5 mph

I have a 2004 Langster. I can handle hills okay but yes the really steep ones hurt to tears. I am looking at a used Pista. How does the Pista compare to the Langster on hills? If it's harder, I might pass on it.

dabac

The difference between the framesets Wheels etc will be entirely dwarfed by any (significant) difference in gear ratio.

j_e_r_e_m_y

As dabac said, this has much more to do with gear ratio than anything else. I wouldn't switch frames just bc you're having trouble with hills. Start with a bigger cog/freewheel and go from there.

acoustophile

Langster's have a sloping top tube so technically it should be stiffer and lighter as the main triangle of the frame is smaller. But that's disregarding tire size/pressure, the stiffness and quality of the components on the bike, gear ratio, and your own personal strength. There's so many variable's to your question that there's no real easy answer.

79pmooney

Or ... instead of getting a new frame, get a wheel with a flip-flop hub. My fix gear uses a Miche fix-fix hub. I have a wide selection of cogs. If I am going into the hills I go out with (say) a 17 and a 22. Stop and flip the wheel at the hill bottom and again at the top. (I actually take it a step further, I am no longer young and I find the crotch hammering that happens at 40 MPH downhill no longer fun so I made a lightweight chainwhip and carry a Pedros Trixie wrench/lockring spanner and a tiny cog.) I've ridden hilly Cycle Oregon weeks on that bike, including to and around Crater Lake twice.

I actually took this a step further since this was a custom frame. Instead of the popular track end opening to the rear (great in the veloderome, kinda sucky on the road) I have a custom road dropout with less angle than a standard horizontal road dropout but enough to keep the brake pad on a deep Velocity Aero rim over a 2" dropout. Slot opens to the front, then down. "L" shaped. Means pulling the wheel out is no harder than a vertical dropout but I can use the entire length of the dropout. I can also get the wheel in and out with a 24 tooth cog easily, even with a winter tire that almost touches the seat tube. (12 tooth cogs works with the same chain length, wheel slid all the way back. Some chainrings require me to use 1/2 links to make both cogs work but that isn't a big deal.

Stopping and flipping wheels is old-school. Standard practice up to around 1925 in the Tour de France. With my setup it take maybe two minutes. If I am fast, the cog unscrew 5.



Here you see me staining because I didn't realize this was "the hill" and I didn't flip the wheel until it was too steep to stop! I'm in the 17. 23 over on the left. Chainwhip on the top tube. You can just see the 12 tooth cog velcro'd to the other side of the toolbag and the Trixie wrench under. You can see the "L" shaped dropout.

nervous24

Another vote for a gear change instead of swapping frames. Much cheaper and faster way to solve your issue.

Since nobody has asked yet, what gears are you running now?

79pmooney, man, you are a well prepared for the road ahead. I respect the hell outta that. I wouldn’t personally be keen on riding with the chainwhip in that location but hey, different strokes!

Speedway2

I just got a horrible mental image....ouch.! But yes, much respect. I'd either dismount and walk or turnaround and coast down....

79pmooney

The chainwhip is secured with the same toestraps I pull with my legs. Strong. The chainwhip isn't going anywhere. And it looks dangerous because of the that view, looking up, Any other and you would see it isn't dangerous at all.

Coasting wasn't an option. That bike has never seen a freewheel. Camp and dinner were beyond that (2 mile) hill.

5 mph

I'm pretty sure mine is Stock. Well a fixie is a fixie, you just have to accept it.

5 mph

Actually how do the Pista Sel Gornio and Langster 2004 compare. Somewone wants to sell me a Pista. I have a Langster 2004 and I love Fixies. Is a Pista in the same class as the Langster?

nervous24

You are focused on the wrong thing here, man...

You do well to count the teeth so we can find out what your gear ratio actually is.

Additionally, you don’t have to accept anything you dislike. Bikes have parts you can change to suit your needs/preferences.

You came asking for advice and got something other than what you asked for. You shouldn’t discount it because it wasn’t what you came here to find out. The truth of your issue won’t change because you think you have a different problem.

