Patrick: Yes, it can be done. A few of us crazy fixie riders went across the USA in 2006 on fixed gears--including crossing the Sierras, Nevada, the Wasatch Range, and the Rockies (topping out at Monarch Pass, elev 11,312).
Ideally, in the mountains you will have a flip-flop hub that will let you have a "climbing gear" and a "downhill gear." The range of speeds you mention--4 to 7 mph uphill and 45 mph downhill--can't be reasonably achieved with a single gear. Unless you have superhuman strength, you won't be able to ride uphill in a gear tall enough to keep you from getting spun out on the downhills. In practice, I found that the best solution for me was to pick a gear for the uphills and give up on those fast downhills--I would ride the brakes to keep my speed down on the descents. Needless to say, many a great downhill was ruined. You can see photos and blog posts from that ride (the Big Fix) here: http://bigfix2006.blogspot.com/2006_06_01archive.html (Riv content: I rode the Big Fix on my Quickbeam.) --Eric N www.CampyOnly.com CampyOnlyGuy.blogspot.com Twitter: @CampyOnlyGuy On Mar 11, 2013, at 12:06 PM, Deacon Patrick <lamontg...@mac.com> wrote: > The concurrent thread on fixed bikes triggered a question I've long had -- > how feasible is a fixed gear for living in an area with long, steep > climbs/descents? What gearing would make sense? In general the climbs range > from 4-7 mph, descents up to 45mph or more. > > There are a lot of other wants and needs before I'd consider purchasing a > fixed bike, but curiosity reigns. Grin. > > With abandon, > Patrick > > www.MindYourHeadCoop.org > www.OurHolyConception.org > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en-US. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en-US. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
