A fixed-gear bicycle has only one gear. It requires the rider to pedal continually with no allowance for coasting during the ride. If the pedaling stops, so does the bike. There are many advantages to training on a fixed gear bike during the winter. Along with the training advantages, there are safety benefits to consider.
Improve Your Pedal Stroke
Fixed-gear bicycles help increase the smoothness of the pedaling. Because there is no resting or coasting time on a fixed gear, the rider is forced to pedal through the two dead spots in the pedal rotation. Energy waste is reduced and efficiency increased as riders learn to smoothly transition from using one muscle group to the next muscle group while pedaling.
Increase Power and Aerobic Capacity
Fixed-gear bicycles increase power output when the rider uses them to train on hills. Increased aerobic capacity comes from the high cadence, or revolutions per minute, on the flat and downhill portion of the ride.
Increase Muscular Endurance
When the muscles are fatigued they must continue to work and exert energy because of the nature of a fixed-wheel bicycle. Over time, this continued effort results in increased muscular endurance.
Pedaling Transitions and Lactate
Cycling involves variations and changes in cadence (revolutions per minute) and torque. There are times when a rider must accelerate quickly going from a slower cadence to a faster one. The legs learn to react quickly to such situations. It helps the body learn how to remove lactate. Lactate threshold, or the level where muscles produce more lactic acid than the body can remove, improves with training. Specifically, muscle cells improve the speed with which lactic acid is metabolized. As more muscles work together, less lactate is produced because one muscle is not stuck doing all the work.
Freezing Cables
Without any cables for shifters, the cables on a fixed-gear bike won't freeze up. Because there is only one gear that is always engaged, there is no opportunity for the ratcheting mechanism to freeze. The fixed-gear bike is always responsive to the rider.
Improved Traction Control
Because the feet are always moving and a fixed-gear bike does not coast, the rider can always feel what is going on. When the bike slips, the rider knows immediately and thus has better control over how to react to a loss of traction.
Braking
Braking on a fixed-gear bike can be controlled by slowing the pedaling motion. This results in less need for brakes. Some brakes do not perform as well in the cold and ice so this can be a huge advantage to bicycle commuters and riders during colder months.
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