I’ve been trying to decide on a bike for winter road use for ages. Everything from a custom steel job to a budget alloy offering.

The scenario is this. I will be racing cross, but I’m not sure if I will race road again. I’ll also spend most Sundays on club runs. The one thing that I do want, is to be as quick as possible throughout summer.

Any roadmen actually done this?
Will I suffer on group rides?

Hmmmm.

I reckon that cycling ‘training’ is very specific. I think that riding a single speed will make you great at riding a single speed, and fixed will make you great at fixed.

Depends very much on where you ride, but I think gears are the best option if you want to go fast, and going fast is the best training for going fast.

Are you doing the Peaks this year Oldgit?, Cos I’ve still got those wheels and they are still yours when I can get them to you.

No to the 3 Peaks. Wanted to do it when I hit 50, which is what I had planned. I hated the training for it as it was so disruptive to everything else, then I had my accident. So I can’t face it again.

Forgot about those wheels. TBH I’ve pared it down to just my road and cross race bikes. Hence I still need a trainer, and I’m loathed to spend on one.

Well…. I’ve got my old training bike sitting in the garage. Needs new forks, but is a serviceable thing. I’m off this week so am of course as busy as a busy thing, but I will dig it out and send you a pic.

It will be a freebie, but the old collection thing will rear its head…

Ooooh.

I’m generous as a generous thing, but I’m also a lazy fecker!

… and am training for the 3 peaks, so walking is a problem too…

I can’t recall where you are exactly, but I have a mate in New Mills and working in Manchester…..any good.

Sounds good, I’ll send you some pics..

riding fixed around edinburgh did wonders for my road cycling. i don’t know about fitness, but it now seems natural to go hard up any hill, and i rarely stop pedalling. not having an easier option is a good thing in that regard.

I reckon having one gear is good strength training.

Riding fixed along with geared riders makes for a kind of yoyo effect. You will ride away from them uphill, and they will ride away from you on the downs.

riding fixed on the road has helped me with climbing off road.

i think singlespeeds (fixed/ free/ road/ off road) can make excellent training tools but if you are training for geared riding then they can only be used as part of a training programme, as you would use weights or swimming for example. gears must still play a part.

I have been wondering whether you could utilise a SS/fixed more if you had the option of a few different gears though. not sure about that one tbh.

if you are going to go singlespeed or fixed then you need to pick the gear carefully, too low and you spin out so don’t build the resistance, too high and you grind so don’t build the souplesse

A pompino could be a good choice, would be able to be used as a ss crosser in an emergency, need to ride something/anything situation 🙂

Careful riding fixed in a group on road – three clubs ive ridden with frown on it!

My tuppence – if there’s an element of training involved in your winter riding don’t bother with fixed or single speed get a geared hack unless you’re going to race fixed in some form. If you are racing cross your going to have base fitness, if you want to be fast during the summer you’ll have to train for that in the spring and early summer not sure a fixed / ss will add much to those activities that a geared hack won’t and the geraed bike gives you a bit more versatility (hills, turbo training bike, light touring etc). The only training I use the fixed for is hill reps
I would add I commute on a 63″ fixed so do have access to one

Looks like a geared hack is the way I’ll be going.

I use my SS road bike for commuting but also winter training.

First time I used it on a club run everyone was looking at it and moaning that they’d be waiting for me on the climbs. Err, no, that’d be me first to the top every time. They have now worked out that if they nail it on a descent, they can get away but otherwise it’s fine.

Not sure it’s made me any better as a rider but it does mean I ride more often cos it’s cheaper to maintain and less of a hassle to clean than a geared bike!

48:17 gear by the way.

My commute is a road SS (old Genesis Skyline, now a Ridgeback Solo).

Not sure if it’s made me a better/quicker/faster/sexier/more Godly rider, but I pedal hard at hills, pedal in circles more (as opposed to up/down) and it’s easy to maintain. No brainer in my book, but I only really use it for a 20 mile commute carrying a loaded 26l sack.

48:18 which sees me up most hills in the Chilterns.

I had a winter on a fixed in the 80s. I think it did help my pedalling, but it’s hilly round here and was ultimately a PITA as it was also my communting bike.

I’d give it a go if you’ve not tried it. I wouldn’t bother with ss for trianing purposes, but I appreciate its simplicity.

btw oldgit fwiw the year i did well at puffer my training consisted of 7 miles FLAT OUT on 44:14 fixed to and from work …. with the odd pootle around town to the shops etc …

my year of best results was the year i spent all winter riding SS solely – inc racing winter series on it and riding propper hills on it … hit the gears in the summer and was ripping 😀 – might be pure coincidence though

Fixed will teach you to ride mucho better IMHO. There is a pedalling technique, pedalling round, and trust me it’s not a very natural one. Altough it’s not a very complicated one either. What did surprised me when I first tried to super spin on the fixed/ss is how much bounce you actually get on the saddle from bad pedalling. Now my legs go round much better and it’s actually nicer to go around in the fixed 😉

Last winter I used my single speed tricross as my winter training bike. I race tri’s, mtb xc, and will do the odd TT. Using the bike in the peaks, and around Sheffield, last year with 48:18 and 48:16. I like it – it gives a very varied workout in undulating areas, as you work on leg force on the hills, and leg speed on the flats and descents. It’s good for doing spin intervals on descents, maintaining nice smooth cadence on the flats etc…

Early season form was good – I had some very fast bike splits in a couple of Duathlons and a Tri.

