steve-in-kville 

I've been reading older threads both here and over on the SS/FG forum. The concept of riding a century with a single-speed, much less fixed, just baffles me. Thought it would be interesting too see pics of your SS/FG century machines. Post away!

lonesomesteve

Back in 2012 I rode an SR series and a bunch of other brevets on this bike. It was also my commuter for several years. It was set up with 46/18 (about 68 gear inches) with a freewheel.



I really enjoyed randonneuring on a single speed. The simplicity of it always appealed to me. It's more like hiking or long-distance running. Just you and the terrain (sort of). You're never in the wrong gear with a single speed. The only drawback was that I ended up riding alone a lot on brevets. The rhythm is different. I'd tend to ride faster up hill than others, but then get dropped on gradual downhills or if there was a tailwind.

Eventually I converted that bike to 650b wheels and a 2 x 6 drivetrain. Having gears better suits the kind of riding I do these days which tends to be on steep gravel logging roads in the mountains. But I still sometimes miss the simplicity of riding a SS.

bikenh

Only pic is over on the FG forum. I took an old road bike and added angle iron to the dropouts and turned it into a fix gear bike and have several thousand miles on the bike since I converted it. Nice easy bike to convert back and forth between fixed and multispeed. Granted using the method that I've used I could do it with any bike. Granted my other bike doesn't need a homemade rack design since it has rack mounts on the frame but the Allez Comp I converted needed a homemade rack so I used the fixed gear mount to also turn it into a rack mount point as well. It works quite well.

My first day riding fixed I rode 75 miles, would have been a 100 miles but I came down with something and knew I better not press my luck. That was the last day of February last year. In mid March last year I rode a 150 mile ride as my first fixed gear century and then from April 28 to May 18th I rode a 100 miles every day. Doing 100 miles fixed gear is simple you just first have to get used to riding a 100 miles on a multispeed bike. The difference between a fixed gear setup and a multispeed setup is**********?? I don't notice any difference between the two unless I'm going downhill.

Cyril 

This has been my rando ride since 2013

rhm

I've done a few centuries on this old Claud Butler road-path bike (basically a track bike with road geometry).



It's a fixed gear about 72 gear inches. Riding east and south from my my central NJ home, down into the rolling hills and flatlands of New Jersey, that gear was fine. So a year ago I tried doing a hilly century, riding north and west from home... and that was brutal. I ended up walking up some of the hills. Getting up the hills seems to be a matter of technique; for best results, take it easy on the way down, save your energy for the climb, and get up the hill as fast as you can. If your cadence drops below a certain point, you're going to be walking.

I summer on Long Island, and a few years ago I set up my Long Island bike as a three speed fixed gear, with the Sturmey Archer S3X hub:
.
But I found the three speed unnecessary. It's now a single speed fixie; I really don't need more gears for those Long Island hills. I use this bike for all my recreational riding on Long Island, so five or six centuries each year.

steve-in-kville 

Classy!

greaterbrown

Many centuries and 200k's on the Surly Cross Check pictured in my sig.
(I add bar bag and frame pump for longer rides)

aknordicskier

pure.fix.juliet.2017.jpg

A photo of me on my stock Pure Fix Juliet (actually, I had to change the chain so that is the only non-stock item). First and last 100 mile on a fixie. Bucket List item complete. Took just under 6 hours (5 and a half hours of moving time).

kingston 

Here's my Wabi Lightning SE which I have taken on many century training rides, but every time I think about bringing it to a brevet, I chicken out and bring a geared bike instead. The nearest randonneuring club meets in southern Wisconsin which is a lot hillier than northern Illinois where I live. Maybe I'll try a 200k late in the season this year to see how it goes.

john_mct

Vassago Fisticuff SS...have only done centuries on it while on tour (7 or so) but am planning to get into some Rando rides locally later this summer. Need to gear a bit higher and get some lighter road tires but I also like to play in the dirt on it so at the moment I'm running 42-20 with 40mm file treads up front and Schwalbe Marathons out back.

wipekitty

My first century bicycle was an old Nishiki converted to FG/SS. My second century bicycle is a Bikes Direct special (Motobecane Messenger) with almost all the components upgraded. It's currently geared at 44-17, with a fixed/fixed rear hub and a rarely used 19 tooth cog on the other side. Here's what it looked like last year; I've since upgraded the brake levers and dropped the cheesy top tube protector, and may add clipless pedals later on:



For the last 7 seasons, I only rode fixed - I'm planning on my first geared century (and hopefully a 200K) this summer. Going up is fine until until it's not: somewhere around 12%, depending on the wind, I walk. Descending is hard work, but it's made me better at descents on a geared bike.

seajaye

Bump. Poking around, it sounds like ~70 gear inches is the majority consensus. Does this sound about right?

Working on a single-speed overhaul of my daily commuter so as to pull double-duty as an SS randonneur.... right now geared 72 inches. Feels too tall for commuting but haven't taken it out on the road yet. Pics soon once I figure out a front rack situation that *isn't* a porteur...

DarkShot

Current situation for me is about 65". Found that 70ish GI was too tall in my current state and weight when faced with hills, and there's never any harm with gearing down and spinning imo. Only done a metric with it, but looking to do a full century on it at some point over the next few months and this gearing feels about right.

kingston 

70 is a good place to start. I have three chainrings (44,45,46) and three sprockets (16,17,18) which gives me 9 gears between 65 and 75 GI. I start with at 65 GI in the spring and work my way up the gears as my fitness improves over the summer.

steve-in-kville 

You know, I forgot about this thread. Glad it was bumped. Every time I switch to a geared bike, it isn't long before I miss my Kilo.Just something about only having one gear...

