Jonathon94

Well today I have recieved my first fixed gear bike. I got the Takura Kabuto Single Speed Road Bike (Flipped the back wheel over) and so far I kinda like it.

I am having some issues and maybe you guys can give me some advice.

-I don't know if it is just the drop bars or what, but I am noticing that the bike causes me to strain my neck a lot.
-I keep trying but I can not get used to having my feet clipped in the pedals. I have already fallen over once.
-When turning, how do you keep the pedals from striking the ground?

Dixie Gentleman

I hope you got for a steal at $129!

gregjones

Street rider

We should have a dedicated thread for things like this.

Jonathon94

The postis not really about the specific bike but the problems I am having converting to a fixed gear from a Multi gear bike

gregjones

1: There's a "fit" problem.
1a: You are in the drops AND trying to see where you're going, possibly in an urbun environment.

2: Either you need experience or you need to adjust your retention system to get your foot out of it.

3: Slow down so you don't have to lean so far over????

Jonathon94

Could you clarify what you mean?

seanifred

how tall are you?

IthaDan 

It either means your bars are too low, or you don't yet have the flexibility to hang out in the drops. Give it time, then if it persists, flip the stem. (or is that thing a quill stem?

Jonathon94

I am 5'8.5 and based on some charts I looked out I go the 54cm frame.

Jonathon94

To be completely honest, I don't have a clue.

rex615

Yes it is a quill stem, so you cant flip it over. A threadless system would allow you to flip the stem and raise the bars a bit.

Jonathon94

Upon doing a quick amazon search, the only thing I found was threadless forks. Is that what you are talking about?

Street rider

I didn't read. Saw the title and the link you posted to it. Just sort of assumed.

Your neck is a thing of flexibility. You'll get used to it eventually. My neck was sore on and off for close to two months. And to reduce pedal strike, shorter cranks help, along with a slightly more narrow pedal, and also learning how to take a turn at speed. Learning process for that can often be painful.

Scrodzilla

Why don't you post a picture of your actual bike so we can see how you have it set up?

Jonathon94

https://www.dropbox.com/s/y9r0xy0680...214_093858.jpg

hairnet

You do have the option of raising the stem an tilting the bar up, but I think in the end the bike may be too small. No way to tell without seeing you on the bike

rex615

Here is a quick explanation. Basically you have the one on the top, it is called a quill stem. The newer ones are thread-less like the bottom pic. With thread-less, you can take the stem off and invert it to change its relative angle, thus raising the bars.

europa

You can also raise a quill stem by loosening the bolt and lifting it. How much you can raise it depends on the length of the shaft inserted into the steering head of the bike but you can buy longer ones.

It's hard to tell how your bike is set up from that photo. Set the saddle so that when you're sitting on the saddle and your HEEL is on the pedal, your leg is straight at the bottom of the stroke - you don't peddle when doing this, it's a static setting. When riding normally, there should be a slight bend in your knee at the bottom of the stroke.

It looks like you have your bars angled down. Lots of people do this, maybe someone could explain why. For this exercise, set the bars so that they sit level on top. You can change it later if you want to.

Now the most important part ... if you want our help. Stand your bike up against a wall with horizontal lines such as a brick wall. The ground should be flat too. Take a side on photo and post it on here. This allows us to see how your bike is set up.
If you can, sit on the bike, feet on the pedals, foot closest to the camera down (lean your shoulder against the wall), get a friend to take a photo and post it on here - one photo hands on hoods and another hands on drops would be good. This shows us how you fit on the bike.

Without all this, we can't help and, as tends to happen on this forum, if the lads get bored, they get silly.

Of course, the best thing to do is to the down to your local bike shop and get an experienced cyclist to help. You HAVE been cultivating a relationship with your lbs haven't you and not just buying everything off the internet?

rex615

Thanks europa, I didn't mean to imply you couldn't raise a quill system.

OP: There is usually a minimum insertion line drawn on the shaft that tells you how far up you can go.

CyclingDaily

These could be the reasons for you having a sore neck.
-The top tube of your bike is too long, so you have to reach forward to grip the drops.
-The stem is too long, which is making you reach more forward also.
A solution would be either, changing to a shorter stem, with a rise angle, maybe a mountain bike stem ?
Or raise your stem to the minimum insertion line, I don't think the second option will make too much of a difference though.
For the pedal strike.
-Don't turn too sharp.
-Get new crank arms with a shorter arm.
Thats all I can think of

europa

Cornering on a fixed gear is different to cornering on a bike with a freewheel.
With a freewheel, you stop pedaling, place your weight on the outside pedal, turn tight to start the turn then open up as you exit the corner. Apart from learning to place your weight on the outside pedal, most people learn to do this without thinking about it.

Things change with fixed gear. You can't stop pedaling so you can't load the outside pedal and the inside pedal will come close to the ground at least once in a corner. We get around this by using taking a more sweeping like through a corner which keeps the bike more upright and thus gives more ground clearance.

This difference in lines is why riding in a bunch can be ... interesting.

A purpose built fixed gear bike has a higher bottom bracket to give the needed ground clearance, on a converted road bike, you may find yourself using shorter cranks (165mm is plenty).

For what it's worth, I've never touched a pedal on my Hillbrick, which was designed for fg, but periodically do so on my Europa (a geared 80s roadie) because I forget and keep pedaling