I've been riding a fixed-gear bicycle since the third week
of August. Every time I ride one of my derailer bikes, the
bottom bracket feels (very subjectively) as though it is
almost seized. I've become used to being encouraged
by the pedal upstroke pushing on the bottom of each foot,
and when it is not there, the bike feels like it is in a kind
of mechanical failure. The first time this happened, the
bike felt like it was out of control (couldn't turn the pedals,
even though it was just my mind -- and muscle memory --
in play).

I ordinarily do not use the hand brakes, and I do not run
any foot retention system.

One time (very recently) I forgot what I was riding, and
sprinted after someone, and lost control (some part of
me expected to be able to freewheel after the sprint) --
my feet left the pedals, for at least half a rotation of the
bottom bracket spindle (I have no idea just how long my
feet were entirely off the pedals).

I recovered fine (never touched down or dismounted).
I'm still far from convinced that binding my feet to the
pedals would have resulted in a safer outcome -- my
body knew what to do, to get back onto the pedals (and
it also managed to stay in the saddle during the interim).

A coach, physically present and riding alongside, is to
me the obvious next step, but that's unlikely; so I will
probably soon invest in some PowerGrips type of pedal
straps. I was going to make my own, but thought that
this was not the time to get one of my bright ideas about
things.

That's
interesting
but why
are you
posting
like this?

56 columns, monospaced (with allowances for overruns to ~67 columns).

This allows rather large fonts, and adheres to typical print
media standards from 30 years ago for column width.

It also allows archival to other media (such as 80 column
text terminals) and it is a format that has worked well
for me, for decades.

Your example wraps at around 8-10 columns (but if you
hadn't done so I would not have noticed -- and did not
notice, initially!)

Good question.

You're browsing Bikeforums from WY-60?! How?!(*) Why?!

More seriously, though, manual line breaks screw up the formatting on mobile devices. It's best to let the reader's own device determine where lines need to break.



*) I did once have a WY-75 hanging off the serial port of my Linux desktop over a decade ago when I still had a Linux desktop, I know how I might try it.

For the benefit of Lakerat: Last week I rode Cycle Oregon (again) fixed. 7 days, 31,000' and roughly 420 miles. Rode the bike I talked about a page back and used cogs 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 22 and 23 leaving camp in the morning with between 2 and four of them. My chrondomalacia knees came through in great shape. I did however have zero interest in even looking at a bike for six days after. But today I rode an easy 40 miles and 1600' on the bike. (43 x 12, 17 and 22)

The gift of riding a lot of fix gear is the same gift that got me through last week with 0 miles of training. Muscle memory. 40 years of riding fixed does amazing things. No, I could not match the speed of a lot of other riders. But I could climb all day without killing myself. (Not literally. But I did ride from sea level literally, sleeping just off the beach to Bear Camp at 4700'. No stops except the water stop and te climb wasn't hard. This is Cycle Oregon. Socializing is a huge part of it. Rest stops aren't just for rest and replenishment.)

Oh, and while gears allow more speed and pacelines, fix gears on hard rides have a WAY HIGHER stud factor.

Keep it up. You will never regret it.

Ben

Depends on the device!

In the first two screenshots below, the first (top) image was
taken at 1920x1080, Linux, Chromium web browser.

(Application: home theatre PC, viewed from quite a distance)

The second, on a Dell Venue 7" tablet, Android, running
Firefox beta.

Tapatalk did not show anything for Bikeforums.net, afaict.

. . .

In the next two screenshots below, the USD $50 Amazon
Fire 7" tablet displays bikeforums.net in 'Lightning' web
browser (zoomed as far as practicable) in both landscape
and portrait rotations of the device.

I can provide counter-examples that illustrate the other
point, but in each of those, the entirety of my posts can
be read without scrolling left to right (which to me is much
more difficult to deal with, than long-short-long-short lines,
which are just annoying, like failed poetry formatting).

. . .

The last image is a more or less routine use; it conserves
on desktop real estate (application: home theatre PC) by
constraining the web browser to a given width, less than
it wants (note the scroll bars). I think the web browser is
taking up far too much real estate, as-is, the way I've shown
it (a bit less than half of a 1920x1080 screen, left to right).

And I'm back quiet.

I've ran into unixbeards before, but never someone who tries to use the internet like a teletype - for very large fonts, well, I think a trip to the opticians (or a more low res monitor) is the right choice.

"Keep it up. You will never regret it.

Ben"


Thanks for the encouragement. I have been.


Now that it has cooled here in western Missouri, perfect riding weather in the mid 60s have made it better. I've also learned a bit of how and when to conserve energy on a fixed gear. I now walk the first hill before I'm warmed up.


I'm getting a little tired of my normal 18 mile route I take on the fixed gear due to moderate hills. I will have to mix it up somehow.


I think I can stick with the 44/14, but he advice to get a few other cogs for conditions such as when fitness drops after a layoff, is good.


Thanks again for the help in this new and fun aspect to cycling.