Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - What was your path to SS/Fixed gear?

Potential newbie here
I looked in my garage and realized that I had too many geared bikes.

I'm wondering about other cyclists first steps toward SS/FG (ignoring the fact that we ALL started as Single speed bikers in our youths')

My first baby steps:

I'm looking to convert the Dawes Galaxy (a fine old steed) to Single Speed (alas, my knees will demand a freewheel).
But I've been timid about the whole process (cost, procedure, the idea of ripping all the old stuff off the bike). I've done plenty of research and the folks down at Revolution Cycle in Madison have given me a wealth of info.

LAst night I decided to take a step and removed the Front Derailleur along with DT lever and cable, and the large Chain ring. Remounted small chainring (fits tight, but will need some shorter bolts). I rode the bike around as a 5-speed cruiser and it did indeed feel a bit liberating to have less 'stuff' on the bike. I rekon I should ride it and keep it in certain gears to figure which gear gives me what I need. The small chainring is a 40 so I'm leaning towards a 17-18 on the back. Bike has some straight bars, but I'm thinking some downbars will be better.

I'm selling some old bike stuff to pay to have a wheel built right w/track hub (don't try to convince me to use what I got...) plus the cog... planning to use it as a winter commuter.

I'm just curious about how some of you came to the lean and mean

Heard about it, read about it on this forum and others, including Sheldon Brown. Then my main road bike broke a chain stay. I found an old frame on Ebay for $20 that was I was planning to move parts over to. Then Fuji stepped up and said they would replace my frame. So the $20 frame sat and I started collecting parts until I built up my fixie.

It will never replace my road bike, but I love it for commutes, bad weather/winter rides and the like. We often have fun rides/pub crawls, and it's my steed of choice for those, as well.

Plus track stands & riding backwards freaks people out!

First, I heard about messengers riding brakeless fixies. Then I found sheldonbrown.com and the FGG. Started reading about fixie/SS riding, found BF. Realised I have 28 superfluous gears. I relised I'd love a light, silent, simple, elegant, reliable bike for commuting that doesn't get stolen. I only had an MTB, so I built up my road fixie/SS when I had some money and free time. Loving it.

Sheldon Brown. I was looking for info on Sturmey-Archer 3-speeds - I've never liked deraillers. Now I have 6 freewheel removal tools.

my younger brother gave me his old road bike, and when i took it into the shop to fix it up one of the guys was working on making one of his old bikes a single-speed, so he helped me through the process

I saw an old road bike with a bmx freewheel parked on campus one day back in 1997. I think I was struck by the elegant simplicity and the clean lines of that bike. Until then I had never seen a singlespeed conversion. I guess I thought that it might be fun to convert my old '82 Trek 12-speed (aka Big Blue) into a singlespeed. I bought a $12 bmx freewheel and screwed it on to my old freewheel hub. Removed the small ring, shortened the chain and I was off. I started out with a 52x16 gearing. The chainline was off by a mile, but I didn't know about such things back then. About 3 years later I stumbled upon the Sheldon Brown website while trying to overhaul an old Raleigh 3-speed that I had found found in a neighbor's dumpster. I read the fixed-gear conversion testimonials on his website. Soon after, I converted Big Blue into a fixed-gear by buying a proper (albeit cheap) rear wheel with cog and lockring.

Every geared bike I ever owned stayed in the most comfortable gear the whole time, maybe I'd change it if i hit a steep hill but most of the time I'd just forget about the gears. Why keep all these parts on my bike that I don't use, singlespeed just made sense.

As for fixed, I just wanted to try fixed gear just to see what it was like. I never met anyone who had one so I just built my own. Of course now I see them everywhere, I guess I just didn't notice them before.

I broke the derailler hanger on my old MTB. I still can't figure out how to fix it.

jeff

About 5-6 years ago I was in NYC for my birthday, walking around. I saw a bunch of messengers. At this point I was just getting into road cycling. While looking at some knock-off stuff being sold out of a garbage bag, this guy rides up and skids right up to the "Seller" and starts talking to him. I ended up talking to him about his bike and he explained the whole fixed-gear concept and stuff to me. Guy's name was Matt, he was riding some kind of un-marked lugged steel track frame. Had bullhorn bars, twisted spokes, etc. I thought it was really cool.

Then I kinda forgot about it for a while. I got into road cycling. I got back out of road cycling. A little over a year ago I picked it up again at college and started racing. My campus bike was giving me crap and I remembered Matt. I began to talk about maybe building it into a FG with my buddy who now is my roommate. He ended up building one first (a sweet vintage Motobecane), and I rode it a few times and knew for sure it was what i wanted. I made my campus bike into a fixed gear. The bottom bracket shell ended up cracking on that frame. I got my current frame and built it into something I really like and enjoy. I'm not planning to build up another one with a bike I recently aquired.

