Fixed gear

wine9555

I have never ridden a fixed gear bike before but my interest was sparked by a lot of the posts.I found a nice older fairly light schwinn and am having the bike built now.I am using a 48 tooth chainring and a 16 tooth cog on the back will abike geared like this still be pretty fast or will the top speed be somewhat disappointing.
I understand they are great training tools and am looking forward to trying it out.

rustychisel

48 x 16 is a kinda high gear IMO for general road riding. It's about 81 inches. You wanna aim more at the 70~72inch scale which gives a good spinny gear on road at about 32kmh

(or ignore this completely if you're stronger than an ox, young and stupid and don't value your knees, or a boaster).

rustychisel

oh, second part of your question...

I ride 72inches and can top out at 55kmh which is fast enough

pader

he's right. a 72 inch gear is about perfect for the majority. check a gearing table

Chris5150

Maybe this is a silly question but this fixed gear thing fascinates me. If you pick a gear that will pull at 55 kmh, what size does a hill have to be before you have to walk up it?...Im sure I couldnt ride up half the hills I encounter on such a gear. My grandad is always telling me things like 'in my day I used to cycle from Thirsk to Whitby on a fixed gear, straight up sutton bank, when men where men' etc etc .... I just cannot really believe that on one gear that you can spin at 50kmh!!...is it right can it be done?

rustychisel

No, it's not a silly question, and it requires some explanation.

I don't commonly ride at that speed, of course, and I can't do it for long. For one thing, my cadence is over 175 at that point, so you get buggered quite quickly. That's my top speed, and it commonly comes sprinting away from traffic lights and up a small incline of about 300m where I need to keep up with traffic (or die). Payneham Road, fact fans.

My two fixed gear bikes are at 40x15 and 42x16 respectively, both around 71~72 inches therefore, which is a comfortable gear for my cadence riding at approximately 32kmh, which I can hold on the flat for a couple of hours at a time. Going up hills is therefore a tradeoff, in that more grunt is required and this quickly becomes taxing if the hill is either steep, or long. Short sharp hills can be muscled over, long flat hills require digging in, like riding into a headwind. In fact, riding a fixed gear bike is a tradeoff in many respects, but nontheless rewarding for that. You'd be surprised just what hills you actually can get over on a fixed gear once you get used to the transmission: everyone who rides fixed comments on it.

Gav2000

I've just got my first fixed bike and have a 71" gear which is turning out to be fine in the undulating area that I live. I get up the inclines OK but am struggling to pedal quickly enough coming down hills. However, I am finding riding fixed easier on the gradual uphill gradients which was unexpected.

Gav.

alotronic

I ride a 42x16 single speed and is about perfect for steady as she goes, though I am contemplating moving to a 42x15 just for a month or two for fun. However riding fixed you will get smoother pedalling and a higher cadence and would be the perfect place to start. I think I can top out about 25mph on a 72 (I don't use a speedo on my commuter) and certainly a steady 17/18/19 mph is easily acheivable if you have any pedalling experience.

I commute 10 miles from Walthamstow into town and take in two 'hills', the bump un to finsbury park from tottenham and the little bump around the angel area. Both are easy going up in that gear but, as always, going down is more difficult on a fixed - get those knees flying!

I switched from fixed to single speed because I like going around corners too much, and to freewheel down those hills but there is no question that fixed is a really nice time. Also riding a fixed of equivilent gear makes you (well me) a couple of minutes slower overall (contentious) as you have to take hills and corners easy.

So I would start 48 x 18 and take it from there... your 48x16/15 is the kinda gear that you could ride time trials or track on... and you'll bust your knees taking off from the lights so often! You'll enjoy it, just don't start wearing your lock around your waist and pre-ageing your rapha clothes...

A

Haynes

Especially if your new to fixies then go for a 48x18 or 42x16. Riding with one gear the pace gets evened out, you cant go aero and clock up 40mph down hill and then spin a low gear to get up hill. Instead on a descent youll be spinning like crazy at a max of 30mph feeling like youre about to get thrown off then honking hard up the ascents. On shorter climbs if you can build some momentum you'll fly past a geared bike, fixies are faster uphill as youll soon find out.

graham_g

I'm moving to Bristol in December - the fixie will be a 65" there (currently 69" in Brum). Don't be scared to go lower than 70", there are still very few decents steep and long enough to truly give me brown trousers. Ask your grandad or any others who used to do their sunday 100 miles on a fixed wheel; I suspect most had the mid to high sixties on.

Blonde

I agree - it's not quicker exactly, though I have managed a higher average speed on many of my flatt-ish commutes on fixed than I ever did with gears, but it's definitely more even overa longer distance - you don't go as fast nor as slow. I ride a 71-72 inch gear - 48x18 and it seems fine for a fairly flat (but slightly down hill all the way way in and up hil all the way home) 13 mile commute with a mile and half long hill in it twice a day, though I have yet to try a real ride on it at a weekend, and know that this is when it will probably be a more evened out experience. I think it will be harder to ride with others who are on geared bikes - they will tend to whizz past on down hills and a fixed rider will probably pass them on climbs, but overall I reckon it will be about the same avaerage speed.

aracer

I agree that 48/16 is rather high - though I actually have 42/15 on mine which most here would consider highish. Enables me to get down the hill I live at the top of at over 30mph from cold, which I think I'd find hard on anything much lower, and I don't find it a big chore to go up again at ~14mph.

Chris5150

So whats the maximum gradient you would get up with that sort of fixed gear?..here in Yorkshire my rides take in some seriously steep hils that are pretty hard to make it up on a std training block

piedwagtail91

i ride in a hilly area (ribble valley/yorkshire dales) and find 47 x 20 just about right.
at the weekend ride round southport i felt on these flatter roads i could easily have used 47/48x 18 and not been overgeared.it's not so much the steep climbs that are a problem but some of the seemingly never ending drags.with asteep climb you either grind up or walk, the drags don't offer those options .
i've been suprised at the climbs i can get up on this gear.the trough of bowland is just about manageable, where i'd use a gear of 39 x 26 or lower on a geared bike.
on downhills ,anything up to mid 30's mph is comfortable, anything more gets the brakes

e999sam

I did all my early club ridding on a 69 inch fixed most Sudays we were out in the Peak District and I never had to get of and walk that included climbs like Winnats Pass and Riber both 1 in 4

Shavedlegs

I ride 48 x 16 around London, my commute is Balham to Canary Wharf.

Happy to spin at about 40kmph to keep up with traffic in that gear. I don't know my cadence sorry, but it doesn't hurt my knees or require super strength. There aren't any real hills of course just a few inclines.

Mr Bumble

God I wish I could spin my pins like Rustychisel or Shavedlegs...175rpm!!!!!! :shock:

I live in Edinburgh, which has lots of small sharp steep hills. I ride 48 x 18 and don't have any problems. I use this gear on training runs in the Borders etc and there are some hills near Haddington with a 14% gradient- and I can still grunt up them in the saddle.

Just a word of advice:

Use a cassette system fixed cog like the Miche ones:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Miche-Track-Sproc ... dZViewItem


It makes changing cogs so much faster and easier for races etc. The traditional cogs get so much torque, that even when greased like a chip fryer I am breaking chainwhips trying to remove them when I am replacing broken spokes.

Mark Alexander

glad I've found this thread. I've been recommended to try an On One Pompino for my first fixed and 39x16 tooth set up. I keep hearing a lot about fixed so want to give it a try. On their site, the standard Pompino has a somewhat odd handle bar set up. the "pro" version seems to be more conventional. are there other ready built bikes that i'm missing out on?