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Riding a Fixie

This past Christmas I received a gift card to my local bike shop, The Peddler. Seeing as I had just gotten some new tires and bar tape on my geared bike, it seemed like a great opportunity to start fixing up single speed.

My single speed is a steel frame Panasonic Sport 1000. It is a pretty typical inexpensive Japanese road frame. The fine folks at Freeze Thaw Cycles built it for me. They specialized in building bikes from scratch using used parts. It has always been a great bike. My only complaint was that the gear ratio was a little too easy at times.

With some disposable funds to spend, and knowing that my wheels needed a bit of work (some spokes had broken at one point and could probably used a bit of love replacing the bad ones), I decided I wanted to get some new wheels and a higher geared chain ring. They had a set of blue Retrospec deep v wheels that came with tires and a flip flop hub. Seeing as I’ve always thought the hipster fixie look striking, I thought this was perfect. As for the chain ring, I went from 39 to 46 teeth. They had to special order the chain ring and a lock nut for the fixie side of the wheel, so I was able to ride around on the new wheels as a single speed while waiting for them to come in.

My initial reaction was rather mixed. They were extremely smooth, but also a lot stiffer of a ride. My old tires were a bigger, so obviously it was going to take some adjustment. The brakes also were honking like no ones business. After reading up a bit from every cyclists friend, Sheldon Brown, my pads seemed toed in just fine, although they were off center. I centered things up and it helped with the squawking. The rims were also unmachined, so I’m sure the pads wearing off the paint had a lot to do with noise. On the positive side, the wheels were much faster. It was trivial to get going fast enough where my legs would start spinning due to the easy gear of my chain ring.

I had ridden out to the coffee shop next door to The Peddler, Flightpath Coffee, in anticipation of my new chain ring and lock nut. They put the parts on right away and I began my first fixie ride back to the house. Knowing it would take some getting used to, I took a back road part of the way and spent a minute or two trying to do a track stand. It was definitely harder than I expected. I’m sure once I get more familiar it shouldn’t be too difficult. Learning to get my feet in my pedal clips was also much more difficult than I expected.

Past the initial awkwardness, it was a ton of fun. The bike is silent and the new chain ring feels great. I still have my brakes in case I need to stop really quickly. Surprisingly, the brakes work really well. My impression was that brakes on a fixie didn’t really do much, but they were just as effective as before. Having always had a desire to try out a fixie, when I rode my single speed, I’d keep pedaling almost all the time. This ended up being great practice and helped a great deal in feeling comfortable.

I’m really excited to get out on the road. People say that riding a fixie allows you to make a strong connection with the bike. Your body is directly responsible for all aspects of starting, cruising and stopping. I didn’t really experience that just yet, but I’m hopeful that it is something I noticed as I get more experienced.

Day Two of Riding a Fixie: Thankyou Brakes!

I rode downtown to do some work and eventually meet up with some folks for a drink. It was my second ride on my fixed gear. There were some healthy hills to go down and a good deal more traffic to contend with. My overall conclusion? Brakes are awesome!

It shouldn’t be surprising that riding a fixed gear is very different. It is pretty much like a regular single gear most of the time, except where it is nothing like a single gear. Where things diverge most are hills and intersections.

On hills, you really need a pretty tough gear ratio unless you are really fast as pedaling. My new ratio is pretty decent for the time being as it wasn’t too fast going downhill, but it was definitely fast. A couple times I tried to slow down without my brakes and realized pretty quickly that I was not able to stop very quickly. With time an experience I’m sure this will change somewhat, but physics suggests that it will never be like using brakes. Thankfully, my brakes are working like true champs and stopping is not really a problem.

The other difficult thing is dealing with traffic at intersections. Typically on my single speed, I can push off and coast for a second to get my feet in the toe straps. If I need to take a corner somewhat quickly, I can coast through it safely. On the fixed gear, neither is trivial. Getting my feet in the toe straps as the pedal is moving is tricky, especially when my shoes are wet (it had just rained a bit this afternoon before riding). Likewise, taking a corner with some speed is a little more nerve racking since I can’t stop pedaling. I’m sure over time these issues will be less of an issue. Some more practice should help in both cases. The few times I managed to nail a turn or get my foot in the toe strap on the first try, it was actually a really good feeling.

I’m really excited I got these new wheels and the fixed gear. It is tough to find reasons to get out an exercise when you almost always have things you can do at home. Having a new toy to play with has been a great excuse to hop on my bike instead of thinking I don’t have the time. I’m hoping the extra time pedaling will help get me ready for tour in February!

Focus on the Goal

My pet peeve recently has been people who want to do something great in order to say they did something great. It is a dangerous mindset because it diverts your attention from creating quality.

If your goal was to write the Great American Novel and you are constantly focused on things like finding a publisher and artist for the cover, then the chances of writing a great book taper off rather quickly. If you want to write a great book, you need to spend time writing.

This is especially frustrating when working with others. They are concerned about moving their agenda forward instead of simply putting out quality. Even though it seems counter productive at times, if your focus is on the goal, the exterior details will fall into place in your favor.