Fixed gear bikes.

[Boycey]

the thing to do here is go and play with your existing bike and work out what the highest gear is that you can reasonably comfortably use.

i know cambridge is flat but that sounds like an awful awful piece of advice- one way ticket to tendonitis in the achilles and a pair of fucked knees. riding too high a gear can cause some devastating cumulative injuries if you don't warm up, stretch, warm down- for a round the town bike you're much better off keeping a higher cadence.

 

[mrs quoad]

i was kinda suggesting you go higher than mine what with me being an unfit lard arse and suspecting you would find your gear somewhat easy especially because cam is flat as a pancake. birmingham does have the occasional hill.

the thing to do here is go and play with your existing bike and work out what the highest gear is that you can reasonably comfortably use.

My bike usually stays within the top 3-4 gears... i.e. front derailleur on the heaviest / hardest level, rear gears within the heaviest 3-4. Except (maybe) up hills.

So... uh... is it possible to get varying sized flip flops?

I'm not finding a huge array of fixed wheel bikes on t'market, so'm not sure how I'd go about finding one with a heavier ratio...?

 

[baldrick]

i know cambridge is flat but that sounds like an awful awful piece of advice- one way ticket to tendonitis in the achilles and a pair of fucked knees. riding too high a gear can cause some devastating cumulative injuries if you don't warm up, stretch, warm down- for a round the town bike you're much better off keeping a higher cadence.

yeah no doubt actually, sorry. i was just thinking in terms of getting an idea of what it would be like.

 

[Boycey]

most will come with a fairly moderate ratio if they're designed and advertised for street riding, you should be able to ask the shop to change the rear sprocket for a nominal fee though. i honestly wouldn't worry about it too much, get a low gear to start with so you can learn the ropes of controlling the rear wheel without tearing your hips out of your socket, then change it and see what happens.

FWIW i have no problem exceeding the average speed of traffic on the marylebone road on a 50:20.

 

[Boris Sprinkler]

fwiw the dutch bikes probably have hub brakes, you pedal back slightly to apply the brake, not the same thing.
I have just removed my back brake from mine but in all honesty I am quite confident handling a fixie coming from a downhill/dirt jump background. SOmething where riding at speed needs you to read everything coming up ahead. Not sure how that would go in a British city, the hardest thing here is judging the intentions of other road users and learning to react quickly and safely to whatever fuckwittedness they throw at you.

 

[Boycey]

bikes with just a coaster brake (hub brake actuated by back pedalling described above) on the back aren't actually road legal in the UK...

 

[Crispy]

Let me give a slightly more considered opinion on fixed/single. I'm sure it's not a novel one

When I sampled riding a singlespeed, I totally understood the attraction. There's no lag, no slack, no mind-fuss over which gear to pick and the bike was lighter and less fussy looking than my hybrid, even though it had a steel frame. I could have happily rode it round and round in circles till my legs fell off

However, when riding it, I just didn't want to stop. The feeling at cruise was just too good, and I knew I'd have some standing up to do if I wanted to get back up there again. Now, most of my cycling is stop-start on busy city roads. I often need to burst from a standstill to eg. get infront of a lorry at a junction. I also, sorry to say, see quite a few singlespeed riders taking unneccesary risks or riding through pedestrians crossing - presumably for just those reasons at the start of this paragraph.

The comparison from single to fixed is not as big as that from geared to single, but the one major problem I see is having no control over where your cranks are. Although riding close to the kerb is something I try hard not to do, sometimes it's unavoidable, and sometimes an emergency might force me too. On a fixed, your effective kerb-level width is greater. I've never seen it happen, but what happens if you bash the kerb with the crank at moderate speed?

 

[Boycey]

the one major problem I see is having no control over where your cranks are.

this can be an issue but not nearly as much as you'd think- being able to time your upstroke for the few moments that you do need to go that close.

your point about single speed riders taking unnecessary risks gives lots of them far too much credit- lots of them have watched too much lucas brunelle and think their ride to the truman brewery is an alleycat... the cunts...

