Fixed Gear : 80km West Loop and Work Commute
SATURDAY COMMUTE
+2-27-2010.png)
Last weekend, I had to be back in office on Sat so decided to do a commute on my fixed. The route is via Kallang Park Connector. Well, I though it would be a smooth ride. Man, was i wrong! Started off from Macs ECP to Fort Road. Then to Tg.Rhu area cutting across the longkang/river to Kallang Stadium. All are good until you hit Kallang MRT.
From then on the connectors so-called, are mostly blocked, under construction etc etc so had to weave around the HDB estates. If not for this portion of the ride, actually its good 40mins commute for 16km. No biggie where I had to carry bike over 3 overhead bridges as I had normal shoes on. Good thing about this route is that is safer than the car infested roads.
Once I got through all the up and downs, upon reaching Whampoa area, everything was smooth sailing till Toa Payoh. Took me a good hour to do it (well I did get lost a bit). Coming back was faster at 50mins. Still, as I said, minus all the blockages, 40min is a good time for the commute. It takes about 20-30min to reach TP in the morning so, 40mins is really great for a bike.
I really underestimated effort required to complete this route on a fixed gear. More so, when you have to ride with the usual Road Bike guys! It was one of the toughest rides on that route I've ever done.
Set off with Ben from my place at 5.45am and met KL at Eunos area ard. 6am. From then on it was quite a struggle for me! The guys rode at road bike pace. Don't get me wrong the fixed gear is able to do most of the things a road bike can do, even hitting very high speeds. The problem is with the rider; Moi!
Mandai was a challenge. Ben took off with his Dogma in chase of a group. I stayed behind KL but decided to overtake on an uphill, taking on a group of roadies. That was all good and easy until we came to the downhill part. Thanks to my tiring sprint uphill, my legs could not cope with the 140rpm or so cadence going downhill at 50km/h...I tried my best but my right foot slipped out first, leaving me no choice but to quickly slip our from the left as well. So here I was 2 legs dangling going downhill at 50+km/h. I must have scared the living daylights out of whoever was behind me as I heard brakes jamming! I tried to be as composed as I can, was always in control of the bike but I had slow down but not suddenly as they guys behind me so I gradually brakes and kept more to the left so that the guys get idea and go pass me.
Then at a traffic light which turned RED. I stopped behind some roadies. Light turned GREEN and up i went to clip on the toe clips and inched slowly forward. The idiot in front took his time to get up the bike and I've done done my track-stand practice just yet so down I went, sideways as the roadies left me there on the curb.
I was freaking pissed at this point and chased them down. Overtook the guy who blocked me at the lights, he knew I was coming so he sprinted but I caught him with his pants down and passed him. I slowed down to wait for him to catch up. He came from my right, all guns blazing, I matched his speed and began to inch bit by bit just to push him a bit harder to match my speed. After a few seconds of this I sprinted and he to settle on the view of my butt despite his best efforts. Well, this did not last long as I out spun myself again so I had to brake to slow down. My legs simply could not keep up with the spin. Top speed reached was 50km/h with cadence of 130+.
If I was on clipless, it would have been a much nicer story to tell, toe-clips ain't conducive of spinning as the pedal is not pull-friendly. So, if I can't keep up with the spin, the crank will pull the pedal out leaving my feet stranded.
From then on I was dead tired. Thanks to KL and Ben for slowing down a bit during this stretch (no thanks to KL where he attacked at Neo Tiew leaving me no choice but to join in). Ben led most of the way and along Jln Boon Lay he broke off to chase a joyriders group going at 35+kmh. At one point me and KL were behind them at 40+km/h, so much easier to draft than to lead! Pretty much standard and friendly from that point except Nicole Highway where Ben took on a carbon bike with me right behind, against terrible headwinds, going at 38km/h.
My conclusion; its very challenging to ride a fixed gear with road bikes. Keeping up is probably ok but to play those little games in between is tiring and leg-defeating. Me calves were aching a bit and I know its because I've been using a normal shoe with no stiff sole so all that time, my calves had to provide that stiffness, transfering the power from the thighs to pedals. Clipless will also lessen the pain (and danger!) of spinning out of the pedal. I'm sure I could spin up to 145rpm as I've done at Loyang some weeks ago but this time, the legs were just too tired to respond.
