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Fixed Gear Bicycle Testimonials
Original article: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/fixed-testimonial.html on sheldonbrown.com
- Reproduced with the permission of John Allen and Harriet Fell — all rights reserved. The version on sheldonbrown.com is authoritative.
- Mirrored: 2026-10-05 · Last update of the original: see original
I have written on the subject of fixed-gear riding, and enjoy sharing the pleasure of this purest form of cycling. This page contains testimonials from other happy fixed-gear fans Dennis Cotcamp, Steve Cox, Andrew Eddy, Brad Evanoff, Steve Johnson, Patrick Murphy, Kent Peterson, and (Kimwei) FullTimeFixie
From: Dennis Cotcamp
Hi Sheldon, I don't want to take up too much of your time, but wanted to write a quick note to tell you how much I'm enjoying riding my newly converted fixed gear bike (and to thank you for all the info I found on your web pages about it).
I must admit you were right about how much people coast without realizing it. Get on the bike in the driveway, get moving, COAST while looking both ways...drift up to stop signs, standing to stretch and check traffic, COASTING... I went with plain pedals, no clips or straps the first couple of 25 mile rides so that when I did something stupid I didn't get lifted off the saddle, and I had less to think about in traffic, approaching stop signs. I'm much more comfortable now, and have put my clipless pedals back on.
Initially I stuck to flat areas around here. This past weekend I rode quite a bit in northern lower Michigan, with continuous rolling hills, some quite steep, but none very long. It's fun, almost a game, plotting stategy about how fast I can spin downhill, whether I think in advance that I can get up the next hill seated. It's probably all in my head, but it does seem that I'm more aware of the pedals moving in circles, and to what extent my legs are with them. I can see how riding a fixed gear in the snow would be a lot of fun.
Anyway, I'm a fan now. I find myself grabbing the fixed gear bike whenever I'm planning to ride a couple of hours or less.
From: Steve Cox
My favorite bike is a Cannondale track bike with a Kinesis aluminum road fork instead of the original round-bladed track fork. Unlike most track bikes, the Cannondale's seat-stay bridge is drilled to accept a brake, and the bike has front and rear brakes. A rear brake is on the bike, [in addition to the front brake-SCB] not so much for stopping purposes, but to make the bike legal for competition in road time trials. The bike is outfitted with a mix of components: a flip-flop rear hub, Sugino headset, Phil Wood bottom bracket, 175 mm TA cranks with a 53 tooth chainring, Aerolight pedals, American Classic titanium seat post and Flite saddle, Profile cow horn handle bars and clip-ons. The bike is extremely light and handles well on the road, even when I'm in an aero position. (The bike handling was slowed down a bit, i.e. made less twitchy, by the Kinesis fork.) The bike has a relatively high bottom bracket, and I have never hit a pedal on the pavement in tight turns, even with the 175 mm cranks. It probably helps on tight turns that I am cautious, have narrow pedals, the Kinesis fork raises the bottom bracket a bit more than the original fork, and that I attempt to steer the bike and keep it as upright as possible. Nearly all of my road riding is on my track bike. The terrain in SW Michigan is relatively flat; the hardest hills within about 50 miles of my home rise about 300 ft in one kilometer. Most of the hills are gentler rollers with elevation gains of only about 100-150 ft. When I'm fit, my selection of gearing is decided not by the hills on the route, but instead by the anticipated wind velocity. With the flip-flop hub, I have a gear for going into the wind and another, higher gear for finishing the ride with the wind.
Because of the ice and snow during a typical winter in Michigan, I can't plan on doing much, if any, road riding until March. Even road riding in March can be iffy. I begin each season in a low gear, typically 53 X 22, and get good spinning workouts as well as endurance training. As I gain riding fitness, I gradually increase the gear so that by July/August, I am in a 53 X 14 gear for 50 mile group training rides with other racers (who are on freewheel bikes). I need the high gear to stay on wheels when the group, which usually includes a tandem or two, flies down hills or when the pace winds-up for extended periods. My favorite solo training ride is a 60 mile loop with lots of rolling hills. In peak season, I usually go into the wind (first half of the ride) in a 53 X 15 or 16 and come back with the wind in a 53 X 13 or 14. Keeping a reasonable cadence (ca 80+ rpm) over the rollers in the big gears develops strength. In my 25+ years of riding and racing, I have found that mountain riding is the best way to develop cycling strength, but that riding in big gears on flat/rolling ground on the track bike is a close second. Too many of these big gear rides could hurt my speed, so if I were doing criterium racing (with a freewheel bike), I would do this strength workout less frequently and substitute more speed workouts (i.e. more high cadence intervals).
