If I went single speed?

DonDaddyD

I'm warming to the idea of a single speed.

What I like about it is that you have no choice but to ride it at a speed/cadence the gear demands, an example of true MTFUness. You could go slower but it wouldn't be as comfortable (debatable) in addition riding slow is going to build your muscles in any case. On a road bike, if you don't like what gear your in you can just change down.

So lets say that I have or will have about £350 - £500 and wanted to buy a single speed, what would you recommend? (I may buy for this winter, or perhaps next year...)

Also on the carbon front:
I went to Luciano Cycles and saw this gem:
Fondriest RP3 info at bottom of the page

Does anyone know anything about this make?

Roastie

Dunno, but the missus and I popped in there the other day - we both agreed that bike is extremely purdy.

gtvlusso

Options:

Build your own from an old racing frame (cheap, very satisfying and you can fix it easily as you built it)

2, Stonehenge cycles are doing 0% over 24 months on all bikes - Bianchi Pista = £25 per month!

3, I would go for a Bianchi Pista.....!

Buy it in summer if you can to get maximum enjoyment!

biondino

That FGSS thread about bikes in each price range is gold, DDD, as is the advice that you should go for whichever bike in your budget you think looks prettiest!

(and please for the love of god don't get a Bowery, Langster, or Touche, they're common as muck these days, every noob has one )

biondino

In the bike rack outside my office, someone has parked a Kiwi Bike - black, slim tubes, bullhorns, it's a lovely SS number.

Oh, thr FGSS thread is here: http://www.londonfgss.com/thread9085.html

il_principe

biondino wrote:

That FGSS thread about bikes in each price range is gold, DDD, as is the advice that you should go for whichever bike in your budget you think looks prettiest!

(and please for the love of god don't get a Bowery, Langster, or Touche, they're common as muck these days, every noob has one )

Just because you've bought a Jackson, no need to be smug.

Touche's are fab.

Coach H

DDD,

I could be wrong but that model Fondriest looks suspiciously like the Pedal Force RS2 / Ribble Sportive frameset (including exactly the same geometries)

The Ribble version is only £450ish so that an awful lot of money to have it painted in white and have Fondriest rather than Ribble written on it, if it is the same frame.

ride_whenever

You could probably get a pompino for that sort of money, lovely bikes to ride.

Kieran_Burns

I'd get a Tricross Single - that way you'll be hated EVERYONE

DonDaddyD

Blondie wrote:

In the bike rack outside my office, someone has parked a Kiwi Bike - black, slim tubes, bullhorns, it's a lovely SS number.

Oh, thr FGSS thread is here: http://www.londonfgss.com/thread9085.html

Thanks that website is really helpful.

Coach H wrote:

DDD,

I could be wrong but that model Fondriest looks suspiciously like the Pedal Force RS2 / Ribble Sportive frameset (including exactly the same geometries)

The Ribble version is only £450ish so that an awful lot of money to have it painted in white and have Fondriest rather than Ribble written on it, if it is the same frame.

Is there anyway to confirm this?

shoulder_of_orion

I saw a really sweet one in Edwardes the other day, it was white and had Edwardes emblazoned on it (not sure about that bit?). No idea of cost/spec but I think that is close to where you work?

shoulder_of_orion

O yeah, if your going to go SS you might as well be a real man and go fixed. Might want a brake though.

DonDaddyD

Baby step shoulder, baby steps.

I know the SS you're talking about in Edwards and yeah Edwards (or is it Edwardes) is in walking distance for me.

Nothing against the bike, just not for me personally.

I know I want bull horn bars, and now am thinking of a build project...

tiny_pens

I'd suggest going to the on-one website and ordering (possibly from them) a conversion kit a bit like this one:

http://www.on-one-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Converter_Kit_201.html

and then getting one of their doofers. Fixing it to a current bike and then riding it for a while to see if you enjoyed it. OK so the dishing of the rear wheel isn't going to be quite right but better to spend £25 on bits and find you don't like it. Plus its easier to hide the purchase if it looks like nothing has changed



Unless of course you want to ride fixed at some point in which case you want to look at a magic gear calculator like this:

http://eehouse.org/fixin/

Easy on the wallet, light on the environment :-)

Tiny

Eau Rouge

"Available in frame , fork , seatpost and headset only £1100.00"

By the time you add a drivetrain, wheels, bars, saddle etc, thats going to add up. On the other hand, you can put whatever you want on it.

greg66_tri_v2.0

MTFU and sort your head out, DDD!

SS. Pah. If you want to enjoy the benefits of riding in a single gear, simply don't use your shifters. Stay in one gear. Pick a harder one than the pansy-SS'ers* use too. Round London, that is not an issue.

Fixed, schmixed. It's like having a broken watch. Works perfectly for a couple of seconds every day.

( I couldn't find anything useful to say about the Fondriest. Promise. I did look).

* LiT excluded, for she rides SS with a proper gear. Or did, before it broke her like a dry twig.

DonDaddyD

Eau Rouge wrote:

"Available in frame , fork , seatpost and headset only £1100.00"

By the time you add a drivetrain, wheels, bars, saddle etc, thats going to add up. On the other hand, you can put whatever you want on it.

You're talking about the Fondriest right?

The guy at Luciano cycles had a 105, Askium and Deda everything for £1500.

He also had Orbea's, De Rosa's and a Massi (never heard of before that but really good looking) for around that price. Good thing I left the credit card at home.

