Single speed to fixed?

[Ibbots]

I have been commuting by single speed for about 2 years now - over 30 mile round trip with starting with a big drop hitting 35mph just freewheeling on the steep bit (Chorley Old Road from top of Horwich into Bolton - at least one of you knows it!) and obviously climb the same hill on the way home. At present I run 47:18 ratio on a converted road bike which I find can do the climb reasonably quickly in ideal conditions and can make it when battling the usual headwind. I push along at 19-20mph on the flat at a reasonable cadence.

Now I'm toying with the idea of going fixed for my nice weather commuter. I have ridden fixed but only at Manchester Velodrome where I did the SQT's for about 18 months and not sure that really compares to the road experience.

So...

1. Should I really bother, I've got a nice bike I like riding and doesn't have any of the inherent/perceived problems of riding fixed, particularly in heavy traffic with a lot of lights, etc?

2. I am not worried about the climb but the morning descent might be a bit of a challenge, do any of you have to deal with steep descents, is it going to be possible on the ratio I need to get back up again without ripping my knees apart?

3. Assuming the answer to 1. and 2. is yes, stop being a sissy, what frame and rear wheel/wheelset can you recommend? Current bike is a Kinesis KiC2 road frame, Reynolds Ouzo Pro fork with Kysrium ES wheels and is fantasic to ride, fast and responsive. If I go ahead I plan to transfer all the kit, forks and front wheel to the new frame, at least in the short term, and want to achive a similar quality ride and a good looking bike if possible.

4. Back brake, yes or no? Obviously limits the frame choice but I think a back brake might be handy to help me control descent speed.

5. Would I be better off just buying a ready made bike like a Langster instead (assuming I can find room for bike no 6 as I'll likely be sleeping in the bike shed too)?

Cheers

 

[4F]

1. Yes stop being a sissy

2. 35 mph downhill is not for the feint hearted on a fixed

3. Could you not just get a flip flop hub rather than change the whole bike with fixed one side and single speed the other. You could of course get a fixed / fixed hub. I have this with a 17 on one side and a 18 on the other.

4. Without doubt so you can control you speed better on point 2

5. Get a bigger shed

 

[totallyfixed]

I have been commuting by single speed for about 2 years now - over 30 mile round trip with starting with a big drop hitting 35mph just freewheeling on the steep bit (Chorley Old Road from top of Horwich into Bolton - at least one of you knows it!) and obviously climb the same hill on the way home. At present I run 47:18 ratio on a converted road bike which I find can do the climb reasonably quickly in ideal conditions and can make it when battling the usual headwind. I push along at 19-20mph on the flat at a reasonable cadence.

Now I'm toying with the idea of going fixed for my nice weather commuter. I have ridden fixed but only at Manchester Velodrome where I did the SQT's for about 18 months and not sure that really compares to the road experience.

So...

1. Should I really bother, I've got a nice bike I like riding and doesn't have any of the inherent/perceived problems of riding fixed, particularly in heavy traffic with a lot of lights, etc?

2. I am not worried about the climb but the morning descent might be a bit of a challenge, do any of you have to deal with steep descents, is it going to be possible on the ratio I need to get back up again without ripping my knees apart?

3. Assuming the answer to 1. and 2. is yes, stop being a sissy, what frame and rear wheel/wheelset can you recommend? Current bike is a Kinesis KiC2 road frame, Reynolds Ouzo Pro fork with Kysrium ES wheels and is fantasic to ride, fast and responsive. If I go ahead I plan to transfer all the kit, forks and front wheel to the new frame, at least in the short term, and want to achive a similar quality ride and a good looking bike if possible.

4. Back brake, yes or no? Obviously limits the frame choice but I think a back brake might be handy to help me control descent speed.

5. Would I be better off just buying a ready made bike like a Langster instead (assuming I can find room for bike no 6 as I'll likely be sleeping in the bike shed too)?

Cheers

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Just use what you have
4. Yes
5. Too subjective to give an opinion

One thing for sure, you will get stronger. I run 50 x 18 on 175mm cranks in a hilly area, it's surprising how soon you adjust.

 

[Pennine-Paul]

Hi, I can remember that road vaguely from when I lived in Bury,

I currently live in the hills above Oldham and the hills here are much

steeper than where you are,I only use a front brake, never had any

problems with excessive speed,just feather your front brake and

use your legs to stop the speed building up too much.

I find riding fixed in traffic much easier than singlespeed as you

can control your speed much better,My ratio is currently 44/16 and find

I can get up most hills with this.

 

[Ibbots]

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Just use what you have
4. Yes
5. Too subjective to give an opinion

One thing for sure, you will get stronger. I run 50 x 18 on 175mm cranks in a hilly area, it's surprising how soon you adjust.

Thanks everyone for such quick responses

Totallyfixed - Not only am I a sissy, I think I am being a bit thick here. You are suggesting that I use what I have to run fixed. At the moment I am using a standard road wheel with 9/10 spd freehub and spacers to fit a single cog in a standard road frame with vertical drop outs and a sprung tensioner. So could I just get a wheel with fixed hub to fit that frame and carry on with the tensioner? I rather imagined I would need narrower track frame and wheel like I had on the Velodrome - Dolan Track Champion that I sold a while ago. Or is it possible to convert the Mavic freehub to fixed without ruining it? If so this would be ideal and I could spend my birthday money on something else.

Cheers

 

[Bicycle]

1. Do bother. Definitely bother. I'm a recent convert (6 months) and it's a real giggle. I still ride a geared bike as well, but the fixed-gear is a complete hoot.

