Single speed fixed gear riding versus freewheel multispeed riding: comparison factors?

[Patrick Moore]

I had a lovely Spring ride, ~22 miles, this afternoon, usual errand detour on the Roadeo, in variable blustery Spring winds. I don’t often ride it solo, it’s my group ride bike, so the quality of the ride compared to my “main bikes” — 1999 fixed gofast with 75/68” Dingle drivetrain, 2020 Matthews geometrical clone of ditto errand bike with 72”/65”/54” ASC drivetain, and 1X + granny “road bike for dirt” — stands proud in my attention. I have to say that this bike just seems easier to pedal over the same routes, in the same conditions, than the fixies; leave the knobby-tired RBFT out of the comparison for pavement riding.

This is of course partly due to having climbing gears and a freewheel for down hills; but most of all, it seems, because, when you are pushing against a headwind or spinning with a tailwind, you have (or, at least I have) 1-tooth jumps to adjust the gearing and effort to “just right.” In fact, on today’s ride, I limited my riding to the 76”, 72”, and 68” gears, standing to climb in the 76 or 72, and gearing down only to the 68 against strong gusts, instead of regularly downshifting to hill and wind gears, tho’ on one steepish hill against “gusts to 32” I did shift to the 65” and even the 59”.

At any rate: for those of you who ride both freewheel/multispeed and fixed, two questions:

1. Do you find that your derailleur bike speeds are consistently and noticeably faster than your fixed speeds over varying terrain and conditions? By how much, describing the typical ride?

Funny: I used to compare my times, in a desultory way, in ~20 mile hilly rides with usual winds, between my 75” Riv fixed gofast and my 3X7 and later 2X9 Fargo, with Big Apples. Fargo was fully 14 lb heavier than the gofast. Yet times were much the same, which I attributed to easier climbing (= similar times, given the weight difference), and faster downhills because of the freewheel.

2. By seat of pants, how would you compare the levels of effort required for a rolling, wind-variable ride on a fixed gear and the same ride on a derailleur bike?

I almost feel as if riding the Roadeo amounts to cheating, even tho’ I tend to ride it (very steep hills apart) in only 3 or 4 or 5 gears out of the 14 distinct and usable gears available from the 50/34 X 14-32 11 sp drivetrain.

Patrick “just curious, that’s all” Moore

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Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

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[Ron Mc]

If half-step 3x1 gets to play.  

I just added a 4th bike with half-step triple - Roaduno has a single speed rear.  (My two other bikes have a Campagnolo alpine 2x8, and a compact double 2x9).  

This compares my two favorite half-step triples:  

 

On this bike ('85 Mercian KOM), 70 to 80 inches covers me on any group ride

60 to 70 inches covers me on the greenways and limits my top speed to designated 15 mph.  

I take the halfstep drop for grades, the granny is for switchback climbs.  

And that's typically how I ride - shift in the front, and don't shift in the rear except for picking the day.  

There are some long downhills where I take advantage of 85 to 95 inches, but that will disappear on the next grade, and I'll be back to 70 and 80 inches.  

To get from the creek to my house, the 400' climb hits 15% to 18% in four spots, but I don't need the 1:1, and usually make the climb in the 40s.  

It made building my Roaduno 3x1 really easy.  I use flip-flop hub to pick between rear single-sp freewheel for the day.  

I had my crank and gear chart 2 years before I bought my frame.  

Best description I can think of this fast bike - it has exactly all the gears I ever use, and none of the gears I never use.  

Yesterday's 7am greenway ride, I scraped off my friends on the gradual grade back to parking.  

[Ron Mc]

@ Bert, 

I'll add, my friends who have brought out fixies for our Sunday group ride, are both Rocks.  

Ed toured the length of US1 for a summer vacation.  One morning, Tad hit 30 mph on a flat downtown street.  

 

With the elevation, they get extreme work-out on the group ride.  Never get to stop spinning, have to resist downhill over-spin in their leg muscles.  

On Wednesday, April 29, 2026 at 8:00:57 PM UTC-5 bert...@gmail.com wrote:

[Patrick Moore]

With wooden rims! They must be hardcore!

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[Tyler Johnson]

Hey.

I’ve thought about this question but never investigated.

I have two fixed road bikes (1985 Bianchi - original owner and 1985 Trek 510) and two geared road bikes (1983 Olmo and 2006 Rambouillet).

The two fixed bikes are both set up fairly aggressively to get low. The two geared bikes are upright with Albatross/Billie bars. 

I just had a look at my Strava average speeds on the Bianchi - about 15 mph. And that’s comfortable cruising - not tootling, not mashing. 

My average speed on the geared bikes on the same routes and same distance is about 14 mph, so not a huge difference. 

My best guess is that because slower speeds means low cadence on fixed bikes, that psychologically pushes me to go faster. Also, if I watch a NYC hotline or monstertrack video before riding, that gets my heart rate up.

Tyler 

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[Ron Mc]

Hi Bert,

Ed's Durkoff is a 1920s restoration - also has skip-tooth chain.  

Ed does great paint work.  Also, there are a few stashes of NOS wood rims around the country.