Single Speed comes out of hibernation !

[Deleted member 1258]

Whooah, that's a big gear. I commuted on 74"-76". On the road bike I'm spinning a 53 x 19 or 17 on the flat - That is one hell of a big gear.

When I was commuting on fixed I used to run a 44 x 18 64.7 inch gear.

 

[matticus]

The guy I know has got 20 years on you and he was fine when he was your age. Body abuse may take many years to finally catch up with you, but rest assured one day it will. Lifetime smokers are a prime example, they'll claim to have no ill effects after 40 years of smoking then another 5 years on from that they can't even get to the end of their street without wheezing and stopping to get their breath back!

Yup.

Health issues are multi-factorial - some people get lucky (e.g. the few smokers that live to 100). Doesn't mean that smoking (or asbestos, or chainsaw vibrations, or pushing massive gears ... ) is harmless.

I got the impression that in the Good Old Days (TM) roadies rode fixed in the winter more to keep supple (i.e. spinning flat and downhill) than to build leg strength with a big gear.

I hope Zippy doesn't suffer - personally I prefer to not take any chances. It helps that I quite like spinning anyway :P

 

[ColinJ]

I might like a higher cadence on fixed but it doesn't work as well with a freehub. When I say my bike is feeling too 'spinny' it is because I have not got that direct connection. If I slow my cadence even slightly the bike starts to freewheel and then I have to rev up my cadence to reengage the pawls. I don't like that feeling.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I might like a higher cadence on fixed but it doesn't work as well with a freehub. When I say my bike is feeling too 'spinny' it is because I have not got that direct connection. If I slow my cadence even slightly the bike starts to freewheel and then I have to rev up my cadence to reengage the pawls. I don't like that feeling.

Sounds like when get above a certain cadence you can't keep up with the pedals, can happen with a fixed and you end up spinning the pedals with no pressure on them.

 

[ColinJ]

Sounds like when get above a certain cadence you can't keep up with the pedals, can happen with a fixed and you end up spinning the pedals with no pressure on them.

Yes - my legs are flying round but hardly making any difference to my speed!

 

[Zipp2001]

The guy I know has got 20 years on you and he was fine when he was your age. Body abuse may take many years to finally catch up with you, but rest assured one day it will. Lifetime smokers are a prime example, they'll claim to have no ill effects after 40 years of smoking then another 5 years on from that they can't even get to the end of their street without wheezing and stopping to get their breath back!

Where all created differently.

 

[Juan Kog]

I might like a higher cadence on fixed but it doesn't work as well with a freehub. When I say my bike is feeling too 'spinny' it is because I have not got that direct connection. If I slow my cadence even slightly the bike starts to freewheel and then I have to rev up my cadence to reengage the pawls. I don't like that feeling.

Yes - my legs are flying round but hardly making any difference to my speed!

@ColinJ you need to toughen up , flip the back wheel and ride fixed . @dave r and I can do it and we’re both older than you. Don’t take any notice of Mr Gloomy aka @SkipdiverJohn ..

 

[ColinJ]

@ColinJ you need to toughen up , flip the back wheel and ride fixed . @dave r and I can do it and we’re both older than you.

A few things put me off...

• Heavy traffic
• Potholes
• Heavy traffic PLUS potholes! (Bunnyhopping on fixed? )
• Climbing steep hills (ok, better than a singlespeed with same gear ratio.)
• Steep descents! (80+ kph/50+ mph on fixed? Cadence of 250+ rpm!!! )

Give me a flattish route, a good road surface and light traffic and I would be more interested!

 

[ColinJ]

Oh, and the scare I gave myself on my only experience of fixed...

I got put off trying one on the road after a near-death encounter with a fixed gear gym bike!

It had a huge metal flywheel which must have weighed 20+ kg. It gave the bike a great feel when pedalling. I had intended to just warm up on the machine but it felt so good that I did 20+ minutes and built up to a 20 second full-on sprint. "Okay, enough of that, time to switch to the rowing machine..." thought I, and promptly stopped pedalling. It took me a couple of minutes to extract my head from the ceiling of the gym, and another couple of minutes to reattach my legs!

 

[Toshiba Boy]

My fixed is about to go into hibernation for the summer and the geared bike is about to come out, I ride fixed in winter and gears in summer, before I retired I commuted on fixed, current gearing 42 x 17 to give a 65 inch gear, I'm 70 now and my knee's are fine, its my right hip thats knackered.

Similar here Dave r, just put the Fixie away (46 x 18, 67.3 inch) after it's winter commuting shift, with one of the road bikes readied today for Monday.

 

[Juan Kog]

My fixed is about to go into hibernation for the summer and the geared bike is about to come out, I ride fixed in winter and gears in summer,

Similar here Dave r, just put the Fixie away (46 x 18, 67.3 inch) after it's winter commuting shift, with one of the road bikes readied today for Monday.

Light weights, my fixed does not get a summer rest .

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Similar here Dave r, just put the Fixie away (46 x 18, 67.3 inch) after it's winter commuting shift, with one of the road bikes readied today for Monday.

I'm planning one more ride before the fixed goes away for the summer, I got my geared bike out of the shed and discovered it needed a new bottom bracket, hollowtec 2 thats been on the bike since 2017 and has done nine and a half thousand miles, still smooth as silk but with free play in it, its on order and I'll change it before I start to use the bike.

 

[ColinJ]

I'm planning one more ride before the fixed goes away for the summer, I got my geared bike out of the shed and discovered it needed a new bottom bracket, hollowtec 2 thats been on the bike since 2017 and has done nine and a half thousand miles, still smooth as silk but with free play in it, its on order and I'll change it before I start to use the bike.

I got my best bike out of hibernation a day early yesterday because I was meeting a friend at the top of a hill that is way too hard for me on my singlespeed bike. (It still felt hard using a 28/30 bottom gear!)

The bike hadn't been ridden for 6 months and I discovered that the gears had semi-seized front and back. I managed to loosen both by shifting in the opposite direction first and once I had done that a few times the shifts felt fine.

It was odd getting it on both ends at the same time when I have never had the problem on that bike in 20 previous years!

 

[Juan Kog]

I got my best bike out of hibernation

The bike hadn't been ridden for 6 months and I discovered that the gears had semi-seized front and back. I managed to loosen both by shifting in the opposite direction first and once I had done that a few times the shifts felt fine.

It was odd getting it on both ends at the same time when I have never had the problem on that bike in 20 previous years!

🤔 20 years of not lubing my gears what could possibly go wrong .
Time to start a “ What lube for my gears “ thread .

 

[ColinJ]

🤔 20 years of not lubing my gears what could possibly go wrong .
Time to start a “ What lube for my gears “ thread .

I have definitely used some lube on the gears on that bike in those 2 decades!

(I am now waiting for someone to post "NEVER lube gears, it makes them gunge up and stick"! )