Lakes Road Club rider Howie completed the Fred Whitton route last Saturday on a fixed wheel bike, 42×16, in 9hrs 39mins (including rests). He’s understood to be the first rider to tackle it on such a bike.

I went to school with Howie, and he was a smashing lad back then, so I’m unsure as to what events have followed that have resulted in him exhibiting this type of unthinkable behaviour… 🙂

cripes 😯

Wrynose on a fixed gear 😈

FFS!!!

blimey, quite a tall gear but still must’ve been pretty brakey (and spinny) coming down the passes

9h39m is pretty slow but I’m guessing there was a lot of walking! I can’t imagine there was a lot of pleasure in that ride on the way up or down!

Was the fred whitton route ever a road race route way back when?

Well done,but bollocks he’s the first, the rest of you need to man the **** up, back in day everybody inc my dad toured the yha’s with a saddle bag on in winter with a fixed gear up and over all the passes. Standard 100mile. Lancaster to Lakes and back in a weekend.

The modern day is soft! and that’s from somedays who’s done the Fred in 7 hours.

Long day in the saddle but I reckon I could give that a good go. You’d struggle to get up the super steep bits, but the rest of it should be do-able if you’re used to riding fixed and reasonably fit.

Well done,but bollocks he’s the first, the rest of you need to man the **** up, back in day everybody inc my dad toured the yha’s with a saddle bag on in winter with a fixed gear up and over all the passes. Standard 100mile. Lancaster to Lakes and back in a weekend.

Conversation between two old roadies and a young’un:

1st: when I were younger I rode everywhere, 200miles a day
young’un: wow,
1st: yea,
young’un: really?
1st: yea, course the roads were different back then
young’un: traffic?
2nd: no, shorter!

The roads were still as steep though. 39×25 was a heavyweight touring gear. Compare that to now.

42:16 is the standard gearing for most off the peg fixed wheels. It’s 16mph at 80rpm (5rpm/mph). Will get you up reasonably steep hills, and you can still spin down at about 25-30 on the brakes. The Fred is not reasonable, however, so well done.

The roads were still as steep though. 39×25 was a heavyweight touring gear. Compare that to now.

Yea, but they all died young after years down the pit for nowt but tuppence and a slice of stale bread. So had no need for long lasting knee’s 😛

I saw the thread title and thought ‘good luck’. Instead, blimey, well done.

Rik – my dad would doubtless agree with your sentiments; his final pre-season training ride used to be Barrow in Furness to Chester and back, starting at Friday dinnertime when the shipyard clocked off, and back home by teatime on Saturday.

Despite this, he still thinks Howie’s done a good ride.

Dads are full of shit! Mine is anyway.

Well done Howie.

As someone who has done some stuff on a fixed wheel over the years, a sort of chapeau.

Presuming he didn’t walk up the steep bits, the downhills would have been rubbish.