Rod recently sent the WAHCC an interesting question about fixed gear endurance records in Australia which I thought I'd post here - wisdom of crowds and all that
I have been asked what the record is for cycling around Australia on a fixed wheel.
I am not aware of any modern day fixed wheel circumnavigations– other than for Samual Johnson’s 2013-14 Around Australia unicycle ride (which is unicycle rather than fixed wheel).
It might be that Arthur Richardson, The White Bothers or Donald McKay rode fixed wheel bikes in their circumnavigation rides at the turn of the last century.
Bret Harris published a book on these rides in “Tour de Oz’ but does not give specific reference to the style of gearing used. He wrote of the riders carrying various cogs but they may still have been using single speed freewheel hubs – which were in use at that time.
Unfortunately there is often the misconception that these earlier cyclists where riding fixed wheel bikes when in fact they weren’t. For example, photos of Edward ‘Ryko’ Reichenback’s 1914 Adelaide to Darwin bike looks like it might be a fixed wheel bike when in fact I understand that it incorporated a 3 speed hub.)