jodphoto

Here are some pictures. I see a lot of excellent bikes on this forum and have yet to find a place where more mundane bikes go to hang out. Don't get me wrong, I like my bikes. Is there a forum for low budget rides like mine?

Bandera

Here I would think.

When I 1st started riding FG on the road back when one would strip the expensive gearing off one's road bike and convert to FG for the winter, but most of us converted whatever reasonably light and inexpensive kit with fender fitment we could scrounge and proceeded.

These were not Jewels of a C&V Grail search today but a mongrelized beater-ish low rent fleet that did the job for us perfectly well.
Long term FG riding is about commitment to technique & proper safe kit not shiny $$$ doo-dads.
My FG has been on the road for decades, looks it and will stay in service for the foreseeable future.

-Bandera

Rowan

My first fixed gear was an old Peugeot frame with a bioppace chainring attached to a spare set of cranks picked up at a dump shop. The rims were off my touring bike which had itself been fitted with new wheels for randonneuring purposes. The rims were laced to a steel freewheel hub, and the cog itself came off an old 5sp freewheel. The lock ring was from a cup-and-cone BB.

The handlebars were converted from ordinary drops to bullhorns by cutting the drops off. The bike had brakes, but I can't remember what they were. All up, the bike cost almost nothing.

My second fixed gear was a little more expensive. The frame, a Shogun 400 steelie, was free from another dump shop, but I spent around $400 putting quality wheels, bullhorns and Brooks saddle on it. I made one mistake -- putting on a cheap cog, which chewed through the threads on the Velocity hub. I now use only good-quality cogs that are machined, not stamped.

I did use the original Shogun crankset and BB. The chainrings were riveted steel, but I left the outer one on there, snibbed off the teeth, filed them down, and used the ring as a cuff guard so I could ride with long trousers.

jodphoto

I hear you. I see so many high dollar bikes ridden by avid, but status conscious cyclists. They ride in large colorful groups and yell "on your left" all day. I just don't feel the need to be aerodynamic any more. And it's unlikely that I'll show up in leotards, either. I like the irreverently styled conversion of light steel bikes to fixed gear. There are still a lot of Japanese road bikes at bargain prices. I just got an 85 League Fuji original and complete for $100 last month (see previous post for pictures). The collectors seem to have overlooked many of these bargains. All the parts interchange, too, even more than average. A lot of the styling I use comes from my childhood and neighborhood. Especially bar treatments. Bum bars or DUI's are a blast from my past and I feel the connection. Some of today's high end bikes are impressive but a ratty rider can be much cooler as personal art. Like, a street bike as differentiated from a road bike. All that and it's a blast to ride.

trackhub

Classic, Lugged steel! To me, this has more class that any of those carbon frame bikes that all the 20-somethings want.


+1000. I see them as well. I frequently wonder if they have any clue as to what riding is all about. I sometimes get doe-eyed stares when I tell people I prefer to ride alone, and that I am NOT training for the next big race.

icyclist 

I've ridden fixed for about six years. I'm almost 66. I have a steel-framed Wabi. It's my second Wabi and third fixie. I got into fixies because I thought they looked like a lot of fun, and because I wanted to feel 25 again. They are fun, and I do feel young again when I'm on my fixie.



My first fixie (and second ride on a fixed gear bike) which I purchased while on a visit with my daughter, who lives in NYC.

DiabloScott

New topic - old guys with fixies on bridges!

icyclist 

On the George Washington Bridge, NYC, two and a half years ago. A couple of friends and I rode from Carroll Gardens, in Brooklyn, across the bridge into New Jersey. From there we rode to the far end of Palisades Park, along the Hudson River, and back to Brooklyn.



Riding beneath an expressway in Brooklyn, on my way to Atlantic Beach, on the 4th of July.

JoeMcGinty

I'm almost 65. Built one last year and love it. I learned fixed in hilly Upstate NY. We are spending several weeks in Daytona next month. Anybody down there riding FG? I'm looking for advice on where to ride and getting hooked up with fixie-friendly group rides. Or should I just take a geared road bike? Tx.

jodphoto

I checked out your blog, Icyclist. Good info on carrying camera gear. All packs look good in their brochure and website. It takes a photographer to find the nuances. Thanks.

