what fixed

Mark Alexander

I've been drawing a blank in other areas of the forum so...
I've never used a fixed wheel but I'm looking to try one. As it'll be my 1st, I'm not looking to build one myself.

someone recommended an On One Pompino. After looking at their site there sems to be the Pompino and the "pro" (with drops) the standard bars look a little odd.
39x16 has been suggested

any advice is welcome to this novice

peejay78

if you are going off the peg you have a number of choices, depending on price:

fuji track - £350 by the time you've fitted a brake, may be hard to find, stock is low, great starter bike, wheels a bit poor, more 'track' than the others

langster/bowery/genesis flyer - much of a muchness, off the peg, relaxed geometry, comfortable, can be found everywhere, stock parts ok, great starter. not beloved of purists due to a.popularity and b.shape/geometry. genesis flyer possibly best bet. all have carbon fork i think. london langster has come in for awful lot of flak from fixed riders in the capital. see here: http://tinyurl.com/2dmuya

bianchi pista - very shiny, quite track orientated, quite harsh ride, looks good though.

lemond fillmore - great bike for price, comes with front and rear brake, gumetal grey colour. good stock parts. may be hard to find.

pearson touche - for £500, probably the best off the peg you can get.

pompino - people either love it or hate it, i personally hate it, the shape is all wrong, but it is a great winter bike.

more pricey:

condor pista, bob jackson vigorelli, wilier pista - perhaps all recommended for when you're really bitten.

gearing - depends where you are, how many hills. 39:16 for me in London is inconceivably tiny. i run a 48:16.

Mark Alexander

thanks pjay,

I've read the C+ review link from the on-one website. (before picking up your message.
I'm leaning towards a Pearson Touche' and am glad you have given it the thumbs up.

I noticed that all the chainrings were 42+ but the Pearson was a 48 (a little large for undulating areas) may bee a little too large as a starter?

Does the Pearson lend itself to upgrading at a later date?
Do people use spd/look ets or flat pedals?
at least to start anyway

peejay78

it depends on what's on the back. 48 is big for the front, but it may have an 18, in which case it should be ok. if your routes undulate you might want to go 46:18. do you ride a double or triple? you'll have to try it and see, it's very easy to change later.

in terms of upgrades, there's not much you'd want to upgrade, the stock ooptions should keep you going for a while. as far as i know, the touche is aluminium, which is ok, but it's not steel.

you may want to change the bars and wheels, that's easy, and the rear sprocket, very easy, and the chainring, same again.

i bought my fuji, swapped out the back wheel for a handbuilt harry rowland, then a few months later got a new cpx 22 front wheel, again harry rowland, then swapped the bars for cinelli criterium, and the saddle for something nicer.

after i'd done all that i bought a bob jackson frame, bottom bracket and ambrosio chainring, then took all the bits from the fuji and put them on the bob jackson.

i use shimano race pedals on all my bikes. being clipped in is pretty essential, i think. some people use cages, but i get the feeling this is an aesthetic decision, not a practical one.

villa-ru

Hi Mark,

peejay's summary in spot on.

The Touche is fantastic. Far nicer ride than the Flyer & Langster (IMO), though not quite up to the Condor (that was sadly out of my £ range).

Mine has 48:17 which is really fine across London - pretty spinny, which I'm just getting used to.
I'm using spd's, so I didn't need new shoes from my mtb. I also went for courier bars rather than drops, which i don't like in the traffic. The only dodgy thing for me was the saddle, but the guys at Pearson swapped it for me after a couple of weeks.

You won't go wrong with one - they're a cracking bike & lovely shop.

Mark Alexander

at the moment I have Campag 30/42/52 on one bike and Simano 39/53 on the other. I get up most hills with 42x 11-23
a 48x18 would be much harder on hills wouldn't it?

it sounds as though I need to count the teeth at the back, go for a test on different hills with different rings.

This is what I got from Pearson’s site. They seem to only fit a 48 chain ring as std.

