After a restless night and searching even the garage in the morning I found it. Some fool had hung up my cycling kit exactly where it was supposed to be. I think you can guess which fool.
So set off late only to find I have no shifting.
AGAIN.
Enough of an excuse to skip the foot tunnels and get the cable car so not all bad 
Are the bookies making you go into an office?
My morning report showed “zero” headwind. Suspect my return journey won’t be labelled fun!
Not fun.
At all.
Up hill and tired.
72mins. Again. But somehow a km shorter 
The humiliation of no gears on the way home compounded by my good friend screeching to a halt as he was passing me and accompanying me home, for shame!
No it was great to have company even though it was excruciatingly slow.
What gear were you stuck in?
I’ve been commuting on 48x17 for the last 18 years
That’s absolutely abysmal for carrying a 15kg pannier up a 17% hill 
Only short, but I reckon I’ll go the longer, but flatter, way home on Thursday
TBH if you’re riding fixed I’d be more concerned about riding down a 17% hill. When you start to feel the pedals pulling your feet over the top, you know it’s not going to end well
I did a couple of winters when I did my long hilly rides on my fixie. It was great for leg strength and pedalling smoothness
Like 20-30rpm going downhill
I must’ve been doing 120rpm for around 40kmh at one point last night. That’s pretty fun!!!
Would’ve been 34x16 I’m guessing. Big ring and I’d have been fine singlespeed.
Charged up over night and could kamikaze it in this morning 
If my tourer dies I’ll be buying singlespeed for sure. Loving the tcr for now…when it fucking works.
And overcoming terror.
Nice ride home. Motored it. Only three death swerves. 
Lots of sunshine.
I had a lovely steel fix that cost £250 new and lasted a decade until the seat tube cracked (obviously my power output and not my ever increasing girth)
I rode 42/17 most of the time, 100rpm was bang on 20mph whatever it was, and Greenwich park Id hit 150rpm no issue 
Loved commuting fixed, felt more in control, concentration was higher, easier to cut speed for those 3 times a ride near death experiences, and it does naturally slow you a little also meaning you don’t get drawn into the commuter peloton as much. My mate rode a Brompton as it had the same effect for him.
Fixed is fantastic … until pedestrians walk out right in front of you, unannounced, on their phones 
need to learn to skid
I think that would cause skids in my shorts… but I suspect that’s not what you meant.
locking the rear wheel is quite easy once you grow the balls to try it once or twice. One of the reasons for a 17 on the back rather than an 18 was it increased the number of potential “skid patches” to 17 from 3 iirc so rear tyre lasts much longer
TBH I find I stop a lot quicker on fixed than I would do with just rim brakes, especially in the wet.
Fixed is great to ride in traffic because you just naturally speed up and slow down with the traffic without using the brakes.
Never thought of that - how clever
Can’t quite get my head around the maths but guess this would only be a thing if your front cassette also had a number of teeth that was a multiple of 6 perhaps ??
It’s not too complex, simplify the equation front teeth / rear teeth, so for ease a 48/16 is 3/1 so has 1 skid patch, if you are ambidextrous that is then 2, depending which foot is forward when you lock the wheel, a 42/17 doesn’t simplify, so gives 17 (or 34) potential points of contact of rear tyre
