still trying to coast
 

I've had a flip-flop for over a year( riding <10% of total miles on it) and still on every fixed gear ride I try to coast at some point and it tries to buck me off.

Any secret techniques or mind games to fix this?

Given that in any probable future this bike is always going to get occasional rides(1-2/week in sumer at best) should I just give up and leave it on freewheel?

Try to not coast.

Just like ****ting in a big boy potty, you'll eventually get the hang of it.

Stop doing it.

hold on to those handlebars!

It's possible that you are immune to learning adaptive behavior from negative reinforcement and lack an attention span.
If momentary loss of control, near high side and a firm whack of saddle to huevos doesn't focus the mind on the task at hand:
Riding a fixed gear on the road isn't for everyone.

-Bandera

I got a piece of duct tape and a sharpie and put a big note on my handlebars saying "DON'T COAST!"











[not really; it just took one near buck-off to impart that lesson]

Ride it more. Seriously. You aren't riding it enough. That worked for me.

Give up the road bike for a week or three and then ride the road bike and fixed gear bike on alternate days. You will soon have the opposite problem. You will forget that you can coast your road bike and will pedal down every hill and through every turn.

A freewheel seems so chaotic for the first 10 miles now that my legs and mind are used to a fixed gear bike. Coasting seems like such a waste.


-Tim-

Next time the bike tries of buck you off, jump off the bike head first and aim your face at the pavement. I guarantee you will never try to coast again.

Keep working on it
 

Like Scrod said, practice and you will get the hang of it. You may want to try easier gears so you are spinning faster. You may still try and cost, but your legs will realize the mistake and prevent anything bad from happening. I put over 3 k miles on fixed gear last year and every now and then I try and coast. The "try" only lasts a few milliseconds and my legs figure out the error of their ways and get back to pedaling again.

Stick with it.

Ride Safe,

Joe

This.

I agree with the ride it more comment. Muscle memory. If you only ride it occasionally, and can't get the hang of it, then ride it more or change it back to a single speed.

It took me about 2-4 blocks to stop trying to coast when I first started riding fixed. Should be pretty easy.

You could move to the midwest ; ) No coasts, baby!

lol...you should see my son trying to adapt to hand brakes on his new bike. Every time he tries to stop, he tries to jam the foot brake and nearly catches the other pedal on the front of his leg...I can't help but laugh a little when he does it (only because he hasn't gotten hurt yet).

I sometimes try to push the right brake lever on my fixed gear bike toward the front wheel.

Pretty disappointing when I realize that shifting isn't an option and I'm actually going to have to work to get up the hill.

It will become natural after a while. Just ride more. If I've ridden the fixed gear more than normal for a while and go back to a geared bike, the panic that goes through you when you coast a bit for the first time is rather amusing.

Luckily your bike doesn't hesitate to remind you time and time again ;)

Just keep peddling and dont stop. Only do so when you intend to come to a complete stop.

If you mount an S3X hub, then you should be able to slip between gears :)

I have the opposite problem.

I've been riding fixed for a good 10 years now, and recently purchased a road bike. Whenever I go on rides, I FORGET to coast. I pedal nonstop, and most of my friends look at me like I'm crazy.

thanks for the feedback

Given that the only practical fix is more time on the fixed gear which isn't a practical option, staying on the freewheel for my occasional single gear rides seems more like good sense than cowardice.

Just out of curiosity, why isn't riding your fixed gear/ss more often a practical option? I ride mine as a daily commuter. Haven't touched a bike with multiple gears in almost a decade.

I use mine as my main commuter as well. Riding home after a long day at work where my brain is already fried from the same stupid shiz from customers, shifting isn't always something that will work out for me.

Negatory.

It takes a bit of time riding only fixed for the "can't coast" mentality so set in. Once you do so, then you can turn it on and off at will as you switch between fixed and free bikes. But one positive about riding fixed is it breaks you of the habit of coasting to the extent that you'll only coast on your free bikes when there's a reason.

OTOH - nothing is perfect, and even after riding fixed for years you might still forget yourself and have the pedals send you a reminder. I still remember the time I was on Houston Street on my way to work, and decided I needed to check that I had my keys. So I stuck my hand into my pocket and...... (nothing broke but I wrist was very unhappy for over a week).

I jump between fixed and F/W (usually geared) often. What really helped me was to decide that I will never, ever allow myself to "hard" stop pedaling again, no matter what bike I am on... meaning, anytime I attempt to stop pedaling, on any bike, I will do so gradually instead of abruptly. This way when the fixed gear does "remind" me, it's a gentle reminder, not a violent event.

the trick to track is to pedal pedal pedal
ask me how I know ask me

Are you riding the SS/FG in both modes? If yes, I suggest you only ride it fixed so your brain and body get used to the idea that when you are on that bike, you are riding fixed. I have never done a SS/FG bike. When I put a fix gear wheel on my SS, I never rode single speed again and every bike that I have set up fixed since that bike has only been a FG.

I went back to your first post. One year? Give it time. Ride this bike fixed this summer as much as you can, several thousand miles if you can. If you can get past this barrier, you may find you really love riding fixed and that it was totally worth doing.

Ben, a fix gear convert 40 years ago

Ok, I'm a sucker for a cool story. How do you know?

I suppose that bothering to post the question in this forum implies a lot higher priority than it really is in my life.
Exercise is just part of my health program.
Biking is just part of my exercise program.
Single gear riding is a small, actually optional part of my biking.
Single gear riding as fixed gear is just a whim.
I kind of like it but I don't see it ever becoming important to me.

What I need from biking is to log a lot of aerobic hours.
My neighborhood is so relentlessly hilly that a single gear ride is either a hard ride or round and round one 1/3 mile block after riding or walking one significant hill to get there/back.

This one time I flipped it to fixed and started pedaling and just never stopped. It's not that hard to do.