braindancer
not for long
You'll love it...
Fixed gear bikes.
- Thread starter mrs quoad
- Start date
turing test
Nearly Toowrong
Good sorry I didn't see the thread earlier. I have had one in addition to several geared bikes since about 2001. Mine is converted from an old 80's tri bike with horizontal drops.I've ordered it
Fixed riding feels very different, especially the pedaling
Fixed riding feels very different, especially the pedaling
This is the bit I expect to feel most different
I went on a 2hr cycle yesterday... And it doesn't FEEL as if I stopped pedalling 90% of the time. HOWEVER, there were many gear shifts.
I'm looking forward to finding out how catastrophic I am on the fixie
Chz
Stark Raving Sane
But I still don't understand *why*. I've nothing against them (so long as you actually have brakes - the brakeless ones are organ donors waiting to happen), but I just don't understand the reason for it. Half decent derailleurs and cassettes don't cost that much, and it's kind of nice to have an option as to what to do with a steep hill even if you do ride in the same gear 95% of the time. Even if you skip the crank gears (I rarely use them myself) and just have 6-7 at the back.
I also understand if it's purely for training, but then keep it on the cycle track, no?
I also understand if it's purely for training, but then keep it on the cycle track, no?
Boycey
juvenile rave slut
*facepalm*
gears are less mechanically efficient, add lots of weight and need lots more maintenance. the yearly maintenance bill on a fixie/singlespeed is a tiny fraction of that of a geared bike. not everyone is like you, not everyone rides like you and not everyone wants to.
gears are less mechanically efficient, add lots of weight and need lots more maintenance. the yearly maintenance bill on a fixie/singlespeed is a tiny fraction of that of a geared bike. not everyone is like you, not everyone rides like you and not everyone wants to.
Boycey
juvenile rave slut
and improving pedal technique. and improving bike handling.
i may sound like a zealot but i recognise there is no substitute for a proper geared bike in lots of situations and respect peoples choice to ride them (i have to with my job dammit!) but the why bother thing just seems like such a non comment. why even ride? you could get a car for the price of a decent bike?
Low maintenance for a bike that's ridden daily & left outside in all kinds of shitty weather - all it ever needs is a bit of air in the tyres & chain lube/adjustment every few weeks.
And I have noticed a vast improvement in my pedalling, not sure it's transferred across to my mtb yet though!
And I have noticed a vast improvement in my pedalling, not sure it's transferred across to my mtb yet though!
damnhippie
shark sandwich
the lack of maintenance for fixies is great - as long as you check tyre pressure and chain tension/oiliness every so often you're all set.
having said that mine badly needs a wheel truing, a new chain & new tyres...
but that's after years of use.
having said that mine badly needs a wheel truing, a new chain & new tyres...
but that's after years of use.
Chz
Stark Raving Sane
Utter horseshit. Do you even know what you're talking about? It's direct drive in both cases. It's like claiming a 1 speed car would be more mechanically efficient than a 5 speed. (ignoring automatics)
Without even going to the XT range, you can add 8 gears to the rear for under 2kg of weight. Which is less than 4 pints, for comparison. "Lots" more maintenenace? Really? I clean, lube and adjust the gears at the same time as the chain. You do still have a chain, yes? Takes me an hour or two per season.
Edit: You'd have a lot more maintenance on the gears if you offroaded, but you'd be insane to offroad on a single gear, so I'm assuming that's not the case. Road/track riding is remarkably low on maintenance no matter what the system.
In response to the OP, you don't need a fixed gear bike when you already have one unless you're training for an event where they're a requirement. Whether you'd like one is a different story, but don't kid yourself that it's not about what's fashionable.
snowy_again
Slush
"but you'd be insane to offroad on a single gear"
hahaha
hahaha
Herbsman.
Nah Lotion, Pet, Nor Powder.
Crispy
The following psytrance is baṉned: All
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.
Tiny little handlebars as well I bet
mattie
missing in inaction
I would be insane to offroad with a single gear, but I'm asuming by your repsonse others do it? Is it common, or for the hardcore?
I recall the original TdF had what were essentially off-road sections up mountains, and they rode single speeds (may even have been fixies).
(I assume you're not talking about BMX, btw)
snowy_again
Slush
The Tour was done on fixed, so all this stuff about hills is bobbins. I spent the last two days pootling around Suffolk. 75 miles, with some hills that just meant you got out of the saddle to get up them once in a while, and I'm an unfit slacker.
If you want extreme off roading, there's some lovely pictures on here (but takes a while to load as its a bit picture heavy: http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,309.0.html ) Although that may not be the best example, as they seem to spend a fair amount of time with their pedals off, carrying the bikes, but I suppose it is Alaska. But there's people who do it in less challenging environments: http://www.63xc.com/
Ah, another ranty fixed gear bicycle thread. Of course they're en vogue, at the moment but (the brakeless people who aren't in control of their bicycle aside) its still more people on bicycles isn't it?
