A concept I’ve been exploring for a while is how fixie riding can improve skiing. I intend to expound the following, but for now I just want to get ’em down somewhere before they are lost to damaged brain cells or whatever.

Overall Fitness

Spinning improves leg speed, thus improves quickness on snow.

Pressure Control

A better understanding of pressure control comes from riding a fixie bicycle. Spin too fast and you blow up. Stop pedaling at the wrong time and get thrown off the bike. Controlling one’s speed downhill on a fixie improves pressure control sensitivity.

On a bicycle in general, the most efficient pedaling is even throughout the cycle. In other words the rider is pedaling round strokes rather than pushing on the down side of the stroke and pulling on the upside of the stoke. Cycling athletes are tested on ergonometers to determine where they predominantly apply pressure to the pedaling stroke.  The best riders are those whose graphs show a more even line of pressure through out. Now I’m not saying that if a skier could maintain the same pressure underfoot through out a run, with turns in it, that, that would be the most efficient skiing, but it’s something that I’ve been debating in my mind.

Upper/Lower Body Separation

A better understanding of upper and lower body separation is learned from riding a fixie bicycle or trackbike. On a fixie it behooves the rider to not bounce on the saddle to avoid soreness and increase peddling efficiency. Thus one must learn to spin the legs while the upper body remains quiet to avoid bouncing.

More later . . .