Fixed/Single Speed Commuting

don_don

knight2k wrote:

Oh yeah those descents can be a bit tricky - I do find myself subconsciously riding the front brake (the only one I have) if starts getting too hairy!

I once took my toddler and her bike trailer on holiday near the Long Mynd in Shropshire. I thought "Its pretty flat around the Long Mynd, I'll take the fixie, it'll be good training"...

Anyway, flat around the Long Mynd it most definitely is not. At one point I found myself on one of those 'parabolic' descents that gets steeper as you get further down it. The trailer was pushing me too quickly for my legs to keep up. I apply the brakes (I use 2) - rear wheel locks

I back off the rear brake and pull the front one a bit harder - front wheel locks

I back off the front and pull both a little harder again - both wheels lock :shock:

By this time I feel like I'm accelerating rather than slowing. The trailer is starting to catch me up and jack-knife both of us :shock: :shock:

About 50m later the slope levels out a little, melting tyres find enough grip on the tarmac and the drama is over. Not sure what my daughter made of it - I think she was too busy with her toy rabbit to notice.

Family cycling trips might have to be in Norfolk in future..

knight2k

Littigator wrote:

I learned how to skid stop today....at last

Good work. I'm still at elementary track standing. And then when I get bored and frustrated at that I try riding backwards - I'm up to about 20 metres so far. I always seem to unbalance myself when I look over my shoulder to see where I'm going.

Feltup

Nearly very embarrassing this morning as I didn't leave myself enough room to get the pedals level but still tried to trackstand. The car ahead moved off just in time to make me think I didn't need to unclip but then as I went to pull away I still had my legs in the 12 and 6 position i.e. no power. I then started to get pulled by gravity down the camber to my left into the parked Porsche! Luckily I managed to just get moving forwards and squeaked past the Porsche with inches to spare :oops:

Haven't tried the backwards riding or skid stops yet. Such a rookie at this!

don_don

Feltup wrote:

Haven't tried the backwards riding or skid stops yet. Such a rookie at this!

Nothing rookie about riding backwards! That's advanced class - chapeau Knight2k

Skids stops are not too difficult, if you really want to have a go. Start on a not too grippy surface - wet tarmac or even grass. Slowish speed, say 10 mph max. Un-weight the back wheel slightly as you go into 3 o'clock - 9 o'clock position. Push down on the rear pedal as you unweight and - this is the critical bit - pull up hard on the front pedal at the same time.

As long as you've unweighted enough you will skid. Happy tyre-shredding!

highwaymunky

I've got my 1st SS.
The Specialized Langster Monaco.

Absolutely loving it. She's making work my commute again.

Today I tried to change the non existent gears, realised what I was doing laughed and then saw a bloke on a mountain bike to chase......

Too easy!

hondafanatic

highwaymunky wrote:

Today I tried to change the non existent gears, realised what I was doing laughed

I'm finding it a bit like those ads for 'giving up smoking'. There is nothing for my thumbs and forefingers to do and it makes me fidgety. Very weird.

Feltup

don_don wrote:

As long as you've unweighted enough you will skid. Happy tyre-shredding!

Might save this for my occasional off road jaunts in Swinley, slightly softer on the tyres and on me when I get catapaulted!

Tweaked a quad this morning trying to leg brake down Winter Hill again, think I need some Chris Hoy quads before that is going to work.

don_don

hondafanatic wrote:

highwaymunky wrote:

Today I tried to change the non existent gears, realised what I was doing laughed

I'm finding it a bit like those ads for 'giving up smoking'. There is nothing for my thumbs and forefingers to do and it makes me fidgety. Very weird.

A mate of mine has some old Campag ergo levers on his fixie. Its quite therapeutic doing the 'Campag flick' with the gear lever bits as you ride along!

Feltup wrote:

don_don wrote:

As long as you've unweighted enough you will skid. Happy tyre-shredding!

Might save this for my occasional off road jaunts in Swinley, slightly softer on the tyres and on me when I get catapaulted!

Tweaked a quad this morning trying to leg brake down Winter Hill again, think I need some Chris Hoy quads before that is going to work.

Don't use the front brake!! Just a bit of a 'hop' to unweight is enough.

