ironicAZN

hi all, just posting here on my friends account...

so i recently moved to SF and being newly single (just got out of a long relationship), I wanna get back into shape (for the obvious reasons)- what better way than to tackle all these hills in SF on a bike!
my friend (who's account i'm using) is one of those fix-gear fanatics who rides those track style bikes on the street, other than amazing me with his ability to ride a bike without brakes through the rivers of tourists and taxis that we call downtown SF, is the fact that he seems to be in relatively decent shape (no one's gonna mistake him for a world champion bike racer... but he does fit comfortably in his girlfriend's jeans )

he's offered to help me build a fixed gear bicycle (obviously with brakes for me!)... but the one concern i have is this: all the people i see riding fix gear are way skinny art-school types, and me... i'm well under six feet and over 250 (i'm only 22, so i feel i'm a bit too young to have let myself go already )- are there any issues that i may encounter- i see alot of these people riding without brakes and using their legs and shifting their weight to sort of drift the bikes into a stop- i'd like to learn how to do that (for fun mainly, I'll still run brakes), but will my body type affect my ability to ride fixed? I've tried my friend's bike a few times- it feels alot different, but i can already see what draws people to fix-gear

i was going to post this in the fix-gear forum, but after seeing most of the riders in SF, it seems like you have to wear nothing but punk rock t-shirts and carry giant shoulder bags to get in with that crowd

so thanks for reading that long winded post... but any advice on getting this clyde on a fix gear would be appreciated.

Tom Stormcrowe

I happen to know a 285 pound hairy Italian lawyer in DC that rides fixed. He doesn't fit the hipster mold at all....

Not to get political, but he's so much of an antihipster that he's an arch right wing conservative that makes Bill O'Reilly look like a Communist. My point......don't sweat the stereotypes and just be yourself.

jyossarian

My fixed gear has a rack, a bottle cage, pump mount, front brake and I use a pannier instead of a messenger bag. My pants are baggy, my shirts are baggy, I'm a clyde and I'm from NYC where we don't give a **** and just ride and if anyone says anything, they get a U-lock in the mouth.

Function > fashion. Don't ride to fit in and don't let anyone sweat you cuz you don't fit the mold. That just means you're the non-conformist they claim to be.

jyossarian

Justice Scalia rides a fixie?

theetruscan

You will STRUGGLE on hills at first. You'll get stronger fast. Start with a very low gearing (42x17 or thereabouts).

robi

oh, a clydes on a fixie.. sounds good.

i too want a fixie and I have a thread in the commuter forum about using panniers with fixies...

I cannot wait to get round to building it... should be fun.

robi

CliftonGK1

I've got a fixed gear for cadence training. Nothing hipster about it. I've got nothing against fixed gear hipster kids, though. If this trend had hit 17 years ago I would have been one of them, zipping around campus with my beat up old courier bag.

ironicAZN

thanks for the encouragement!
the main thing was are there any large physical obstacles- such as doing the skids (a 270 pound man throwing his weight around on a skinny fix gear bike...) and also, us big kids need to coast once in a while, it would seem!

a light gearing is also what my friend recommended... i beleive he rides a 49-15 (not exactly sure though), and taking it for a spin around the block wasn't too bad- granted it was a pretty FLAT block! ) i'm not too sure how the gear ratios work exactly yet... but my friend should be able to explain it to me (he's got bike tools like i got extra pounds! )

sstorkel

There's a name for guys like that: bicycle messengers.

How long has it been since you rode a bicycle regularly? In my opinion, fixed gear bikes are bad choice for new riders. Especially those who are out of shape and will find that they have difficulty making it up the slightest incline, let alone any real hills! Perhaps you want a single-speed bike, which allows coasting, rather than a fixed-gear bike that has to be pedaled continuously? Maybe even one with a flip-flop hub or double chain ring so that you'll have at least a couple of gearing choices (e.g. one for hills and one for flats)?

If you do decide to go with a fixed gear bike, try to buy a frame with a derailleur hanger. That way, when you decide you hate riding fixed, you can convert it back to a geared bike

CliftonGK1

I'm 240 and I don't have any issues with skidding (except for the fact that it eats up tires like I eat pancakes.) I have both brakes on my fixed gear, and I rarely skid... but I can do it.

Now, you say "skinny fix gear bike"... Well, don't build a flimsy bike. Get a SS 'crosser frame like the IRO Rob Roy. It's steel, it's designed to take the abuse of 'cross racing, and it's got clearance for some wider tires than the average road frame will handle. Build (or have built) a set of 36h deep section rims and you can hammer on that bike all day and not worry about it falling apart.
BTW, I ride a Tange OS steel frame and fork from 1991 and it's rolling on box-section 32h handbuilt wheels wrapped in 23mm tires. Light, skinny, and hasn't failed me even when I'm standing up and tossing the bike back and forth going up hills.

The definitive resource for all things gearing related: The Sheldon Brown gear calculator.

39-15
42-16
52-20
All three will give you just under 70 gear inches, which is a good starting point for riding fixed if you have any hills to tackle. I picked 39 and 52 because if you're doing a conversion you can just use one of the rings already on the bike. 42 (and 46) seem to be the stock favourites from most companies because you can get a reasonable span of gear inches by swapping out for cog sizes that most shops carry. (At least by me, shops don't usually stock cogs over 19t, so if you want low ratios on a 52t ring you're stuck ordering the cogs.)

robi

about skidding on those skinny tires, throwing our big weight round, etc.


no need for super skinnies... go MTB fixie... that is what I am thinking of doing...

robi