Prometheus said:I rode a fixed gear for the first time today. quite an interesting feeling. very cool if not for a
slightly too hard saddle.
Once you start riding, you'll realize that the saddle was probably just right and you put too much
weight on it.
It's not for bearing load, you know... it keeps your hips in position and relieves a bit of strain
when you need it, but you don't actually sit on the thing.
A fixed gear bicycle should teach you pretty quickly that your legs are for pedalling.
Quoted message said:My question to you tech people is this: how much (or little in my case) spend building up a
fixed gear from used componentry? I'm not sure how cheap I could get a frame, so let's leave
that out. Say i have most of a road bike and I want to go fixed. what's it gonna cost? and how
much more to build it up as a "flip-flop" fixed-gear/singlespeed, so I can coast around streets,
and not on campus?
You can do this relatively cheaply. Depends on whether you want to build your own wheels or what.
My first fixie was a Schwinn World Sport on which I just replaced the rear wheel with a cheap one I
built (my first, actually). I used a Suzue Junior flip-flop hub, Surly cog, Dura-Ace lock ring (not
for cred, but because it is good and fits the hub thread), a cheap rim and straight gauge spokes.
Most of these parts came from the local bike co-op: Hub $30 Cog 25 Loc 12 Rim 30 Spoke 15
That was really enough to get me going.
(I also bought a $20 Shimano freewheel for the other side of the hub, but... see below.)
I realized a few things right away.
First, spending a little more on the hub makes a huge difference in ride. I would recommend one of
the relatively bullet-proof sealed cartridge bearing jobs you can get pretty cheap. I'm currently
riding a Miche that I got for maybe $70. Second, the flip-flop was totally useless. It's sort of
like when I moved to a sensible operating system on my desktop computer. As long as my computer
booted to both, I used the old one as a crutch. Eliminate the option of doing what you don't want to
do and you won't do it. I first took off the freewheel (and put it on another bike that had a broken
derailleur so that I had a second bike).
Next, I started on aesthetics (which are unimportant when you have no money). I replaced the
chainring bolts with the short stack variety so that I had just the one chainring up front. That
helped. Then I got some new tires (the afore- and often-mentioned Armadillos). Eventually, I dropped
the frame and replaced it with an old Bridgestone (I think... serial numbers ground off and bad
rattle-can paint) frame from a different bike co-op's basement for $30. I cleaned it down to the
steel and repainted it, then applied some great reflective adhesive film used for road signs. It's
sharp looking and bright as hell at night, even without lights.
I got some good brahma bars to replace the old drops and a bar-end brake lever for my single
front brake.
Last month I got a fancy new Thompson-esque microadjust seatpost and a Brooks B17, which I
absolutely love.
A few months ago, someone in the parking lot at work hit my bike on the rack out front. There was
some scratching along the reflective film and the rear wheel was ruined. However, the boss-man
offered to reimburse whatever I spent to replace the thing, so I rebuilt it with the Miche track hub
and a Mavic rim (I would've gotten Velocity rims, but I really didn't want to go TOO far over the
original value). I must say it's MUCH more pleasant to ride and I LOVED it before!
Anyway, that's part of my story. There you go. Elmo King