It'll be vintage 80s road racers next, or Sturney 3 speed fixed hubs. Or hoverboards, or something.
If you want extreme off roading, there's some lovely pictures on here (but takes a while to load as its a bit picture heavy: http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,309.0.html ) Although that may not be the best example, as they seem to spend a fair amount of time with their pedals off, carrying the bikes, but I suppose it is Alaska. But there's people who do it in less challenging environments: http://www.63xc.com/
Ah, another ranty fixed gear bicycle thread. Of course they're en vogue, at the moment but (the brakeless people who aren't in control of their bicycle aside) its still more people on bicycles isn't it?
It'll be vintage 80s road racers next, or Sturney 3 speed fixed hubs. Or hoverboards, or something.
Boycey
juvenile rave slut
chz- A. i've been doing this since way before it was cool. i made the switch on advice from work colleagues, i was spending over £50 a month on drivetrain componentry due to wear/tear/bashing shit around on the road. i was riding upwards of 350 miles a week in all conditions and was generally too tired to bother maintaining my own bike religiously.
B. a derailleur system bicycle has an indirect chainline- the chain moves laterally across the cassette and chainrings meaning that there are only 3 chances to have a perfectly straight chain on a triple chainset. a properly setup single speed will always be perfectly straight. a simple knowledge of vectors will tell you what happens to efficiency. do you actually think that derailleur gears on a bicycle and gearbox gears on a car are the same?
hub gears are more efficient but still can't touch fixed for power transfer.there are better reports in workshop manuals (sorry i read about this years ago) but wikipedia is pretty fucking supportive of me here...
...as is my personal experience of 12 years in the bicycle trade, 4 years riding for a living and having worked maintaining every type of bicycle for every type of rider from granny's on shoppers to world class cross country racers. talking of granny's how about we call up yours and give her a lesson in sucking eggs?
Boris Sprinkler
Dont be scared
um. pwned.
oneflewover
Following "The Tigers"
Only the top is driving, the rest is taking up slack, I know when mine is inefficient, I can hear it.
More importantly the body works most efficiently when working in a zone, between heart rate targets and at a fixed cadence. This efficiency more than makes up for any loss in the machinery. Hence all cycling away from a fixed velodrome is geared.
There does not seem a case, velodromes, maintenance and mind games aside, for fixed at all.
However a bikes a bike and it's all cycling even when kids point and laugh when i'm on my Brompton.
I didn't know they were fashionable before asking after them
I asked after them after hearing that they're kick-ass at building lactic tolerance Without meaning to set out too much of a defensive stand, since getting the Audax / trail bike, I've covered between 40 and 75k each day, every day. From cycling 0-5km per day four weeks ago. With a heart-rate monitor, keeping it solidly in UT2. Wearing a stained short-sleeved rowing tech-top, and slightly baggy shorts.
I can assure you my interest has nothing whatsoever to do with fashion
Fashion and I have not been on speaking terms for some years
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.
you see this is all that i think about with fixed gear .. fucked knees
.. the downsides just seem WAY to many .. slow away from lights .. no hill gear .. and if as boycey suggests, quite a low gearing all you are doing is spinning .. etc etc etc .. if you can get a decent bike with gears do it ..
it's like people have forgotten the point of gears! they save energy ( or convert it better) and save our body wear and tear .. all i hear is 'oh gears cause so much trouble" sorry???? i think this is from people who haven't had a decent bike .. if you've got £500 you can but a half decent Trek (or actually looking at Evans now, quite a few around that price at the moment! have prices gone down?? ) and i would do that
now on the other hand if i was 20 years younger and lived in shoreditch and wanted a bike for schmoozing around town .. i would get the most beautiful dark red track bike and ostentatiously ride it everywhere around central london .. but i don't and i'm not so hey
argh crispyyou still believe that only mad people ride fixies
hmmmm.... errr
Have you ever ridden one?
oneflewover
Following "The Tigers"
No, but i've a frame etc. that would convert. Problem is, i live at the top of a hill and will have to work out which gear is the lowest I can cope with. Then i wonder what it would be like on the downhill which can be a 35mph one when i'm pushing, would my legs go round quick enough?
gentlegreen
I hummus, therefore I am ...
Sounds a bit like the final hill of my commute - I get over 30 just freewheeling (
) down it, a few extra mph if I use my 48T-11T-26 inch.I now use a different, slightly steeper slope and am very glad most mornings to have a 28T-32T-26 inch gear available ... though my gears are often knackered - so in the past have got up it using 38T-32T-26 inch
Psychologically I'm glad that hill is at the end of my journey and that the ride is generally uphill on the way, and downhill on the way home.
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