Gears or Fixed

Its on my mind:

When I first started cycling I went with a fixed gear. I loved every ounce of feel that I could get with that bicycle. All power was directed by what I could work with only one setting. In the city I find a fixed gear absolutely perfect. You have quick starts, fun stops, and nothing but will to get over the city climbs that may come your way.

Enter the gears. In 2016 I started working about 30km's outside of the city I live in (Vancouver). I figured I would try cycling there on my fixed gear as one of my friends cycled to work occasionally on his road bike. This seemed like a fun challenge - I knew I couldn't get the speed he could out of his road bike but I thought it would be interesting none the less and that it wouldn't make a huge difference.

Well I was wrong. After 3 rides or so to and from work I warped my right crank. This definitely could be because it wasn't a high quality bicycle (it was fun, not fancy. It looked good, wasn't built good). I had mentioned on one of my first posts that my initial riding time to work was about an hour and 30 minutes. This year, now that I'm riding a road bike, my record time was below an hour. A lot of that is increased skill, but there is no way I could shave 30 minutes off my time on a fixed gear.

The fixed gears do so well in the city, the road bike is more tedious - you have to clip in and out and your bound to wipe out doing it at least once (it always happens at least once). I'm not sure I could ever go back to fixed gear though, not with the power and speed that comes with a road bike. However, I have seen some pretty unbelievable fixed bikes. Cervelo, Pinarello, and Bianchi are all worth looking into if you're wanting fixed. Not to mention, they're significantly less expensive.