I never tried a fixie, but wouldn't mind a go to see what I'm missing. Certainly, I can see the attractiveness in the tidy, perhaps even minimalist look that some of the bikes achieve. I think this might be a retalliation at just how ugly and complicated (in my opinion) many new road bikes have become, in comparison to bikes of 20+ years ago.

Now, within the context of this thread, this post is one of the few pearls buried among all of the putrid old horse apples.

Minimalism is the key. For example, during a political fundraiser we held at our house, a few of the guys came out to the Mancave, much to my wife's constrination. My 1985 Pinarello Record was on the work stand. Several of the guys circled around it and commented on how "clean and simple" it looked. One even went to get his wife to show her, however she was unimpressed.

As to cycling mechanisms, I ride about 200 miles/week and 75-100 of that is singlespeed. I have nothing but respect for my son's fixie friends, but SS works for me and gives me that sense of minimalism.

When you only have one gear, you become the transmission, just as in distance running. The result is a much more aggressive and physical riding style.
When the light turns green, I like having to stand out of saddle and pound until I gain momentum. When I ride up into the McDowell Mtns (kind of like CO foothills), it's time to HTFU and get over the hills.

In fact, when I have been riding my geared road bikes for a while and am starting to feel gear lazy, a couple of longish rides on the SS will set me straight. I can say that SS riding makes me a stronger geared rider.

I have recently discovered one other benefit. I'm not big on morning workouts. However, right now in AZ that is the only time. Going out at 6 am on a SS accelerates the pain through the 5 mile warmup, 10 mile bloodlust, and, finally, at about 15, to cycling zen for the rest of the ride.

BTW you've got to admit (we need photos with this thread) that this 1995 Performance branded Ti road bike converted to a 14 pound single speed is kind of cool. I know you've seen this before. I have since added an old Scott clipon aerobar (gasp!), which adds a new facet to the workout. The 53x18 gearing let's me fly on the flats and makes me work my ass off on the hills.

Because I just don't ride my fixed gear bicycles on smooth roads and on sunny days I converted this 1988 Kuwahara Shasta into a fg/ss. I built it primarily for winter riding but it is just a great all rounder that can do pretty much anything and that includes riding off road.

[QUOTE=Sixty Fiver;9289452]Because I just don't ride my fixed gear bicycles on smooth roads and on sunny days I converted this 1988 Kuwahara Shasta into a fg/ss. I built it primarily for winter riding but it is just a great all rounder that can do pretty much anything and that includes riding off road.

May I assume that when you are riding off road you have it in the SS mode. FG Mtb's present a separate set of issues.

I have ridden fixed off road... if it gets really technical then I prefer ss but have done that fixed too.

This bike is well suited to trails and light singletrack... my old fixed mtb was set up for more challenging stuff.

+1

I've been commuting on the FG everyday and purposely taking the more hilly route just to push it. I have only had my FG conversion for a week and already the way I ride my road bike has changed. I'm not so quick to shift down on inclines anymore, I'm more eager to attack the hills, and coasting makes my legs feel weird.

Oddly I can now track stand on my road bike better than the fixed gear.

I think the evil of gears can be found amongst the $100 cable sets, $75 chains and cassettes that need to be replaced all the bloody time. Where I work a Super Record cassette costs eight hundred dollars, while at the opposite extreme my fixed cog cost me $10, and gets flipped around when one side is worn out.

There are a lot of things I like about fixed gears, and economy is not at the bottom of the list. I don't mind replacing my bike's rubber bits, but I hate thinking of half an expensive drivetrain as expendable.

I love riding bikes.

I struggle with try hards as they are called in Aus. The fixed gear thing is fine - I think I have stated it before - I do worry about the long term effects that it will have on peoples knees.

One thing please. If you ride fixed gear, when I am commuting, do not pull in front of me at the lights only to grind away up a hill and force me into the traffic to overtake you or "top out" going down a hill and again force me out into the traffic to overtake you.

I am not a mad roadie - but - please do not get in the way of people with gears that have a better range on varied terrain.

Paul

Collection of old peugeots and paconis.

I've never seen a rear brake mounted on the chainstays like that. Did it come that way? Who made the brake (manufacturer)?

Looks like a U-brake; https://www.sheldonbrown.com/gloss_u-v.html

I can't get enough of those bikes, Sixty-Fiver. I love them.

Yellowbeard - I love my Kuwaharas... I aspire to build frames and these give me great inspiration as they really are a great all rounder that can be built up in a myriad of ways.

Tejano - The U brake was used in the mid eighties by many builders and are great in that they offer incredible, if not ridiculous, stopping power. If you read the article you can see how they can have drawbacks. The issues people have with them tend to stem from neglect and inattention and they do require a little higher level of maintainence.

And most people suck at maintaining their bikes...which is good... because that's how I make a living.

