It was hammering with rain this morning, so I rode in on fixed wheel. Not that the one requires the other, but rain is always an incentive to discard the aparatus of gear changing and freewheeling for a simpler, more tactile approach to pedalling. And, besides, I had yet to ride fixed this winter, which is unusual; most years I give it a go almost as soon as the clocks go back.

And, importantly, enjoy it. Today, however, I didn’t. This might have been because I didn’t really expect to. Most years I actively look forward to slinging a leg over a bike with a fixed sprocket; this winter, for some reason, I haven’t. And, pushing off on fixed for the first time in ages, I duly tried to stop pedalling and got a sharp reminder of what I was doing.

That’s not why I didn’t really enjoy the ride. Once a regular fixed rider, you never really back-pedal even on a freewheeling bike, but rather ease off the gas more or less gingerly depending on how long it is since you last rode fixed.

More to the point, I really wasn’t in the right frame of mind to be in the wrong gear. For everyday riding, 74″ is fine from springtime right through to the end of autumn; for the wrong side of the New Year break, it is a heavy old gear on the slightest uphill. For sure, I could have turned the back wheel round and availed myself of 67″, but that would have meant twiddling away on the fast bits of the ride. What I really wanted on this particular cold, wet and fairly windy morning was to be in the right gear all the time, not just for that brief moment between shoving one too big and spinning away on one too small.

It’s not always fun, which is why I’m having a fixed-wheel block this winter. At least today’s ride reminded me why.