Hoy never needs to leg-brake on the track I'm sure it trashes your knees eventually - two brakes is an absolute must in the hills IMHO

lost_in_thought

Yeah, definitely don't leg-brake. Don't make me post the links about eccentric contraction again!

I haven't tried skid stopping intentionally, have done it unintentionally a few times on the FG and a LOT of times on the old commuter, although it's easier with a back-pedal brake.

As for riding backwards - good work! I certainly can't do that. Try sitting facing backwards with your hands steering - might be easier!!

don_don

lost_in_thought wrote:

As for riding backwards - good work! I certainly can't do that. Try sitting facing backwards with your hands steering - might be easier!!

If GregT was here we'd be talking about sitting the wrong way round on the toilet by now

:P

iain_j

don_don wrote:

I once took my toddler and her bike trailer on holiday near the Long Mynd in Shropshire. I thought "Its pretty flat around the Long Mynd...

I started laughing at that point

I rode round that area a couple of times last summer, and I'm plucking up the courage to go back and onto the Long Mynd itself. And I've got gears.

Feltup

lost_in_thought wrote:

Yeah, definitely don't leg-brake. Don't make me post the links about eccentric contraction again!

:?: :?: :?:

:idea: Eccentric contractions are currently a very popular area of study for three main reasons: First, much of a muscle's normal activity occurs while it is actively lengthening, so that eccentric contractions are physiologically common (Goslow et al. 1973; Hoffer et al. 1989) Second, muscle injury and soreness are selectively associated with eccentric contraction (Figure 2, Fridén et al. 1984; Evans et al. 1985; Fridén and Lieber, 1992). Finally, muscle strengthening may be greatest using exercises that involve eccentric contractions. Therefore, there are some very fundamental structure-function questions that can be addressed using the eccentric contraction model and eccentric contractions have very important applications therapeutically to strengthen muscle.

so leg braking could be good then according to this or am I missing something?

don_don

iain_j wrote:

don_don wrote:

I once took my toddler and her bike trailer on holiday near the Long Mynd in Shropshire. I thought "Its pretty flat around the Long Mynd...

I started laughing at that point

I rode round that area a couple of times last summer, and I'm plucking up the courage to go back and onto the Long Mynd itself. And I've got gears.

TBH, the only way I'd go up onto the thing itself is on my MTB Some fantastic trails up there and across on the Hope-Bowdler loop.

Ooops sorry, wrong forum :oops:

iain_j

I was out walking last summer on the Long Mynd from the Carding Mill Valley, gorgeous spot but I was looking up at the little road which goes up the side of the valley, thinking 1. that looks like a nice ride, 2. it looks bloody hard work, 3. the map shows lots of chevrons further up :shock:

If I had money I'd get a mountain bike and (bringing it cleverly back on topic) a fixie. Actually I'd need somewhere to put them - the hall's full as it is with the 2 I've got. Out in the back yard? What?

knight2k

lost_in_thought wrote:

As for riding backwards - good work! I certainly can't do that. Try sitting facing backwards with your hands steering - might be easier!!

Now that sounds like it could be good for a giggle. If you put a cushion on the handlebars to sit on you've got an upright, fixed gear recumbant. Also if you spin the saddle round and put some stunt pegs on the back wheel you'll have a passenger seat too.

biondino

knight2k wrote:

Littigator wrote:

I learned how to skid stop today....at last

Oh joy, skid stopping. Now you too can do this!

_Brun_

Gear-deprived people, I need your help!

Came home earlier this evening to swap fancy good bike for crap pub bike, only to break the key in the lock of the latter while trying to release it from out the back of the house. Consequently I need to aquire either a saw and a new lock, or alternatively a new bike (and a new lock as well to be perfectly honest).

I'd been promising meself an FG/SS for a while and was gonna wait till winter was over, but I feel the fates have told me via the broken lock that it's something I must do sooner rather than later. This has to be a bike that gets locked and left outside pubs, sports centres etc for the odd hour or two regularly so I can't do with it being too fancy.