PS - The U-brake is a Shimano.

I strongly believe this is a factor (among many factors for the explosion in the popularity of fixies), and I do agree that modern bikes look very complicated.

I agree. A classic track bike is beautiful and elegant in its simplicity. Behold the apothesis:



Unfortunately, at the other end of the spectrum, you have the tarck bike. Hipsters scour eBay for NJS-approved negative rise Keirin stems, then find that their PBR-bellies and tight girl jeans won't let them bend over that far, so they put MTB riser bars on them, bringing the hands pretty much up to the level of a normal road bar and stem. Sigh.



But really, my complaint with tarck bikes is mostly aesthetic. More bikes are always better.

RFC, Sixty Fiver, you guys have nice bikes, and they're great examples that a fixed/SS doesn't have to be a circus bike abomination. Fortunately I don't live in a hipster city where I would see "tarck bikes", though I was in Philly the other day and saw a kid riding one that looked like it had a 12" long pipe for a handlebar. I gave up visiting Fixed Gear Gallery when it became over-run with goofy riser bars/deep v's/garish paintjobs. Lots of so-so old bikes have been saved from the junk heap, and that's a good thing- and when the fad is over it will be a good thing if some of them go back!

...to being nice affordable second hand frames

I saw a dusty old bottom of the line Motobecane at the Goodwill the other day, and they were asking $200+ for it.. My wife saw something similar from the bike boom era at another store, with a $240 price tag. Start moving decimal points on those price tags and maybe I'll talk...

Yes, and IMHO it should only be ridden on the track. This is my 1976 Schwinn Paramount P14, which I have never ridden on the road, although I currently ride it on rollers at home. My road fixies have always been built and designed strictly for road use (front brake, quick release wheels, high set bars).

From an aesthetic and functional point of view... circus bikes suck and blow at the same time. The rides are harsh, you can't get any decent position, and for the most part they are all show and no go.

A well done conversion can be a beautiful thing and will stand out among the carbon copy bikes so many urbanites are riding.

I like classic frames and when I buy the farm someone could take any of my conversions and restore them back to their geared glory and who knows... my Shasta might even get an IGH. I converted another Shasta with an internal gear hub and it was quite the lovely bike.

I ride what makes me happy and I have no lack of nice geared bikes either... they all have their place and purpose.

I do plan on knocking down a few sub hour 40's this season... I'd like to do it on my vintage fixed road bike and my vintage roadie.

IMHO, the key to safe FG/SS road riding is front and rear breaks. Contrary to some uninformed opinion, rear brakes work just fine on fixies.

Here is one of my favourite bikes... a 1973 Phillip's 20 folder with a fixed drive. It is now ten pounds lighter than it was when I bought it and can give most a pretty good run for their money.

I am the anti hipster...

What gearing will you use for the FG? I was thinking of doing something similar on my Trek 660 FG conversion--right now I've got a 52x15 gearing on it. That's 91 gear inches and all I have to do is turn it over at 95 rpm for an hour and that's 40km.

Heh. Pretty simple: 5700 rotations in one hour. Easy peasy.

caloso - I came really close to knocking one down while running 75 gear inches which was a common gearing for many old time trialists. You spin faster but hills and headwinds won't crush you and if it is an out and back there is a near certainty there will be a little wind.

91 gear inches would be a killer on the open road unless the conditions were perfect.

No hills here, but I'm finding that the headwinds are killing me. Funny. I had 75 g.i. on it before -- I threw the 52t chainring on for fun--and it is awesome with a tailwind, but not so much fun with a headwind or even a freeway overpass.

My own experience is that people tend to overuse the rear brake and underuse the front brake, be it on a fixed gear or freewheel. Certainly, a front brake is required on any type of road bike, and a rear should be present on a freewheel type to provide stability when using the front brake. The rear brake should only be applied very lightly, and your legs provide sufficient backforce to do this on a fixed gear. You merely have to relax your legs, and let them lag behind the speed of the wheel. There is no harm in having a rear brake on a road fixie, but I don't think it is essential for safety and don't use it on my road fixies, even when they have one. You may have noticed that sport style motorcycles have massive front brakes and much smaller rear brakes.

The gearing on my SS road bikes is 74 - 77, or 53x18, 53x19, 48x17.

As far as looks are concerned an IGH road bike can have much of the simple appearance of a SS/FG bike but still provide a range of gears. I have a SRAM 5 speed hub on my old Duracycle originallly FG bike and a Shimano Alfine hub on my recently completed Steelwool Tweed. At a casual glance both look like single speeds except for the single shifter and the cable to the rear hub. Both are drop bar road geometry 700C wheel bikes.

To me either one is more versatile than a single speed or fixed gear bike for day to day use but I admit to being a geared hub fan as I have bikes with everything from an old Sachs torpedo 3 speed hub cruiser to a Rohloff hub bike.