Sprocket size - number of teeth 15 16 17 18 19 20
Gear sizes - inches (using 48t chainring) 86.4 81.0 76.2 72.0 68.2 64.8


A silly question but more inches makes for easier riding, is this right

Mark Alexander

at the moment I have Campag 30/42/52 on one bike and Simano 39/53 on the other. I get up most hills with 42x 11-23
a 48x18 would be much harder on hills wouldn't it?

it sounds as though I need to count the teeth at the back, go for a test on different hills with different rings.

This is what I got from Pearson’s site. They seem to only fit a 48 chain ring as std.

Sprocket size - number of teeth 15 16 17 18 19 20
Gear sizes - inches (using 48t chainring) 86.4 81.0 76.2 72.0 68.2 64.8


A silly question but more inches makes for easier riding, is this right

MrGrumpy

less inches easier riding , i`m going to move to fixed unless I`m persuaded otherwise and i find a 42x16 fine for my journey in and out of work. The downhills are slower as im spinning out just now. Dunno if these will be easier once the bike is fixed ? Still undecided on my choice was heading towards the langster but now might be considering the Singlecross.

towpath hacker

I have a Pearson Touche and can attest to it being a lovely off the peg fixer - I like the Ambrosio hubs/Cane Creek brake levers - I ride it to work and for weekend rides in the Yorkshire Dales

I ride 48 x 19 which gives the 68" gear and it seems a fair balance for me - I never feel too spinny, and although serious hills (Lakes/Scotland etc) are prob out of the question on this gear, most things are do-able, although when I ground to a halt a while back on a climb out of Dunsop Bridge on the way to Lancaster I was cursing the fact it wasn't a 48 x 20.

MrGrumpy

and theres this for £500 http://www.epic-cycles.co.uk/images/Epi ... %20Big.jpg looks exactly the same ??

towpath hacker

Pretty much identical

MrGrumpy

is it light ? How does it ride ?

peejay78

you be surprised how much difference not having any choice of gear makes when you are climbing hills.

you work harder and climb faster.

Gav2000

I have 42 x 16 on my fixed which equates to 69" on 700Cx23 wheels. This is fine for riding in the Northants area which is undulating but not hilly. I found it quite hard going into a headwind at the weekend so have ordered a 17T sprocket to lower the gearing to 65" to see what it's like. If I were fitter the 69" gear would be fine.

I looked at the Touche and noticed that you can get a double fixed hub so you can choose 2 different ratios anyway.

I hope this helps you select your first gearing. The Touche looked very nice by the way, just too expensive for me at the moment.

Gav.

Mark Alexander

How's this for a thought, when i'm in TT's on both undulating and flat courses, I have a slow but almost metronomic cadence of 77.
If I seem to be faster racing at slow cadence, then could a higher gearing be a bettr option?
feel free to shoot me down.

chrisw12

Mark, knowing roughly where you live and knowing your rough goals for next year and reading your last post, I think you'll be fine on quite a big gear. I wouldn't worry about doing hills, as living in the Vale/Cardiff, you can quite easily find routes that have no major hills, just stick to the valley floors. If you do decide to go over the hills, then just take your geared bike. Your cadence is relatively slow and given that you want to have a go at long distance tt's next year it might be a good idea to develop a bit of strength by using a biggish gear anyway.

For what it's worth, I had a winter on fixed two seasons ago and managed to get around on 50x14 by the time the summer came. I did this by sticking to the valley floor and having a nightmarishly low cadence (20rpm up the Rhigos. 8) ). I'll be back on fixed this winter for a bit of fun. I'll tell you how good it is this time next year.

Mark Alexander

Hey Chris,

It's great to have a familiar face with insider knowlege to help me decide. thanks.