Budget is in the Langster region but I just wondered if anyone had any suggestions of a less ubiquitious (and conspicuous) alternative? Also, someone posted a link to a new place out Shoreditch way that I thought might be worth checking out, but I can't find it. Any help on either would be much appreciated.

lost_in_thought

If you can find a 2008 bowery they're great, black, don't stand out... and cheap as chips!

The 2009 one is a touch flash.

il_principe

Wow one swift response LiT, is Jonathon Ross boring you?

Pearson Touche, Brun?

_Brun_

Yeah, but the road bike's a giant and a pair of em might be a bit much. Having said that, I do like the fact that I could tape up the 'g' and 't' and display me name on the downtubes. I do love the look of the Bowery '72 tho'.

Anyone have an opinion on the funny bars and brakes like on the Langster Monaco? Look a bit daft to me, if I' going fast enough to be on the drops I'd have thought stoppers within easy reach would be better.

lost_in_thought

jashburnham wrote:

Wow one swift response LiT, is Jonathon Ross boring you?

Pearson Touche, Brun?

Yes!

I don't know who this chubby fellow is...

lost_in_thought

_Brun_ wrote:

Yeah, but the road bike's a giant and a pair of em might be a bit much. Having said that, I do like the fact that I could tape up the 'g' and 't' and display me name on the downtubes. I do love the look of the Bowery '72 tho'.

Anyone have an opinion on the funny bars and brakes like on the Langster Monaco? Look a bit daft to me, if I' going fast enough to be on the drops I'd have thought stoppers within easy reach would be better.

The monaco ones are a bit lame - little brakes on the top of the bars but no bar tape... it's too showy and impractical for my taste in SS bikes!

And it's in martini racing colours. Interesting factoid for you.

il_principe

lost_in_thought wrote:

jashburnham wrote:

Wow one swift response LiT, is Jonathon Ross boring you?

Pearson Touche, Brun?

Yes!

I don't know who this chubby fellow is...

Michael Macintyre - he's superb. Why am I watching Ross dammit.

Richmond Park tomorrow am so bedtime methinks!

_Brun_

Hey, this is just like every other Friday but without having to put up with LiT's expensive Italian beer fetish. I've also only just realised the irony in Jash drinking bitter rather than Peroni. The Pearson reccommendation I saw coming a mile off by the way, I'd prefer something with working brakes to be honest.

il_principe

_Brun_ wrote:

Hey, this is just like every other Friday but without having to put up with LiT's expensive Italian beer fetish. I've also only just realised the irony in Jash drinking bitter rather than Peroni. The Pearson reccommendation I saw coming a mile off by the way, I'd prefer something with working brakes to be honest.

Yeah well that's chesp brakes for you fella (or the fact that they are Shimano) Pearson will let you spec the bike so you should be able to get better ones...

I drink bitter so I can save my pennies for Italian bike bling! :shock:

_Brun_

My (potentially) personalised Bowery...



Subtle but effective I reckon.

lost_in_thought

s'nice! Time on your hands?

And hey! I just like cheap lager...

don_don

_Brun_ wrote:

I'd been promising meself an FG/SS for a while and was gonna wait till winter was over, but I feel the fates have told me via the broken lock that it's something I must do sooner rather than later. This has to be a bike that gets locked and left outside pubs, sports centres etc for the odd hour or two regularly so I can't do with it being too fancy.

I think the traditional answer would be to build something out of an old road frame. However, if you aren't keen on building one, then I can't see how you could argue LiT's Bowery suggestion - they seem really good VFM.

I'm also biased towards the Touche (I've got one) but they are £550 new and not exactly plain looking.

don_don

_Brun_ wrote:

My (potentially) personalised Bowery...



Subtle but effective I reckon.

OK, I see the 'nothing too fancy' diversion for what it is now

Just bite the bullet Brun and get one of these puppies

TopSpin

Hi all,

Hope you don't me jumping in here. I just bought one of the 2008 Bowerys for the commute in London but not actually had a chance to use it yet. It looks awfully shiney to me, though not as flash as the 09s. Any problems locking up a bike like this in central London? I've got no secure parking so it'll just be on a regular rack. Am worrying a bit after finding loads of videos of easy theft in youtube, and my last commute bike was stolen (though not whilst commuting). Have 2 good d locks (sold secure silver & gold)

Cheers