I was a dork when I first got into it. That hasn't really changed, but my taste in frames has gotten MUCH better.

My deralier exploded on my department store schwinn moutain bike, so I kinda had no choice. Then my friend's friend came over with his wacky bike that could pedal backwards and had no brakes wearing a bag on his back with a seatbelt buckle as a quick release and the rest is history.

30 years ago, in high school, a couple of the older guys i idolized had track bikes and i thought they were the coolest thing in the world (to be sure, i thought everything these guys did was the coolest). 25 years later i found a track bike at a garage sale down the street from my house (my son was looking for a skateboard) and i recalled, in a flash, those old days i had forgotten. once i got the bike up and running, i fell in love with it; there was no turning back. after a couple of years i began to research the bike on the web; that's when i found fgg, and sheldon, and the rest of y'all. who'd a thunk it?

I became curious after seeing someone I used to cycle with on a Bianchi Pista. I searched around on the web, including here & Sheldon Brown. I figured it would be fun & a great training tool for road racing. Now, we have acquired 3 (a Bianchi Pista, IRO Mark V, & a Kogswell Model G) since February. I built the Kogswell for my girlfriend who started cycling less than a year ago. My son rides the Bianchi. He did 35.5mph a couple times & won the sprint with a group of road racers (on their muti-speeds) the other day. He was riding with 48/18 gearing. That translates to a cadence of 170. And, I'm riding the IRO. That's pretty much all I'm riding now & I'll save my Litespeed for racing.

I'm looking to convert the Dawes Galaxy (a fine old steed) to Single Speed (alas, my knees will demand a freewheel).

That seems like a non-sequitur to me. I know of no evidence that suggests fixed gear is any harder on your knees.

I do know that it is more FUN! Try it before you reject it. Your Galaxy would make a very nice fixer.

See: http://sheldonbrown.com/fixed

Sheldon "Fixed Is More Fun" Brown


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| Faith is believing what you know ain't so. --Mark Twain |
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In deference to Sheldon, perhaps I should say:
I'm looking to convert the Dawes Galaxy (a fine old steed) to Single Speed (alas, my knees MAY demand a freewheel).
Alright, alright... mebbe you are right... I think I just need to creep into it slowly, with a freewheel and brake. If they load a flip flop track hub on the wheel, mebbe I will have the option of a fixed gear on the other side... and then I can try the skippity-dee-doo dah. I'm an old over-fifty-geezer with multiple knee operations and all the rot.


I broke the derailler hanger on my old MTB. I still can't figure out how to fix it.

reminds me of one comment the Rev Cycles boy said...
"there are hundreds of bikes around Madison with rusted derailleurs... they are single speed by default they just don't know it"

A former roommate of mine had an old trek conversion. I only lived with the guy for a couple months, but I rode his bike a couple times and it was fun. I've been thinking about getting a ss/fixie for a while now. I think I'll actually buy one by christmas time. I'm not sure if I should buy one off the rack or fix up an old road bike yet.

I converted my Schwinn Traveler to S/S merely to find out why someone would want only one gear. Did it with spare parts and bargain basement new stuff. In the process I have come to appreciate the silent running and the cheap repairs. I get more enjoyment out of my <$200 investment than I ever did with my more expensive Cannondale. In fact, I sold the C-dale last month.

Read the SS/Fixed forums for the last couple months, ran into 3 folks that have fixies here, got to ride them (two of them) and the realization that 'geared' is only fun when I am sick or feeling lazy.

So...I'm ordering an IRO Rob Roy (with a flip flop hub hopefully) and the rest will be history...until I save up enough to buy an IRO Angus next year sometime. My geared bike will be demoted to backup bike, or set up for touring perhaps, either way - it'll become numero dos. I can't stand the idea of parting with any bike really anymore, with the mileage and the time spent with them, I feel like they've got souls now; how pantheonistic of me.

When I was a wee lad, I had a Huffy BMX bike that I rode the **** out of before moving on to an early Giant mountain bike. Then I stopped riding in high school and college...never saw the messengers in downtown Baltimore while I was there. When I got to Boston last summer, I picked up my current Giant, but I also saw a bunch of fixies/singlespeeds on the streets (probably some of you guys before I met you) and got interested.

After figuring out what the hell those bikes were, I checked out sheldonbrown.com (just like everyone else) and started to learn about them and get psyched. So this summer, noticing that I was lagging on my "ride everyday" plan, I threw down and got my Jamie Roy off eBay, figuring that if I didn't ride and had two bikes sitting around, I'd feel like a real *******. Sure enough, that worked, and now I've offloaded the Giant on my better half, while building up The Steamroller of Doom (just got the fork cut some more).

