Yeah man, it sounds to me like you need to learn how to ride fixed. The whole point of fixed is NOT to be mashing... even up hill. Riding fixed is zen-like, it's continual smooth motion, it's learning to keep a steady cadence regardless of the road. It's about having the bicycle be an extension of your body. You're mashing? Really? I've done 1500 ft elevation climbs in the dark (new moon) on roads that are both under construction and covered in drift of the mountains after rain yet I still don't mash. (and your 76 gear inches are decent, but I'm running a 85 gear inches and don't mash, even up steep ass hills) And wait, you're in Long Island?? There are mountains there that you would mash on?? Really? I'm shocked. Dude, it isn't the frame, it's your riding style. Period.

If you are riding fixed you should learn the purposes of riding fixed and let it improve your overall riding ability. When you go from fixed to geared you'll notice a difference too and you won't mash. Professional cyclists train on fixed (whether conversions or tracks) something like 80% of the time they're on a bike. It trains their legs, body, and mentality into an efficient and high level of cadence... Then you see them don the geared speed machines climbing up the steeps of le Tour or sprinting to a finish - THEY DO NOT MASH!

Ugh. Mash your potatoes, not your bike.

You're spinning up steep ass hills at 20mph? Who do you race for?

I didn't say I was going up hills at 20mph, but I'm not mashing either. Up hills the cadence is slower, but it is still steady... whether seated or not. I'd say going up the Griffith road climb I'm averaging about 10 depending on the grade...

and when I race, I race for my self or for the person that the benefits of the race are going towards (usually a fallen rider from psychotic drivers that can't handle bicyclists on the roads).

i posted before about cracking my early 80's steel track frame. through the lug at the head/downtube junction. i rode the bike for about 18 months almost daily for work and on weekends. i consider myself a pretty hard rider though. lots of skids, dropping curbs, a couple wipeouts on it, 4 or 5 races, rain, snow and sun. takes it's toll i'm sure.

right now i'm on aluminum. can't wait to get a new steel track frame.

40rpm = mashing.

no... mashing is pushing down hard on the pedals on the downstroke without a balanced pull on the upstroke.

if the motion is continual throughout the entire cycle and the cranks are getting an balanced amount of pressure throughout the stroke, you are riding as you should be on a fixed....

when the cycle of pressure exertion is unbalanced, the rider is mashing. this may put unnecessary pressure onto the frame, perhaps a cause for the cracks in the BB shell.

admittedly, learning to be continually smooth even on a steep hill isn't the easiest ****, but with a conscious effort, time, and practice it will eventually get smoother.

watch the folks racing at the velodrome - even at the very end when they're sprinting hard into the finish, they are not mashing. it's how your ride, folks. (track frame damages come from crashes or the opposing pull 'up' from the upper body on the handlebars... a frame pulled in two directions? that can cause stress. stress eventually leads to a cracked frame (if the handlebars don't go first!)

First you are wrong. Riding at 40rpms up a hill is mashing. That is just how mashing is defined in common usage.

Secondly, you simply can't put a smooth constant force on the pedals when doing that. Low rpm means more force on the pedals do to the same work. Your body is built to apply alot of force in some and not so much in others. That means that applying smooth force or even force to both pedals in these maximal force situations is impossible.

Third, Even if you could apply a constant even force to the pedals which you can't it would stress the frame just as much. Pulling up hard on one pedal and pushing down hard on the other bends the BB out of line just as much as pushing down hard on one pedal.

Finally, sprint finishes in a track race are probably the highest rpm spinning cyclists commonly do. They aren't mashing because they are in a low force high rpm situation as opposed to your high force low rpm one. Want to see mashing look at a standing start or the jump in a mash sprint.

OMG!!!!! Goddamn....my Motobecane frame is cracked too...on the seattube, right above the BB shell. I rode this frame for two months and it was in great conditin when I got it. The cranks felt loose this morning and when I inspectied it, I noticed the crack. It goes almost all the way around the tube. Thats it..I'm buying a new frame. No more of this vintage road conversion crap.

unlike actually cracking the shell itself that is a really common place for frame failure.

1) We have a little terminology issue. Most of us use "mashing" to mean climbing/accelerating out of the saddle. That can only be done while putting in an uneven drive force. That's just the way it is. Armstrong mashes up hills, too. (Well, he used to. Even despite his freakishly high cadence.)

2)You are a ******bag.