 

[mrs quoad]

Let me give a slightly more considered opinion on fixed/single. I'm sure it's not a novel one

When I sampled riding a singlespeed, I totally understood the attraction. There's no lag, no slack, no mind-fuss over which gear to pick and the bike was lighter and less fussy looking than my hybrid, even though it had a steel frame. I could have happily rode it round and round in circles till my legs fell off

However, when riding it, I just didn't want to stop. The feeling at cruise was just too good, and I knew I'd have some standing up to do if I wanted to get back up there again. Now, most of my cycling is stop-start on busy city roads. I often need to burst from a standstill to eg. get infront of a lorry at a junction. I also, sorry to say, see quite a few singlespeed riders taking unneccesary risks or riding through pedestrians crossing - presumably for just those reasons at the start of this paragraph.

The comparison from single to fixed is not as big as that from geared to single, but the one major problem I see is having no control over where your cranks are. Although riding close to the kerb is something I try hard not to do, sometimes it's unavoidable, and sometimes an emergency might force me too. On a fixed, your effective kerb-level width is greater. I've never seen it happen, but what happens if you bash the kerb with the crank at moderate speed?

TY, Crispy. If anything, this has left me even more sold.

I have:

i) a dying bike. It's a city bike. It was bought 2yrs ago, for £200. It cannot handle a 95kg rower. It is ok for town riding; no-one's going to nick it. It is my domestic bike, for pottering around with. When it was most-recently-dying, I realised it just ain't worth keeping on thrashing it so bought
ii) an audax / trail bike. This has opened my eyes to the joys of cycling, and the possibility of (e.g.) keeping a heartrate of 142-152 going comfortably for over 2hrs. Given my wholehearted love-falling-in with this bike, and the massive CV love / benefits I'm finding, that's led me to consider
iii) a fixed gear.

i) is the only one that's going to be used in t'town.

Otherwise, atm I have three favourite routes. This is far and away the most urban:

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Cambridge-Newmarket-West-Whickham-Cambridge

The other two don't go through anything larger than a hamlet.

During my last four or five outings, I think I've been stopped fewer than twenty times. Far fewer. In total. By traffic lights / traffic / junctions. Without risk-taking. On two out of the four, I haven't needed to stop once between leaving the house, and getting home 40-60km later. Not due to risk-taking, but due to the roads I'm using and the time of day I'm heading out...

 

[toblerone3]

Friend of mine's 16-year old son is cycling from Camden to Abergavenny on a fixed gear bike this weekend sleeping rough.

 

[thursdog]

do it

i have a really sorted hybrid that i have been riding and looking after for 15 years that i thought was the best bike (for me) in the world...and then i bought a raleigh road ace frame (531c) off ebay for 35 quid and built it into a fixie with some cheap bits.

i suppose it cost about £125, it weighs 8.5kg and i can get up all but the nastiest of hills running 42/15 (and my beloved hybrid hasnt been out of the shed since)

 

[Jazzz]

The comparison from single to fixed is not as big as that from geared to single, but the one major problem I see is having no control over where your cranks are. Although riding close to the kerb is something I try hard not to do, sometimes it's unavoidable, and sometimes an emergency might force me too. On a fixed, your effective kerb-level width is greater. I've never seen it happen, but what happens if you bash the kerb with the crank at moderate speed?

I think you would likely be okay. In my fixie experience, I did once had a pedal-strike on the road when I banked into a turn too hard - of course you can't hold your pedals in the best position for this, so you can't bank quite so hard as you might otherwise. I got a bit of a jolt, but didn't come off. So that's while cornering hard and leaning - I think if you struck while upright you might just jump the bike a bit.

If one needs an extra pedal-width on the road, I think next to the kerb is the last place I'd want it. Kerb-hugging = vvbad

Once I caught a shoelace in the cranks. Now that was a problem, I lost a new pair of shoes.

 

[Herbsman.]

argh crispyyou still believe that only mad people ride fixies

ive never experienced any of these problems that you imagine. in reality you adjust your riding to compensate for the lack of freewheelability.

i did pedal strike on the road a few times when i first got it, but thats because im an idiot who thinks he's riding the Moto GP and leans too far into corners - im sure i used to lean further than 45 degrees...