Two things.

1) I moved to Alameda CA from San Francisco. If you aren't familiar with the San Francisco Bay area, it's a flat island in the middle of the bay. I didn't think I needed gears to get around and a fixed gear hit the spot.

2) Read sheldon brown's site on fixed gear bicycles and was sold.

"If you aren't familiar with the San Francisco Bay area, it's a flat island in the middle of the bay. "

Could have sworn there were some hills here this morning...

I tried a friend's. Strangest thing I ever rode, but I had to have one.

Any possibility that fixed would be better for knees? It seems that with a low enough gear and a good set of brakes, it might help strengthen the knees even more in a low-impact sort of way.

I'm not trying to shoot anyone down, just sayin'.

As I was getting into biking and bike repair I was reading lots of websites (this one, sheldonbrown, various others) naturally I saw a lot of stuff about fixed gear also. Some time passed and I got a nice new geared bike, then decided I wanted to convert my old bike that I learned repair on to fixed gear. However I quickly realized that it wouldn't work super well (/real/ bad toe overlap (it's a small frame and has fenders), bottom bracket that is in bad shape, bent fork, just not worth it). So I started looking at getting another bike to build into a conversion. I rode (geared) the Chicago Century with some of these folks and got more excited about it, and soon after got a good deal on an old Colnago perfect for converting. I'm still a fixie newbie, I've only got a bit over 100 fixed miles on me so far. Oh, and I rode solostyle's Pista like the day before I finished my build, but only for a block or two.

raced (competitive) and track (fun) in the early 90's
exploded my knees, had surgery and stopped riding

wanted to start riding again 10 years later, but was broke and the only one of my bikes left was an old fixie conversion i'd left in my mom's basement.

as soon as i got on it i remembered why riding fixed was so great (and geared too, but fixed is more, purer fun).

I tried a friend's. Strangest thing I ever rode, but I had to have one.

Any possibility that fixed would be better for knees? It seems that with a low enough gear and a good set of brakes, it might help strengthen the knees even more in a low-impact sort of way.

I'm not trying to shoot anyone down, just sayin'.

dunno about fixed being better for knees, but i DO know that trail-running has done wonders for my stapled-and-glued together knees, it's like having brand new ones.

ymmv.

needed a new bike and like going fast. i had never heard about fixed gear bikes, didn't see them on the street only knew about them from racing, so i tried one out at the store and loved it and bought it.

"If you aren't familiar with the San Francisco Bay area, it's a flat island in the middle of the bay. "

Could have sworn there were some hills here this morning...

I guess I should have said Alameda is a flat island in the middle of the bay. I'm pretty sure I've ridden all of Alameda and haven't come across anything bigger than speed bumps.

I was getting into biking again... hadn't really been into it since I was a kid. Saw some guy on a bike with no brakes, got very confused. A friend explained it to me... I tried one out at a store and thought it was OK. Aquired a Peugeot frame for zero cash, found a used fixed wheel attached to yet another, better Peugeot frame for $50, decided what the hell and went for it since I liked the frame anyways. Have ridden it for about a month now, maybe more, and god damn I never want to go back to geared bikes, it just feels light and springy. Maybe it didn't help that I was riding a 40-50 pound behometh for a road bike. Whenever I get on the road bike again (because my fixie has been having some BB issues of late that will be remedied before the week is out) I feel really weird and don't like it. I ride pretty much every day at least 20 miles, aggressively through traffic, as fast as possible and this bike is perfect. (disclaimer: I don't piss drivers off on purpose and I do my best not to ride like a moron... I just push myself hard is all).

jamie thomas borrowed my front wheel for a halloween prop n didnt get it back to me for a month. i worked at a bike shop n the mech had one so we ordered a fixed wheelset cause i didnt expect to get my wheel back. it was rad. i was getting bored riding beachcruisers and i didnt really like my bike geared. it was meant to be.

