astroman

i know i'm a total woos. even my wife thinks so! but i have, kinda, lost my faith in fixed after an over the bars last year (wheel shifted in track ends while out of saddle accelerating), i keep moving between fixed and free. i enjoy the fix and then get to worrying about some kind of freak drivetrain incident, so i swap back. now, i'm a week on fix and then a week off on ss. I know its pathetic, but anyone else lose their mojo?

cs1

Going over the bars has that effect on the average person. You'll get over it in time. Good luck

Soil_Sampler

(wheel shifted in track ends while out of saddle accelerating)

Confidence.

astroman

you are both right, thank you. i keep meaning to pick up one of those thingys.

surfrider

Yep. Couldn't get comfortable with fixed, so I flipped the wheel and now ride exclusively freewheel. Fixed might work well in cities with short streets (NYC comes to mind), but here in the Los Angeles suburbs, with long blocks and flat terrain, freewheelin' is just doesn't seem practical. Since I'm on flat terrain with long stretches of road with few (or no) traffic lights, I up'd the front chainring to 53T (rear is 16T), and the bike can eat up miles pretty well.

jet sanchEz

His wheel shifted because the nuts were not tightented properly....how will this help?

iansmash

because it can't shift forward w/ tensioners?




and to the OP...stop being a *****

robbunker.

can it?

jet sanchEz

Let's say the nuts were not tightened properly---the only way the wheel will shift forward is if he was riding backwards.

Tensioners are only for tensioning the chain, they provide nothing else.

iansmash

i'm pretty sure the tensioners will not physically allow the wheel to move forwards w/o loosening the tensioner

p120ud213azn

so fixed doesnt work well in cities and freewheel doesnt work well in suburbs... what are u saying? lol

and to the op, i went over the bar twice in 24hrs in 2008. i jumped right back. dont worry tighten everything before every ride!!

roadfix

correct answer

aMull

Stuff can happen on a freewheel too if not properly set up.

91MF

its ok man, i lost my confidence once after a crash. then, after a small search, it was located near the sewer grate by the curb.

elTwitcho

Pretty sure that if your track nuts aren't tightened properly the wheel will be just as likely to shift forward during sprinting whether you're riding fixed or not

roadfix

Stuff can happen on any ride, not just fixed.
In fact, I feel a bit more secure on the fixed gear than on my geared bikes.

anthegreat1

similar thing happened to me. get a tensioner

dayvan cowboy

after about a month of riding fixed I threw my chain going down a hill(my own fault, chain was too loose) and after that I didn't ride down hills at all for awhile. Seeing as i live in a really hilly area and my bike is how I get around 95% of the time, I had to get over that pretty quick.

mugatu

Here's the thing about riding fixed. It's fun, but it's not the only way to ride. I started out riding fixed, and did it for about 4 years, now I have a road bike, which is also fun, and a ss mtb, which is super fun too. Riding bikes is fun, don't limit yourself.

cobrabyte

I went over the bars once when my left foot slipped off the pedal in a turn. It was a geared road bike.
Did i stop riding geared road bikes? no. I stopped riding bikes with no foot retention.
It seems what your chain did could have happend just as easily if the wheel was running on the freewheel side.
Fixed gear isn't what used your crash, poor maintenance was. you're blaming the wrong thing for what caused your wreck & that's not gonna fix your problem.
Tighten your bolts better & use a tensioner

stephenhatesyou

**** yeah. so stoked to read someone writing something like this on this forum.

if anything, i think that the best outcome of the track bike/fixed gear fad is the birth of many lifelong cyclists. kinda like when green day put out "dookie" -- it was kind of a slap in the face to the punk/diy community insofar as being the catalyst for a counterculture being cheapened and made into a commodity... but it was also a jumping-off point for a lot of people who mightn't have been exposed to it otherwise. sure, it was a passing thing for a huge amount of people, but i've met a lot of great, community-minded & active kids whose first tape or cd was dookie. just as i'm sure in the future i'll meet a lot of avid & passionate cyclists who might have gotten into track bikes because they are trendy or whatever. this whole fixed gear phenomenon could be seen as a giant opened door.

either way, get your expensive italian road frames now, because i imagine they'll spike in price in the next few years...!

astroman

well, yes indeed, inherent danger everywhere. it's probably cause i ride fg/ss way more than the road bike that all my accidents have been on that bike. i guess it was a shock after three years or so of riding fg to have such a weird thing happen and hitting middle age means my body does not cope with real heavy hits. but like i said in opening, i flip back and forth, i'm sure the hoodoo will pass. either than or i'll find a nice bubble to set up home. maybe seinfeld might drop by.

Soil_Sampler

slloth

Losing Mojo? Watch these twice a day. Repeat till symptoms are gone.

If lack of mojo still persists. Hang with local fixed riders at least once a week. You'll make it through this.


Also

ADSR

I've always had pretty strong faith in fixed riding. I'm pretty much an atheist when it comes to my own mechanical skills.