Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Get fixed, Ride free


I just can't say enough how much I love riding my fixie. Great ride to work today. I'm toying with the idea of adding a front brake to this thing when I move to my new house. My commute will go from a measly 3 miles, to 23 miles and I like this bike the best. So why not ride it? Well, there are some serious hills between here and there and going up isn't my concern. Sure it might be slow, or I might even be walking a bit of it, but I don't want to have to labor hard just to maintain control on the way down. We'll see. I put a drop bar on over the weekend, and ended up taking it off. This bike is just to perfect the way it is.


Ride yer bike!!

5 comments:

Doug said...

My 8 mile commute in the a.m. has almost 2 miles of uphill. I can spin with the best of them coming back down, but some days I just don't want to. Those are the days I touch the brake a few times to keep it at a sane rpm. I've been considering replacing my bullhorns on my fixed gear bike to road bars. However, you can get a lot of leverage pulling on those bullhorns when climbing.

Smudgemo said...

You guys should consider a flip/flop hub if the down-hills are rough or just in case you don't want to be fixed one day for whatever reason. Just spin the wheel around and you are in a free mode.

Jerome said...

Smudgemo,

I've got a flip flop hub on mine, I just haven't put a free wheel on yet. I sort of have a hard time putting a free wheel on a Paul hub that I bought specifically for the fixed side. I've got a few free wheels kinken around in the garage, but I don't think I'll ever come to the day when I don't want to ride fixed. Maybe it's because I'm still a newbie (this is only my second season fixed) but I am addicted to the feel.

Doug,

I never thought about the leverage advantage of the bullhorns, but that makes sense. I think this bike will stay as it is. If I get going too fast down a hill, I'll just remove my feet from the pedals, hold on, and hope for the best. When I was into motorcycle stunting I used to do a superman (lying face down on the bike with legs hanging over the ass end)and pull into a wheelie. I imagine the superman might work when reaching mach-chicken on a brakeless fixie too.

Jerome said...

Actually, playing that superman scenario in my mind, I don't think it'd be all that great. I forgot how small the bike seats tend to be and a sensation of incredible discomfort my be inevitable.

If you know what I mean.

Doug said...

Once you get going too fast you'll remove your feet from the pedals!!? Easier said then done. Just hope you figure how to clip out of both pedals at the same time, while pedaling fast, or you are in for one heck of a surprise!

My fixed gear has a flip flop hub and I've known many other riders over the years who have bikes set-up with flip flop hubs. I have yet to find anyone who has actually flipped their hub. It's great in theory, but nobody ever flips their hubs.