buddawithbeer

in couple of months, i'll hit half a century. this yr, i found out that i like fixed gear bike. always had bike, but never really rode them for anything other than occasional fun. with fixed gear, i found i'm riding more often.

been riding steel fuji track and i like it. been getting upgrades to upgrade fuji when i'm more stable. then realize, i want a more fancy bike. or cool bike or whatever. why not? i'm hitting half a century.

so the choice came down to either affinity lopro or cinelli gazzetta. just getting the frameset and put bunch of japanese components i have been collecting lately.

which would be better? i'll be riding mostly on paved trail. i'm around 150 lbs. 5'10". using my fuji as base, i know what size bike i'll need. i know affinity has 1" fork, so i'll need new stem. cinelli has 1 1/8" fork and i have nitto stem already with spacers.

pete

gl98115

It's your bike. Buy what you like best.

berner

I don't know that life begins at 50 but appreciation does begin there-abouts.

Iride01 

I hadn't heard of the Affinity Lopro. But the picture I saw of it looked like it will be an entirely different riding style than the cinelli gazzetta. Of course that depends somewhat on how you equip it.

What are you wanting out of the bike that you aren't getting from your current bike? If your paved trail includes hills, I wouldn't want to regularly ride it on a fixed gear. Or are you calling a 1xSomething a fixed gear?

buddawithbeer

riding 46/16. only one chainring and one cog, no coasting. it's a more of a workout then anything else. have very limited time. 40 min. want to go faster and more distance in that 40 min. i'm getting faster, but want something lighter without going away from steel. there is some gentle hill in the trail. not sure how to measure that, but i can grind away at it. right now i can only cover little over 8 miles. i want to cover at least 10 miles.

Iride01 

46/16 only getting 12 mph. You must be at a pretty slow cadence, less than 66 rpm I'd guess. If you want to get faster, you have to train yourself to have a high cadence and be able to maintain it.

I'm really not sure what to tell you though. I wouldn't be riding if I had to ride in one gear. But that is what you said draws you to it.

From my point of view, you have to pedal at a faster cadence to go faster. High cadence is harder train for if you don't have an assortment of gears to choose as the ride conditions change.

wphamilton

I don't know those two frames, but style-wise the Cinelli would be my choice. The top tube on the Affinity LoPro is a deal-killer.

It's not necessarily making you faster, but new bike is always good. I suggest gearing it down from that 46/16, maybe an 18 cog or even bigger. The 46/16 doesn't feel "right" for cruising speed until better than about 18mph.

rumrunn6

quick tip - if someone offers to throw a party or dinner etc (big or small), let them do it

Rick@OCRR

I run a bit lower gear when riding fixed (42 x 15) but it sounds like you're in the right range.

Just turning 50? Wow, that was 17 years ago for me . . . seems like a long time.

In your situation, I would buy the Cinelli, but buy the one you like best!

Rick / OCRR

europa

People still turn 50? I thought that went out with the dinosaurs

With your fixed gear, you need to work on getting your cadence higher. Maybe fit a 17 on the back to lower the gearing a tad and aim at spinning a lot more. You'll find that you'll develop better and go faster with the lower gearing because the high gearing locks you into a low cadence - save it for when you're stronger and fitter. Personally, I run 65 gear inches and have done for nearly a decade, I always felt a little overgeared on 70 gear inches.

As for the new bike. That is so personal it's hard to give an answer. I suggest you lower the gearing on your current bike (as I suggested in my paragraph above), ride it and then think about what it is you want in a bike and whether you can modify your current bike to do it.

For example, I have two fixed gear bikes. My Hillbrick was custom built after riding my old Europa as a fixed gear for about five years and the Hillbrick was designed to give me a dedicated fg bike based on that riding position. It remains my favourite bike. My other fixed gear bike is a track frame and while it works very well, puts me in a very racy riding position which I can no longer handle - I could change things to make it work but I've got the Hillbrick for that.

Get yourself fit and make your bike fit you ie, puts you in the riding position you want to use. I like a flat, stretched out (old fashioned) position, you might like the modern head down, bum up position. On the other hand, there's nothing wrong with having a long distance cruiser and a hard edged sports bike... or just two bikes the same coz you want two bikes.