Heheh, I just read his post at the top of this page and was thinking "This guy is nuts----he is making fixed riding out to be poetic and spiritual, what a ******" and here are my thoughts on the page but in another person's post. How poetic and spiritual.

poetic and spiritual is a-ok

This sort of bull****:
"You need to lear how to ride fixed" "I've done 1500 ft elevation climbs in on roads that are both under construction and covered in drift of the mountains after rain yet I still don't mash." "Dude, it isn't the frame, it's your riding style. Period." "If you are riding fixed you should learn the purposes of riding fixed" "And wait, you're in Long Island?? There are mountains there that you would mash on"

... can only come from a ******bag

Yeah, telling anyone how to ride their bike over the internet is a sure sign of ******baggery. Everyone is different and at least he is riding. I dunno how he has had so many cracked metal frames though, it is a bit weird.

I must have spaced out reading the original post. I thought you were paraphrasing to make him sound even more like a ******bag till i went back and read it again...

haha yeah... my rig with computer, clothes, lunch, etc is like 55lbs. to work is downhill, but home is uphill (steep) I can't imagine trying to stay in my saddle for some of those hills. I do try to even out my pushing with pulling/evening out my cadence... but jeez. that kind of boasting and dismissal is kind of over the top.

op: I haven't a clue what's up with your luck... I've been riding my old raleigh capri for 4 months now, but before that I had lots of different steel bikes (so many I probably ended up getting rid of them before they developed cracks) I did have a deraillur break clean in half on my MTB though... freakish manufacturing defect coming out after 15 years. Just goes to show that even high-end shimano stuff is prone too. Goes for anything.

Yeah, its I know its total bull****...I know how to ride fixed, and how to ride smoothly. Its not that I'm not riding smooth. I rarely even stand when I climb. Long Island has hills, but they are not mountains. I can get up them without any kind of extreme mashing. I take care of my bikes and I don't abuse them. I just have this tendancy to trash steel frames. I think I've just had back luck with steel and my two attempts to built a vintage conversion have just not worked out. This last one cracked after ~800 miles. MOst of those miles were with moderate hills with average speeds above 20mph. I'm starting to think that a lot of these older frames just aren't built for riding hard and fast. Either that, or they have had too many miles put on them to begin with. I have two other bikes with alumunim frames and both of these have stood up to thousands of miles without any damage.

man your scaring me...

i got an 80's paramount conversion and mash the ***** out of it on a daily basis and have been for almost a year now.

at 230, i feel it flexing around under me quite a bit on steep uphill efforts but so far the thing has held up like a champ.

a custom frame would allow you to beef it up in the proper spots for those beefcake legs you must be packin

Custom steel for a conversion isn't the cheapest idea out there but maybe you can concentrate on getting something nice on your area's CL to convert. Look for something made out of Reynolds or Columbus tubing and when you go to check it out, check for rust and remove the seatpost and eyeball it for rust inside too.

nonsense. certainly not above a bicycle's tolerance

+1000 bags for douching
although maybe his last conquest in the bedroom needed a good douching and hence why he is so angry.

Bending the bb out of line put's alot of stress near the bb/st juncture. That so many frames fail here is evidence that this is above the frame's tolerance. SS has you both mash more and mash much harder then you ever would on a geared bike. The frequency and magnitude of the stress is therefore greater and the frame will fatigue faster and crack sooner.

I dunno... I really think that's a lot more dependent on rider skill and shifting philosophy (some people like to mash) than drivetrain. A road frame should be able to hold up to consistent mashing, just like an XC mountain frame should be able to hold up to a 2' drop. It's not the intended use, but it's well within the bounds of expectations.

While some people may mash more then others on a geared bike they still mash less then they do on a ss. I mean everyone shifts sometimes and you rarely see people on road bikes pulling on the bars as hard as they can while pushing and pulling with with their feet.

I agree that a road frame should be able to hold up to mashing for a while just as an (non-race)xc frame should be able to hold up to 2' even 3' drops for a while. In the end all frames bite the dust though and the more stress you put on them the sooner it's going to happen. A frame that was strudy enough to take me mashing on it or take 3' drops without fatiguing would be so heavy that I would choose the moderately durable frame over it anyway. If I can only expect to get a few seasons out of a new frame completely worry free or a completely unknown amount out of a used one that's cool it's just something to take into account when you are buying a frame.

Time to move away from that steel crap, get a Cannondale.