You can control a bike with a freewheel but you must cooperate with a fixed-gear bike.

Sorry to be philosophical but it takes a while to learn not to fight the bike. You have to ride it on its own terms. The more you ride, the more it will become easier.

One very practical tip is to not pull too hard on the bars while climbing. My oblique muscles and forearms ached when I first started riding fixed on hills, from pulling on the bars too much.

??? Can anyone offer up an explanation for this frame design?

https://fixedgeargallery.com/2017/06/...s-flying-gate/

#tukt ?

Riding a FG machine on the road for any distance when it is other than pan-flat takes considerable adaptation to both the fixed gear's relentless demanding nature and to pedaling technique(s).
Set-up for a gear ratio that you can roll along at a reasonable cadance, climb w/o undue stress and descend within your comfortable top cadance. Use a brake(s) to moderate hamster-in-wheel spin on descents.
That "climb w/o undue stress" will require being able to put out considerable grunt at a lower than "normal" cadance and standing effectively to get up and over.
The reality of FG riding is that one is rarely in the "right" gear and only a wide effective range of cadance with good pedaling technique, serious power and old school hard-man attitude is how it's been done for the last century by club cyclists.
A useful drill to develop the technique and power to stand on demand with a relaxed and powerful style is to select the up side of a modest grade into a head wind and do a series of intervals standing for X time on and X time off.
Being over-geared for this drill will be a "bad thing" and under-geared a bit of a waste, find the right terrain and/or use your road bike as well in "big" gears.
You should be able to pass the bike smoothly back and forth with hands of the hoods (you do have two hoods fitted even if one is a "dummy') w/o herky-jerky monkey motion when technique adaptation and specific muscle strength are developed. You are cycling not weight-lifting, pulling on the bars is bad form unless there is no choice, which does happen in FG world.
The transition from sit to strand and back takes a smooth hitch-free motion to avoid the danger of a "dead spot" which on a FG will instantly and forcefully be a "very bad thing" with serious negative consequences.
Staying off of terrain that is simply too steep for your conditioning and gearing is wise. The low gear on my light road bike is 36 GI to get up and over the local terrain, I stay off those routes on my 70" FG.
Use common sense, have a good ride.

-Bandera

A deliberate attempt to be as ugly and unnecessarily complicated as possible?

It's a British FG TT frame-set from the "shortest wheelbase = fastest" fad.
The US dedicated Crit bike of the 70's went down a similar, if not so eccentric design phase.

-Bandera

Oh, now I see it. Having the seat tube vertical enabled the chainstays to be shortened even more. Probably make a good wheelie machine! Thanks!

Is riding brakeless hard on the back wheel? I don't ride brakeless, but I ride like I'm brakeless, just never use the brake. Anyway, when speed checking on a descent this morning, I broke a spoke which threw the chain, so it was nice to have the brake. Hence my original question. It's a cheap bike, so I'm not too surprised the spoke broke, but I'm wondering if that's more common on fixed gears. Also, instead of just replacing the spoke, I'm tempted to re-lace the rim to a new hub. Any recommendations on a decent budget fixed hub?

A properly built and maintained wheel will hold up to FG riding just fine. Replacing your hub will be a waste of money. Just have the broken spoke replaced now and save for a new wheel down the line.

Riding a FG is "harder" on the entire machine since easing off of the saddle and coasting over bad surfaces as is done instinctively on a FW machine is right out.
Those stresses over time and the other stresses one can provide all add up but are nothing that a properly built and maintained machine won't deal with.
That being said: Stuff fails in service eventually.
Fix said stuff and proceed.

BTW:
This indicates that you missed the part about "properly built and maintained", having brakes was indeed a good thing.

-Bandera

What kind of speed checking are we talking about here? Normally I'd assume you meant applying the rear brake, but you said you never the the brakes..

I'm assuming on steeper descents when speed is well beyond the point of what most are willing to control with back pressure and is approaching cadence madness a quick skid or two in succession will bring you back into harmony. I wouldn't think this is hard enough on the wheel to break a spoke ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Maybe you hit a pot hole at some point in time and it was on it's way out anyway.

Thanks guys. I mentioned replacing the hub because (forgot to mention this) it feels rough when I spin the wheel off the bike, perhaps more evidence that it wasn't "properly built and maintained"? Kinda saw this as an opportunity to upgrade a bit.

You know how a fixed gear works, right?

I'm quite familiar, yes. Thank you for asking.

Yeah, it's generally just not a cost-effective way to go. The cost of a hub plus labor for the rebuild and possible extra for parts (you may need to use new spokes) can put you at or above the cost of a whole new wheel. Unless it's a really nice rim, you're probably better served by holding off for a bit.

I believe that he mentioned in another thread that the spoke was also bent - it may have flopped under the chain somehow and levered the chain off the cog.

If that's what happened, I'll eat my own head.

I was thinking the same thing

I can't be 100% sure what happened, but what I know is that I heard a "TUNG!" sound, and then my chain was off. The spoke broke at the hub, and there's a bend in the spoke about 1/2" from the break point, and the bend happens to line up quite nicely with where the chain meets the cog on the bottom side. Based on the observable facts, I surmised that the spoke somehow pried the chain off. If there's another explanation, I'm happy to hear it. Otherwise, I want to see the video of Scrod eating his own head .

[MENTION=464826]Duop[/MENTION]

Any carbon rim can be built up - Boyd, ENVE, HED, NOX, Reynolds, etc.

I had looked to have carbon rims + track hubs built locally. In the end I could not find a combination of carbon clincher with ceramic brake track + track hub which weighs <1400 grams and has the spoke count I wanted. If you are happy with 1600 grams and 24 spokes in the front with a track hub then you can build any number of combinations. Using a road hub with a quick release in the front will allow low spoke count.

But yeah, there are lots of carbon rims out there.


-Tim-

Well, if you eat your own head, I'll break one of my spokes.

There. We've come full circle.