I had a mountain bike that I was going to upgrade the deraileurs on but I was strapped for cash so I bought the gussett single speed kit... I rode that nearly everyday and loved having only one gear.... then I acquired an old road bike so I stripped that one down and redished the back wheel and threaded on a bmx freewheel....while searching around here and sheldons website I kept hearing about fixed gear bikes and how great they are (I agree by the way)....so I finally found a fixed conversion for sale and bought it.... haven't ridden any of my other bikes since...now I am planning on building up an older (95 I think) raleigh m50 mountain bike into a fixed gear commuter bike with racks and fenders the whole nine yards....oh and all of my friends think I am crazy for riding a bike that doesn't coast

While growing up in NYC and commuting to college on my beat up hand me down hercules 10 = 1 speed, I saw the messengers go from ratty "english racers" to something un-imaginably elegant. What appeared was something striped of all things un-necessary for the streets of Manhattan, handle bars cut down to the point which fist was against fist, no deraileurs, no cables, no levers, and you can't coast. Lean hungry machines that suggested a preditorial animal crossed between a spider and a cat..... An then the track stand! Someday... I said.

Moved to NYC in may from school in maine with a ****ty, inherited motobecane. Made a promise not to take public transportation and then fell in with the "wrong crowd" One friend of mine had this bumblebee black and yellow KHS. No brakes so I assumed it must be a coaster bike. First time I got on it I was blown away and confused as hell. Found oldschooltrack.com/sheldon brown/63xc and finally took the plunge and bought a peugeot road frame that had previously been fixed. That was three months ago. Since then I've sold the moto, built the peugeot up from a frame, sold the peugeot and built my baby up (pogliaghi track bike). I'm never looking back.

would love to have one...i wanted this since my dad bought me a 10 speed something or other when i was 12 and hated it. I want one but my size wont let me have one unless its a mtb...and they are not for sale as much as the road bikes.

couldnt afford a deraileur. could afford a cog.
best 8 bucks i ever spent.

I moved into Atlanta five years ago and found that I hated driving in city traffic. I was walking everywhere for a while until I saw what I later recognized to be fixed gear bikes locked up at school. It wasn't really the simplicity of them that got me. my first thought was that they were like the BMX version of road bikes so they must be super strong and durable (one of the first ones I noticed was a steamroller with cross tires on it) and only for really badas* people. I did the requisite internet searching. Two months later I got an almost new Fuji Track off e-bay for $250. Its painted army green now but its still my daily ride.

tim

I had my geared commuter bike stolen while I was at work. So was in need of a new bike. Uncle came to the rescue with his late 60's Wearwell road bike (never heard of this bike before and apparently no one else has either because I can find nothing on it). All of the components were super heavy, well worn and dirty. So I stripped it, repainted it and viola, made it fixed. I chose fixed on the rebuild for 2 reasons, I didn't want a flashy bike to make it a target to be stolen and I pretty much rode in one gear most of the time so it was logical to me to ditch all of the unnecessary gears.

i rode an old raleigh single-speed beater bike for a while and loved how simple it was. at the time i was screenprinting a space1026 in philly a lot and one of the guys i who worked there saw my bike an said, "if you like that, you'll love riding fixed gear". when i asked why, he said it was fluid, intuitive and fun, so i thought about it and i figured maybe i'd give it a shot. at the time tho, i didn't want to give up my single speed and didn't want to spend the loot on a new bike. so i eventually forgot about it.

a few months later i was at my corner bar and a buddy of mine was complaining about how his bike was too tall (he's like 5' tall) and he wanted to sell it. i'm 6'4" so i checked it out and it was a rad 80's fuji racing bike. so i bought it off him and had it converted to a fixed. in about a week i gave my roommate the raliegh and i've been riding fixed ever since.

i rode a $15 yard sale road bike around the city for a year, and then came across a singlespeed schwinn prelude, and bought that. 4 months later a bought a fuji track. i love fixed gear and eventually got a wheelset for the fuji, and now i have a track bike and a fixie. it's great.

now i'm looking for a lugged steel frame to put my dura ace wheelset on!

I got sick and tired of looking at an old Speicalized M2 Road frame in the garage, but didn't want to spend $1000 on new wheels, gruppo etc. $200 later I have pretty cool fixed...

I would say simplicity of a SS got to me. Took my BMX cruiser out on the trails, since my peddling bent the derailler hanger on my MTB. After one session through the trail system, I "found the light". Ditched the gears and have not looked back since. Setting things up for the next step, going fix geared.

That seems like a non-sequitur to me. I know of no evidence that suggests fixed gear is any harder on your knees.


Anegdotal supporting evidence here - after a skiing accident (torn knee ligaments) I took high cadence, low stress cycling on first SS and then FG to rebuild my knee. After 5 months I am walking without limping again. Besides, riding my road bike is more fun now as well.

That seems like a non-sequitur to me. I know of no evidence that suggests fixed gear is any harder on your knees.


Anegdotal supporting evidence here - after a skiing accident (torn knee ligaments) I took high cadence, low stress cycling on first SS and then FG to rebuild my knee. After 5 months I am walking without limping again. Besides, riding my road bike is more fun now as well.