bbeasley

Thanks! I read this a couple of weeks ago when I was trying to push myself to buy the bike. Great information there. I've been fighting Achilles pain for over 6 months. I've blamed it on the running I do for Triathlons. When I read that thread the bit about seat height resonated with me and presto my Achilles pain is gone! I only lowered my seat about 1/4" and it made all the difference.

I'll be doing a Century this year fixed gear. We've got one in particular that covers mostly rolling hills. Should be appropriate.

Yo Spiff

This was an interesting read, being the OP is a brand new fixed rider. I have an 80's Benotto in the garage that I'm going to convert with a flip flop hub soon, then I can find out why everyone has been wowing about these. Just need a few more parts. Minor stuff like a rear cog.

bbeasley

Cool! One mistake I narrowly avoided was gearing. I went out on my Roadie, for 50 miles, and picked one gear that I thought was correct. I was going to use this to spec my gearing on the FG. Richard at Wabi suggested a set that was actually more aggressive and it seems to be spot on. I'm sure some folks here can help.

Doohickie

I've been riding FG on one of my bikes for a little over a year now, and all this sounds familiar. It's a fun discovery. The OP mentioned the muscle memory change to ride a FG. The opposite is true- if you go back to a freewheel bike, it will feel very weird, almost like it's broken, because you start "leaning" on your trailing foot as well as the lead foot for balance. With a freewheel bike, if you do that, the pedal will fall out from under you. When you go from freewheel to fixed, your muscle memory adapts. When you go back to freewheel, it adapts back. The trick is to ride both types of bikes enough that you develop a second set of muscle memory... which I think I've done at this point. If I haven't ridding FG in a while, though, I will still "coast" once in a while and almost get thrown off the bike. I try to remember and concentrate when I come up to my first few stops not to do that.

Yo Spiff.... I think our relative strength in riding is comparable, I ride 69 or 70 gear inches on my FG. I could see maybe going a little higher, but any lower would be too low. I've left it as it is because of things like the Oakmonster and Taylor Street and the hills on South Drive. I can still get up those hills with my current gearing.

frantik

this is one of the big reasons I don't flip my wheel and ride the fixed cog. the last time i did this it was painful cause I had stood up and locked my leg, then had the pedal come up smack my foot. felt like i had been kicked.

jyossarian

That's what I meant by...
As for switching between fixed and free wheels, you get used to it w/o having to remind yourself you can or can't coast.

Doohickie

Is that sloppy or bad necessarily? I mean, I use that side of the stroke for speed modulation- if I have to slow down, I just lean a bit on the rear pedal. This makes for smoother transitions in speed that tapping the brakes (and is particularly useful in group rides for that reason- the slowing is not as abrupt to people following). Perhaps if I was track riding for speed, it would be a bad habit, but I don't see it as a negative while tooling around town.

jyossarian

It's more a warning. Some people think riding fixed improves their pedal stroke when it can actually make it worse if they constantly rest on the upstroke. I control speed and "coast" the same way, but for training the pedal stroke, you have to be make a conscious attempt to pull up. Riding up gradual inclines seated helps w/ this.

idc

Nice! What do you think of the Wabi? I've been looking at them for a couple months but haven't pulled the trigger. Is that the "Special"?

I started riding an older bike I switched to SS a few months ago, and also tried a friend's FG and had a blast.

Doohickie

I don't ride with clips or straps, so there is no upstroke for me. (I use toe clips without straps.) I've never clipped in and I'm not about to start now, even with FG.

bbeasley

Mine's the Classic. I'm very happy with it, Richard the owner and designer is exceptional to work with. He answered my all my questions over a 1 1/2 year period without ever trying to sell my anything. I picked the Wabi for several reasons. Many of the folks who buy cheaper FGs end up putting Wabi wheels on their bikes as an upgrade. By the time you do that your getting very close to the price of a Wabi and you get a much higher quality bike. I'm a bit over 200 lbs so I tend to pay attention to my wheels. Same goes for the head set and brakes all quality stuff. I also wanted road bike geometry but with FG bottom bracket height.

If you send Richard some measurements, defined on the Wabi site, from your current bike he'll recommend a size and setup your Wabi for you. Mine was spot on. The only thing I did was put on my saddle. The Wabi saddle looked fine but I like my Adamo so I didn't even try the one that came with the bike.

bbeasley

Went 51 miles yesterday in the rolling hills, well our version of hills. The descents were the toughest part. I either had to attack them or ride the brakes, I need more work on a smooth spin.

I see the day coming when I'll be able to ride with the groups on the Wabi. Not quite there yet.