Camron's Pass
Beside being fast and efficient, a fixed gear bicycle is very good exercise. Because you are using your pedaling muscles backwards to slow yourself down, it is a very well-rounded workout for your legs. I find it to be an especially good workout for my hipflexers, the hip flexer is the little muscle on the very top front of your thigh that almost stretches up above your pelvis. I find this exercise to be especially handy being a backcountry skier. When you are back country skiing, you hike uphill with your skis, ski boots, AT bindings, skins and whatever snow happens to hitch on top of you skis, and that becomes a lot of weight and lifting your legs and hiking in ski boot with all of that weight, is a workout especially on you hipflexers. Riding my fixed gear helps keep me in shape to backcountry ski and it feels good to stretch out after a day of backcountry skiing on a fixed gear ride to the bar.
among many other reasons to ride a fixed gear
Mike said,
April 15, 2010 @ 6:42 pm
Some good information about the hipflexer. The hipflexer is a really good muscle to work on, whether or not your physically active. Being able to work on it from both angles, when pedaling forward and when pedaling backwards to help assist in braking will give you the added advantage on riding a fixie than riding a standard bicycle. Now if I can only learn how to ride a fixie without crashing and burning!