He had his own Kuota Kredo (nice nice nice nice nice looking bike) and his own Kutoa Time trial bike hanging on the wall. Also there was a beautiful white and black Kuota KoM (seriously t'was effing nice) in the front window

The only bike he didn't have was the 09 Kuota Kharma, which I had originally went to see, that said he had his own 2008 one that he commutes on.

I've never been surrounded by by such beauty. I want to give him my money.

DonDaddyD

Greg66 wrote:

MTFU and sort your head out, DDD!

SS. Pah. If you want to enjoy the benefits of riding in a single gear, simply don't use your shifters. Stay in one gear. Pick a harder one than the pansy-SS'ers* use too. Round London, that is not an issue.

Fixed, schmixed. It's like having a broken watch. Works perfectly for a couple of seconds every day.

You'll be proud to know that I'm doing this already. I ride a gear for three months, once the legs are use to it, move up one.

( I couldn't find anything useful to say about the Fondriest. Promise. I did look).

Try harder next time... :lol

Seriously, I believe you I've searched daily and the only thing I could find was an American forum saying that they look nice and the steering is superb "though Fondriest won't reveal the angle of the head tube". None of which actually related to the RP3. It looks nice and when the time comes (May or August I'm guessing) I'll test ride it with the Kuota before I buy.

vorsprung

Get a ENO rear wheel and fit it into your existing bike

http://www.hubjub.co.uk/white/wheels.htm

il_principe

Greg66 wrote:

MTFU and sort your head out, DDD!

SS. Pah. If you want to enjoy the benefits of riding in a single gear, simply don't use your shifters. Stay in one gear. Pick a harder one than the pansy-SS'ers* use too. Round London, that is not an issue.

Fixed, schmixed. It's like having a broken watch. Works perfectly for a couple of seconds every day.

( I couldn't find anything useful to say about the Fondriest. Promise. I did look).

* LiT excluded, for she rides SS with a proper gear. Or did, before it broke her like a dry twig.

And me excluded - I reckon 50/16 is a proper SS gear thank you very much!

always_tyred

If you struggle on hills* now, imagine the fun you'll have on a single speed.




* Or as close to hills as those whinging southern city types get to, anyway. Mere small gentle undulations, really, certainly not the massive obstacles that the tempered, weather beaten commuter has to overcome on a daily basis up here, pah.

gtvlusso

My new fixie build will be ready soon:

Barron 22.5 inch, Reynolds 531 TT frame with brazed in Track fork ends - Resprayed in Cambridge Blue (Duck Egg Blue) by Argos cycles in Bristol.

Nitto RB18 Bull Horn bars
ITM Goccia quill stem (115mm)
Sugino 48T chainset + Sugino BB
16T Miche sprocket + Carrier and lockring
SR Laprade fluted seatpost
Charge spoon Brown saddle
Xero 30mm rim depth White wheels with formula cartridge track hubs
Dia Compe front brake and Aero brake lever
MKS Sylvan road quill pedals and half toe clips
FSA "Stars 'n Stripes" bar tape
Specialized Armadillo tyres

May sell it - may use it...not sure yet! Definitely a tarty bike....

vanquished

A while back, Pearson cycles were clearing out Bowerys (Boweries?), the 08 model, at £225. I should've picked one up, but didn't have the cash at the time... point being that for dipping a toe in fixed/ss waters, that wasn't expensive (that ENO hub is £130 alone. Plus you've still got the overhead of changing the drivetrain, and then your shifters are superfluous etc etc etc).

For me, fixed is partly an appreciation of the absolute mechanical simplicity of the thing: nothing more than is necessary on the bike... I'm considering converting the Vanquish to a fixed, but, as above, what with a new rear wheel likely to be the best part of £200, and then a new chainring, new brake levers (because I wouldn't want the Tiagra shifters if there were nothing to shift)...

All in all, be cheaper to pick up a Fuji Track (although, admittedly, that *is* fixed)::
http://www.holcroscycles.com/productdet ... Track.html £299

itboffin

Kieran_Burns wrote:

I'd get a Tricross Single - that way you'll be hated EVERYONE

Except us

We rock

itboffin

gtvlusso you're beginning to develop an unhealthy addiction to 'duck egg' blue

itboffin

So DDD planning on fight the WAR from the inside eh! :twisted:

biondino

DDD, buy GTVL's bike, it's great! (unless he decides it'd be better with 60/12 on it )

greg66_tri_v2.0

jashburnham wrote:

Greg66 wrote:

MTFU and sort your head out, DDD!

SS. Pah. If you want to enjoy the benefits of riding in a single gear, simply don't use your shifters. Stay in one gear. Pick a harder one than the pansy-SS'ers* use too. Round London, that is not an issue.

Fixed, schmixed. It's like having a broken watch. Works perfectly for a couple of seconds every day.

( I couldn't find anything useful to say about the Fondriest. Promise. I did look).

* LiT excluded, for she rides SS with a proper gear. Or did, before it broke her like a dry twig.

And me excluded - I reckon 50/16 is a proper SS gear thank you very much!

Ummmmm, nah.

It's smaller than mine (53x16). Ergo, you're a pansy.

Anyone who rides a bigger gear than 53x16 all the time is a damned fool with no regard for the well-being of their knees (or perhaps achilles).

itboffin

Summer must be on the way GT is back and the talk is all MASSHOOF RINGS again

Jon8a

on one pompino

Clever Pun

http://www.londonfgss.com/thread11148.html

that's the thread Blondie is talking about... List of Lists, very useful