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Steel is real, but fixies more so
Last Post 06/21/2014 09:20 AM by 79 pmooney. 7 Replies.
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79pmooney

Posts:3189

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06/19/2014 09:05 PM
Home from a 75 mile ride out and around a reservoir 40 miles west of Portland.  LSD.  Stopped once to pee at mile 15, then only put my foot down at lights (none in the middle 60 miles) and for a couple of major street crossings.  43 x 17 on my good ti fixie,  The route is not flat but not hilly until the 8 mile loop around the reservoir where the dam is the only flat road.

I've done this before both geared and fixed.  This was the lightest, fasted fixie, 8 pounds and 40% lighter then the first fixie I did this on.  Also a slightly lower gear.  Still, VERY real!  I'm feeling it despite never going hard, never digging deep for wind or grunt strength.

The great part about riding fix gears is the ability to get real quality rides that set a really good base for the future in limited time and without requiring great discipline or lots of electronics.

Ben
79pmooney

Posts:3189

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06/19/2014 09:24 PM
Oh, when I talk of fixies, I mean road fixies. Real road bikes with a fix gear drive train. Brakes of course. (Brakeless fixies on the road are for those without enough brains to need a helmet.)

Ben
Oldfart

Posts:511

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06/19/2014 09:39 PM
Nice. Like riding off road in North Vancouver. No avoiding a workout going up. Grades approaching 30% for short pitches that are barely rideable. Last night it took an hour forty five to ride 12 km. no cars is nice too. The worst part is riding down a trail called Dream Weaver because I get that song as an ear worm.
Ride On

Posts:537

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06/20/2014 06:07 AM
I keep thinking about getting one, but I fear I'll never ride it. To many bikes now. Maybe this winter I'll spring for one
thinline

Posts:325

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06/20/2014 08:27 AM
Ride on, you appear to be forgetting the sacred formula of X = N + 1.
79pmooney

Posts:3189

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06/20/2014 01:05 PM
Ride On, a better approach than buying a fix gear is getting an older Japanese (or Trek or Schwinn) frame with horizontal drops and setting it up. Horizontal drops have a real advantage over track ends on road fixies. You slide the wheel forward to pull it out. This allows you to simply pick up the slack chain (say with your wrench; Pedro's fix gear tool works really well for that) and drop it on the chain hanger (if that bike has one and it might as a road bike) or over the back of the dropout. You get to keep your hands clean. With track ends, you have to derail the chain to pull the wheel back to get it off, then when you go to replace it, you have to slide the wheel all the way forward, pick up the chain and put it back on. This is not an issue with true track bikes since velodromes are squeaky clean. (Bikes slide off the banking of dirty tracks.)

Road bikes also have brakes, waterbottle mounts and perhaps room and eyelets for fenders. They also ride like they are designed for the road unlike true track bikes.

Ben
Nick A

Posts:625

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06/21/2014 08:35 AM
I used to have a fixed rear wheel that I could put on my steel road bike. Had to swap to a shorter wider chain. Just bypassed the derailleur.

N
79pmooney

Posts:3189

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06/21/2014 09:20 AM
My Peter Mooney has horizontal drops so I can do that although I never have.

Ben
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