First time on this thread. Question - does my Peter Mooney qualify? It's only been a fix gear since 2017 though it passed its 40th birthday 3 years ago.
And it's not a single speed. In fact it usually carries 3 ratios; typically 46-14, 42-17 and 36-21 though it's been known to go on flat riders with just two of 16, 17, 18 and 19 (with the 42). But it has seen nothing but fix gear since I converted it. (Now I passed that 40 year mark a while ago but this thread is about the bikes, right?)
That Mooney (named Pete; not the Peter of either its builder or my brother or uncle, just Pete) will be going for its/his first Cycle Oregon in three weeks. The Painted Hills of Oregon, fittingly enough under a new and snazzy paint job. And sewups! I'm returning to the rubber I so love and trust. (Blew off/out - I didn't do the forensics - an old clincher going 20 a few years ago. It came off and sent me for a crash I never want to do again and that I cannot remove from my mind going downhill (and comes up in nightmares fairly regularly). The 40+ mph blowouts on sewups in my racing days? I cannot remember if I did it once, twice or even which wheel it was. I just rolled to a stop, changed the tire and went on. NBD.
I had this bike made with horizontal dropouts even though verticals were the new thing and what Peter Mooney did, just so I could run fix gear if I ever wanted to. It spent nearly all of its first 20 years on sewups. Putting the fix gear wheel on and riding - it was "this is what this bike is made to do!" A classic road bike in the tradition of the elegant English road fix gears. Now it has big, cushy 28c sewups (Vittoria Corsa G+ Controls). About as nice as I've ever ridden though without the magic of far east silk and without that silk's aversion to water. Current rims are Mavic GP4s, very, very nice but quite heavy. I have some GEL330s laced to beautiful gold Suzue track hubs. Most gorgeous wheels I've ever seen and easily best built. Tied and soldered perfectly. Showcase wheels. Never seen a brake pad or road. When the time is right, I'll glue on 200g Corsa Speeds. Pete will be in heaven. (So will I.)