[retromike3]

The way its set up. if you try to just stop pedaling it feels like somebody takes a baseball bat to your leg and but. It is not recommended. What I do is I have a front brake on my bike and I slow down or keep my speed to a limit by using that.

You do have to be careful to make sure that your pedals don't hit the ground by lleaning around the corners. What I try to do is to keep my bike more upright and hang my body out. Its something that you learn with a bit of practice. After you have ridden a fixed for a wile your pedaling gets a lot more smooth and even and you find that you develop more power with your standard bike.

mike f

[Farrowlane]

Originally Posted by superj

yes but all the old school bmx bikes are still going and they are not fixed gear. i just am having a hard time understanding why you want the pedals to keep moving all the time, even if you are going down a hill or want to take a break and coast. you cannot coast on long fun hills so you are limited to your top speed.

i don;t know, i guess i would have to try one out. i just can't get my mind around always pedaling and if you stop pedaling, you stop riding.

+1

While I'm all for single speeds, I'm totally with you SuperJ, on the fixies!

It just feels so good to coast downhill............

[cyclingsivells]

In my opinion, going up the hills is not so hard, unless you are talking about some pretty serious stuff. Going down the hills is the problem. You cannot pedal as fast as the wheels are turning so you have to ride the brakes. That's the reason I ride the single speed side most of the time. Getting used to pedaling all the time is not easy.

[erk]

With Single speed. Rolling hills are the best. Fixed is used for fitness primarily and for a training tool for road biking. Fixed are also used on campus or in the downtown area. Single speed are good for improving your ridding efficiently. I use it for a challenge and for fitness. You burn more calories with a single speed. I have a Garmin GPS and I do a 30 mile route with some hills. On my geared road bike I can complete it at a average speed of 15mph, and burn 2000 cal. With my new single speed I did the same route, at 13 MPH average but burned 2500 cal. As long as your not in a race, it's better for you.

[unbiasedmark]

I live in Hawaii and ride my fixed gear bike all of the time. Climbing hills here can be a problem sometimes but it's mostly a workout. The problem is descending fat, steep hills. Sometimes it's fun, pulling fat skids to maintain control over the pedals, but other times it becomes a hassle and gets really dangerous when traffic is present. But hey, it's all part of the passion.
Put on a brake if you have to descend steep hills. If it's a front brake, don't pull too hard or you'll flip over ~

[HandsomeRyan]

Depending on how strong you are and how much you enjoy pushing yourself, fixed gears are fine for at least moderate and rolling hills.

I have a basement full of bikes (hybrid, road, tandem, hardtail mountain) but my fixed gear is the bike that sees the most miles. I think it is a difficult thing to explain and it certainly won't be the favorite riding style for all people. I got started with Fixed gears after reading the writings of the late (well, he was still alive then) Sheldon Brown on the subject. He wasn't some hipster who wanted to earn street cred by doing brakeless skids in the mall parking garage. He was a serious bike enthusiast and mechanic and he did a better job than pretty much anyone else I've ever talked to at capturing the magic of fixed gear riding in words.

First and foremost is fixed riding pushes you to be a better rider. Maybe you love coasting and that is fine but to get stronger and better at riding you need to turn the cranks and a fixed gear is like a mean old nun at Catholic school wrapping you on the knuckles with a ruler if you try to get lazy with it. Some of us like that.

Second is the connection you feel to the bike. This is a much harder thing to explain but you feel more connected to the bike when you can start and slow/stop it without using controls. You take cycling from begin a body on top of a machine to the machine being almost like a prosthesis or an extension of you. I still have a brake on my bike because sometimes the hill is too steep or I need to stop quickly but in general I like to be able to "engine brake" the bike to moderate my speed.

Third is the fun factor. Because most off-the-shelf fixed gear frames are based on a track or track-ish geometry the bikes have short wheelbases and feel much twitchier. This twitchy steering gives sort of a fighter-jet feeling to the ride. Every little correction makes the bike bob and weave. This can add a certain excitement factor to your ride.

Yes, they are a lot more tiring to ride. I lived in Knoxville, TN in the foothills of the Smokey Mountains and put many hundreds of miles on my fixed gear all over the place. Most of my rides were 30 miles or less but even 30 miles of constant pedaling up and down hills is probably comparable to more like 50 miles on a geared/freewheeling bike.


My fixed bike as it looks today.


Before the latest paint job.


