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Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 3:38 am
by bert
This sounds like great fun
Braking on Fixed Gear Bike (taken from wikipedia)
A rider can lock the rear wheel and skid to slow down or completely stop on a fixed-gear bicycle, a maneuver sometimes known as a skid stop. It is initiated by unweighting the rear wheel while in motion (and usually lifting it off the ground slightly) by shifting the rider's weight forward and pulling up on the pedals using clipless pedals or toe clips.
The rider then stops turning the pedals, thus stopping the drivetrain and rear wheel, while applying his or her body weight in opposition to the normal rotation of the pedals. When the rear tire again contacts the ground the rear wheel will skid, which acts to slow the bike. The skid can be held until the bicycle stops or until the rider desires to continue pedalling again at a slower speed.
The technique requires a little practice and using it while cornering is generally considered dangerous. As with the technique of resisting the pedals, the maximal deceleration of this method of slowing is also significantly lower than using a front brake. A wet surface further reduces the effectiveness of this method, almost to the point of not reducing speed at all.
Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 7:50 pm
by misk
im building meself a fixed gear bike atm. just got a nice roadie bike frame with horizontal dropouts that im gonna strip. I'll take photos of the process, seems like a fun summer project
so bumping this thread!
really excited to have a bike again :D:D:D
Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 8:01 pm
by yakis
Seen in Seattle...
/Been rocking singlespeed for time but I've never made it all the way to fixie. Fixie riders, don't you miss coasting? Coasting is the shit.
Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 1:31 pm
by bjackman
if you see a guy in bristol on a muddy, pink, ghetto'd out Ladies' Raleigh Silhouette from about 1975 - red tape on the racing handles, a Dennis the Menace bell on one of them, SICK red basket-bags on the back wheel, and mudguards held together with duct tape
...holla at me
there's a little chunk of wood in the brake mechanism held in with superglue. when it falls out i can't stop
Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 1:33 pm
by bert
Just got a set of these mothers!!! Oh VISA, how i love thee...
Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 3:02 pm
by psyolopher
Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 3:17 pm
by misk
bert wrote:Just got a set of these mothers!!! Oh VISA, how i love thee...
dear GOD.
Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 2:55 pm
by primate
rocking this
want this
Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 4:08 pm
by fixation
riding this
and this
with these
seeerwwweet
but now i is poor
Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 5:54 pm
by d_three
Fixation wrote:
with these
seeerwwweet
but now i is poor
i'd put them on the wall and ride them on sunday
my current ride looks like this
Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 12:40 pm
by deamonds
your carerra from the 1st page is nice d3...ive got some really nice cycling roads in woodford/south woodfore, some of them are really steep and windy, can pick up some real speed
Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 1:16 pm
by d_three
deamonds wrote:ive got some really nice cycling roads in woodford/south woodfore, some of them are really steep and windy, can pick up some real speed
maximum speed I ever done was 80km/h behind the van on the highway and about 70km/h downhill on my own
pure adrenalin! ah and maximum speed I fell over and kissed tarmac was about 50km/h.
Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 1:41 pm
by deamonds
d.three wrote:deamonds wrote:ive got some really nice cycling roads in woodford/south woodfore, some of them are really steep and windy, can pick up some real speed
maximum speed I ever done was 80km/h behind the van on the highway and about 70km/h downhill on my own
pure adrenalin! ah and maximum speed I fell over and kissed tarmac was about 50km/h.
thats quick man..eating tarmac at that speed however...
Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 5:01 pm
by macroclimate
bert wrote:macroclimate wrote:
I think it really depends... There's something really awesome about fixed-gears to me. The only way I can explain it is by equating it to driving a manual compared to an automatic. You feel way more in touch with the bike and the road. There's just something about it.
I gota try it! How hard is it to adjust to fixed gear?
It wasn't too bad for me. When I was getting to the last days of building my bike I was itching to try it out so bad. It was a really nice day in summer when I was finally able to take it out, it was amazing.
The first few strokes are really weird, feeling the cranks come back up at you after the down stroke. After that it gets more and more natural. By the time I was partway through my first ride I had become fairly accustomed to it, although that's not to say there were a few times when I forgot what I was doing and almost got thrown over my handlebars, that doesn't happen anymore though.
Skip-stops are fun, especially in the rain because they're so easy... but it really depends on the gear you ride. Right now I'm at 48/18 which is pretty easy to pull skip-stops, but on the other side of my hub I've got 14 which makes for a lot higher top-speed but it's tough to brake and impossible to skip-stop with platform pedals.
Coasting is sort of a thing of the past for me. I used to really enjoy flying down Pine St from Capitol Hill to downtown, now I can't do it nearly as fast but there's equal pleasure involved, in fact probably more. I tried riding a freewheel bike awhile back and it was as weird as relearning to walk or something, completely unnatural.
@yakis: There seems to be a lot of anti-fixie/single-speed sentiment in Seattle these days, probably because of all the hipsters on their high-horses... meh.
Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 5:48 pm
by d_three
I'm really considering selling one of my bikes and buying this
removing rear brake and cutting handlebars
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 11:51 am
by primate
just got my bike stolen today. BASTARDS.
any suggestions for a cheap fixed gear road bike?
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 3:26 pm
by dubluke
bad luck primate
what does it mean by fixed gear bike?? in laymans terms please
Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 8:39 am
by bert
primate wrote:just got my bike stolen today. BASTARDS.
any suggestions for a cheap fixed gear road bike?
my mate just bought a specialized langster, had it 5 hours before it was nicked from outside the pub we were having a celebratoary new bike beer in. stnuc!
The langster looked good for what I saw of it - about £400 I think. I bought a Swobo Del Norte a few months back and its been awesome, just rode 100 miles round the route of the Berlin wall on it with no problems at all, cobblestones, dirt tracks through no mans land, the lot!
Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 9:22 am
by deamonds
dubluke wrote:bad luck primate
what does it mean by fixed gear bike?? in laymans terms please
ive heard of a fixed wheel, not a fixed gear though?? a fixed wheel is 1 that doesnt have brakes, hench you stop peddeling (freewheel) you stop moving...
Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 11:14 am
by bert