As the season approaches, or on very nice winter days, I’ll go out on the nice road bike. But the vast majority of winter riding for me is done on ss road and mtb…

I train on a SS road bike and a SS MTB for racing. I can’t ride for toffee with gears now. I would stick gears on there IMHO.

Try going down a steep hill on a fixed, you VERY quickly learn how to pedal properly. At 150rpm + you cant just wing it, you have to work just to keep your feet on the pedals even with spds.

*reads with interest* I’ve been toying with the idea of going SS or fixed for winter (and commuting) too, but i like my gears and hate pushing a big gear.

dirtygirlonabike – sounds like ss isn’t for you! unless you live in a flat area… or want to learn to love pushing a gear 🙂

I bought a Cotic Roadrat for this winter training thing. Currently it is SS and I must admit It’s opened my eyes to riding with no gears. You never seem to be in the right gear for more than 100yrds!!.

The other aspect is that you never have a chance to rest, slowing down just means you have to mash the pedals to get the bugger going again.

I use mine for a 24mile round trip commute, on flat roads (around Preston to Lytham). I keep thinking of returning back to 1 x 9 but i’ll keep trying it as SS for the moment and see how things pan out.

The bike will also double up as a CX if I fancy trying that.

Good thing about the Rat is that it seems very adaptable.

Vortex makes a very good point, as a training tool a SS/Fixed can be great, especially on an undulating route, as you can never take it easy. Hills have to be attacked on the way up and spun like crazy on the way down!

However, if you’re feeling off or after a nice gentle recovery day, you find yourself longing for some gears 😆

Cheers, Rich

Considering you can pick up something half decent with 2×9 tiagra/105 for £250-£350 secondhand, you’d be mad to go singlespeed.

I actualy find after a couple of months on the SS I’m slower on the geard bike at everything apart form 1in3 climbs!

Idealy if I was trying to get faster it would go somthing like….

October-November – 8 weeks of long rides
December-January – 8 weeks on the singlespeed
Febuary – March – 8 weeks of long rides
April & May – 2 x 4 weeks of ironing out any issues with my riding (hills, sprints, etc)

IMO 4 weeks is the minimum time you’d need to see any benifit form some training, 3 weeks training progressively harder, 1 week off. But doing it for more than 2 months seems counter productive as the gains get less and less, and other types of fitness start to deteriorate, eg after 8 weeks riding the road bike on long rides, jumping on the singlespeed feels much harder work than it did 8 weeks ago.

Then again I’m fekin slow and struggle to stick with any training plan.

I just got the go ahead to buy a new bike from “the boss” 🙂

Probably going to go for a lightweight SS as a commuter as it’s pan flat round here, and the lack of regular maintenence will be a joy.

Thinking of either a Genesis Day One, or a Trek Triton. Anyone got one ?

However, if you’re feeling off or after a nice gentle recovery day, you find yourself longing for some gears

What you need then is the Sturmey Archer S3X 3spd fixed gear hub. The cost of them is a bit off putting though!

Definitely got stronger on ss, but I put that down to be being bloody lazy – removing the element of choice made me work harder.

I had an epiphany and started beasting myself properly on the road bike, and lo, the scales did fall from my eyes and my average went up 3 kph.

As mentioned at least you have the option of a recovery ride with gears, if you do enough to warrant such a thing.

I ride both fixed (Pompino, 48:21 / 62″) and geared (Kaffenback), and always find fixed much more enjoyable – geared just feels like so much hard work, so I tend to use the Kaff for “training” and the Pomp for just going out “playing bikes”.

it now seems natural to go hard up any hill, and i rarely stop pedalling.

Very true, I very rarely coast on the Kaff.

Riding fixed along with geared riders makes for a kind of yoyo effect. You will ride away from them uphill, and they will ride away from you on the downs.

On the odd occasion I find myself riding fixed with a group of geared riders, it’s also slightly off-putting when they all start freewheeling – there’s always a split-second when the sound of all that clicking almost makes me forget to keep pedalling! 😯

Careful riding fixed in a group on road – three clubs ive ridden with frown on it!

Aye, and as for the Etape Caledonia… “Please note that fixed wheel bikes (bikes that use the pedals as a brake) are not permitted.”

You never seem to be in the right gear for more than 100yrds!!

On the contrary, I find that I never ever feel like I’m in the right gear when riding with gears, whereas with fixed I just make the best of the gear I’ve got (this is riding all round the Fylde too, BTW).

The other aspect is that you never have a chance to rest, slowing down just means you have to mash the pedals to get the bugger going again.

Fair point about slowing down, although I personally find mashing the pedals a more satisfactory way of getting going again than spinning up through the gears. And it is possible to rest, especially on a gentle downslope – just relax the legs and let the pedals push them round (admittedly this doesn’t work on SS).

And on that note, I’m off for a ride (on gears), but will be taking the fixed when I go to Islay the weekend after next. 🙂

From what I can see it certainly helps, but ss/fixed doesn’t seem a great idea for structured training.
I can see it being ideal for long solo road miles at the end of a training week with a rest day afterwards.