 

[Herbsman.]

in fact i just put my crank at the bottom of the rotation and leant the bike over, and its true, it must be further than 45 degrees for the pedal to touch the floor...]

i dont think this is a problem for the average joe - i spent a lot of my first cycling years trying to lean over so far around corner that my elbow would scrape. it never actually happened except then i fell off. then i'd scrape elbow AND knee...

 

[sir.clip]

Do I need* one?

Sensible brain says: nooooo. You might regret it. Wait to settle in to the Audax a bit more first!

I'd go with the sensible brain. you have just got a splendid new ride. if you buy another bicycle you will cloud your enjoyment.. Save your money for retirement.

 

[Boycey]

in fact i just put my crank at the bottom of the rotation and leant the bike over, and its true, it must be further than 45 degrees for the pedal to touch the floor...]

i dont think this is a problem for the average joe - i spent a lot of my first cycling years trying to lean over so far around corner that my elbow would scrape. it never actually happened except then i fell off. then i'd scrape elbow AND knee...

i quite regularly make contact, though that's partly because clips n straps are more susceptible- fortunately it means i don't come out of the pedal. also the dangling strappy bits act as kind of whiskers.

 

[mrs quoad]

I'd go with the sensible brain. you have just got a splendid new ride. if you buy another bicycle you will cloud your enjoyment.. Save your money for retirement.

1:44 yes:no ratio?

I'm certainly delaying For at least a day or three

 

[mrs quoad]

From wiggle:

The fact is after a few hours training on a single speed with a fixed you know you have done a work out!

"After a few hours"?

 

[mrs quoad]

*sigh*

I tried a medium and a large frame in a local store (priced £113 more than Wiggle). The large is a bit hunched. Though that was the grind, not the racer. Which I'm told would give me slightly less verticality.

Tempted.

 

[haZe36]

Get one, they're ace - and don't worry about the flip-flop/freewheel thing, you'll never use it once you've ridden fixed.

 

[mrs quoad]

Get one, they're ace - and don't worry about the flip-flop/freewheel thing, you'll never use it once you've ridden fixed.

I tried cycling one around the car park next to the bike store.

I accidentally tried freewheeling around corners.

I failed, but went a lot slower whilst failing

 

[sim667]

are all hubs the same size?

 

[mrs quoad]

are all hubs the same size?

I've been told that a conversion is a piece of piss if you know what you're doing. If that helps?

 

[Boycey]

are all hubs the same size?

no

 

[sim667]

how can i find out what size i need? measure the wheel?

Or just take the old one into the shop when i go?

 

[Boycey]

take it into the shop

is it a geared bike you want to make into a single/fixed? (sorry i hate the term conversion, far too religious for the likes of me)

i'll assume your wheel is 700c, after that the important measurement is the distance between the inside of your dropouts and that they face forwards or backwards. if they're vertical it ain't gonna work...

 

[tommers]

maybe I should try it.... enough people go on about it that it can't just ALL be fashion victimhood.

 

[braindancer]

After a couple of years of riding fixed, I started commuting on my old racer again. It was awesome. Gears are brilliant…. and you can freewheel down hills and everything….

I was considering getting rid of the fixie as I don’t really have room for my three bikes…. but then the gears on the old fella started slipping again and I remembered why I had first gone fixed.

Try it, it’s great fun.

Although have a brake.

When cycling from achingly hip Hackney into town in the morning these days it really seems as if nearly half the bikes are fixed. In the last few months I’ve noticed a very rapid increase in the number of riders without brakes. This is all well and good if you’re an experienced rider but a significant proportion of these guys are obviously new to it and are pootling along really slowly with panicked looks on their chops about the potential need to stop.

 

[sim667]

take it into the shop

is it a geared bike you want to make into a single/fixed? (sorry i hate the term conversion, far too religious for the likes of me)

i'll assume your wheel is 700c, after that the important measurement is the distance between the inside of your dropouts and that they face forwards or backwards. if they're vertical it ain't gonna work...

they go forwards.

 

[mrs quoad]

I've ordered it

12% platinum discount, plus £50 of 'free' goods -> 1x Charge Plug Racer plus 1 set of Shimano 105 5610 SPD-SL pedals for £488