Originally Posted by
tornado60
Thanks. You given me a lot of ideas. A lot of this is what I have done in the past. I wasn't intentionally going every possible day like I want to this winter, but I have done some winter riding. Except the fixed gear part. I have actually thought about getting one to try. I just don't think I can retrain this Brain of mine to not coast. It's kind of like breathing to me. I been thinking of trying a cheap aluminum frame bike. Try to clean it up as much as possible. Let the wheels, drive train, and maybe bars get sacrificed, if necessary, and rebuild it better next year. I'll second the Kool Stop pads. I ran their continentals on my old 10 speed commuter and those things would stop in anything. I think they stopped frozen rims once!
A fix gear trick to ease the transition and make that first accidental coast a lot more minor - lower the seat; a lot, like perhaps a full inch. If you do this, you cannot get anywhere near straightening your leg no matter how hard you try. You are also in a very poor place to exert much back pressure. (Keep the brakes!) Fact is, you will try to coast. It will be a rude awakening, But with a low seat, only so rude.
I was into high seats my first year of racing, The club vets hadn't succeeded yet in getting me to drop mine but I did set up that UO-8 fixed as they suggested, Well, first ride I was going close to 20 and wanted to make a left turn. 3 cars coming the other way. So I coasted, Locked my knee because me seat was that high, And guess what? I got shot into the air by that left pedal. I remember looking down. My front wheel was ~2 feet off the pavement and still going up. Back higher. Then I collapsed on the pavement, No real damage. Very light road rash because I'd transferred my speed into vertical and my left leg muscles. Some light bruising. And a left leg that felt like it'd been through a shredder, but all internal. Nothing to see.
The woman in the first car had no idea what she just witnessed! And I learned. But I tell people now, put tape on the seatpost exactly 1" above the seattube. Drop the seat to the tape. Ride. After that first "coast", raise it 1/4". Next, lesser coast, another 1/4". Seat can go back to the 1" when you know you've got this. Do this and the learning won't be too painful.