Fixie vs Geared Road Bike
07-01-20, 02:51 PM
#26
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I don't know the fixie community lingo but that kick could be called 'bronco' as in riding a wild horse. Moral is, don't lend your bike for a spin when someone notices you don't have any gears and shifters on your bike and is raring to try it out, what it is like to ride it. I never got thrown from the bike completely but 'lifted' none too gently from the saddle several times. It was a very surprising kick that jolted me (both physically and mentally) as serious warning. I can call myself lucky.
And priceless advice on safety was that about watching your fingers when you have the bike on a stand and crank it for whatever reason. That is also very easy to forget.
Last edited by vane171; 07-01-20 at 03:09 PM.
07-01-20, 03:05 PM
#27
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While the OP chose to make this thread about gears vs. fixed, that really isn't their issue. The real issue is cost. That can be addressed by buying used. I never owned a new bike until I was in my late 50s. A used geared bike is the way to go. The only real issue there is sizing, but that question also would need to be answered for a new bike purchase. I have a very experienced riding buddy who was talked into trying fixed. That worked OK until one day he got in a traffic situation, sort of as described above, which had him flying through the air, into a ditch, and left with an injury which kept him off bikes for several weeks. He'll warn anyone who'll listen. If one grew up riding fixed, fine. Otherwise . . .
Regarding used bikes - there are still a lot of good '80s Japanese sport bikes out there with horizontal dropouts that make very good fix gears. Enough that finding a properly sized bike might not be a lot harder than selecting from the limited selection in a new model you like. (And, you get horizontal dropouts, not track ends. See my post above. Any manufacturer now could go with dropouts but to my knowledge, non do.)
Ben
07-01-20, 04:58 PM
#28
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Single speed (not fixed) is no different than a regular geared bike besides not shifting... It's not hard or tricky or intimidating
All that shifting hardware adds cost, you get more bike for your money if you can get away without gears
07-01-20, 05:11 PM
#29
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While I never rode on a velodrome, when I was around 16 year old, there was an old classic wooden velodrome without roof in town where I used to apprentice and I sometimes came by to see training sessions or impromptu arranged races and still have a fond memory of that. The parquette surface creaking, the warm sun, smell of the old wood and the bikes whizzing around... there was a tribune for spectators on one side but us who came to look unofficially, we sat at the top picket railing, we could let our feet dangle over the track top end in its turn where it was most exciting to watch. That velodrome went derelict in later years and was demolished. Probably it was harking back to the first half of the twentieth century.
07-01-20, 10:04 PM
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I was curious what the difference would be between a Fixie that was more a road bike vs a true road bike with all the gears. Unfortunately good road bikes are a little out of my range now. I read reviews with low cost budget road bikes and one of the biggest complaints was shifting and chain falling off. I was reading that Fixies can be great road bikes so...
I would like something faster than my Trek FX 2 hybrid preferable or just as fast.
I usually try to avoid shifting much at all when I ride. I will only shift when climbing hills or going up bridges that climb over water/ highways and when I do shift I only use the smaller gears. I usually always keep it on the 2nd big cog and rarely use the big 3rd cog or the small 1st cog. Sometimes I just forget about shifting and muscle the bike up the hill/ bridge on the gear I keep it in the whole 20 mile bike ride.
I do take advantage of the flywheel and coast a lot though when I ride. Even when I go faster and ride 14 miles in an hour on the hybrid, I still will coast a little to catch my breath a little. I heard you can't coast on Fixies ?
The only thing that got me looking at fixes rather than a road bike is the cost... from what I read online you can get a great Fixie road bike for a fraction of the cost of a great geared road bike. Also a co-worker I had in a past job I had said he would ride a Fixie road bike out in Phoenix area all day long for his job and transportation, he didn't own a car at all. His job was delivering Submarine sandwiches door to door through the city of Phoenix and he did it on a Fixie Road bike. I asked him if he could go very fast on it and he claimed he could.
I would like something faster than my Trek FX 2 hybrid preferable or just as fast.
I usually try to avoid shifting much at all when I ride. I will only shift when climbing hills or going up bridges that climb over water/ highways and when I do shift I only use the smaller gears. I usually always keep it on the 2nd big cog and rarely use the big 3rd cog or the small 1st cog. Sometimes I just forget about shifting and muscle the bike up the hill/ bridge on the gear I keep it in the whole 20 mile bike ride.
I do take advantage of the flywheel and coast a lot though when I ride. Even when I go faster and ride 14 miles in an hour on the hybrid, I still will coast a little to catch my breath a little. I heard you can't coast on Fixies ?
The only thing that got me looking at fixes rather than a road bike is the cost... from what I read online you can get a great Fixie road bike for a fraction of the cost of a great geared road bike. Also a co-worker I had in a past job I had said he would ride a Fixie road bike out in Phoenix area all day long for his job and transportation, he didn't own a car at all. His job was delivering Submarine sandwiches door to door through the city of Phoenix and he did it on a Fixie Road bike. I asked him if he could go very fast on it and he claimed he could.
Fixie. Get a steel one for cheap. When you are ready to switch to a road bike, widen the rear end to accept a multispeed wheel.
