Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - had to ride my geared road bike, this ever happen to you?

for some reason the bottom half of my headset on my IRO decided to fall apart, guess it was just some bad bearings or something, so I had to take it into the shop (I lack the tools and the know-how for the moment to try and install new bearings myself)

so I had to ride my old roadie into work (haven't touched it since I got the IRO) I found it extremely difficult to ride at first! It was such a weird feeling, it ended up taking me almost 10 minutes longer to get into work! I know that part of this is due to quality of parts but man was it annoying, I was so frustrated by the whole thing that I spent the first two hours of work planning on how to convert it, gotta save up for a ENO hub for the rear, make it into a "rain bike" or something .... yeah thats my excuse.....

now I just have to convince my wife

*off to go do my taxes so I can spend the refund on my new project*

careful when you get the fixie back.

I find that when I ride my geared road bike I pretty much use a single gear, although it is nice to gear up and crank down hills sometimes. The coasting is what really throws me off.

it's always pretty scary when you hop on a geared bike, are rolling toward an intersection, try to backpedal to slow down, and nothing happens. i have to keep reminding myself that i have to use the brakes when i'm freewheeling it.

I've had to do it several times. right now my fixed wheel is broken so I'm riding my dad's old bike. at first it felt totally crappy. Then I felt slow and lazy. Then I started to get used to it and now I'm starting to understand why people like these early 80's Merckx frames with campy record. I am getting tired of having to take it inside wherever I go, although it did give me some cred at my LBS.

The first time I drove after riding my first fix for two months, I tried to backpedal on the clutch and ended up running a stop sign.

learning to corner while pedaling is what gets me whenever I come back to the fix. its kind of sad when you've been riding for a few years and almost get thrown turning into your own driveway.

tim

After a week getting used to fixed riding, the weather turned and I had to ride my s/s mountain bike. so, no gearing problem, but the whole coasing thing is weird now. I'm tempted to not ride a freewheeled bike on the road ever again, unless it's like actual 'street' riding - bmx style sort of stuff...