Hi all well thought Id type up a quick thread on my fixie experience for the last 2 weeks. I bought the bike to commute on (IRO Angus) and have so far commuted 4 times round trip. At 60 miles a pop ive got approx. 240-250miles on the Angus.

First morning - was a bit nervous staring at the shiny new bike I had sold off my Ti Merlin for...what the hell you only live once right. Hmmm pink, while I think pink looks good on bikes (wife told me only way to get another bike is if it is pink! Ha! Had the bike ordered in less then an hour later). Am I going to be constantly dodging projectiles from rednecks?

Hit the road, ride in is a 29.8 mile trek from Hayward to Sunnyvale. Pics of my commute can be seen here

https://bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=175981

Hit the road and almost immediately tried to coast! WRONG!! About went over the handlebars...did this a couple more times in the next few miles and wondered if I had made a mistake. Also almost rear-ended a couple of cars, pedestrians, sidewalks LoL. Stopping definitely takes some getting used to.

By mile ten I was starting to get into the groove of things, nice peppy cadence and I felt like I was flying...by now I had picked up that I needed to scan waaay ahead for oncoming obstacles to begin the slowing down process. Oh and my thoughts of using the front brake for emergencies quickly went out the window as I didn’t have the control to stop fast enough. The poor front deep V rims howled each time I applied the brake (powdercoated)

Mile 20 I was cruising along a mut (one near the golf course if you looked at the pics) and a damn bee flew right into my mouth! And then proceeded to sting my on the inside of my lower lip....****e. To be honest I was more worried about the big nasty bee in my mouth and getting it out to realize I had been stung. Five minutes later I had a nice fat lip - I show up to work with my heart pounding, not used to pedaling this much I suppose...day one complete. Funny thing is I usually have a spare set of shoes for when I commute - for whatever dumb reason I took them home so I had to work all day with a phat lip, wearing sidi's and a pink bike in my cube ROFL - look on my bosses face = priceless.

Day 2 of commuting was GREAT - flew into work without issue and made great time! I had thought I may be slower on a fixed as opposed to my geared bike. Seriously had a big grin the whole way in. Hard not to stare at my bike and then the clock and then my bike again....tick tock tick tock I wanted to ride.

Day 3 heading in was another great morning for a commute into work. I was becoming much more confident with the bike. Found my thoughts wandering off as I did not have to worry about gears, cadence etc. Just pedal. Think I am starting to understand the "Zen" that is associated with a fixed gear bike. Coming home was a fun - I actually caught up to a couple of other cyclist when approaching the bridge. One guy good naturedly told me I had lost my derailleur...and then took off in front of me fairly quickly...as if to say c-ya. I kept the pace fairly easily (I race competitively) and got a chuckle as he looked back a few times only to see me 5' off his rear wheel. Let this go on for a bit and then blew by him...wonder if he had nightmares of some kid on a pink fixie dropping him like a bad habit <evil grin> scooted along and passed another roadie - this guy was laboring a bit so I greeting him and passed on buy. Coming down the backside of the bridge I realized my speed was limited as I could only go as fast as my gearing would allow.

The roadies I had passed both caught up on the downhill!! Sneaky sneaky - continued home and had 2 shadows drafting me the length of the access road. At the end of the road (we all were turning left) one of the roadies did something funny and quite dangerous. He bolted out into traffic to cross the road at a totally unsafe time, and damn near got squished (cars were going 50ish) now why IM not sure - hope it wasn’t to try and get ahead of me. I wouldn’t be able to sleep Myself and the other cyclist just looked at each other in disbelief...waited our turn and took off. I was in front and pulled us both up to and then past the daredevil. Made it home and had a cold beer. Man this fixie stuff is a blast!

Day4 try to keep it short. Had a nice ride in - wished I knew how to track stand so I didn’t need to clip in clip out at each stop, light etc...Going to need to practice. Oh and the saddle on the IRO sucks - ass feels like someone has been kicking me in the shorts repeatedly. Time to order an Arione. Pink? I don’t know that may be a bit too much...

On the way home I got to the bridge - up and over only to have my rear wheel deflate at speed. Everything got seriously shaky as I tried to slow down fast as I was on my rim. First flat oh joy! Good thing I remember the 15mm wrench! Got out the spare tube and popped it in there without much issue. Got another 300 yards and flatted again! **** I didn’t check the tire! Doh. Pulled the tube, patched hole, checked tire. Never did find anything - got going again and made it another 1/4 mile before the rear flatted again...I was getting heated. This time it was a pinch flat with a snakebite on the inside of the tube. Patched these holes and started off again (lotta cursing at this point) must say though that I was passed by maybe a dozen cyclist and 95% of them shouted out if I needed anything. Good people you bikers are.

So now my tire is slowly deflating...im going a mile or two before dismounting and re-pumping the tire. I was tired and 2 hours late to pick up my son. I needed a beer! sweet sweet beer. Took everything I had not to throw my bike in the ditch and head to the sushi bar that was in sight for some Saki!

almost home and thought one more pump should do it, as I was pumping I thought well if I can squeeze in 10 more pumps I can prob make it home. WRONG. I ended up severing the valve at base, the metal snapped like a twig. Im laughing at this point. Sure it sounded a bit feverish. I pulled the original flat and patched the original hole...this got me home. My whole attitude had changed f#$$ this fixie (of course it was the bikes fault) I drank my dinner and went to bed. Five flats, can you believe it!

