I originally posted this thread in the "freestyle" forum, but perhaps this forum is more appropriate....



With the weather getting nicer in WI and with a substantial tax return in my pocket, I’ve decided to finally purchase a fixed-gear bike. I have been intrigued by fixed-gear bikes for a few years now and have decided that I would like to partake in the enjoyment.
I am a pretty avid road bike enthusiast and have been riding for years. Outside of doing a little freestyle biking when I was a kid, I really have zero experience to draw on for customizing my fixed-gear bike. So I thought I would throw out this thread to get some tips and feedback from those of you who are far more experienced than I.
So here is the type of riding I plan on doing on my fixed-gear….

It will mostly be used as a commuter bike for tooling around town when I have errands to run. I will still be doing all of my event training on my roadies so the reason for getting the fixed-gear is for pure fun and enjoyment. I do not need a full-on freestyle type of fixed-gear bike seeing as I don’t plan on doing a ton of freestyle riding. That being said, I would still like to have the capability of doing some of the more common tricks ie. Riding a wheely, jumping a curb, riding backwards…etc. So in a nutshell, I’m looking to create a bike that is great for commutes up to 10-20 miles, but also has some durability and versatility for a small amount of free style riding.

So my questions are as follows:

What type of gear ratio would you recommend?
What type of handlebar set up?
What type of wheelset and tires?
Brake or no brake?
…and any other tips or advice you might have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

-Hubble

Read all the threads in this post especially this one. Try looking around at bikes and testing some out and come back with more specific questions. In fact you probably will be better of in the freestyle forum because most bikes really aren't all that good for it.

edit: bike suggestion was dumb so I removed it.

"more common tricks ie. Riding a wheely, jumping a curb, riding backwards"

...something you can do on any fixed gear.

-gear ratio: if you had to stay in one gear ratio on your road bike, what would it be?
-handlebar setup: on your drop bars, what position do you like to be in most for relaxed riding?
-wheelset/tires: what's your budget?
-brake/no brake: better safe than sorry...at least when you're starting out

common sense, man.