Rowan

I've got to love the people who comment here without having toured fixed.

I've toured fixed. With two rear panniers. With the same sort of load I would normally ride with. Over similar distances and terrain I would tour with on a geared bike. With front and rear brakes. With my standard MTB shoes and clipless pedals. Without issues with knees or anything else.

The simplicity is wonderful.

Ask me some questions relevant to your ventures, and I will try to answer them. From my experience.

tgbikes

I haven't read much of this thread. But as a 68 yr. old with 40 yr. old knee surgeries, not replacements. I have spent 25 years spinning multi gear bikes. I now the best knees since I was 25. It wouldn't surprise me if the fixed, single speed equipment manufacturers weren't heavily subsidized by artificial knee manufacturers & orthopedic surgeons.

BigAura

I find it hard to believe that a fit, fixed gear riding, young person is more likely to need knee surgery/replacement than a video playing, junk food eating, obese couch potato.

BTW: Most older guys I know have bad knee's and old knee surgeries a from American football, basketball, and skiing not cycling.

tgbikes

You are write about the football knees. But I wouldn't no a video game if one bit Me. I just finished my daily 12 Mi. warm up, (250) last week, and am eating my high protein breakfast with hole wheat toast. I don't like being called a couch potato. I didn't think football hurt my knees 50 yrs. ago either. I consider myself a born again cyclist. Cost to cost & golf to the border after I turned 50. I wish I had discovered It when I was young like you.

fietsbob

reading back thru other posts ...

so consider you may be able to get a frame with less twitchy frame geometry . and still follow your fixie dream..

adapt to that one with a good sized lowrider front pannier .

or leave your twitchy fixie in the shed, and ride on a more normal touring bike ..

for the tour sights itself, if not the 'I did it on a Fixie' street cred with your peers.

lordbikely

Hey guys, thanks for all the advice. So the Redline is postponed due to various reasons, but I'll be taking my buddy's unused fixed gear Univega road bike conversion. I will be packing light however, as most people advised. I bought a 3lb solo tent, which probably weighs less than my sleeping bag. Other than that, I have a large frame bag which I will stuff with tools and peanut butter tortilla and flax meal roll ups (ride fuel), haha.

I know it's pretty intense, but hey it's a personal attempt at something, and if it doesn't work out as planned, then the trip goals will shift. There are back-up plans, such as trains, alternate routes, modified destinations... whatever happens will happen. It's about the experience. If I accomplish it with no problem, then I'll write about it, if I don't, then I'll write about it. The trip is about the experience (write fuel). It's just as much about my writing project, as it is about the ride.

lordbikely

Here's a photo of my almost complete setup. Sans water bottle cage and water bottle. The tent is snugly fit inside of the enormous sleeping bag sack.
The gear ratio will unfortunately not be the dingle setup recommended, and not as low as recommended, it'll be 46/18 (That's the best I could do with my current time limit). That's better than my old setup of 46/16 at least. Well, that's it. Challenge accepted!

nun

I set my Quickbeam up with 40/34 chainrings and 18/16 cogs on one side and 22 on the other. It's "singlespeed" not fixed though.

fietsbob

Curious about your setup, mechanically.. nun
the cogs offset so when you flip the wheel the chainlines in each combo 40:16 & 34:18, the chainline is straight .

Or are the cogs symmetrical and the offset to the 2 chainring locations is just a Given, And the chain derailleur type.

bmike

the white industries dos eno would let you do a double cog on the back, to (theoretically) align with chainrings up front.

if you have a flip flop you can add another combo on the other side.

