Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - No Quero Tacoed Tire

Well, I was doing a mod to my old Viscount road bike, amking it a SS and when I was oging to test it I hit a small pothole (half the size of a dollar and less than an inch deep) just right (wrong) and now my read tire looks like you could order it off a TacoBell menu. Luckily I was able to keep it upright, but I had to carry it 2 miles home. Fun Fun. So I figure that I'm not going to put any more money into the CroMo frame, 27" wheeled, 10 speed, 35+ year old bike. I'll just hang the frame on my wall, and now I'm looking at the Felt TK2 (http://www.feltracing.com/2005_bikes/large_photos/2005_tk2.html).
So hopefully I can get the Felt soon (I'll have the money in a couple weeks). But for now I'm a helpless pedestrian who is having to rely on *dum dum dum* public transportation.

sorry I don't understand what you mean? You ruined your tire? or your wheel? How on earth would you taco your wheel from a little hole like that (your rear wheel no less)? Or taco your wheel (ie. fold it on itself) and manage to not crash? You may be able to just get it trued back to normal.

That felt is ridiculously more expensive than replacing a rear wheel which could be done for almost free if you want to do a single speed wheel. Also the felt is a brakeless track bike, quite a different beast from a single speed road bike. I'm not sure exactly what you want to know...

Yeah ... if you taco your wheel, you literally fold the rim like a taco shell ... there's no way you could do that on a little pothole...

It sounds more like a pinchflat or something.

But then again, if you're looking for a reason to get a felt, and just need an excuse, I guess something like this works. But heed Shiznaz. SS road conversion is much different than a steep track fixie.

Also for what a felt costs I personally think you could do much better as far as fixies go. Especially if you're just starting out and don't know what you're getting into.

I've ridden my friend's fixie before, and loved it, it is a track bike. Many times we'll take turns doing laps around the block.

But my tire looks quite literally like this ( . I wasn't clipped in and I stopped as fast as possible, and there was MUCH skidding and wobbling, but I managed to keep the bike rightside up with me not sliding across the pavement.

I know that it would cost very little to replace the wheel, but yes, I'm also looking for reasons to get a new bike. Also I want to get better on a fixie because after my graduation (High School) on the 11th, I'm not going to have any money for a while because I'm moving, and I want to start racing next year maybe. But who knows. I'll probably get a new tire for it at some point. Then I'll have 2 bikes.


EDIT: Any suggestions on fixies that are good for commuting and are also able to be raced?

I still don't understand. You need to make a distinction between 'tire' and 'wheel'. A flat tire is an absolutely terrible reason to buy a 1400USD track bike...

As for track bikes, there will be tons of people to chime in on this. Do a search through the forums because theres literally hundreds of threads on this. but with a 1400USD budget, you can pretty much get what you like. I would reccomend you splurge on the wheels though.

Wheel. The tire (rubber) is fine, not even a !pop! but the rim looks like a roller coaster, and many spokes are bent beyond repair.

well I would at least go down to the local bike emporium and see if you can get an old threaded road bike wheel that you can spin a single speed freewheel on to. They may have to redish it, but its a pretty simple process for a mechanic. Its a shame to have a bike off the road (and you), while you wait for your fancy new bike. Also I guaruntee you will be afraid to lock your fancy new bike up and will end up fixing your road bike anyways, so you might as well do that now.


It seems like you are in the market for an alunimum techy looking bike. I got mine from Spicer and I absolutely love it. Gene is an amazing guy and could fix you up with a majestic bike on your budget. Tony at IRO cycles also has an excellent reputation and could get you on the road for pretty much the best cost/quality out there. IRO has steel and AL frames, so maybe you need to think about what you want your new frame to be made of first.

I'll check out IRO cycles. There's a dealer in cambridge, I may give them a visit.

Sounds like one or more spokes broke. They were probably ready to break and the tiny pothole was just the right catalyst. The wheel may be repairable.

I took a REALLY good look at it and the only thing that's salvageable would be the hub and bearings. The rim has a crack near where the valve hole is. You have to keep in mind that this is the ORIGIONAL rim that came on the bike (Late 60's/Early 70's).

As for new rides I think I'll go for a IRC Mark V Pro, it's a chro-mo bike (which I currently have). Does anyone know what cog comes on the back? 14? 16? I didn't find it on the site.

I would assume a 15, but you should be able to choose what size you want when ordering the bike.

Splurge on the wheels and cranks (ie. the drive train), they are the bits you want to be high quality. That is if you still have a large budget. It would not be a bad idea to put the extra money into a beer fund as you will soon be at college and poor.

Yes, if you were willing to dump all that cash on a FELT, and now you're considering an IRO...Go for an upgrade on the Crank, and the Wheels would be my suggestion.

If you're really feeling like having some fun...just by the frameset from IRO and then build up the bike with nice/upgraded components...

Perhaps some Campy Pista Cranks...Level Compponents/Mavic CXP33 Wheels and a nice set of chromed Nitto Drops...

Um, sorry... "I don't want" in Spanish is: "No quiero". Bad Spanish bothers me.

The Mark V Pro is really nice. You can pick any cog froom 13 to 18 when you order, if I remember correctly. If I were you, I'd just throw in the extra $100 and get Tony's deluxe wheelset. His hubs are really quite nice, and with the deep-V's, it makes for a nearly bulletproof wheelset. Highly recommended - just make sure you get double fixed instead of fixed/free on the rear hub.

As far as cranks go, the IRO ones are actually really nice. They're not Campy by any means, but they are really decent quality. The 46 tooth ring is really burly. I'd say save your money for now on the cranks and use the IROs. You can always upgrade later if you want.

Hey, when you get that new bike, watch out; new wheels don't handle holes in the ground much better than old ones. Even the $250 wheels on $500 frames.

even better: $500 wheels on a $250 frame. I'm thinking there must have been some serious issues for that wheel to have broken on the pothole he described. It probably was waiting to happen, something that probably will not happen on a well built bombproof set of alloy wheels (rather than crappy corroded steel rimmed wheels with dead spokes and not enough tension). Anyways, its more fun to hop over or go around potholes anyways.

If it was normal for a hole like that to kill wheels, I'd go through a set of wheels every week at a minimum. The town I live in has terrible roads, and it's often a matter of choosing the lesser of the potholes to hit. And I can't hop **** on a freewheel, so there'll be no hopping of anything on a fix.

Maybe his weels were just tired, and really wanted him to get a new bike.

It probably was waiting to happen, something that probably will not happen on a well built bombproof set of alloy wheels (rather than crappy corroded steel rimmed wheels with dead spokes and not enough tension).

could be a lousy redishing job.

sounds more like a tostada

I looked under that little piece of rubber covering the spokes on the inside of the rim and to my surprise, there was TONS of rust. Hmmm, the one part I forgot to look at, of course!

LoFarkas: Lo Siento, Yo no vi eso cuando yo mecanografiado el titulo.
(I don't know where all the accents are, sorry)
(I took 4 years of spanish and spent a month in Peru)

as far as buying a brand new felt
i don't know if i'd want to have a brand new felt bike as my commuter bike.. /shrug/

80,MutRider: Entonces deberías saber que "cuando yo mecanografiado" tampoco es correcto; mecanografié más bien. Pero no importa, me gusta que haya algunos aquí que hablan español:-)
Lo que me irrita de verdad es que alguien tiene un pedazo de mal español en su nick... ya no sé quien. Si quiere parecer "trendy", que lo busque en un diccionario, por lo menos.