From then on the connectors so-called, are mostly blocked, under construction etc etc so had to weave around the HDB estates. If not for this portion of the ride, actually its good 40mins commute for 16km. No biggie where I had to carry bike over 3 overhead bridges as I had normal shoes on. Good thing about this route is that is safer than the car infested roads.
Once I got through all the up and downs, upon reaching Whampoa area, everything was smooth sailing till Toa Payoh. Took me a good hour to do it (well I did get lost a bit). Coming back was faster at 50mins. Still, as I said, minus all the blockages, 40min is a good time for the commute. It takes about 20-30min to reach TP in the morning so, 40mins is really great for a bike.
SUNDAY 80KM WEST LOOP
I really underestimated effort required to complete this route on a fixed gear. More so, when you have to ride with the usual Road Bike guys! It was one of the toughest rides on that route I've ever done.
Set off with Ben from my place at 5.45am and met KL at Eunos area ard. 6am. From then on it was quite a struggle for me! The guys rode at road bike pace. Don't get me wrong the fixed gear is able to do most of the things a road bike can do, even hitting very high speeds. The problem is with the rider; Moi!
Mandai was a challenge. Ben took off with his Dogma in chase of a group. I stayed behind KL but decided to overtake on an uphill, taking on a group of roadies. That was all good and easy until we came to the downhill part. Thanks to my tiring sprint uphill, my legs could not cope with the 140rpm or so cadence going downhill at 50km/h...I tried my best but my right foot slipped out first, leaving me no choice but to quickly slip our from the left as well. So here I was 2 legs dangling going downhill at 50+km/h. I must have scared the living daylights out of whoever was behind me as I heard brakes jamming! I tried to be as composed as I can, was always in control of the bike but I had slow down but not suddenly as they guys behind me so I gradually brakes and kept more to the left so that the guys get idea and go pass me.
Then at a traffic light which turned RED. I stopped behind some roadies. Light turned GREEN and up i went to clip on the toe clips and inched slowly forward. The idiot in front took his time to get up the bike and I've done done my track-stand practice just yet so down I went, sideways as the roadies left me there on the curb.
I was freaking pissed at this point and chased them down. Overtook the guy who blocked me at the lights, he knew I was coming so he sprinted but I caught him with his pants down and passed him. I slowed down to wait for him to catch up. He came from my right, all guns blazing, I matched his speed and began to inch bit by bit just to push him a bit harder to match my speed. After a few seconds of this I sprinted and he to settle on the view of my butt despite his best efforts. Well, this did not last long as I out spun myself again so I had to brake to slow down. My legs simply could not keep up with the spin. Top speed reached was 50km/h with cadence of 130+.
If I was on clipless, it would have been a much nicer story to tell, toe-clips ain't conducive of spinning as the pedal is not pull-friendly. So, if I can't keep up with the spin, the crank will pull the pedal out leaving my feet stranded.
From then on I was dead tired. Thanks to KL and Ben for slowing down a bit during this stretch (no thanks to KL where he attacked at Neo Tiew leaving me no choice but to join in). Ben led most of the way and along Jln Boon Lay he broke off to chase a joyriders group going at 35+kmh. At one point me and KL were behind them at 40+km/h, so much easier to draft than to lead! Pretty much standard and friendly from that point except Nicole Highway where Ben took on a carbon bike with me right behind, against terrible headwinds, going at 38km/h.
My conclusion; its very challenging to ride a fixed gear with road bikes. Keeping up is probably ok but to play those little games in between is tiring and leg-defeating. Me calves were aching a bit and I know its because I've been using a normal shoe with no stiff sole so all that time, my calves had to provide that stiffness, transfering the power from the thighs to pedals. Clipless will also lessen the pain (and danger!) of spinning out of the pedal. I'm sure I could spin up to 145rpm as I've done at Loyang some weeks ago but this time, the legs were just too tired to respond.
Was it fun? hell yeah! would it do it again, sure! ............ but not next week!
Very interesting thing, this fixed gear riding!
+2-28-2010,+Speed+-+Distance.png)
Comments