Well his handlebars were fixed, that was a bonus
He looked a bit like my mate Mark from school - a lanky youth without much muscle , but he could climb very well.
In our club (Leigh) though we had a guy called John Byrne who was a good enough climber to place in the top 10 in the National a couple of times. I remember he used to ride in disintegrating rag-like socks on a rusty fixed-wheel bike with around 63" gear on club-runs into Lancashire ( Rossendale/Bowland). There was never a dull moment on those rides. Every time we hit a big hill, someone would fancy their chances of beating John, so there'd be a flurry of excitement as someone went up the other side of the road out of the saddle and cheers went up. Without fail the contender would slink back into the bunch on the other side , admitting he'd lost by a wheel or worse - there was just no beating him.