Did you make up "Aerodite"? I love word constructs, I collect and reuse them. Are you both smart and streamlined?

Peace, always.

icyclist 

Hi, jodphoto. Thanks for your kind words. My blog has been mostly off-line for quite a while. Maybe one day I'll reactivate it - for now my more current photos and thoughts about photography are on a Facebook page.

I will claim credit for "areodite." If ever there was a place to use that "word", I think it's here.

I don't think I'm too smart, though. Compared to some, I'm streamlined, yeah, (I guess I lean toward being an overweight ectomorph).

lhbernhardt

I started riding fixed gears back in the 70's for winter training when I was young and learning the craft of cycling. As Bandera has said, it's just what bike racers at that time did. My first track coach was an ex-pro 6-day rider. He had us just convert our old winter road bikes to fixed gear. He told us to throw away the lock ring, as he felt backpedaling was bad for the legs. On the track, you NEVER want to slow down by applying backward pressure - it's too sudden for the rider behind. You "brake" on the track by turning. On the road, we still had both brakes. The rear was absolutely critical for winter riding in Canada because it sometimes gets icy, and you never want to apply the front brake on ice.

The one drawback to converting a road bike to fixed was that if you maintained the rear hub spacing (back in the 70's it was 126mm for 6-speed freewheels) and didn't re-dish the rear wheel, you'd break a lot of axles. 120 is about the maximum over-locknut dimension you can use for a 10mm-diameter steel axle, especially if you weigh 170 lbs! This is why they went to cassettes for 7-speed and beyond.

That said, I am quite impressed with the Patrick Seabase video, skidz-stopping all the way down the Galibier descent! Looks like he wore out a few tires, though! But I like what he says about undertaking the challenge under one's own power. A fixed gear is as simple and elemental as it gets. I have a hard time explaining to people that with a fixed gear, it's just you, both up and down the mountain. You don't have ANY other mechanical aids, like lower gearing or freewheels. It's NOT "all done with gears," it's just you. I get what Henri Desgrange was saying about gears being for those over 45, even though I don't believe it. Riding the fixed for everything is the ultimate HTFU. Especially when it's cold and raining! I can't wait to climb the Telegraphe & Galibier, as well as Mt. Ventoux up all three routes, all on the fixie!

The other notion I like is the "any bike, any challenge" philosophy. I am a firm believer in using the wrong bike for the purpose! Thus, a fixed gear makes perfect sense for Paris-Brest-Paris, London-Edinburgh-London, Haleakala on Maui, or the three big SF Bay Area climbs (Mt. Tamalpais, Mt. Hamilton, & Mt. Diablo), or the Furnace Creek 508/Trona 353, all of which I've ridden on the fixed gear. Some of those rides had difficult patches, but that's what made them memorable and worthwhile. Darn, I KNOW I can do all those rides on a geared bike, so what's the challenge???

Part of this also is my propensity to question authority. I use my fixie for almost everything - commuting to work, riding brevets, riding centuries, riding ultra-marathon events, even sometimes riding on the track (I have another bike for that, although it would take me about five minutes to convert the fixie to a real track bike). I show my middle finger to Shimano, Campagnolo, SRAM, Specialized, etc (ESPECIALLY to Specialized!) who expect me to buy an n+1 each year from them, or to convert from 9-speed cassette gruppo to 10-speed to 11-speed. I just say screw them and continue to ride the same US-made fixie that I purchased in Seattle in 2009 year after year (I've got over 80,000 km on it so far).

And the last thing is this: riding a fixie makes you a more proficient rider. You can't ride sloppy and get away with it. It keeps you honest. Although, admittedly,you don't have to worry about carrying the pedal over top-dead-center; the fixie does that for you. AND, because you're pedaling (well, floating really) down the descents, you end up feeling much fresher than on a geared bike after 100 miles straight. AND you don't have the chain running thru two friction-inducing pulleys, so the drivetrain is FAR more efficient. So the fixie rider's dirty little secret is out: it's actually easier to ride a fixie than a geared bike! (On a flat road, anyway!).

Luis

jodphoto

Need help with some slang here.

