Why are fixies steel framed?

[TheDoctor]

My fixed is Ti, one of the old Raleigh DynaTechs from the mid 90s.
Most bikes had horizontal dropouts then, and that makes chain tensioning easy.

 

[rogerzilla]

Ti is hard enough for horizontal ends (road or track).

FWIW, these are the inserts for Dolan alu track bikes: https://www.dolan-bikes.com/pre-cursa-dropout/

 

[Dave Davenport]

My ali framed / carbon fork summer fixed (I've got an 80's steel one with mudguards for the winter).

 

[MichaelW2]

Ti is hard enough for horizontal ends (road or track).

FWIW, these are the inserts for Dolan alu track bikes: https://www.dolan-bikes.com/pre-cursa-dropout/

Some types of Ti are too hard to get a good bite with some qr skewers so axles slip. Not sure if that was an issue with track nuts.

 

[rogerzilla]

Same with chrome.

 

[Sharky]

Slightly off topic, but why don't the nicer track framesets come with a front fork drilled for a brake? I would have thought that most track riders at times would have wanted to train/practice away from a velodrome. I know you could swap the forks, but it just seems a poor design feature to limit the frameset to just a track and a hole in the forks can't possibly affect track performance?

 

[Ian H]

Some types of Ti are too hard to get a good bite with some qr skewers so axles slip. Not sure if that was an issue with track nuts.

I had a Ti frame built with horizontal dropouts. I've never pulled the wheel over—track-nuts but no tugs.

 

[rogerzilla]

Slightly off topic, but why don't the nicer track framesets come with a front fork drilled for a brake? I would have thought that most track riders at times would have wanted to train/practice away from a velodrome. I know you could swap the forks, but it just seems a poor design feature to limit the frameset to just a track and a hole in the forks can't possibly affect track performance?

Maybe it's a BS6102 thing, and they can't be sold as roadworthy for other reasons, like toe overlap? The Holdsworth Roi de Velo looks to have a fair bit of this. It's easy enough to work around toe overlap - my old Harry Quinn track bike has loads - but it can't be sold as a road machine, not these days.

 

[Dave Davenport]

Slightly off topic, but why don't the nicer track framesets come with a front fork drilled for a brake? I would have thought that most track riders at times would have wanted to train/practice away from a velodrome. I know you could swap the forks, but it just seems a poor design feature to limit the frameset to just a track and a hole in the forks can't possibly affect track performance?

I'm sure just about all track riders train on the road as well, on their road bikes.

 

[Sharky]

I'm sure just about all track riders train on the road as well, on their road bikes.

I'm sure they do now, but I remember seeing riders arrive by bike, with front brake attached and removing it for the meeting, then re-attaching for the ride home. Probably an alien concept now - riding to an event.

 

[rogerzilla]

I love a track bike on the road (with a front brake, I'm not that mad). As well as being light and looking minimalist, the round-section fork blades are noticeably stiffer when you have to honk up hills. They can be a bit skippy on bumps due to the short wheelbase, but you get used to it.

 

[Dave Davenport]

I'm sure they do now, but I remember seeing riders arrive by bike, with front brake attached and removing it for the meeting, then re-attaching for the ride home. Probably an alien concept now - riding to an event.

That probably went out with carrying your racing wheels on special brackets.

 

[ColinJ]

I'm sure they do now, but I remember seeing riders arrive by bike, with front brake attached and removing it for the meeting, then re-attaching for the ride home. Probably an alien concept now - riding to an event.

There used to be a weekend of 3 hillclimb events here. I'm not sure if it was 2 on the Saturday and 1 on the Sunday, or the other way round. Anyway, it was 3 tough events in 2 days...

A friend of mine went along to watch and got chatting to a lad from Tyneside who had cycled down to the Calder Valley on Friday after work, was doing the 3 hillclimbs, and would then cycle home on Sunday afternoon, and be back at work on Monday!

By the shortest route it would be about 95 miles each way, but that would involve riding over a lot of Yorkshire hills. A flatter route could be nearer 110 miles.

 

[Sharky]

That probably went out with carrying your racing wheels on special brackets.

I've done that. Everybody used to do it, but in my case, my racing wheels were not much different from my other wheels, so I don't know why I did it. Just following fashion.

 

[Dave Davenport]

I've done that. Everybody used to do it, but in my case, my racing wheels were not much different from my other wheels, so I don't know why I did it. Just following fashion.

Oh but the psychological advantage of fitting your 'racing wheels', marginal gains years before Dave Brailsford thought of it.