White Industries - Free Wheels

i did a double up front and a surly dinglecog (fixed). works really well.
i had a ss on the flip side of the wheel.

seat_boy

I've done a similar setup on my Crosscheck. The chainstays are long enough, and chains are flexible enough, that having a chainline off a few mm doesn't make any noticeable difference.

nun

That's right. I have a White Industries 16:18 double on the back and use those with the 40t ring. There's a white industries 22t freewheel on the other side of the rear hub
and that is used with the 34t chain ring for serious climbing.

noglider 

Well, it seems I'm wrong. It's more commonly done than I thought, and it goes well. I stand (or sit) corrected, and I'm looking forward to hearing further tales of this adventure.

lordbikely

Hey guys,

I just thought I'd update. I finished the trip in 15 days, with one day of rest in San Francisco, and a couple of unintentionally slow days... rain, etc. 8 days up and 6 days down. I traveled somewhere around 860 miles total and climbed around 41,000 feet. I went up the California coast and then down the middle. I definitely could have done it as originally planned, but I opted for experience rather than speed. (Though I did do my first ever century on the second to last day.)

46/18 was a decent gear ratio, as it turned out. Perhaps something a little lower would've been nice for the climbs, but none of the major climbs conquered me. I did walk up one large hill going into Lompoc, but that's because I met some other tourists (with gears) that were walking, and they became my riding buddies for most of the trip up. Admittedly, some small hills were too much, such as some intense city hills in San Francisco and Santa Cruz, but those hills would have been tough for just about anybody with any set-up. There was also one large-ish hill that proved too much, but I had just hiked my bike through a 5 mile long hilly trail through Pinnacles National Park to get to the West Gate, and my legs were beat.

I'm glad that I did my tour as fixed, as I originally planned. The three other tourists that I met and rode with all had gear issues at some point, and I never had a real breakdown, though my chain did hop off once (at the 830th mile) on a downhill because it had loosened from all the torque I had been applying going up. I'm glad I went with both front and rear brakes as suggested, those descents were somewhat hard to control sometimes.

Anyway, I made it! My knees were irritated at times, but they are fine. I did strain my adductor muscle on the last day, but it healed quickly.

Thanks for all the great advice! I tried to follow as much of it as I could - traveling light, dual brakes, etc, and I'll definitely look into all of the other advice for future tours.

hueyhoolihan

glad to hear you made it! there is no substitute for experience, so no doubt you will now be insufferable as far as giving advice is conerned (just like the rest of us). well done.

MassiveD

Well the OP is basically at the outset a person who has not toured fixed, and is expressing an opinion through comments about his plans. I don't see any asymmetry when others join and add to the thread, as long as it is in good spirit. It just ends up making his ultimate achievement all the sweeter.

Also since you are one of most accomplished tourers on the board, I normally feel free to dismiss your advice since there is no way it applies to me. But in this case the OP may have been on your wavelength.

My mom has been an anti -athlete her whole life and she toured on a single speed back in the late 40s and early 50s. Nothing too impressive there. It was just what people with normal sized wallets toured on. Fixed would be interesting, but I think my knees have missed that bus.

Rowan

Congrats, LB. You've joined a very exclusive club and I welcome you as a member!

BigAura

Congrats. Plus it's nice that you're providing the followup for others, now and in the future.

BTW: Great picture of you and your rig.

GamblerGORD53

Good for you lordbikely, Nice ride. That Univega looks totally awsome. With a SA 5 it would go anywhere just fine. Deraillers suck. I would set up the Redline and give it to your friend and keep his Univega. ha . You lucked out big time.

I have an ENO 48T, with an 18, and it is totally awsome. over 5000 miles with only some mushrooming on the teeth. I think it's because there are ridges close to the bottom of the teeth on both sides whereby the chain plates rest on and resist digging the dips. The Dos Enos mentioned above, 39/36 with 16/18, would make sense on steep hills but are laughable otherwise. Top speed of like 14 mph ???? LOL beach speed. Even the Flying Pidgeons I have ridden come with 46/18 or 48/19.

veganbikes

Congrats on doing it fixed. I would never want to tour fixed at least nothing major but it is cool that folks are doing it : )

LeeG

Well done man! Good rig and smile. The coast is beautiful. My last SF to LA ride was in '82 with a road bike with smaller load, after I got to LA I took the train to Redding then rode around Shasta down to Tahoe then back to Oakland. What a wonderful world we live in.