Commutting on a fixie

[dave2041]

I wouldn't mind trying a fixie but i have around 600ft of climbing on my commute... are fixies viable for this? I could just leave my bike in one gear and try it i suppose (a 34x17 looks about right). any thoughts?

 

[Teuchter]

I wouldn't mind trying a fixie but i have around 600ft of climbing on my commute... are fixies viable for this? I could just leave my bike in one gear and try it i suppose (a 34x17 looks about right). any thoughts?

I tend to use a different bike if I'm expecting a lot of hills - the descents are as much (if not more) of an issue than the climbs. Single speed may be a better option for you - you wouldn't be having to brake on descents just to keep your legs from spinning out. 34x17 sounds pretty low to me (my fixie is 46x17 I seem to recall).

Have a look at Sheldon's gear calculator:
http://sheldonbrown.com/gears/

 

[4F]

Right, next person who says "fixie" is going on the "ignore user" list

34 x 17 ????? Whilst riding "Fixed" this may help going uphill however you knees are likely to explode going down

 

[Boris Bajic]

Still wrong. 'Fixed gear' is an Americanism. In the UK it's 'fixed wheel', or just 'fixed'.

Whence this desire proscriptively or prescriptively to require other people to name a variety of bicycle (or not to name it) in a particular way?

Fixies were being ridden long before the hipsters, long before the cycle couriers. They will be ridden long after the craze has died.

People will be selling fixed bikes on eBay and Gumball (or similar) as "Fixed gear, ideal for conversion to geared freewheel".

One day I woke up and my racer (which was never meant for racing) had become a road bike.

Non-cyclists still call it a racer (which it never was), unaware that it is now a fixie.

I have a 'mad keen' mountainbiking friend (parent of a child's friend) who laughed when I said that my early '90s Kona Kilauea is a mountainbike... She thinks it's a hybrid. Which it most definitely is (or was) not.

They're all just bicycles and caring what other people call them may demonstrate membership of the very club whose credibility we question when they use what we think the wrong terminology.

I do hope this has been helpful. My fear is that the possibility exists that it has not been.

 

[Teuchter]

Right, next person who says "fixie" is going on the "ignore user" list

I'm only doing it to annoy the "purists" now. Good to see it's working

 

[Boris Bajic]

Learn to trackstand, on a fixed wheel you should (with some practise) be able to trackstand regardless of the position of the crank arms.

I read up to the opening bracket on this post in a Yoda voice.

I giggled.

Sorry.

 

[Miquel In De Rain]

I read up to the opening bracket on this post in a Yoda voice.

I giggled.

Sorry.

May this farce be with you.

 

[dave2041]

I tend to use a different bike if I'm expecting a lot of hills - the descents are as much (if not more) of an issue than the climbs. Single speed may be a better option for you - you wouldn't be having to brake on descents just to keep your legs from spinning out. 34x17 sounds pretty low to me (my fixie is 46x17 I seem to recall).

Have a look at Sheldon's gear calculator:
http://sheldonbrown.com/gears/

Yeah i use this calculator: http://www.machars.net/bikecalc.htm

I currently ride a 50/34 11-25 cassette road bike. maybe i'm confused... looks like it is 50x19 or 34x13 for the same gear inches~ as a (fixie) friends gearing 46x16 i think.

Either way when i think about it i'd have to cross chain so guess i wont try it xD

 

[Teuchter]

Yeah i use this calculator: http://www.machars.net/bikecalc.htm

I currently ride a 50/34 11-25 cassette road bike. maybe i'm confused... looks like it is 50x19 or 34x13 for the same gear inches~ as a (fixie) friends gearing 46x16 i think.

Either way when i think about it i'd have to cross chain so guess i wont try it xD

Aiming for between 65 and 70 is probably a good starting point.

 

[musa]

No but im working on it,I've already got one of those couriers locks,just need a belt that fits.

That's hipster. Talking from the experience of ex courier

 

[Miquel In De Rain]

That's hipster. Talking from the experience of ex courier

Sounds good.

 

[Domeo]

Don't you dare call my bike a fixie. Yes it's only 8kg with guards. It's a fixed gear road bike, .

Shouldn't that be fixed wheel road bike

 

[GrumpyGregry]

We aren't hipsters hear, it's Fixed Gear.

Some of us are hipsters and it is still a Fixed.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Pull front brake, lift back and flip round with clipped in foot. Soon becomes second nature, even with a heavy pannier on the back

Apply front brake and leave back unlifted. Push down on bars, pout all your weight on your unclipped foot. flip around pedal with clipped in foot in a forward pedalling motion, back end will magically rise all on it's own.

 

[Cyclopathic]

Still wrong. 'Fixed gear' is an Americanism. In the UK it's 'fixed wheel', or just 'fixed'.

I had a cat that was "fixed" I think he'd have preferred to have been left with his gear.