Singlespeed or Fixed?
 

My current road bike is a late 90's gt force. i'm probably going to get a new roadie in the next two months. i'm thinking about converting the gt, but i'm not sure which i should do, ss or fixie. Any advantages/disadvantages? To convert it to ss, all i'd need to do would be to get the rear wheel laced up to an old bmx hub that i have lying around. how much more would it be to go fixed?

fixed is much better. i rode ss for a while and then switched to fixed. you get all the benefits of having only one gear and then some. i don't miss coasting one bit.

if you're going to have a shop build your wheel for you, it might cost the same amount to buy a pre-built fixed rear.

It depends on the gear. I was using 52x16 ratio on a singlespeed for 2 months - no knee problems, and i ride hard.
Switch to a fixed sprocket today using the same ratio and my knees are hurting me.
It is very hard to not resist the pedal motion, even if you're not trying to brake with you legs, so it's harder on the knees. I think i prefer singlespeed.

maybe i could start out with singlespeed, if i like it, change it up a bit and go fixed? it would be pretty hard for me to not have any coasting at all. i've raced bmx for 10 years and have been riding road ro 3 or 4, so it would be extremely weird to have no coasting at all.

Add the price of a fixed-fixed flipflop hub, lace it up then you can easily try both ss and fixed and decide for yourself which one you like.

get a double sided hub. that way you dont have to decided.

i do have an older bmx flip flop hub....is there anyway i could lock a freewheel in place or something?

I ride fixed on the street and ss mtb. I love riding both. I reckon flip-flop hub is the way to go. Try ss first and then move on to fixed. It might be a bit of a shock to the system to go from gears to fixed, break it up with a bit of ss action.

I think there's a belief in an evolutionary process; ss then fixed then brakeless. I don't subsribe to that. I started riding my ss to work and loved it, where normally it'd be my fixed all the way. I don't see that as going backwards or de-evolving.

Is there an intelligent design bike forum?

Try different things, have fun and smile mucho.

Ps. Don't try any huge gears, about 70" is plenty for much circumstances. The lower the gear the better for skips, skids and fly-sh*t. You don't want to spin-out though.

Check out http://sheldonbrown.com/gears/ for your comprehensive guide to gear ratios.

Other than each one only having one gear they are entirely different.
I ride both and think that you get way more mileage out of the same
expenditure of energy with the fix. Way faster too, relatively speaking.
But, after a grueling day pouring potatos into the deep fryer, its nice to
be able to coast and hit stuff and not worry about it.

+1

Doesn't the GT Force have vertical drops?

You could go single speed with a singulator, cogs and a cassette spacers.

Fixed is gonna take a bit more work.

If there's room on the BMX hub for a BB lockring AND a track cog, you could use it for fixed.

I disagree. I whiz by fixed gears a lot on a SS, not because I'm all that much of a rider, but because I know I can safely run a much higher gear ratio than the fixed crowd, who have to consider their ability to stay in control of their spin on the downhill when selecting a gear ratio. I don't have to worry about downhill spin on my ss, so I can go with a higher gear ratio so at any given rpm will result in a faster ride.

Now, I'm not saying all SS's are at a higher gear ratio, just that it's easier to ride at 52x16 or 52x17 on the SS because you don't have to worry about spinning out on a steep hill. Although the lower gear ratio will make the fixed gear a faster accelerator (so faster in that sense), the max speed of the bike tends to be lower due to safety considerations, so over the long haul or a ride over a mile, I would say a SS would be faster.

what about uphill?

Also, I think you're confused. A lower gear ratio will make a fixie spin faster downhill.

The fix would probably be better uphill, since in this case the fixie has a lower gear. If they have the same gear ratios though, theres pretty much no differnce.

^^^ There IS definately a difference.
I stand by what I said originally. My 46X17 fix will
go faster than my 44x16 SS. It is a scientific conumdrum
I cannot explain but to me its very real. No, you cant go down
hills quickly but you more than make up for it on flats and uphills.
In the non-winter months I ride a fix exclusively, 125 miles a
week on my commute and I get to work at least 5 minutes faster
than the winter SS, and less tired too. If I was to make an uneducated
guess I would say it has to do with more time spent not pedaling and
not realizing it, and, the fix doesnt have any dead spots when pedaling.

Curious to know if the conversion was successful? I've got a 99 Force myself, the dropouts don't look conducive for an easy conversion...

Try both and see which fits your lifestyle better. Just use a flip flop wheel so you can switch from one to the other, any time.
But of course, since your frame has vertical dropouts you will be somewhat limited (fixed mode) unless you go with an eccentric hub.

SS. Don't fight evolution.

I commute about 25 miles a day and I like having coasting/double breaks from the single speed.

I think most of the fixed love comes from having a slightly cleaner looking bike and doing stands for fun. You do pedal more and all that but it's not any different going up a big hill (depending on the size of your cog).......which is where you get most of your workout anyways.

I'd say it depends on where you live and what you do, and what makes you comfortable.

I'm SS on my old world tourist for my 18 mile commute, but I have an old 99 GT Force that I'm considering switching out to a fix for around town but the drop-outs don't look SS friendly. That's why I'm very curious to see how it went for snugent.....

Also, as long as you don't coast, you can pretend to be riding fixed.....unless someone knowledgeable like myself rides up close to you and takes a closer look at your rear cog. Then you're busted...:p

I'm agnostic: I love the fixed and I love SS. I have a flip flop hub, but it stays SS these days, as I almost ruined my right knee riding fixed. Something about the skips and back pedaling didn't sit with my knee.

Since going SS though of course I miss fixed. But unlike others, I find my 10 mile one way commute thru NY City streets to be faster on SS than on fixed. I chalk it up to having road bars and brake hoods/levers. I go faster knowing I can stop faster. Then there is the flying down the descents. And floating over rough patches on SS is just faster.

And as for hill climbing. Yes, on a small hill without a steep grade, you can do it faster and 'easier' on a fixed gear bike. But if the hill is long and/or steep, you're sunk against a geared bike. No question about it. I'm talking here, real hills, as in mountains.

The threading on normal BMX freewheels and fixed gear cogs are the same. Your BMX hub probably uses the 1.37" x 24 tp standard threading. You can thread a fixed gear cog on that, but you won't have a lock ring to keep it from spinning off if you try to skid. You might not want that as a permanent solution, but it isn't unreasonable as an experiment to see if you like fixed gear.

The spacing on your BMX hub is probably 110mm. The road bike you want to convert probably has rear dropout spacing wider than that. Is the axle on your hub wide enough to fit? If so, you could add spacers.

I think you would be better off looking for a cheap pre-built wheel with a flip-flop hub.

x2 also like other people were saying the flip flop hub, i have one for the SS on my 25 mile commutes and the fixed for the weekend fun rides because the fixed hurts my left knee riding it daily