Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Advice on First Fixed Gear

Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.



PDA

View Full Version : Advice on First Fixed Gear

cronism
06-21-09, 04:08 PM
I'm looking to purchase my first fixed gear, and I was wondering if anyone had some advice on some of the low end models I've been looking at. I'm hoping to get something cheap before determining if I want to really invest in a fixed gear. I'm looking to ride it to work and around town. My work's only a couple of miles from home, but uphill. I've been looking at the Specialized Langster, the Schwinn Cutter, the Schwinn Madison, as well as the bikes from the following link.

http://www.crosslakesales.com/items/item.aspx?itemid=874461

I don't need anything fancy, but I don't want to buy something that's going to fall apart, and I'm hoping it won't be super uncomfortable either. Do the parts on the cross lake bikes look good? Do the Schwinn's hold up decently? I've only ridden mountain bikes (years ago), so I'm just getting in to this. Thanks for your help...

dougland89
06-21-09, 04:11 PM
search. that's a horrible bike.
Scrodzilla
06-21-09, 05:53 PM
Search the forums for Crosslake Sales. Someone did a pretty cohesive review of one a while back and I know a handful of people here have them.

I have one of their frames (black 55cm) that I got for dirt cheap from a friend of a friend that I've been slowly building up and it's a pretty rad frame with big, oversized tubes...built pretty tough with decent welds and paint. From what I've heard, most of the parts that come on the complete bike are garbage-worthy (seat, bars, brake levers, tires) but even the worst will get you by for a while. If you buy the Crosslake complete, you should probably be prepared to shell out some extra money for a few upgrades right off the bat.

Check out BikesDirect:
http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/trackbikes.htm

or if you can afford it, my opinion is go with the Madison.