After my mundane morning ride, I latched onto a fellow cyclist riding a hybrid at a decent road clip. He was headed for the Rez.

I've ridden the Watchung Reservation several time, but not on a fixed gear, and my last trip was a fun, memorable jaunt on an old geared roadbike. So, I was not aware of the ease with which I would make it up the hills on my fix.

Conversing with my fellow cyclist about general bike stuff, I wasn't aware he didn't know I didn't have gears. Somewhere right before one of the bike climbs, it came up. "You have no gears? You must be some kind of maniac!"

I have heard of people on fixed gears arousing this sort of reaction from geared cyclists but never really heard it myself. Now I have.

Climbing was a cakewalk until the last few dozen yards, when my lungs had a mite of difficulty keeping up with my legs. But I made it with no complaining. The pain in my legs turned into a nice warm fuzzy buzz. I was high on something. What? Sun streamed through the leaveless branches and I realized what. Life.

The view was great -- falling leaves covered the woods but also cleared the trees, leaving a wide view on each side of the road through their claw-like naked branches. I turned around right outside of mountainside and then headed down the mountain, watching my speed on the winding curves but totally enjoying myself. It was peaceful, and refreshing, and awesome. It was Bicycling!

So, does a fixed wheel make for good hill climbing? I won't ride anything else in those winding ascents and fun downhills, unless it’s a full on geared roadbike. Seriously, a fixed isn’t half bad. Sure you got to work a touch more, but if you wanted easy you’d by riding Buick, right? With a handbrake up front, the fix handled admirably, even if I didn't -- several times while rounding curves I took a hand off the bars, and I am probably very lucky to be alive. I only saw two cars, but one was leaning over the center line and she was on a cellular phone(!)

With a smile I got home, the "immortal" themesong from highlander playing in my head as I unclipped my helmet and enjoyed a toasted tuna sandwich. What a way to start yer morning, although the idea that other cyclists might think it daft was a wake-up call. Yes I've hear dit all; been told by a featherweight racer to "ditch the fixie" and train on a lightweight racer (as if I could afford one, my road bike weighs like a boat) or been todl "that'll wreck your knees".� These are disapprovals and, to some degree, out of context misunderstandings and generalizations -- pushing 53/11 will probably wreck your knees, but that would be true on a geared roadbike as well, and I use a much more reasonable gear ratio!

And, of course, non-riders think if you bike you are either superhuman or nuts.� But here was another rider taken aback by the lack of gears. It made me think.

So sometime later�I took a track bike up a steep local section known as "13 bumps", after an ancient paving job long since repaired. It took me a long time to get to the top of that one.

But it was worth every second.