What I'm talking about is busting my cherry for hill climbing on my fixed gear.
I have been riding Stig, my fixed wheel conversion pretty much exclusively since early January this year and had not tackled any even slightly daunting uppage, let alone what I would consider a challenging hill.
Anyway, Saturday saw me invited to a friends surprise 60th birthday hog roast (the hog roast was the surprise, not the fact that it was his 60th!). I had a feeling that I might be led astray and have more beer poured down my throat than would be legal, let alone wise, to drive home on. I decided to ride Stig to the bash. My rationale being it would be a damn sight easier to push Stig the 5 miles home than to push my Mazda!
Come time to wend my way home I was right. Too much beerahol to allow me to drive but I was sober. Being sober and thinking straight however can often be very unrelated and Saturday evening was one of those occasions. As I left the party, the options were turn right and have a nice flat 10 mile pootle home OR turn left and have a big hill in the way. I remember my thought process perfectly. "Fuzzy, you have never ridden Stig up anything more demanding than the bridge over the Thames. What are you, man or mouse?"- "MAN"- cue left turn and after 2 minutes my arrival at the bottom of Marlow Hill.
Marlow Hill used to form a daily part of my commute to work. I would descend on the way in and ascend on the way home. This used to be on an 8 speed double road bike though. Saturday was on a 42x16 69" fixed. On one descent I broke the 50mph barrier-
so I knew the hill was a challenge. By the time I got to the top however, I felt like my lungs had done an Alien Chest Burster impersonation. I made it without stopping though! The only close call was the traffic lights about 3/4 of the way up. If I had to stop at them I would never have got moving again.The ride down the hill to home was entertaining! Hooning down hill on a fixed wheel, clipped in on SPD's is an 'Interesting' experience!
Well done Fuzzy - You must have nerves of steel my friend.
ReplyDeleteYour blog reminded me of when I used fixed gear back in the 80's I had a horrid time. We ended up doing 100 milers in the Lake District. It was brutal. Eventually, my knees caved in with the constant wear and tear. The first time I rode fixed gear downhill I went into a frenzy as the bike gathered momentum - almost ran a red light. Crazy days. Nige:-)