Proper indeed.
I'll keep an eye open for it when I visit "town".

-Bandera

???

I hope this isn't further confusion about my user name, which means "I like bicycles" in tagalog.

Ní bheidh mé insint do mháthair.

-Bandera

ride your fixed on my lawn and I yell at ya.
ride your un-fixed on my lawn, get the same.

Once again...

Nicely done, always loved that color.

And a question for all the FG folk whose bikes don't seem to have foot-retention: How do you do that?
I've always relied on toeclips/straps & cleats or clipless/cleats for firm attachment of the me/bike interface on FG bikes.
That just spooks me, with all respect.

-Bandera

I keep pedaling.

And the machine pedals right back, good on you.

Riding down Hampster-in-a Wheel Hill w/o firm foot retention is not my cup of meat even w/ brakes.
Kudos to all who do.

-Bandera

I didn't have any foot-retention when I took the photo of the Chesini as I'd just gone out on a first ride to make sure everything worked. I put toe clips on the next day. Otherwise, I always use clips.

I hate hills. Not the up, but the down part. At 70 inches, I am spun out in the mid to upper 20s. Lose footing, you are not going to get your feet back on the pedals.

Fortunately for me being in the flatlands, there are only a couple of hills where that is a problem. Unless there is a stiff wind behind me, then there are more opportunities to spin out. I have a lot of excuses to be slow, but only one to be fast, it's windy.

Having the pedals get away from you on a downhill and dangling from the saddle nose & bar-drops while keeping feet from the cuisine art blades the pedals become is a gruesome thought. A pair of brakes, good old Look pedals and well fitted cleats for me thanks.

Reminds me why this FG on the road thing is not for everyone.
It takes a properly set-up machine and a rider willing to commit and adapt to a distinctly un-modern & demanding machine.
You pedal it and it pedals you right back, fair is fair.

-Bandera

You eventually stop. No matter what.

And for the record, I do have a brake.

My hat is off to you fixed gear people. I am only ever going to get as far as single speed on a freehub/freewheel. I tried a mechanic's own 'fixed' bike just once, and it unnerved the hell outta me in traffic. Yeah, I know that one is supposed to get used to it. I like my SS though — on a Romani frame.

Dawes-man: that is one sterling collection that you're building up.

Converted my Miyata 110 to a fixed last night and went for a 5 mile maiden voyage in the rolling hills of Eastern PA. Nothing but swapping in a flip flop rear wheel for a 42/16 combo and adjusting the chain. I didn't even take off the shifters and derailleurs just in case it wasn't fun. I had one forgetful moment that I was on a fixie as I attempted to coast around a curve and promptly got tossed above the saddle but landed back on safely. Definitely requires some adjustment to the thought process. I could not imagine fixed without brakes and my clipless shoes/pedals. However, it was fun enough that fixed may be my commuter of choice this week.

Bandera, I ride without foot retention, but probably because I'm Dutch: over here, everybody (well, except immigrant women, but that's another story) starts to ride as soon as they're able to walk, basicly. Many kids start out with little wooden Draisienne's and move on to bigger and better bikes with more pedals and gears as they grow up. For most people, the evolution ends at the city bike to get around town or commute to work: none of these bikes have foot retention whatsoever. When starting out riding specialty bikes like road bikes, MTB's and fixies, most people percieve foot retention as very dangerous. The idea of being stuck when in a crash and thus adding crash damage is prevalent, if a little unfounded. When I started out riding on FG bikes the thought of adding foot retention didn't even occured to me. Now I'm perhaps a little older and a little wiser and have gained much more experience in riding other specialty bikes with foot retention ranging from classic Christophe clips+straps to Eggbeaters, but I'm still happily riding along without retention on my FG. I just don't really want to bother with clipping in and out in city traffic. Another bonus is that I can ride with any kind of shoe, from dress shoes to flip flops.

Some people like foot retention and some don't. I started out fixed riding with foot retention and gradually moved to riding without. I have a brake and slow down on descents. I also ride with a Sturmey S3X which gives me a wonderful mid 80's gear for descents.

mparker,

Sturmey's FG 3 speed hub is something that I've been musing over for a while.
Does anyone else run this set-up? Satisfied as mparker seems to be?

-Bandera

Revracer.

Good on you, glad you are enjoying it.

Before venturing out again remove your derail, shorten the chain (or install a fresh one) & re-install the wheel.
Please read Sheldon Brown on the conversion process & heed his warning:

"You CanNOT use any sort of pulley type chain tensioner on a fixed gear bike!"

https://sheldonbrown.com/fixed-conversion.html

-Bandera

Italuminium,

I'd guess that the average Dutch schoolchild has better pedaling style than the Cat. 5 packs here.

-Bandera

Yes, that and the fact that it's pretty darned flat in Holland.

Italuminium,

In the Dutch language do you have the same proverbial old wisdom we have in American English: "It's all downhill from here."?

-Bandera

Me thinks he probably rotated it out of the way. Good point, though.

we do, actually, but we use the word "bergafwaarts" which means (a little crudely translated) downmountain instead of downhill. We don't a have a single mountain in the country!

Retention-less pedals work fine with fixed gear for me. I use flat/wide/light MTB/BMX platforms with sharp little metal spikes---Fyxation Mesa MP, Wellgo MG-1, Wellgo B132. The spikes keep your feet planted, and after a couple of shin grating incidents you learn respect for the spikes. Gear choice (low enough to struggle up hills, high enough to avoid spinout downhill) and brakes prevent foot ejection on downhills. If I have trouble keeping up with the spin downhill, I slow down a bit. I can coast over 40mph downhill on a geared bike with little trouble, just tuck and grin. Rarely hit over 28mph downhill on fixed, close to 150rpm on a 70" gear.

I use an S3X on a Gunnar Cross Hairs commuter, mid/high gear when I'm fresh in the morning, low/mid gear returning at night after The Man has worn me down. There is some noticeable lash, maybe 10-deg of rotation or so, and a click/clunk when you shift. Some can't get used to it, you do lose a little of the unimpeded direct-connected fixed feel, but I'm easygoing and find the tradeoff worthwhile for the convenience of gearing. Not the right hub for skid-/skip-stopping and trackstanding.

My commuter is a kinda heavy build, so it doesn't see longer road rides. I might shift once during the commute, down for the uphill or up for the downhill, I'm definitely not working the gears like I would with a geared bike. I'd like to have a lightweight build for longer rides, I think a lower climbing gear and higher descending gear would extend my fixed ride range. Also thought about an S&S coupled travel frame with underseat/seatstay shifter, allowing all the gearing bits to live on the rear half of the frame.