I've got an old Trek MTB that got me to class and work during my college years. Now I'm looking at getting more work out of it as a grocery getter/winter beater and whatnot. With Ames' flat terrain, would it make sense to scrap the gears and convert it to fixed gear/SS? It's got to be better for the winter and alot more efficient not having to drive the chain through a derailer.

Any thoughts?

well its flat here too and the winters are mild so no advice on that but the wind can be a pain if you chose the wrong gearing......i have a few ss and i chose gears for my utility bike........ya might do fine on the way to the store but after a load it might be a different story

if it has horozontal drop outs then you can just do a quick ss convert that can always be reversed for the summer.....unless you like it then you can leave it ss .....id wait to go thru the trouble of making it a fixed only to find out its not what you want............or get a different rim and leave the rim you have alone

if you got a flip flop with a fixed on one side and a ss on the other between the 2 rims you'd have 3 setups

Well it all depends on if your bike has horizontal drops or not, and what kind of gearing you want to run. I ride all winter on a ss mountain bike, but have been having trouble getting the gearing right. 22T up front 15 in the back works fine, but I spin too much. 14 or 13 teeth in the back and I cannot get chain length right even with a chain tensioner. Alright well that is enough of my problem. If you can get the chain tension and gearing right, I say go for it.

It's got vertical drops, so I'd have to build a new rear wheel with an eccentric hub. Which is fine, because part of this is about tinkering anyway.

Personally, I've never seen the point to a fixed-gear bike, other than track racing.

I was riding a multi-speed mountain bike for a while, and am now riding a single-speed coaster-brake bike. I never really gave much thought to how the single speed works. If you're going uphill or into the wind, you can't downshift, and slowing down doesn't really help a lot. So you don't have much choice but to put some extra oomph into it and go anyway. On the other hand, if you're riding at higher speeds, and not going into the wind or uphill, the pedaling is easier and faster than what's comfortable to maintain. The solution is to pedal hard and fast briefly, then coast, then repeat. Riding a fixed gear bike would actually slow me down in that case, as I couldn't comfortably pedal that fast continuously. Or if the bike was geared really high, it'd be great under those conditions and just a killer in the headwind or up the slightest hill.

I second that.

Fixies do not make sense for anything other than velodromes, where you have a lot of people riding in tight formation on a small track and you precisely don't want people to have the ability to change speed very quickly (faster OR slower!).

The current fad is a flock of sheeple wannabees assuming that "anything that's good for elite racing must be better for everything else too".
~

Do you seriously believe that everyone riding fixed or single speed on the street does it because it's a fad, and not because they like riding that way?

I overhauled and converted an old steel road bike into a single speed commuter for the winter. I wanted to try one gear without the expense or learning curve of fixed riding, and hopefully get some training out of it. I actually geared it a bit higher than my normal cruising gear on my hybrid, so it cruises fast and beautifully. Uphill, there are no questions, I just buckle down and mash. And I can't properly explain it but this bike climbs so much better than my hybrid. So don't worry about problems inherent to SS.

I don't know about fixed/SS for winter hauling, though. Adding changes in snow cover and load might make things really hard half the time.

+1 ........some people just never get it.

If I'm not mistaken, in the history of bicycling, the Fixie came first (maybe not called that) and then coaster-capable bikes came later. Single-speed bikes came first, and then multi-speed bikes came later. And similarly, brakeless bikes came first and then bikes with brakes came later. So when a principle has formerly been used and then died off and now becomes popular again, that sure sounds like a fad to me. A bike fad happens precisely because people DO like riding that way, not because they dislike it and do it anyway. But wait 30 years, and they'll like to ride some other way and fixies will be as popular then as banana seats are now. Maybe the penny-farthing will be the latest thing then (with a new and catchy name of course) and anybody riding a fixie will just be some old geezer that doesn't get it.

The original question was if a fixie "made sense" for a certain application. Depending on his personal preference, just about any bike in the world could be used there, and a great many of them would work just fine, and if he wants to ride a fixie, more power to him. But to say that a bike lacking brakes makes more sense than the same bike with brakes, or that one lacking other capabilities makes more sense than ones with those capabilities seems a bit of a reach.

Why not just keep your current bike in one prefered gear and don't shift it?

If that gear turns out to not be right: shift it to another! Who wudda thunk it?

FWIW, here's an interesting on-going discussion regarding the fixie fad:

https://forums.roadbikereview.com/sho...03#post1301503

What attracted me to FG/SS is that the extra cogs and chainrings and extra length of chain you have with geared bikes adds weight. Plus, a straight chain line is more efficient than running chain through derailers. Plus, it's a lot less stuff to clean and maintain.

I don't think running fixed is a fad. There are practical reasons for it.

i do believe the op was asking if a ss/fixed was better in the snow due to less moving parts and less to break or cause problems .......like snow building up on the derailer or ice or salt.......and he never said he wasnt gunna have brakes......it was a simple drivetrain question

You could go for a hub gear. They have the advantage over derailleurs in that they are enclosed and you don't get gunk in the shifters. In flat Ames, a three-speed would probably be OK, but they do make hub gears in five-, seven-, and eight-speeds, too.

