Riding fixed - all it is cracked up to be?

[doctor-bond]

Just read a George Orwell novel where he reminices about fixed wheel bikes when he was a lad. Seems the common thing to do on the downhills was just to take your feet off the pedals and let the cranks spin.

Depending on the steepness of the hill, you would have to have faith in whatever brakes you've fitted, but I can think of a couple of hills where this might work [straightish and a nice uphill to slow you down].

Maybe I'll strap on a couple of foot pegs on those redundant down tube shifters

 

[dookie]

just try to get 'em back on the pedals without slowing to a crawl! now try it with clipless, or better yet clips/straps. i'll keep my feet attached, thanks.

PS - i saw 42mph on my fixed recently. with my 46x16 gear and 700x23 tires, that's about 190rpm at the pedals! it felt every bit that fast...

 

[fiks]

Yeah taking your feet off the pedals when going downhill on a fixed is a Bad Idea. Just use your brake(s) if you can't pedal fast enough.

 

[doctor-bond]

Sounds like boys in the 1900s did it all the time:

"My first bike was a fixed- wheel—free-wheel bikes were very expensive then. When you went downhill you put your feet up on the front rests and let the pedals go whizzing round. That was one of the characteristic sights of the early nineteen-hundreds—a boy sailing downhill with his head back and his feet up in the air"


but then again, they also went round getting rickets, wearing their dad's big boots and working up chimneys ......

 

[Mick D]

Just stumbled on this as i have been offered a non retro Lemond Fillmore road bike and just wondered all your thoughts on this bike.

 

[velomaniac]

Fixed is if nothing else good for fitness as you can't shirk off being the bikes engine and if you forget you cant freewheel it soon reminds you in a manner as subtle as a clout in the face from a wet fish :shock:

I find the best bit is the silence !

Saves on brake blocks as well

I'm also on occasion one of the nutters who rides fixed off road, stupid past time but curiously addictive, the blue route at Glentress is do'able fixed

 

[dookie]

just completed back-to-back centuries (dead flat course) on the one i posted earlier...

my knees are a bit unhappy, but it was otherwise quite manageable. it was a *large* fundrasing ride (2400 riders) and anytime anyone noticed the fix i'd tell them it was easier, as the bike pedals itself!

 

[31trum]

hiya guys been along time away from here.

built this up when i got my lovely rc100 knicked

and love riding it every single day.

info here http://velospace.org/node/6691

 

[doctor-bond]

Three good comments:

That is a minamilist treat.
The flat grey paint is Top Sante.
Thankfully no Velocity deep rims.

Two adverse comments though:

"I were right about that saddle" (A fun size mars to anyone who remembers the advert.)

You'll need a better lock: just leaning it against the bollard won't fool the youth of today.

 

[ededwards]

just completed back-to-back centuries (dead flat course) on the one i posted earlier...

my knees are a bit unhappy, but it was otherwise quite manageable. it was a *large* fundrasing ride (2400 riders) and anytime anyone noticed the fix i'd tell them it was easier, as the bike pedals itself!

Is a back-to-back century 200 miles or 200 kilometres? Either way it's an impressive ride