Is it Fixie Season Yet?

The Wheelsucker had bailed on doing a Sunday ride, so decided to do the Monday evening Parvilla Shop Ride instead. This is usually an easy ride, so the Wheelsucker decided to make it a little harder by riding his fixed gear. Or maybe he was influenced by Wilee the bike messenger in “Premium Rush”, which the Wheelsucker had seen Sunday evening.

Rather than agonize over what gearing to use, the Wheelsucker took the bike as it was, with a 47 tooth chain ring and a 17 tooth cog.

The Wheelsucker has not ridden fixed gear much in some time. It is always … interesting … getting on the fixed gear after being off it for some time. Sooner or later one tries to coast and the bike reminds you – by bucking – not to do that! So the Wheelsucker was going easy for the rollout.

At the right turn onto 468/Muddy Creek Rd there were already three riders clear, slightly up the road. Easy ride or not, this was more than the Wheelsucker could tolerate. The Wheelsucker checked for a gap in traffic, pulled left and accelerated. As he pulled past the main group he heard someone saying “there he goes”. It was still a small gap, and not too hard to close. The leading group was Nick Vita, Mike Faber and Andrew the Saxo Bank kid. Once across, the Wheelsucker tucked in at the back.

But as one approaches the 255/Owensville Rd intersection there are some more bumps on Muddy Creek Rd. The Wheelsucker could handle the uphills, but the downhills were … interesting.

On the first significant downhill the Wheelsucker was on the front and felt obliged to keep the speed up. He was bouncing too hard to read the computer display, but it looked like one-fifty-something and later turned out to be 156 rpm. The Wheelsucker was regretting his gear choice. And even 156 was not fast enough, because several more riders including Steve Esmacher made it across to the lead group on that descent.

The Wheelsucker was gapped on the next descent, but caught on at the right turn onto 255/Owensville Rd. 255/Owensville Rd. trends uphill, so the Wheelsucker was fine and even able to take a pull or two. A couple of riders disappeared off the back somewhere on Owensville Road or early on Owensville Sudley Road.

Once on Harwood Road, after turning off of route 2, the next challenge was getting down Harwood Hill. The Wheelsucker pulled to the left to avoid blocking anyone on the descent and went down as fast as he could, but 156 rpm was not enough and he was gapped again. But Mike, Nick and Andrew were kind enough to sit up and wait and help him back to the group.

Shortly after Harwood Hill, Harwood and then Patuxent River Road trend down. The Wheelsucker was hanging on, but spinning hard. He was gapped slightly descending into the dip, but pushed hard to follow Mike Faber back up to Nick and Andrew on the climb out. Nick, Mike and Andrew were looking strong. Several other riders were dropped on the climb. There were six riders left together at the top of the climb and turning right onto Queene Anne Bridge Road. The Wheelsucker was riding last, barely holding the wheel in front of him. But that rider was not able to hold Steve Esmacher’s wheel, and Steve was very slowly being gapped by the leading three. A gasping Wheelsucker finally came around the one rider and closed in on Steve, but he could not quite get there and the leading three were driving hard.

When Steve and the Wheelsucker got over the last hard bump on Queene Anne the leading three were still within range, but it was now a fast section, slightly downhill to 214, and an exhausted Wheelsucker was spinning out and not able to produce effective power at 25.4 mph, which had him spinning at 118 rpm! And the leading three were going faster than that! He took short pulls, apologized to Steve and pulled right back in behind him. The gap opened. There was hope that the leading three would be held up and caught at the Davidsonville Road light, but they got a green light and rolled through. Steve and the Wheelsucker make it through on the same light, but 214 is mostly downhill in this direction and fast, and the Wheelsucker had very little left.

Steve was kind enough to wait each time the Wheelsucker was gapped, and the Wheelsucker was still trying to pull when he could. The Wheelsucker averaged 161 bpm for the last 20 minutes (above his threshold HR) and 22.61 mph, averaging 102 rpm with a high of 141 rpm.