I have so much fun riding the track bike that it is frustrating that I can't convince riders to spend more time on a fixed gear. The fixed gear builds a wonderful sense of oneness with the bike that can't be duplicated with a freewheel bike. I am absolutely convinced that the fixed gear is better than a freewheel, not only in developing and maintaining the pedal stroke, but also in developing strength and power. I particularly like the fixed gear in biathlon competitions (usually 5K runs, 30K bike rides, and a final 5K run), because the fixed gear allows me to get more quickly into a smooth, economical pedal stroke, something which can be difficult to achieve after a hard run.
From: Andrew Eddy
I rode a fixed-gear bike exclusively from early in 1979 to late 1981, and in parallel with a touring bike until 1984. In 1979, my (only) touring bike was stolen and I hadn't enough money to replace it, so I scoured the second-hand parts bins for the smallest number of low-cost parts that would make me a working bicycle. The most important part, the part which made a fixed gear bike possible, was a rusty 22" mild steel frame with rearward-facing fork ends and a one and a half inch bottom bracket drop! This gave me nearly twelve inches bottom bracket height. A hard pedal strike was almost impossible, even on off-camber bends.
I had some cottered six and a half inch (165 mm) cranks and a 46 tooth by eighth inch chainring and bought enough other parts to have a fully functional commuter (lights, guards, rack, single brake) for $65. I even had an old mechanical speedo with odometer.
I loved that bike. It was the fastest bike I ever had and it handled as part of my body. At 36 pounds (16.4 kg) (in full commuter trim) it was also one of the heaviest bikes I ever had.
Sydney, New South Wales, is a hilly city of drowned river valleys, sandstone cliffs and gullies and very busy major roads and bridges. The fixed-wheel was a joy to ride in traffic; I had perfect control over direction and speed. I had to work hard on all those hills, and ended up fit enough to be able to draft buses to maintain minimum exposure to traffic on the most exposed, narrow bridge lanes.
A few times I drafted buses or trucks uphill at 70-75 kmh (45 mph), on the flat at 85 kmh (53 mph) and twice I descended Gladesville Bridge without drafting (a one in twelve slope or about 8.5% grade) at 85 kmh. In a 69 inch (5.31 gain/5.52 meter) gear that was a cadence of about 260 rpm! My legs have definitely deteriorated over the years; they now have a built-in limit of about 120 rpm, closely tied to aerobic fitness level and the lack of any need to spin really hard.
Commuting in heavy traffic took a lot of new skills. I still had my cleated shoes, but my freewheel technique of starting up with a half pedal revoltion, coast, flip the other pedal with my toe and reach down to pull the strap tight, did not work at all. I found that the best way to start up in the Transit Lane in morning peak hour was to start at full bore and pick up the other pedal during the first or second revolution, then tighten the toe strap with a quick flick of the free end, once I had a good cadence up (say around 90 rpm or 28 kmh {17 mph}).
Another useful skill I learned, was flat-out acceleration from a seated start. This works well once you learn to do a track stand, as track racers do in order to jostle for position in a matched sprint. This is an easy technique on a fixed-wheel, even when facing downhill. I quickly developed the skill of staying absolutely stationary at traffic lights; some motorists even leaned out and asked "What are you leaning on?"
Over those years I tried a number of gear ratios, but always came back to 69 inch (5.31 gain/5.52 meter), as the most comfortable all-round gear for local riding. The only other gear that saw much work was a 65 inch (5.00 gain/5.20 meter) gear; more of a winter gear, when a lot of riding was at night, perhaps in rain, with the dynamo running around 40 minutes a day.
Very few parts changed on that bike over about 15,000 km of commuting. I used a few tyres and started a new chain. Its total cost topped out at $110. The fixed-wheel was the cheapest in running costs of any bike I've ever had: an all-up cost (including capital) of about seven cents per kilometre. Compare that with 35 cents per kilometre for my Alex Moulton AM14!
