Hi all well thought Id type up a quick thread on my fixie experience for the last 2 weeks. I bought the bike to commute on (IRO Angus) and have so far commuted 4 times round trip. At 60 miles a pop ive got approx. 240-250miles on the Angus.
First morning - was a bit nervous staring at the shiny new bike I had sold off my Ti Merlin for...what the hell you only live once right. Hmmm pink, while I think pink looks good on bikes (wife told me only way to get another bike is if it is pink! Ha! Had the bike ordered in less then an hour later). Am I going to be constantly dodging projectiles from rednecks?
Hit the road, ride in is a 29.8 mile trek from Hayward to Sunnyvale. Pics of my commute can be seen here
http://bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=175981
Hit the road and almost immediately tried to coast! WRONG!! About went over the handlebars...did this a couple more times in the next few miles and wondered if I had made a mistake. Also almost rear-ended a couple of cars, pedestrians, sidewalks LoL. Stopping definitely takes some getting used to.
By mile ten I was starting to get into the groove of things, nice peppy cadence and I felt like I was flying...by now I had picked up that I needed to scan waaay ahead for oncoming obstacles to begin the slowing down process. Oh and my thoughts of using the front brake for emergencies quickly went out the window as I didn’t have the control to stop fast enough. The poor front deep V rims howled each time I applied the brake (powdercoated)
Mile 20 I was cruising along a mut (one near the golf course if you looked at the pics) and a damn bee flew right into my mouth! And then proceeded to sting my on the inside of my lower lip....****e. To be honest I was more worried about the big nasty bee in my mouth and getting it out to realize I had been stung. Five minutes later I had a nice fat lip
- I show up to work with my heart pounding, not used to pedaling this much I suppose...day one complete. Funny thing is I usually have a spare set of shoes for when I commute - for whatever dumb reason I took them home so I had to work all day with a phat lip, wearing sidi's and a pink bike in my cube ROFL - look on my bosses face = priceless.
Day 2 of commuting was GREAT - flew into work without issue and made great time! I had thought I may be slower on a fixed as opposed to my geared bike. Seriously had a big grin the whole way in. Hard not to stare at my bike and then the clock and then my bike again....tick tock tick tock I wanted to ride.
Day 3 heading in was another great morning for a commute into work. I was becoming much more confident with the bike. Found my thoughts wandering off as I did not have to worry about gears, cadence etc. Just pedal. Think I am starting to understand the "Zen" that is associated with a fixed gear bike. Coming home was a fun - I actually caught up to a couple of other cyclist when approaching the bridge. One guy good naturedly told me I had lost my derailleur...and then took off in front of me fairly quickly...as if to say c-ya. I kept the pace fairly easily (I race competitively) and got a chuckle as he looked back a few times only to see me 5' off his rear wheel. Let this go on for a bit and then blew by him...wonder if he had nightmares of some kid on a pink fixie dropping him like a bad habit <evil grin> scooted along and passed another roadie - this guy was laboring a bit so I greeting him and passed on buy. Coming down the backside of the bridge I realized my speed was limited as I could only go as fast as my gearing would allow.
The roadies I had passed both caught up on the downhill!! Sneaky sneaky - continued home and had 2 shadows drafting me the length of the access road. At the end of the road (we all were turning left) one of the roadies did something funny and quite dangerous. He bolted out into traffic to cross the road at a totally unsafe time, and damn near got squished (cars were going 50ish) now why IM not sure - hope it wasn’t to try and get ahead of me. I wouldn’t be able to sleep
Myself and the other cyclist just looked at each other in disbelief...waited our turn and took off. I was in front and pulled us both up to and then past the daredevil. Made it home and had a cold beer. Man this fixie stuff is a blast!
Day4 try to keep it short. Had a nice ride in - wished I knew how to track stand so I didn’t need to clip in clip out at each stop, light etc...Going to need to practice. Oh and the saddle on the IRO sucks - ass feels like someone has been kicking me in the shorts repeatedly. Time to order an Arione. Pink? I don’t know that may be a bit too much...
On the way home I got to the bridge - up and over only to have my rear wheel deflate at speed. Everything got seriously shaky as I tried to slow down fast as I was on my rim. First flat oh joy! Good thing I remember the 15mm wrench! Got out the spare tube and popped it in there without much issue. Got another 300 yards and flatted again! **** I didn’t check the tire! Doh. Pulled the tube, patched hole, checked tire. Never did find anything - got going again and made it another 1/4 mile before the rear flatted again...I was getting heated. This time it was a pinch flat with a snakebite on the inside of the tube. Patched these holes and started off again (lotta cursing at this point) must say though that I was passed by maybe a dozen cyclist and 95% of them shouted out if I needed anything. Good people you bikers are.
So now my tire is slowly deflating...im going a mile or two before dismounting and re-pumping the tire. I was tired and 2 hours late to pick up my son. I needed a beer! sweet sweet beer. Took everything I had not to throw my bike in the ditch and head to the sushi bar that was in sight for some Saki!
almost home and thought one more pump should do it, as I was pumping I thought well if I can squeeze in 10 more pumps I can prob make it home. WRONG. I ended up severing the valve at base, the metal snapped like a twig. Im laughing at this point. Sure it sounded a bit feverish. I pulled the original flat and patched the original hole...this got me home. My whole attitude had changed f#$$ this fixie (of course it was the bikes fault) I drank my dinner and went to bed. Five flats, can you believe it!
Following day I hit the bike store and bought some Bontrager Race Lites Hard Case with triple puncture protection!!!!
gave the bike a good cleaning and apologized for my behavior - apology accepted - lets ride!
And here I am, sitting at work typing this up, bike is behind me waiting for the ride home...and I gotta say
So am I!!
So much for a short write-up
One question (maybe more if I think of any on the ride home: D )
Am going to order up a bling front brake, prob the Campy Record calipers or similar - are there any bling brake levers out there? Ti? Cnc, light, pretty etc. Figure If I have to stare at it for hours on end I should make it pleasant.
Also ordered the bling Ti wrench\bottle opener combo heh - that thing is sweeet!
anyways cheers!
baw