2. Fast descents are best got into slowly, over time. I have done an indicated 35 mph on my 69" fixed gear, but it was a case of just going for it and with hindsight I can see there was NO WAY i could have stopped in an orderly fashion. Just let descending speed creep up over time, add speed in increments where it's safer to do so and practise stopping from speed. Big hills on lightly used A Roads are a good place to start experimenting with speed and its control.

3. I have no views on this. Whatever's cheap....

4. Yes. Yes. Yes. Keep the rear brake. I tried without when I first build my fixed, just because I thought it looked 'cooler' (and because I wanted to remove everything I could possiby remove). It was just extremely scary without the brake. I am now grateful for my rear brake on almost every ride. I know there are those who hate them, but if you're getting used to a new thing - and fixed wheel is VERY DIFFERENT - then it may be best to keep as many things as you can unchanged. I don't think I'll ever junk the rear brake... You do slowly develop an ability to slow (and even stop) by pushing against the pedal smoothly, but I still like to have a rear.

5. I have no views on this. Mine is made up from an old, steel road bike with horizontal dropouts. Without the frame lying around I wouldn't have descended into this sweet, necter-dripping madness of once-unknown delights. But I'm jolly glad I did.

 

[4F]

Just looked at your bike, vertical dropouts so fixed is not an option unliess you also change to an eccentric bottom bracket. I did what bicycle did and converted my old 10 speed Dawes which had horizontal droupouts to fixed. Total spend about £ 100.00

 

[Pennine-Paul]

You'll need a new rear wheel with a threaded section for the fixed sprocket and a lockring

Have a look on charlie the bikemongers site at the fixed wheels, there's a good pic of what u need

eccentric hubs are not a cheap option,You can pick up an old steel frame off ebay for a snip, mine cost 99p

 

[Ibbots]

After some deliberation decided just to get on with it and ordered a Langster from Harry Hall in Manchester, trying to sort something out with my current bike was going to be too much faffing.

Hopefully pick it up tomorrow and then all I need to do is transfer the lo pro bars and levers, consider swapping the breaks for the 105 calipers I have knocking about if there's any advantage in that, swap the lumpy looking seat post and saddle for the carbon post and SLR saddle I like from the other bike and start the search for some nice wheels - possibly funded by the sale of frame and road wheels.

Thanks for the advice and encouragement.

T

 

[trio25]

Glad you've gone for it.

I ride a langster and I know the hill you mean well, I rode it fixed on monday and found it fine! It's not so steep to be scary fixed. Prefer fixed in traffic as well!

 

[fossyant]

Fixed is best. Went in at the deep end two years ago fixed/fixed hub 70" one side, 74" the other - live 10 miles SE of Manchester, so hilly..... used 70" for a week or two, then went 74". Recently went for 78" as chain ring needed replacing....sorted.

Scary first few times down hill, but it gets a doddle controlling the speed after a few months.

 

[skudupnorth]

You should be fine on that road on a fixed,i find reducing the speed through the drivechain/pedals more easier the more you ride (brakes are the emergency option nowadays !) The worst bit is all the parked cars !!!
I use my fixed more and more nowadays for commuting to Bolton which is a shame because the roads are pants,especially along Manchester road from Moses Gate,and i should keep it nice for big rides like last Sundays ride to Blackpool.

 

[Ibbots]

Well it's built and I've had my first ride. Done quite a bit to the bike with wheels and kit - perhaps should have just bought a frame, but I tend to do things the difficult, expensive way! The headtube is a bit longer than I normally like even with the stem sat right on top of the headset cap and no risers but a higher position might not be a bad thing for commuting. Will try it for a while but might fit some low profile bars with a bit of a drop if don't like it in the long run.

The first ride was "interesting", particularly the first steep descent when I had a bit of a panic trying to control the speed and felt like the pedals were running away with me until I remembered the brakes. Went round a few times and found I could spin up to about 30mph before having to feather the brakes. Pot holes and speed humps caused some excitement, overcoming the urge to coast over took some mental discipline. All in, managed the slowest 30 miles for quite some time and my legs are aching today. Think I'll save the first commute for a quiet day.

 

[Bicycle]

Congratulations on building it and getting the first ride in.

Your first-ride experiences were not unlike mine.

Do make sure also that your first commute is on a dry day.

Even after riding fixed for some weeks, I found the slowing/stopping capacity quite different to anything I'd ridden until then.

Wet surfaces seem to exacerbate this difference.

I'd come to rely on an ability (in extremis) to stop or swerve an MTB or road bike that I simply lacked on a fixed-wheel bike. Hugging my son's wheel on his training rides was simply not an option.

Fixed-wheel is huge fun, but do your initial learning in the dry.

And congratulations again!

 

[Ibbots]

Congratulations on building it and getting the first ride in.

Your first-ride experiences were not unlike mine.

Do make sure also that your first commute is on a dry day.

Even after riding fixed for some weeks, I found the slowing/stopping capacity quite different to anything I'd ridden until then.

Wet surfaces seem to exacerbate this difference.

I'd come to rely on an ability (in extremis) to stop or swerve an MTB or road bike that I simply lacked on a fixed-wheel bike. Hugging my son's wheel on his training rides was simply not an option.

Fixed-wheel is huge fun, but do your initial learning in the dry.

And congratulations again!

Thanks - I think it will be quite a while before I'll consider doing away with the rear brake, although already browsing some nice titanium fixed frames. This is going to be my dry weather commuter, I prefer the reliability and consistency of the hydraulic disc brakes on my Inbred to road brakes for wet weather commuting.

Checked the weather and tomorrow looks like the day. Insurance confirmed and prepared instructions for family, I want to be buried in lycra with my bikes.

Cheers, T