I was riding a rail trail on Blue, my old fixie daily rider. I was at a Starbucks getting a cup to go. I placed the cup in the cup holder on my flipped handlebars and prepared to ride on. There were other riders here since this store was a few steps from the rail trail. Some guy (pudgy, short, squeaky, but dressed in the complete bicycle outfit) commented to a fellow rider (Sharon Stone clone who looked great in her bicycle outfit) that my cup holder was “Fred”. They both rode carbon road bikes that looked pretty expensive. There was a dizzying array of graphics and very few spokes. They sparkled, in fact. Especially Sharon.

Now, I thought I knew the definition of “Fred” from reading Bike Snob NYC. That definition would make them Fred (and Wilma, I guess) and me, the Anti-Fred. So I Googled it and found these seemingly opposite definitions for the same word.

I always thought it was definition #1 . What do you folks think?

https://www.bicyclesource.com/bicycling_glossary

Fred

1) n. a person who spends a lot of money on his bike and clothing, but still can't ride. "What a fred -- too much Lycra and titanium and not enough skill." Synonym for poser. Occasionally called a "barney".

2) n. a person who has a mishmash of old gear, doesn't care at all about technology or fashion, didn't race or follow racing, etc. Often identified by chainring marks on white calf socks. Used by "serious" roadies to disparage utility cyclists and touring riders, especially after these totally unfashionable "freds" drop the "serious" roadies on hills because the "serious" guys were really posers. This term is from road touring and, according to popular myth, "Fred" was a well-known grumpy old touring rider, who really was named Fred.

dwbstr

I recall when I was a lad, fifty or sixty years ago, while I was visiting my grandmother at her farmhouse her older brother came to visit. He rode his fixie over several miles of gravel roads to get there when he was in his 80s.

Of course, when he bought his bike everyone rode fixies. He kept it in very good shape for a bike that old. I wish I could recall what kind it was.

trackhub

Ogle the Sharon Stone clone. Eye candy has no extra calories, and does not cause tooth decay. Ignore everything else.

DiabloScott

I've been around a long time, and I can say this with complete authority: Fred means NERD. Other groups have tried to co-opt this word to mean bicycle gear head, or someone with more money than skill... but it just plain means unstylish and uncool in attitude, appearance, and ability.

Coffee cup holder isn't necessarily Fredly, but turned up handlebars are a pretty solid indicator.

jodphoto

So I never even had a chance with Sharon Stone clone, then?

I couldn't because the the tape holding my eyeglasses together broke. They were in my rack pack with my first aid kit.

osteoclast

Wow......PBP on a fixed!!! That's impressive.

What do you run (gear) for those distances?

Post us a picture of the fixed bike.

lhbernhardt

Gearing is 44x17 (about 69"), with 165mm cranks so I can spin it on the descents. Here's a photo of me before our group climbed Morgan Territory & Mt. Diablo:



That front disc brake only gets used in the winter in order to save front rims. I'm experimenting with an Avid BB7 this season; I'd like to try a hydraulic disc later. (So far, I'm quite impressed with how the front disc stops in the rain.)

Luis

Artmo 

Sorry if I posted this before - I am 73, after all!

This is my first "real" bike - a Maclean Featherweight Eclipse in 1957 - before I could afford to put gears on it. Once I had Campag gears, I used to revert to 69" fixed in the winter. Then I could ride fixed up a 25% grade on a hill near our house, but that was then! I used to do 25 mile time trials on 82", but never beat the hour - 1hr 6min, being my best, even with severe asthma.

qcpmsame 

Art, you should post a current picture of your bicycle (the Maclean?) that was featured in Cycling Plus, last year, I think. That one is beautiful, I can't remember if it was a SS/FG though.

Bill

Artmo 

Bill, your wish is my command
The three lives of a 1957 Maclean

Original black with gold lining and FG; 1960s red with Campag/TA/Cinelli/Weinmann after a crash and Maclean out of business and could not source decals; 2013 renovation after I had found a source for original decals:

Bandera

That is quite a study in evolution, 3 full generations of powertrain on the same frameset.
Good on you, quality kit is not disposable.

edit: It would be cool to fit modern lights to the OEM fittings just for a grin.......

-Bandera

qcpmsame 

Thanks Art, it is a beautiful bike in all its presentations over the years. I imagine the latest one is a nice riding bicycle!

Bill

icyclist 

Don't tell me you ride that last portion up Mt. Diablo in a straight line?!?