Thought I'd post a summary of my first day messengering with gears - I know it's the fixed section of the site, but the contrast is interesting since I have only messengered on a brakeless fix previously. I got doored hard when a skid that I hit on the wet/snowy ground carried into a cab at full speed, so I decided to put gears back on this weekend.

The setup I'm using now is a 42t chainring in front with no derailleur, a 6 speed dura-ace cassette in the rear with 5 cogs and an extra spacer - 18, 16, 14, 13 and 12 (chainline gets pretty ***ed around 13 and 12). A simplex prestige RD with downtube friction shifter and suntour superbe brakes. Oh, and the clement tubular tire on the rear wheel improved my handling over the armadillo I had on before for skidding.

The first thing I noticed was that when I stopped pedaling my body tensed up and I felt like I was in danger. Especially going between cars, buses etc. I realized after a bit that I was so used to skidding when my feet weren't moving that my body was having some kind of reaction whereby it thought that I was skidding when I was freewheeling. Weird, I guess you really get used to riding fixed.

I didn't shift very often, and only between the 18 and the 16. Basically rode the 16 99% of the time, which is the gearing I had before. So one strike against gears (useless cog weight). However, I was able to deliver slightly faster with the gears than on the fix, since I had to slow down less going into red lights, near pedestrians, between cars etc. The fear of not pedaling went away after a couple hours. The cyclocross dismount (I use clipless MTB SPD) made dismounting a little quicker (I didn't do any of the crazy Kevin Bacon dismounts on my fix cause I can't figure out how to clip out and do them).

Most importantly, I found that I was able to track stand basically just as well on the geared bike as on my fix! This surprised me. By finding any kind of miniscule incline in the road (incline is the wrong word, more like slight rise), I could get into a track stand and hold it just as long as I could on the fix - definitely longer than any red lights and upwards of 3~4 minutes. 1-handed and no-handed track stands seemed harder so I didn't try it out. But still, this was pretty cool. The bike's desire to roll backwards on the incline functioned exactly the same as pedaling backwards to stay balanced.

Messengering on the fix was a little bit more fun (I really enjoy riding fixed cause of skids etc.), but the gears/brakes have the advantage of being somewhat faster and somewhat more safe (although not too much more safe - the skid into something in wet weather doesn't come up all that often as a problem and otherwise I think that brakeless fix is equally safe). I'm going to go with this setup for a bit and go back to the fix if things get dull. My bike definitely looked way, way, way better as a fixed gear - it's not even close in the style department. Somehow road drops just don't cut it when you had steel nitto pursuit bars on before. Plus I don't have aero brake levers so there are brake cables everywhere.

I'd definitely take this setup in a race over my fix, but for bicycling enjoyment the fix wins. Plus it's just unsettling to stop pedaling.

Wow-cool introspection here Para. I remember the trackstand thing from my old SS set-up. I always thought gears/freewheels are to fixed gear as football is to rugby. Purist? More pain? I was thinking more along the football is stop and go as rugby does not have "downs" and is a more active game; there is more constant motion in rugby. Hopefully the injuries from the Para+Cab equation have healed up well.

Would be interesting if someone made a 2 or 3 speed freewheel you could fit on a fixed hub. Looking at my Surly there is plenty of space for 2 or 3 gears there if spaced properly. It would seem like many could easily do one ring on the front and 2 or 3 on the back with a simple derailuer and friction shifter, plus you would ge ta stronger wheel. I guess this topic would be better in some other forum.

My cyclocross bike has a single 42 chain ring and a 6 speed freewheel. I ground down the teeth off a 50T ring to use as a chain guard on the outside and I have a 'half' front derailleur just to keep the chain on in the inside. I used to just leave the FD on and that worked too. You will lose your chain if you don't protect it up front and that could be dangerous.

I am guessing that the safety you are feeling is due to the brakes on the geared bike. Put some brakes on your fixie and come back and see us

Seriously I find a fixed bike feels so much safer in traffic. I used to ride brakeless in a high traffic area now I live in low traffic but still weaving in and out fixed is safer then free imho. Combine that with brakes and you can zoom right up to traffic lights if that’s what you want to do.

Probably off topic but here's a link to the White Industries one;

https://harriscyclery.net/site/itemde...=39&sort=Price

Great and they know they have the only one so it is $120. WTF is that about? No way that thing has to cost that much...in fact if it was reasonable I would probably buy the 16-18 for my SS MTB, with the chain tensioner all you would have to do is adjust the tensioner alignment which would be quick enough.

i love fixed gears. absolutely by far my favorite bicycle to ride. i became obsessed with bikes because of fixies. however, i would think messengering on a fixie would be a bit harder compared to a geared bike. i can ride waaaay faster and more aggressively/wrecklessly (is there really any other way to ride? aside from drunk) on my 20 speed. maybe i should put a brake on one of my fixies... eek: i can also only bunny hop a fixie in one pedal position, and the height varies and is never impressive. i can easily hop my road bike fairly high.

i just built up my first true road bike a few weeks ago and it has been quite a challenge for me in many ways... mostly because i didn't think i would love it soo much. i thought, this will be a great bike for riding far, climbing some of the intense hills around here, becoming obsessed with being a jerk to anyone i see not on a road bike... oh wait... ahem. blah blah blah. i didn't think it would come close to how much i love my fixies. but i find myself lusting my road bike a little more than my track bikes lately. (good thing they can't access the internet... they would be pissed) maybe just because it's new to me, but i think i'm hooked.

stupid bikes. you always need one more.

ebay: https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...sPageName=WDVW

Up for a DIY project? Check out this from that guy from Harris cyclery. https://sheldonbrown.com/hercules.html I've never seen anyone else with a setup like this, either on the FGG or here in the photos thread. I was going to try it once when I had a real flip/flop hub, but the bike got jacked before I had a chance to get into it. Looks like a sick setup, would be fun to try if you like tinkering, and who doesn't have extra 5 or 6 speed freewheels around from old conversions? ANyway, just an idea.

I think that the best method is to use a cassette with spacers rather than a freewheel - it's cheaper and you have a better selection of gears (depending on what cassette you have). That cross bike setup sounds awesome. And I find that I lust after road bikes and fixed/track stuff equally. I like hitting a skid, but I also like hitting a shift on an sti shifter. It's all biking - different bikes are better for different purposes. I think that fixies are the optimal bike for fun city biking.