79pmooney

I'm still camera free so no pics except I have the photo the Cycle Oregon photographer took of me 3 years ago climbing a 14'5% grade (max and where the photo was taken). If some one can tell me how to get it from Photbucket to here, I'll post it. That bike is my TiCycles fix gear, designed to be an alpine fix gear, in other words, to be able to ride almost any paved road. The dropout (not track end) can handle any cog from 12 to 24 without messing with the chain. It uses 1/8" chain and a Sugino 75 crankset, so the low gear is limited to 42-24. (In the photo you can see my 23 on the left. I did not yet have a 24.

That day was only about 70 miles. The first CO I rode on it had an 88 mile day that I took a wrong turn on and added 10 miles (and well over 1000'). Two years later I rode to and from a century on it; 132 miles.

My current most active fix gear is my old Peter Mooney, now set up "triple chainline", ie three 1/8" chainrings, an 1'8" "dingle" (17 and 21) and a little cog on the other side. That bike will do CO this year; Crater Lake again but also the miles of gravel. 35c is an easy fit on the Mooney so I get to luxuriate on the three gravel days. Longest day this year is around 90 miles but I might have to throw in another 10.

Years ago when I raced , my beater fix gear was my early season and rainy day bike, as well as being my commuter, so it saw many 100 mile days though I never thought of them as centuries or documented them as such.

Edit - gears: 42-17 is my workhorse gear. 16 even 15 if I am feeling really strong but I qould have t be feeling pretty confident to go with a 16 for a century. On my TiCyles, the chainring gets bumped to 43 often. The Mooney will go to CO with 46-42-38 in front and 17-21 in back and whatever small cog I feel like. (14 or 13 probably. 46-14 is pretty fast and I can stil get it over bumps I didn't foresee.) For past COs on the TiCycles, there were many days when I left camp on the 17, used the 23 to go up and 12 to go down. (Carried a chainwhip on the top tube, You can see it in the photo if I get a clue on how to post it.

Ben

(How do I make this "live"?)

https://i1167.photobucket.com/albums/...psty56f3ga.jpg

steve-in-kville 

This thread still inspires me... that centuries and beyond are possible on a SS/FG bike!

ThermionicScott 

I was able to follow the link and see the pic. Really cool seeing it in more detail than your avatar, and dig the chainwhip strapped to the top tube!

dieselgoat

A friend of mine did the Assault on Mount Mitchell on a fixed gear back in May. That's about 12K feet of climbing. Don't know what his gearing was, but that is strong.

seajaye

My beater/commuter-turned-SS, was initially going to be for NJ brevets, buuuut then I just took it on a PA brevet instead, whooooops, silly me. I geared it down to 46-18t (69") and it went pretty well!

It's really annoying to not have access to the back pockets of the bag (the rear of the porteur kinda squishes them), but honestly it would be too annoying to swap between my porteur rack for everyday commuting, and then the rando rack just for a day ride.

Now that it's officially a randonneuse, I want to give it the love it deserves, buuuut this also gets locked up--bad weather--general neglect so I also really don't care???

europa

While I haven't done an imperial century on either geared or fixed gear, I've gone as far on the fg as I have on geared.
About 70 gi is indeed a good place to start. It's a universally accepted all round gear with the advantage that if you want to go lower, you need only find a rear cog with an extra tooth. That's what I did which gave me 66 gi and have never gone back - for me, it provides nice around town gearing, allows me to do the hamster on speed routine down a hill at a decent speed (or work the brakes) and when fitter than I am now, can climb enough to only require the 24" gear (two feet) on very steep hills.

The only downside to fg is that when you cop a headwind, your only recourse is to go down onto the drops to reduce wind resistance but realistically, if you cop stupid headwinds like I faced last week during a metric century, sometimes gears are very very nice and I was glad I left the fg home.

Helpmeoutpls

I'm looking for a bike under 300 dollars. A fixed gear to be exact. My friend just recently got a golden cycles fixie but idk what to think about those bikes. I've ridden it a couple times but it's just whatever. This bike is going to be a daily commuter to school for me. I was looking at a SE lager and a Poseidon Track bike. Both around 275-290. What are some other choices I should consider??

europa

Wrong place to ask (though some of us will be answer your question). Try again in the Single Speed and Fixed Gear Forum. Being in Australia, I'm completely the wrong person to ask (different choices).

As for the fixed gear experience, I was hooked inside two kilometres and that hasn't changed. Others take a lot longer. It's a different skill set to geared riding and that's what I love YMMV

Whatever you do, don't fall into the fashion for no brakes, fit at least a front (I use both), there's nothing to say you have to use the things (in fact, it's satisfying completing a ride without touching the brakes) but when you suddenly need them, by cripes they're useful - tired legs fall into that category too, braking with the legs is hard work.

steve-in-kville 

Right over here, my friend: Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Bike Forums

Spoiler alert: gonna here the phrase *Kilo TT* over and over!

ThermionicScott 

Start a new thread and quit posting this request in a bunch of threads where it doesn't belong!