That has put my mind at rest about the gearing I think i'll check out 42x16 on the campag road and see what that's like it seems to be th nearest equivalent that I have (i looked at the CTC gear table)

I'm leaning towards the Touche' with 48x17/18

Mark Alexander

I bumped into a messenger outside a coffee shop this morning and he had aPompino 50x18 with bull bars the who swore by it.

another jacko

You can get up surprisingly steep hills with a fixed gear higher than you would use on a geared bike. This is useful, because spinning out on the downhill, when you can't freewheel is more of a problem, so you don't want to go too low. In other words it is better to err on the high side than the low side.

On a 700c wheel
48 x 16 = 80"
48 x 17 = 75"
48 x 18 = 70"

If you start with 48 x17 you could go up/down one tooth either side later for just a few quid without having to lengthen or shorten your chain. My bike is 76" (52x18) because those are the parts I had lying around at the time, but seems to work fine at that.

Mark Alexander

I'm waiting on a response from on on as i emailed them for some info.

do they have options on chain rings etc. as the site doesn't seem to cater for those without a clue. lol

Mark Alexander

has anyon use the on one midge bars?
any good?

yinya

love them!

Mark Alexander

I suspect they take getting used to.
do you think they'r a better option than the normal road drops or just different

I'm thinking of ordering tomorrow.

49x18
double rear hub
£499 seems a good start.

yinya

believe they're better - drop is shorter, meaning that at least i can use them more on my commute than regular drops

Mark Alexander

Another Q.

what is would the difference be between a 49x18 on a fixed/free than the same cogs on a 'normal' bike?

Mark Alexander

Hi, sadly, my plans have had to chnge. I hav enlisted a friend to help and will be building up the Pompino from the frame. I'll learn more that way.

Can anyone recommnd brake lavers? I was looking at the Cane Creek SCR 5

graeme_s-2

I feel quite chuffed now. I bought my fixed from my LBS, it was a bike they'd built up and then not been able to sell, so I got a good price on it, but didn't spec it. I also had to do it very quickly so I could get it on cycle to work, as I'm on a temporary contract, and the time until my contract expires was about to dip under 12 months.

I've been riding it for a month now, and was thinking about possibly putting a slightly bigger gear on it. I didn't know what gear I was running, but I suspected it was probably very little. Last night I had the back wheel off to change tyres, and discovered it's an 18t sprocket on the back. I then decided to count the teeth on the chainring, and it's a 48, which means I'm running a 70" gear.

I certainly wouldn't want to run anything less unless you're going to be cycling in a very hilly area.

Steven Martin

This maybe a bit 'off-message' for style points, but which ones have necessary mudguard mounts?

Thanks

Steven

Special K

i have ridden most of the ready-built fixies mentioned at the start of this post. They are all good and all have some personality.

I shortlisted my choice to the Pearson and the Pompino. I went for the Pompino Pro because the ride was much nicer. However, when I bought mine they were being built with Truvativ cranks which are just rubbish and my personal top five Worst Component of All Time list. This year's Pompinos have different cranks I think.

Monty Dog

Clipless pedals are essential to keep your feet attached to your pedals, otherwise you'll take a big chunk out of your shins unless riding very 'softly'. Most track chainsets have a 48 tooth chainring because of the bolt-centres on the cranks - to run a smaller chainring requires a different design of chainset - hence the 48 tooth on the Pearson Touche.

Dustine

I use Crank Bothers Egg Beater pedals, very light and with lots of float for the knees. I would agree with the earlier post- you would only use toe-clips for aesthetic reasons nowadays, with the range of clipless on offer. For info, i use a 42/15 to ride to work in Norfolk, 16 was too spinny. Its not an entirely flat route, but the longest hills take about 1 1/2 minutes to ride up, relatively short and moderately steep. I can just get up them seated at the moment, but building up the muscles to make it easier(!) and im some way from spinning out on the way back down. When this chainring wears out i might go for a 44.

The bike is an old converted Nigel Dean, with the 120 mm hub re-spaced out to 126 to fit the frame. When its worn out i would probably go for a Bob Jackson frame i have to admit, and swop the bits over. Starting from scratch it would probably be a Pearson Touche.