Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Unicyclist going fixed-gear

I've unicycled for the last few years, and I haven't ridden anything else during that time. But lately I've had an itching to buy a road-bike. I've heard about fixies, and I figure it would be easy to transfer from a unicycle to one. I know nothing about bikes. So, if anyone could help me out on getting started, and choosing a bike, that would be great. A flip-flop hub sounds like it would be a nice medium. But I don't know where to begin, and I don't think any of the dealers around me sell fixed-gear bikes, so I'll probably have to make one myself.

begin here
http://sheldonbrown.com/fixed/index.html

specifically here...
http://sheldonbrown.com/fixed-conversion.html

or if you just want to take the guesswork out of building it yourself, try here...
http://www.irocycle.com/


got any unicycling tips?

I've unicycled for the last few years, and I haven't ridden anything else during that time.

you are going to ROCK a fixed gear.... no matter what you get

I just visited a local bike store and they had a single speed Specialized with a flipflop hub for 529.99. It looked nice, but that's about all the money I'm willing to spend.

I'd rather buy a high quality used bike than a lower quality new one. Is Specialized a good company? It would be helpful if I knew what the best names in cycling were.

Dustin Brand Awesome Bikes.

GET AWESOME TODAY!

Lotsa brands have a decent fixed/singlespeed bike. I've heard good reviews of IRO, and Tony, who runs it, has a great reputation as an all-around awesome guy. He also hangs out in our forums.

Otherwise, you've got Specialized, Bianchi, Raleigh, and a few other companies, as well as the option of converting a road bike with horizontal dropouts. If you can find an old road bike, I'd recommend IRO's fixed gear wheel set for easy and trouble free conversion. That's what I run, and I like it a lot.

Road conversions have slack (comfy) angles, but lower bottom brackets, leading to frequent pedal-strike (where the pedal hits the ground when you turn). I'd not recommend them. Purpose-built fixed gear road bicycles (like the Surly or the IRO) are good choices for general riding. If you like a really responsive, twitchy ride, and are maybe thinking of taking it to the track, consider the Bianchi Pista, or getting a track frame and building it up yourself.

I don't know much about the langster (specialized), but check the head-tube and seat-tube angles. ~75 degrees is more "trackish" and ~70 degrees is more "roadish".

I DO think that conversions of old horizontal-dropout MTBs are awesome bikes though, as they have the high BB's, and general "not like every other bloody fixie I see everywhere" value. But you need a 135 mm hub for these.

...but don't avoid road frames just because of fear of pedal strike. Hundreds of us on these forums have ridden road conversions for millions of miles w/o killing ourselves from pedal strike. I've struck a few times (but oddly, never on a fixed gear) but once I learned how to ride well it never happened again. I do a several road races per year on a road-fixed.

If you are handy with a wrench, have some patience, some advice (such as that from Sheldon and the rest of us here), and ideally access to a good LBS or community bike shop/coop/junkyard with used parts access you can build a good first fixie pretty cheap. One of my main rides (since upgraded seriously) was super trusty for over a year and cost a grand total of 200 bucks. And even though everyone will tell you that Suzue jr's are crap, if you find a hub or wheel super cheap with those, ride it for a while...