See also: http://sheldonbrown.com/fixed/

[WabiFGSS]

Originally Posted by bikebum1975

I have never done a fixie before just curious how are they around hilly country? I'm toying on building one with in the next year. Now I have had single speeds with big cranks and can pretty much ride them up hills, but wondering how hard it is to get used to a fixie. Also about the gearing on them what's the best choice for speed and hill climbing?

New to FGSS. Picked up a Wabi Classic that has yet to see the road. Snow and cold up here. Richard Snook owner of Wabi has years of fixed gear riding experience. He recommended going single speed for the terrain I like to ride. Problem with the lower gearing if fixed gear would be the downhills. The backside of probably my favorite climb is a winding steeper section. Hit 53.5 mph once. With a fixed gear my brake pads would be melting, tires going square from skidding before they exploded from friction and overheated rims.

Gearing right now is 42 x 18 freewheel side, 16 fixed side. Riding just for fun now. Speed is not a factor. But, might pick up a 45 matched to a 16 free and 14 fixed. Could be fun just to cruise the flats spinning at a 100rpms.

[HandsomeRyan]

^ If hill climbing (and running back down) is your primary interest I would say FG is not the optimum choice. If riding on hills is simply a part of your cycling and not the primary function of it, you'll be fine.

Got any pics of the Wabi?

[erk]

Originally Posted by HandsomeRyan

Depending on how strong you are and how much you enjoy pushing yourself, fixed gears are fine for at least moderate and rolling hills.

I have a basement full of bikes (hybrid, road, tandem, hardtail mountain) but my fixed gear is the bike that sees the most miles. I think it is a difficult thing to explain and it certainly won't be the favorite riding style for all people. I got started with Fixed gears after reading the writings of the late (well, he was still alive then) Sheldon Brown on the subject. He wasn't some hipster who wanted to earn street cred by doing brakeless skids in the mall parking garage. He was a serious bike enthusiast and mechanic and he did a better job than pretty much anyone else I've ever talked to at capturing the magic of fixed gear riding in words.

First and foremost is fixed riding pushes you to be a better rider. Maybe you love coasting and that is fine but to get stronger and better at riding you need to turn the cranks and a fixed gear is like a mean old nun at Catholic school wrapping you on the knuckles with a ruler if you try to get lazy with it. Some of us like that.

Second is the connection you feel to the bike. This is a much harder thing to explain but you feel more connected to the bike when you can start and slow/stop it without using controls. You take cycling from begin a body on top of a machine to the machine being almost like a prosthesis or an extension of you. I still have a brake on my bike because sometimes the hill is too steep or I need to stop quickly but in general I like to be able to "engine brake" the bike to moderate my speed.

Third is the fun factor. Because most off-the-shelf fixed gear frames are based on a track or track-ish geometry the bikes have short wheelbases and feel much twitchier. This twitchy steering gives sort of a fighter-jet feeling to the ride. Every little correction makes the bike bob and weave. This can add a certain excitement factor to your ride.

Yes, they are a lot more tiring to ride. I lived in Knoxville, TN in the foothills of the Smokey Mountains and put many hundreds of miles on my fixed gear all over the place. Most of my rides were 30 miles or less but even 30 miles of constant pedaling up and down hills is probably comparable to more like 50 miles on a geared/freewheeling bike.


My fixed bike as it looks today.


Before the latest paint job.

See also: http://sheldonbrown.com/fixed/

Well said!!

[WabiFGSS]

My 1st gen MacBook iPhoto doesn't support my mu43 gear. Attached is a low res jpeg taken with a PS camera. Bit too cold in the shop. So temp shop in the basement. Sorry for the quality of the image.

49cm Wabi Classic in Desert Turquoise. Bit more blue than the '80's Bianchi Celeste color. Stock bike except seat post is an 80's vintage Campy Super Record (50gm lighter than stock). Pedals are Look Keo. Wheels are 24 spoke 14/15g db. Stock is 32 spoke @ ~1750/set. These weigh in ~1650 gm/set. Have a set of Schwalle UH ZX that run 120gm less/pair than the Kenda stock tires. The Michelin A1/B1 tubes will knock another 80gm/pair off the wheel mass. Bike weighs in sub #18.

Only issue is the rear Kenda tire. On the rollers the bit of bump is annoying. Checked the rim. Round and true. Handlebars are bit too high relative to what I'm use to. Will put a few hours on the road before deciding if and how much to cut.