If its FIXED, dont BRAKE it.... ~ Jeff's Bike Blog

Saturday, February 28, 2009

If its FIXED, dont BRAKE it....

El jefeFebruary 28, 2009 No comments

We had the final local evening Time Trial this week - 3 days after we had all munted ourselves on the Ruamanga 50 (80km) TT. I had decided not to do the evening TT, but would go and support my buddies Dave and Neil who had come to support me in Australia in 07 at the Master Track Worlds. I was encouraging Dave to do the TT on my dedicated TT bike as his bike is a standard road bike.

As I was prepping Daves bike I looked into the shed and spied my pursuit bike hanging up. Hmmmm. Conditions were pretty good. Another calm Wednesday night. We had had over a month of them, mostly light southerlies. Admittedly our summer was arse, but the mid-week TTing was great.

I could go down and give it a crack. I had no idea what gearing was on it, or why I even had a front brake on it? Maybe I did some road rides on it last year.

Anyway, we all went down and had a great time. Neil beat Dave, Dave got a PB, so it was win-win. I seemed to be a bit short on gears with my 50-15 (90 gear inches) and was doing 111rpm at my top speed of 47kmh. In the end I averaged about 41.5 kmh and it was a real blast. I had no problems on the rollers and could have done with heaps more gearing.

In the UK TTing community a lot of them swear by riding fixed gear. I am not sure why. My old steel pursuit bike is way heavier than my TT bike, which isn't particularly light anyway.

Anyway, to finish off the story. On Friday night I get an email from 72 year old Garry Humpherson who sent me the results from a local 40km TT he did in his new hometown.
He rode his world champs Alan track bike, Fixed gear (96 inches), 808 on the front with a rear disc, and he cranked out a 58.27 !!!!!!!

He just gets faster.....

FYI. See the results for this season's evening TTs as organised by the Wellington Veterans Cycling Club here. They start in December and go on until late February. 6.30 on a wednesday night on the Liverton Road Circuit.

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Saturday, February 28, 2009