Fixed in his goals for charity

Oct 29th, 09. Aucklander Ron King has a unique approach to fundraising for the Heart Foundation charity ride from Cape Reinga to Bluff - he's riding the whole thing on a fixie!

"Other appealing aspects of the fixie are a completely silent drivetrain, pure simplicity, low maintenance, and something of a fatalistic attitude - it only goes one speed..." Ron King

The ride kicks off at Cape Reinga on the 1st of February 2010 and finishes up 2100km later on the 14th in Bluff.

RoadCycling.co.nz encourages you to read Ron's story and get right behind him and the great cause he is supporting. The Heart Foundation ride is the same event Dr Graham Robinson was out training for when he was tragically killed recently. Ron didn't know Graham personally but said plenty of people at his work did.

Why a fixie? Ron King's story

Broaching this the question I get most from roadies is “but really, why ride fixed at all?”, and more importantly am I hip, in a mid life crisis, or just stupid?

An abridged evolution of the road bike goes something like: safety bike, pneumatic tyres, freewheel, derailleurs, alloyed steel, aluminium rims, tighter geometry, aero, exotic materials…

So why reject a number of key advances in the development of the road bike opting to ride fixed? And aren’t road going fixies nothing more than embarrassing hipster fashion accessories, the bicycle equivalent of Jazzercise leg-warmers?

Right, taking that last point I’ll admit the current trend of blogging every sneaker-chopped-hustle is a little damaging to my credibility, but am confident it too will pass.

The 1993 Daccordi Opera

I started on a fixie a couple of years back because I’m a bit slow on the pickup – nearly 20 years ago my racing friends tried to convince me to turn my winter beater into a fixie to ride in the off-season.

Not because it was cool, but because it was a practical way to improve your condition and handling.

While I’m not racing anymore, I still enter a few events and rise to the odd challenge. The fixie seemed to be a solution to limited available training time (and budget). And it is.

It also resulted in a second benefit, it made old routes fresh and fun again.

Consequently the carefree training escalated into riding fixed in the events and challenges themselves. I rode Taupo in 2007, I would have gone under 5hrs if I hadn’t stopped for coffee. I followed this up in 2008 with a solo self-supported three day tour from Martinborough to Auckland (via Whanganui), totalling about 680km.

While there is no real limit to what event can be ridden fixed (after all, the freewheel was initially banned from the Tour de France), it does warrant some additional considerations:

• A good bike fit is especially critical. After all, the pedalling is relentless, and you’ve got to be able to deliver plenty of low cadence power for those hills.
• Your bike will also attempt to remove your legs from your torso on the long high-cadence downhill sections. A strong core and good brakes are key.
• Un-weighting over hazards is a little trickier at speed so larger tyres (min 25c or 28c) and robust wheels are called for.
• Riding at a pace conducive to company can also be problematic given your limited speed range (by necessity fast uphill and slow downhill) you’ll be riding alone a bit.
• For ‘fast’ event riding select the longest gear you think you’ll be able to ride the hardest or last hill over.

The obvious answer to why I’d consider riding the length of New Zealand on a fixie is, of course, because I can (I’m still under 45 after all).

Cardiovascular disease is still the number one cause of death in NZ, my professional life is committed to disease prevention, and I’ve personally seen the affect of heart disease among my family and friends.

Really this is the least I could do.

Visit my fundraiser page www.heartracer.org/RonKing for more information on the cause and to make a contribution