Weight? Efficiency? Do you really think it will make a difference in flat Ames? Clean/Maintain? Clean what, if you don't intend to shift?

My suggestion for simplicity - find a single speed, coaster brake 26" wheel on any old cruiser bike of the past and stick that on your bike. Better yet keep that wheel on the old cruiser and use the cruiser. No fuss, no muss.

Complete used bike should be available at thrift stores or garage sales for under $20.

There are some minor benefits to a fix. The first is that in the ice and slush your derailleurs can get stuck, but no real problem there, just don't shift, and it'll be like a single speed anyway. There's the aforementioned issue of weight, but really, in a winter beater MTB, the ounces you'll save aren't going to mean a lot. The only real benefit is this - in extreme weather conditions, your freewheel pawls can freeze up so your cranks just spin, and THAT's a bummer, specially since it's the last type of weather where you want to push, or sit waiting for a lift. I know that this happens, because people report it from time to time on BF, but how often it really happens, I wouldn't venture to guess.

The big reason that most people ride fixed is cos they either like how it feels, and/or want the extra workout. There is a viewpoint that says that fixed is the best way to brake the rear wheel in the slippery conditions, because you really feel what's going on back there, but having no experience, I'm not qualified to comment on that.

This makes sense, but it conflicts with the line I was responding to.

A pack full of groceries adds weight too. And being able to pick your cadence is more efficient than being stuck in one gear.

The answer might depend on what other options you have. If you have another way to carry thirty pounds of food in two inches of snow, build the fixie and have fun. If this is going to be your one winter bike, clean or maybe upgrade the drivetrain, and keep your eyes open for a cheap road frame to convert.

Depends on the city and your luck. Around here, every old rusted hi-ten road frame seems to go for at least $50.

Almost all the benefits of a fixed gear are shared by a single speed. The only practical benefits you lose by going single speed instead of fixed is the ability to trackstand and the ability to ride brakeless. However, in my opinion, the ability to coast is worth far more than trackstanding and brakeless stopping.

That being said, I recommend going single speed. It's a lot more efficient, a lot lighter, a lot more durable, and a lot cheaper than having gears (derailleur or otherwise).

How cool would that be? Trackstand with a basket-load of groceries? I would rule.

Although trackstanding can be useful when trying to merge into fast moving traffic from a standstill, coolness is not a utilitarian virtue.

You can trackstand on any bike - just hold the brakes. You just can't rock back and forth by pedaling backwards. Trackstands aren't THAT cool - riding backwards on a fixie, now THAT is cool.

Fixie takes the most energy, that is the worst choice for utility. You want to use that energy to go farther and/or carry more stuff. If you have the energy to do all your chores on a fixie though, and are geeky about it, go for it.

cydisc, go for it.

I ride a fixed gear. It's the third one I have built, and I started with them before the current fad took hold. I live in much steeper country than you, and I use mine for a 50km return trip every Sunday to do my weekly shopping. Given that I live by myself, a week's worth of goceries come in between 12 and 20kg. There is a difference between the unloaded and loaded bike going up the hills, but it's not something that bothers me. If you are riding in flat country all the time, you would have no worries.

And to those who cannot comprehend what is written, this is as much about tinkering, is it not cydisc? I find it amazing that people can deliver such scathing negative comments on something they haven't tried in a sustained way. It can be satisfying to strip a bike back to its most basic form, and to come to terms with it as a rider. Riding a fixed is somewhat different to riding a single, and different (obviously) to riding a geared bike. They all have their merits. But only by riding each, is it possible to deliver a verdict.

There are additional benefits to riding a fixed (and to a degree an SS). Longevity of the drivetrain because the chain is not having to contort to various angles; the removal of a dirt and snow/ice attracting devices in the form of the derailleurs; and the lack of clutter elsewhere on the frame. Oh yes, there is also the lighter weight and the slight increase in efficiency. And you certainly don't have to make any decisions on gears.

There are some challenges to riding a fixed. You don't have the ability to back-pedal the cranks to get a good push-down on take-off. You either have to go with the position it's in, or (if loaded) move the bike forward until the crank is in the best position. Front-wheel overlap can add to the challenges!! And be careful if you use cranks over 175mm long... although the BB height on an MTB should present you no worries when cornering.

Yeah! Go for it. The worst you could do is spend some dollars on three or four cheap track cogs and suitable chain, and if you don't like what you have set up, you still have the bits to put back on the bike to make it into a geared one again... or slip on a BMX single-speed unit (which can come is a pretty wide number of teeth options).

And the ability not to have your freewheel freeze, stranding you at the side of the road. It might not happen all the time, but it DOES happen!

Here, there is a new design that will fix THAT problem :