Going to give it a go tomorrow

[mangid]

Just ride it!

+100

--
Dan

 

[wheres_my_beard]

bollocks to it requiring extra attention, as far as I'm concerned that is just romanticising.

How is paying attention to what you are doing romanticising?

On a freewheeled bike you can be almost passive at times, just coasting along, and occasionally pedalling to keep momentum. You do have to think more on a fixed gear bike, even if that just means anticipating things more in advance and planning how you tackle things. Maybe I'm still in the initial adjustment part of riding my bike tho.


Admittedly the whole "connectedness" thing may be a bad way to put it but I think it's a valid point.

 

[Rob3rt]

Maybe I was not very clear and thus you misunderstand, I am not referring to paying extra attention with regards to romanticising, but all of these suggestions that riding fixed somehow requires an elevated level of skill, riding fixed is harder etc that people bandy about making fixed riding seem like some sort of romantic or exclusive form of cycling. I just don't buy into it.

I ride fixed and geared bikes. Fixed the majority if the time and in my experience you can be just as passive riding fixed as you can with a freewheel, your legs will just keep going with no internal narrative or conscious effort. The whole connectedness thing suggests being relaxed and naturally at one with the bike, if this is the case, the notion of extraneous conscious effort seems somewhat out if place does it not?

Riding fixed is a bit different stylistically, but it doesn't require elevated levels of skill, mental processing or ability, just a slightly modified way of applying existing skills.

Sorry, I'm going off on one, just ride your bike how you most enjoy it. Sorry for horrible format of my post, posting using a phone and the mobile version of the site doesn't seem to work well for me.

 

[Nigel182]

Am at present building up an old Raleigh Road bike.....
As had singlespeed before with Flip Flop Hub but never really persevered with Fixed...

But will this time as I missed the bike almost as soon as I sold it.

 

[wheres_my_beard]

Maybe I was not very clear and thus you misunderstand, I am not referring to paying extra attention with regards to romanticising, but all of these suggestions that riding fixed somehow requires an elevated level of skill, riding fixed is harder etc that people bandy about making fixed riding seem like some sort of romantic or exclusive form of cycling. I just don't buy into it.

I ride fixed and geared bikes. Fixed the majority if the time and in my experience you can be just as passive riding fixed as you can with a freewheel, your legs will just keep going with no internal narrative or conscious effort. The whole connectedness thing suggests being relaxed and naturally at one with the bike, if this is the case, the notion of extraneous conscious effort seems somewhat out if place does it not?

Riding fixed is a bit different stylistically, but it doesn't require elevated levels of skill, mental processing or ability, just a slightly modified way of applying existing skills.

Sorry, I'm going off on one, just ride your bike how you most enjoy it. Sorry for horrible format of my post, posting using a phone and the mobile version of the site doesn't seem to work well for me.

Maybe it is just me. I find adjusting from one bike to another always takes me ages (as I haven't owned that many bikes); even when I first got this bike and was riding it with the freewheel and both brakes, the whole geometry, ride position and responsiveness took me a little getting used to, let alone once I went to fixed (after riding freewheel bikes for 25+ years).

I enjoy riding fixed, and probably don't ride my other bike because of this but also because I will need ages to get back into feeling comfortable on it.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

i've literally just finished building my new on-one pompino fixed. 49:20 as it's really hilly. i've just spent about 1 hour tweeking. so, 2 firsts, 1st time building a bike from scratch (took about 8 hours to order, buy and build) and 1st fixie i've owned.

i'm just going to go for it tonight, a 38 mile round trip to placement from hilly rossendale to bury the long way round via whitworth and rochdale. nervous and excited all at the same time.

 

[wheres_my_beard]

Good luck. That's quite a distance (IMO) for a first ride, especially with hills.

Have fun!