mickey_

Wondering if any of you cyclocross guys ride fixed gear and/or frames with track geometry. I recently put some cross tires on my track bike in an effort to make it more versatile, but I've never ridden on a cyclocross track. Any of you guys do this same thing in races with any degree of success?

TimJ

I've seen people do it.

kyttyra

A few weeks ago, I did some singletrack with my Cinelli:

After I flipped the stem to positive angle, the driving position was almost the same as in my fixed Tricross, and Vigorelli has quite slack angles for a track frame too. 48/20 gearing was a "little" bit steep, but in theory, the Vigorellocross should have worked. In practice...well, at least it was lighter to carry on my shoulder than the Tricross. In snow-packed bike lanes it was positively fast, though.

meanwhile

There should be some relevant stuff here:

www.63xc.com/

I've ridden single speed offroad but not fixed. And even that experience taught me that those weird and oversize handlebars single/fixed riders play with are not an affectation - the extra leverage for stability when in the "wrong" gear is extremely useful.

scattered73

I have taken my urban uno with and put cross tires on it taken on one of the local cross courses when nobody else was there and ran a few laps ss and a few laps fixed. It was really fun and did much better than I thought. I really like the feedback fixed provided in the mud, though I could never get a smooth dismount down I am sure it is possible but I just couldn't get it down. Would I race it ss or fixed sure only reason I haven't tried is I don't drive so only one bike goes to the race and I have taken my geared bike.
I have also taken the same bike on the mtb trails fixed this went bad enough that I will not attempt this again.

flargle

AFAIK there's no rule against using a fixed gear but the USAC rules (and common sense) require brakes front and rear.