I sold the fixed wheel to a friend who was a student at (coincidentally!) the University of New England in Armidale, NSW. Now that's a hilly city! The frame finally rusted through in 1989 and they had a full funeral at the Armidale Tip (rubbish dump).
The only time that I ever came to grief on the fixed-wheel was when I got a shoelace caught in the chain, in traffic. I locked the rear wheel deliberately, but was unable to save myself from falling over when I stopped. Elbows were meant as gravel-buffers anyway.
The fixed-wheel gave me skills which have stayed with me all the intervening years: the stand-in-place trick in traffic; the skills to read surfaces and camber; seated acceleration; oddly enough, a strong wish to maintain a very steady cadence on a geared bike; greater ability to avoid potholes and road debris with just a flick of the hips; the mental techniques to power up hills as if they aren't there and use anaerobic power at will. I might have learned some of these things if I had ever raced, but the fixed-wheel was a better teacher, by necessity!
The fixed wheel stays with me as a bundle of fond memories. I might never have another one, but I do enjoy having had that old clunker.
Copyrignt 1997 Andrew Eddy
From: Brad Evanoff
'60s Atala
Sheldon: You may recall that you sold me a Sovos flip-flop hub last year, after kindly answering my many questions on fixed gear cycling. You asked me to let you know how it all worked out.
I converted a venerable (early 60's) Atala road bike to a fixed gear, using the inner (49t) chainring of the original Campy crankset (172.5 mm arms, 151mm boltcircle) and an 18 tooth cog. I installed the entire 5 spd freewheel on the other side of the hub. Too lazy to take the thing apart. Besides, with the relatively long chainstays and the amazingly long horizontal dropouts I can use at least two of the freewheel cogs with each of the chainrings. I added fenders and a rack, and switched to a moustache handlebar. The handlebar switch was done mostly because the braking from the tops of the hoods was inadequate and I wasn't comfortable enough yet on the fixer to ride the drops often. I have old Diacompe and Weinmann long long reach sidepulls on this bike. Even with Mathauser pads the braking leaves a bit to be desired. After a few tries with clips and straps, I switched to clipless pedals and find them much easier to use. Getting in and out of toe clips was pretty challenging with this bike - it was hard for me to flip the pedal up and stick my foot in while the crank was revolving. Double-entry clipless pedals let me just stomp and go.
This bike is now my main commuter bike and my weekend "I-have-less-than-an-hour-to-ride-and-want-to-breathe-as-hard-as-possible" bike. I ride it 20-40 miles per week. It's been a lot of fun learning a new biking skill set. I find it fun to learn new sports skills, especially ones I can master without too much time or pain! I think that riding this bike has improved the smoothness of my spin, has forced me to spin at higher cadences, and has improved my out-of-saddle climbing. I'm also a bit more confident at bunny-hopping - it took me awhile to learn this on the fixed gear. I still can't do a trackstand, but that's a project for the Spring. It is no surprise that I feel more "connected" to this bike when I ride, since I am quite literally connected to it and it's movement! I notice that the drivetrain feels very "smooth" and fast. I also have noticed that this bike is nearly silent - I hear my own breathing and the tires on the road but no clicking of pawls or noise from the derailleur. I find more need to give warning to joggers and dog-walkers; I also seem to see more animals and hear more birds when riding this bike.
Added to all this is the added thrill of danger, particularly on corners. High-speed corners are exciting because of pedal grounding (only done that once - didn't fall, but it was enough to engender caution on future corners). High bottom brackets and/or shorter cranks are indeed good features on a fixed-gear bike. Low speed corners (particularly U-turns) can be challenging because of toe overlap - I can't just put my cranks in the right configuration and coast through corners.
Besides the fun of riding the bike, I've also enjoyed the reactions of bike shop personnel. I'm shopping for a new road bike now, and the treatment I get from bike shop personnel often seems affected by what bike I ride into the shop. My beater mountain bike with road slicks, fenders, racks, lights, and an American Flag bell seems to peg me as one sort of rider. The fixed gear bike as quite another. It's fun to watch.
Thanks for your help in setting this thing up last winter. It's been a source of amusement to me and to my favorite local bike shop who built the wheel up for me.