It seems what you need more than anything (and I’m not trying to be rude here) is to gain some more general bicycle knowledge. Like how your gear ratio will impact your riding experience. You would also then know that you could very well go get a new frame and have the same issue you do now. Why? Because you need to lower your gear ratio or have stronger legs. Only one can be achieved in a matter of minutes (once you have the parts, of course.

5 mph

I understand what everyone is saying about the Gears. Thanks. I complain about my Gearing but I really don't want to change it. A bigger cog would be cool as well as swapiping the rear gear, and and I will look into it
But I would like to buy a second Fiixie as a backup, because recently I had to have a crack in my 2004 Langster frame welded.
I could play with the gears on one of them and leave the other alone
I can't find any Langster less than $700 but I did find a Pista that I can afford.
Is the Pista similar to a Langster ?
I think I misled everyone with the Hills question. I usually climb about 1400 feet on my daily ride, Some days it hurts like H___ (when I haven't slept) but some days it feels good.

Trakhak

It's likely that no one here has weighed both a Langster frame and a Pista frame.

As it happens, I owned a 1983 Bianchi Eco Pista (built with straight-gauge Columbus Aelle tubing) from new until it got stolen, at which point I replaced it with a 2004 Langster. Never noticed or thought about the difference in weight. In any event, the difference would likely be about the difference in weight between a full water bottle and an empty one. Again, never noticed any difference in bike weight as I drink water in the course of a ride.

As various people have pointed out, you should address concerns about climbing by adjusting your bike's gearing. The Bianchi came stock with a 51-tooth chainring and and 15-tooth sprocket. I immediately replaced the 15-tooth sprocket with a 19-tooth sprocket, resulting in about 72 gear inches. I combined the Langster's stock 48-tooth chainring with an 18-tooth sprocket, for about 71 gear inches. If you're still riding the stock gearing on the Langster, consider swapping the sprocket for one more appropriate for the terrain that you ride. There are plenty of on-line gear calculators to help you figure out what you need.

5 mph

That's interesting and I think I understand,
If I make the switch, I change my maximum level ground flat out speed, don't I? Actually, Flat Out track speed probably doesn't matter to me, so I will try this.
Will I have to change the chain if I really change my gear size?

Kind of ironic, though reason I got into Fixed Gear is I got tired of working on bikes all the time

Philasteve

Like everyone said, you definitely don't need a whole new bike for hills. For me personally a hill would be the same on either bike given the gear ratio is the same on both.

Rolla

I wouldn't ride a 16-year-old re-welded aluminum frame, but that's me.

Pista has steeper head and seat angles -- more track-like geometry. I ran a front brake on mine and the fork chattered a lot.

5 mph

Yes my Langster is getting very old and that's why I bought the Pista last night. I haven't ridden it yet.(no brakes on it.)
The previous owner didn't ride it very much. I'm interested in your experiences with it. It does have a smaller chain ring,
I remember seeing a 38 T .

The bike looked brand new so I didn't want to hang it on a bike rack on back of my car going down the highway..
I decided to take the wheels off and put it my trunk.
The chain was so taut, I couldn't get it to pop off ,.
Lucky I had metric bits so I took off the chain ring to get the chain off.. .
So if I do change the chain ring, I will have to get a new chain also. I'd like to add some slack to it if that's technically sound.

Rolla

I have to say, in my 40+ years of riding and wrenching on all manner of bicycles, I have never heard of anyone removing the chainring in order to take a wheel off. But then I’ve never heard of anyone putting their bike in the trunk when they already have a bike rack on their car. I encourage you do some research on singlespeed gearing and basic bike mechanics before you take another tool to any part of your Pista. Good luck!

jay4usc

you said earlier you got into fix gears because you got tired of working on bikes? Do you know how to work on bikes bc I’m not sure why you needed to take the chainring off to remove the chain.

Scrodzilla

Maybe you're just a wiener. A new bike isn't going to fix that.

5 mph

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