Following day I hit the bike store and bought some Bontrager Race Lites Hard Case with triple puncture protection!!!! gave the bike a good cleaning and apologized for my behavior - apology accepted - lets ride!

And here I am, sitting at work typing this up, bike is behind me waiting for the ride home...and I gotta say

So am I!!

So much for a short write-up
One question (maybe more if I think of any on the ride home: D )

Am going to order up a bling front brake, prob the Campy Record calipers or similar - are there any bling brake levers out there? Ti? Cnc, light, pretty etc. Figure If I have to stare at it for hours on end I should make it pleasant.

Also ordered the bling Ti wrench\bottle opener combo heh - that thing is sweeet!

anyways cheers!



baw

Nice read, and great looking bike.

while i was reading this i kept on thinking of a pink IRO frame, and getting confused.

glad you are having fun on it.

Pink wheels! Kinda fruity, but it works. Love it. Great read too.

did you get the black brake ring as well?

Nice read, nice bike!
Pink on black, the wheels make me smile.

A pink saddle might look nice.. plus pink wraps (looks like you're not into handlebar wraps, though). Maybe a pink KMC chain if you have 1/8" components. I'd keep most of it black, maybe even painting some silver parts.. and killing that IRO logo. Just me, probably.. I'm compulsive.

That was a pretty good story, I imagine I'll have some good times once I get my fixie built. And man, you got stung in the mouth by a bee? I would not have enjoyed that.

Great read, thanks for sharing. I too am on week two of my first fixie. I hope to share a similiar story in the coming weeks.

I too was thinking pink bike and thinking NICE.
Stung in the mouth, happened to me when I was on a tour.
Tasted horrible, looked like I got punched in the face.

So you took off on a 60 mi commute for your maiden voyage?

That's badass. I stayed within a 2 miles of my house for the first week.

bayarea... congrats on coming over to the fixed side... I hope the immortal force isn't taking a back seat.

heh actually my immortal force is still boxed up in my garage after coming back from the LOTOJA race 2 WEEKS AGO

although im sure it will be unboxed and up and running by this Sat (craving some monster hills)

this fixie is a blast though!

gratz. my girlfriend has the same color scheme on her mark V

i actually like the IRO seat. i didn't think it looked like much but it fits ok. last time i was looking for a saddle i tried the arione and i felt like i'd rather sit on just a seatpost. but you know, people are shaped different i rock one of these. pretty comfy, not too expensive, maybe 5mm too narrow but it'll do for a while.

Nice report! I miss Hayward. I attended Chabot College back in '73 & '74....

There's a guy in Melbourne who rides an all-pink custom fixie. Looks great!

There are pictures on the web somewhere, fyxomatosis I think.

Great read! I cant wait to get my fixie done (wheels should be here by the weekend) And the pink........I like!

Nice read! As far as levers, I know the Paul crosstop levers are pretty nice (CNC'd, very futuro-techno). I bet you wished you'd gotten a machined front wheel though!

If it's an Angus, how'd you get a threadless setup on it? Swap forks?

i love my IRO but i have no complaints about the saddle. its not the greatest but i've been using it for a year and its not bad.

my attention span was not long enough to even read past the title, someone want to sumarize?

hey thanks! as far as the headset goes I asked Tony if it would be possible to purchase the PINK CK heasdset for the build. He said "yup as long as its a 1" headset. So i went ahead and ordered and had it shippped directly to IRO. He did mention later he needed to modify something on the fork but in the end he got it done! Only thing that sucks is the bike came with a FSA top cap as its 1 1/8...im goiing to call CK and see if they will send me out a pink cap

Yes Im wishing I got a machined from wheel...lesson learned there. Will my current wheel self clearance or will it self destruct?? Any concerns?

thanks for the tip on the brake lever, im going to check it out today.

regarding the saddle - ya its gotto go! Heavy and it makes my butt cramp! IM squirming like a bug after 10 or so miles. The Fizik Arione is heavenly (but pricey) I recently participated in a 206 mile race and the least sore thing was my arse...and i can get it in PINK!

thanks for all the feedback

hey, at least the saddle's not as bad as the one that came on the motobecane...

Tony is great and will do whatever to make you happy with your build. The non machined wheel will be fine, will wear out the anodizing but it'lll stop you and that's the important part. Just practice skipping and skidding and you won't touch the brake ever again.

Glad to hear you are enjoying the bike... have fun with the fixed but don't ignore the moto... I need to ride mine more often.

Yeah, he likes the bike.

Good luck on the bike, and go with the pink saddle! Freak the rednecks out!

hahahahahaha funny story...I just got a fixed in August (IRO Jamie roy) and havent looked back since...

That's what I'm talkin about! Way to go man.

It will help the flats if you replace the hypersonic tires that come on the bike.