Rethinking FG safety on the road
 

No, not a brakeless thread! I always use a front brake.

I've ridden fixed on the road over 10 years now, occasional close-calls with cars & potholes in my semi-rural, hilly area. Thankfully nothing serious, but reminders that a fixed gear is in some ways riskier than a derailleur bike.

Yesterday I had the biggest reminder, a front wheel blowout as I was cruising along at almost 18 mph. Fortunately I reacted quickly, got the bike slowed down & feet unclipped in a hurry, as the front wheel was getting very squirrely. I didn't get a puncture, the base of the valve stem gave out- nothing I could have done. To add insult to injury my spare tube's valve stem blew out after I changed the flat. So I was doing the walk of shame 'til I got a ride...


Yes, the same thing could have happened on a geared bike, but there's a greater margin of safety.

I don't understand how a bike with gears is safer when a front tire goes flat at speed. I'm not trying to challenge but sincerely asking.

The scenario does illustrate the need for a rear brake.


-Tim-

I would invest in some better quality inner tubes. There are a lot of cheap ones going around lately, and I'm pretty sure one of them will probably contribute to someone's death, if it has not happened already.

A flat tire can kill a cyclist, if the timing is just right, and there are enough of these cheap inner tubes going around that it's inevitable someone will die from one sooner or later. And good luck suing the manufacturer, if they can even be determined.

I'm guessing it's less safe cause you can't coast?

I agree that the surprise bump or rough terrain is a little trickier fixed since you can't just stand up and coast over it. You have to stand up and pedal through and try not to get bucked.

And whatever you do, DO NOT ATTEMPT A BUNNY HOP on a fixed gear. Don't ask how I found this out.

The solution is a rear brake.

The OP would have stopped fine if he had a rear brake.


-Tim-

It was a Bontrager tube, not old or beat-up. I guess a rear brake could have slowed me that much faster. The need to continue to pedal in an emergency situation does make it harder to control things. A few years ago on my road bike I had a front tubular blow out at the top of a steep hill, and I stopped PDQ. If it happened a few seconds later at 35 mph it would have been ugly. I gave up on tubbies after that.

Tubulars actually handle blowouts better than clinchers in terms of not making you crash though.

In theory, but not in practice.
In theory, because the tire is glued on, a flat will still be somewhat rideable without risk of coming off.
In practice, flats were much more common with tubulars, and, for me, at least, they were not slow leaks typical with clinchers. A slow leaking clincher will give you time to slow down.

I can think of incidents I've had with a geared bike that wouldn't have happened on a FG-, too like climbing a steep hill, dropping the chain on a shift and jamming the crank. Next thing you know I'm stopped dead, doing a hand plant because I can't unclip. But drop the chain on a fixie and you have a real problem. Nothing's perfect, I'm just acknowledging that the safety margin is a little thinner.

The speed differential between a fixed bike and freewheeling bike probably makes more of a difference than anything else. I rarely exceeded 25 miles per hour on my fixed bike and would often pedal down hills closer to 20 mph as that was something I could sustain with backpressure without needing to use my brake. Those same hills on a freewheeling bike easily see 30+mph and most of my rides include at least one hill of closer to 35-38 miles an hour.

I don't see any major correlation to fixed gear in this situation. It sounds like a crap tube or at least a tube that could have used the valve core tightened. Get yourself a valve core tool like the Park Tool VC-1 and start tightening down your valve stems. Also maybe get a different pump that has a better head that won't loosen valve stems because that could also be the culprit. You can now get Gatorskin Tubulars so you have flat protection and a tire that won't come off and with proper inflation you are less likely to encounter flats.

As far as dropping a chain, Aaron Gwin won at the UCI World Cup DH finals chainless in 2015. He broke his chain out of the gate and still beat everyone else. I am not saying we are all Aaron Gwin or could reach his level but if he can do it on a world cup downhill course I think we could do semi ok on a smoother road.

Also as TimH said maybe a rear brake is in order as well. If weigh is an issue eeBrakes from Cane Creek with Elite Link housing and say SRAM S900 carbon brake levers (assuming a drop or bullhorn style bar) and if cost is an issue I bet your local co-op will have a rear brake laying about or you can get some cheapie Tektro or even Shimano Claris and if you spend a little money on high end brake pads you won't be so bad off and you could take a shifter and gut it or buy some cheap Tektro levers. If it is aesthetics so many to choose from but Paul Component Engineering usually dose some of their stuff anodized in different colors like the Racer brakes, Ultegra or Dura Ace always have looked nice and with those TRP RRL levers or even the SRAM levers are nice looking or for that vintage look Shimano still makes something decent. Heck you can even get hydraulic rim brakes from Magura granted they are for TT basebars but I bet with some hoses and fittings you could make them work with say a TRP Hylex lever since both use mineral oil. (but don't quote me on that)

These days I've been rethinking safety of being out riding on the road in the first place... It's a jungle out there people; be safe!

I agree that fixed gives you less flexibility to deal with an emergency. My big problem is a particularly nasty terrier at a local farm. Often, when I ride past on the bridlepath (part of an official long distance cycle and walking route) the dog runs out and tries to bite my foot. I love dogs, but this one is evil. I have tried getting off and squatting down to befriend it but it is just too aggressive. Now I try to ride through before it notices me, but once or twice it has successfully ambushed me. At high speed on fixed, taking your foot off the pedal either to get it away from the dog's teeth or, in desperation, to kick the dog away, can lead to some hilarious out of the saddle and nearly over the bars moments.

I ride with front and rear brakes on my fixed so I think that in the event of a sudden puncture, I'd not be substantially worse off than on my geared bike.

I had a valve evulsed from a 451 tube this summer. The first time I can remember it happening. Mine was an old tube. Possibly not serviced since buying the bike a couple of years ago.

I might have been able to glue it back together in an emergency, but managed to put a 700c tube in the tire.

In my case, the tube was jammed into the tire/rim quite hard. Otherwise, I don't remember anything out of the ordinary.

Is it possible that your rims were drilled Schrader, and you're using Presta valves? Other risk factors?

https://www.sabrered.com/pepper-spra...p-belt-holster

Stops a dog instantly. It is organic, wears off completely in a few hours and does no permanent harm to the dog.

I sprayed two last week and rode past the location again this past Monday. They barked, ran half way across the lawn, stopped and just stood there looking at me. They wouldn't come within 30 feet of me.


-Tim-

And you will get bit by a dog.



-Tim-

LOL. Same.

^ Not sure what happened there but I'm kind of curious. Being in constant motion and not being able to get your pedals level is less than ideal for a bunny hop but doesn't make it impossible. Not in terms of tricks but being able to at least wheelie or hop over small obstacles is a pretty useful skill to have.

Agree with this, bad tube and glad the OP didn't wipe out.

​​​​​​​Good reminder, in general it's important to be aware that when choosing to share public roads with cars, potholes, nails and other misc. debris there's some inherent risk involved.

Racoons these days, constantly looking at their phones and completely unaware of their surroundings. We get the same with squirrels. So much for the Tufty Club!

I hope you recovered fully from your accident.

Racoons are tougher than Bruce Willis.

Hitting it with a bike won't even put a dent in it.


-Tim-

I try and learn my lessons from out of the ordinary experiences. I learned early on riding fixed at night was not comfortable for me- it gets country dark in my area as soon as you get out of town- no streetlights. Lights are good to be seen, not as good at seeing stuff like potholes and other road hazards in time.
I had a couple of squirrel strikes on a recent ride- on my geared bike, so I can't blame the quietness of a fixed gear. I did almost hit a chicken once- never did find out why he was crossing the road.