The Fixie Thread

Carlin said:
I think the advantage of a flip flop hub would be the possibility of screwing a fixed cog to one side and a freewheel to the other, so if the fixie thing is a bit much in peak hour traffic after a long day at work, flip your wheel around and bingo: SS roadie! I have read stuff about having a different size fixed cog on both sides, but you would have to change your chain over anyway kind of defeating the purpose.
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The thread of a track cog is identical to that of a freewheel; a freewheel-specific thread on a hub is simply wider, but this extra width is unnecessary, as attested to by the fact that track cogs don't need it. It is for this reason that, as I stated above, flip flop hubs are a pretty useless concept. On a fixed/fixed hub, you can run fixed/fixed, fixed/freewheel, or even freewheel/freewheel, if that takes your fancy. On a flip flop hub, fixed/fixed isn't an option... thus, flip flop hubs unnecessarily limit your options.

And swapping from, say, a 16t on one side to a 14t on the other is going to make a considerable difference in your gearing, but very little difference in the effective chainstay length, so, unless you have next to no horizontal adjustment in your dropouts, there'll certainly be no need to swap chains.
 
I used to commute on a fixie back in the UK, years and years ago. Hills are ... interesting till you get fit and develop a spin. I'd be very tempted if my current commute didn't involve a significant hill, though I am beginning to think I could muscle up it in a 63ish gear these days...

Hmmm. If only my three-speed fixie hadn't been stolen.
 
Well I went for a little ride on my fixie on Saturday, did the 12 hour at Eastern Creek solo. Gave up after 9 hours, my knees were pretty sore by that time, I used a pretty small gear (65"/42x17) which made the hills easy, the only bad part was going down hill when everybody else got a rest I had to sprint, and that main straight just got longer and longer. Speedo says I did about 220km, pretty happy with that as its my longest fixed ride ever in a day.
 
nick said:
Okay weve heard all your commuter/road fixie stories, what about some fixie mtb storys? Now that would be interesting:rolleyes:...
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I ride/race fixed off road a fair bit. I've got an onOne inbred with rigid forks, 36x14 gear and a front brake. I usualy ride it off road with a rear slick as it's my commuter and I couldn't be bothered changing tyres all the time. It also helps to be able to lock up the rear more easily in tricky spots.

I raced the SS Nats on it, the westgate dirt crits, deluxe cyclocross and a few trail rides along the yarra. It's not as slow as you might expect but I do have quite a few new scars thanks to it.
 
Well, my wheels have arrived.

I have started painting the frame and fork.

It's all starting to come together.

One question remains, I need to order a cog for the rear. What size/ratio should I go?

Currently I run a 36/16 on my SS MTB, but what to run on a roadie. I'm thinking somewhere around 46/20.

Thoughts?
 
I find 70" to be a good gear for most everything, not too hard to climb, and you don't spin out too much downhill. I think it was Sir Hubert Opperman who described it as the "perfect gear"....works for me anyway.
 
DuncanFG said:
onOne inbred with rigid forks, the westgate dirt crits
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is it a white one with different colored forks?
if so then i must have seen a zillion times around the city and @ the crits.
 
JohnJohn said:
I used to commute on a fixie back in the UK, years and years ago. Hills are ... interesting till you get fit and develop a spin. I'd be very tempted if my current commute didn't involve a significant hill, though I am beginning to think I could muscle up it in a 63ish gear these days...

Hmmm. If only my three-speed fixie hadn't been stolen.
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Whoa, I can imagine a multi-speed fixie would be a bit of a handful. How did it work, given you would by definition always be shifting under full power?
 
I would be going a fair bit higher than that. I can't speak for fixies but on my 700 x 23c SSer I started on 42/16, went up to 45/16 and now run 44/16. And I'm running 34/17 on my MTB. 42/16 was bit too spinny on the flat. I still spin out out 44/16 on the flat but its generally a good fast gear. This is on relatively flat commutes between Preston and CBD. 42/16 would be low enough for most hills. 44/16 was an early tour de france standard (or so i read, on teh internet. But then again they probably weren't running 700c wheels).

Remember as well a ratio you have to factor in rim diameter, tyre size and crank length. Check out this calculator; My 44/16 puts me at about 72 gear inches and my guess is that is just on the low side of normal.

http://sheldonbrown.com/gears/
 
LordNikon said:
Well, my wheels have arrived.
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I picked up my wheels today too.

Blue Velocity Deep Vee's. They look pretty cool, can't wait to get it built up now.

As for gearing I'm quite comfortable on the lower end of my cassette on my commuter with a 36 up front. Might have to get onto a ratio calculator and see what I have been pushing.
 
i run a 44 16 on my s/s road bike with 175 cranks and 700/35 tyres. i ride some bloody big hills on that and id say itd be a great gear for a fixy aswell. there must be some compromise on a s/s and if i had'nt already purchased a 16 rear i'd be runing a 17
 
Mo said:
is it a white one with different colored forks?
if so then i must have seen a zillion times around the city and @ the crits.
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It is a white one, it briefly had some yellow prehistoric Judy XC forks, then some black tange forks but for the last couple of months they've been matching white onOne rigid forks.
The onOne forks are heavier and harsher but make the bike look so much better, it's not like I'm going for performance :)

I have seen another guy (courier?) around a lot with a white onOne with yellow rigid forks.
 
Well. Got the fixie running yesterday, due to a bit of good luck with bits fitting!

Ended up with a 42:16 to start with, it is a bit spinny down the hills, but good to start with I think. I rode it brakeless yesterday, but have installed a fairly useless brake with an old anno BMX lever to give me just a little peace of mind.

So far so good, I had one slow speed stack where I managed to tear straight through the brand new bar tape. It is kind of like learning to ride a bike again.
 
Carlin said:
I rode it brakeless yesterday
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I've ridden scary technical trails, gnarly DH runs and crazy-arse truck-infested roads, but compared to me, you fixie dudes have balls the size of avocados.

Props to ya. :cool:
 
due to a bit of good luck with bits fitting
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*jealous*

I'm having all kinds of problems getting stuff to fit. Even had to modify the new stem I bought so it would fit in the steerer.
 
I'm having some more trouble.

I'm about to order a bottom bracket for the frame, phil wood actually makes cups to fit a french frame, but I need to work out what length to order. Anyone got any suggestions on how to work this out?

I've looked at Sheldon Brown's site and that just confused me. :confused:

I'll be getting a Sugino crankset.
 
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