs and front calliper and Mavic GEL280 rims.
People would poo-poo that spec these days but, having looked at Strava, it doesn’t look like my time on that hill is in threat just yet.

FWIW remember I said "if you are really laying the power down".

Plenty of folk manage to climb well without doing that, but there is only so far you can take it. One of my chums (who is both quite heavy and rather strong) insisted on having 28 spoke wheels (which BTW I would have refused to build for him) and these were OK in the flatlands but he had nothing but trouble with them when he rode in hilly terrain, even out of competition. After a fairly short period of time the tally included plenty of spokes that came loose prematurely, broken spokes, and cracked rims.

When he was pedalling smoothly, things were fine; when he decided to get a shift on, suddenly the loadings were about five times higher. Not every rider will manage this. I would suggest that if your sprints routinely exceed ~1kW by much then you need to worry about wheel stiffness. There are plenty of fast riders who get nowhere near that.

cheers