Help me replace my fixie

graeme_s-2

After a bit of advice.

I left my fixie in with a local mechanic last week after I noticed the cranks slopping about a bit and decided the bottom bracket was on the way out (it was ancient). Today the mechanic got back to me. The good news is it does not need a new bottom bracket. The bad news is he sent me this photo:

So I need to either replace the whole bike or the frame.

The carbon fork on it is ok, as are the bars (drops), brake levers, the front brake is new, the wheels still have some life left in them, but I'd asked the mechanic to replace the sprocket, chainring and chain while he was at it as they're knackered. This bike has full mudguards on it, and the frame and front forks have mounting points for them. Ideally I'd like to put full mudguards on the replacement bike too, but having had a quick look I'm struggling to find any frames at all that have horizontal drops outs and mounting points for mud guards.

It's used as a commuter bike all year round so takes a fair bit of abuse. I can get about a 3rd off via my mechanic at Brick Lane Bikes on either a bike or a frame.

So any thoughts? Price is a significant factor (first baby due in 3 weeks - I was actually at the hospital today booking our c-section in when I got the photo from my mechanic).

craker

I've just put mudguards on my Langster if that helps, SKS chromoplastics with p-clips. It's a tight fit but they're firmly mounted and seem to be rub free at the moment.

dav1

I personally have mudgurd holes on my dropouts but use SKS raceblades as I can take them off to avoid the awful toe clearance.

What is your budget? Given that most of your bike is still good a new frame may well be worth while (assuming your spare bits are decent) Problem is that a frame swap may prove costly in labor charges.

The if you want to shop elsewhere the Dolan FXE looks good. According to the specs it has mud guard bosses http://www.dolan-bikes.com/dolan-track- ... -4355.html. Cheap as well.

itboffin

I love my Dolan track and ride it around London everyday that said if you take a peak over at Ribble they have a few clearance frames, one of the 7005 would make an excellent FGSS I know I have one of those as well.

Good luck with the baby

timothyw

itboffin wrote:

I love my Dolan track and ride it around London everyday that said if you take a peak over at Ribble they have a few clearance frames, one of the 7005 would make an excellent FGSS I know I have one of those as well.

Good luck with the baby

Er wouldn't a 7005 make a rubbish FGSS on account of the vertical dropouts?

If you want a ribble frameset I believe your best option would be the cheap TT frameset:
http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/sp/road-t ... ibbfrat600
You'll need to space out your hub to the correct OLD but it does at least have horizontal dropouts.

More obvious answer is the pompino from Planet-X, or this Macinato if they have it in your size: http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/FROOMC/on- ... peed-frame

If you look at a complete bike, then you have a couple of cheap options, this one looks good from Edinburgh bike co-op:
http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/product ... n-track-14

I was going to mention the Merlin 'Single Malt' but they appear to have discontinued it. You might also want to look at the Charge Plug, or some of the Fuji options that Evans have.

I've recently bought a Genesis Day One Disc and it's brilliant, but probably a bit more than you're hoping to spend.

Good luck with the baby!

graeme_s-2

So while browsing around I came across the Gensis Day One Disc and liked the look of it, but it's not fixed. That then got me thinking about other things.

I currently have:

Planet-X SL Pro road bike
My fixie
Old Focus Variado
Edinburgh Bike Co-op Revolution Race (8 speed hybrid)

The PX is used to race triathlons (with clip on aero bars) and train (and right now ride to work and back on).

The fixie was used to commute on but now has the cracked frame.

The Variado was ruined during 3 months of 40 miles a day commuting through the winter a few years back - I did use this to commute in the summer and train on in the winter. It is sat in bits in the garage and needs a new wheel set, new cassette, new chain, new headset, and at least one new chain ring. I have about £250 set aside for this.

The Revolution race is used to ride to the pub and back occasionally, and in the winter I put ice tyres on it and use it for the 2 commutes every couple of years when it's snowy. It currently is waiting for me to put a new marathon plus on it (which I have, but haven't fitted yet).

My latest thinking is strip and sell anything of use on the fixie and the focus and basically give up on the pair of them. Then buy a Planet X London Road on the cycle to work scheme.

This new bike could then cover commuting duties all year round and also winter training, as well as giving me the option to fit a rack for the occasional touring ride, attach a child seat etc. It would also take the ice tyres I have for my hybrid if I wanted to go that way.

I think the scheme will actually cost me £23.96 more than just buying the bike outright (I don't get the VAT saving with my employer, I have to pay a 10% admin fee to Planet-X at the start, and then 25% of the original purchase price to my employer after 12 months to take ownership of the bike), but that doesn't seem too bad to spread the payments out over 12 months.

Thanks for the baby best wishes - it's been a long time coming after a couple of rounds of IVF, but I can't help but feel I could do with an extra couple of weeks to finish getting stuff sorted out. I'm also doing the Outlaw ironman distance triathlon 5 and a half weeks after the c-section (my first iron distance race, and entered before we knew the 2nd round of IVF had worked). My life is basically utter chaos right now!

dhope

Graeme_S wrote:

So while browsing around I came across the Gensis Day One Disc and liked the look of it, but it's not fixed.

So buy a new rear wheel for about £40 and then it's fixed. Job done.

Also think about 2nd hand

http://www.lfgss.com/conversations/265627
http://www.lfgss.com/microcosms/548/

iPete

dhope wrote:

Graeme_S wrote:

So while browsing around I came across the Gensis Day One Disc and liked the look of it, but it's not fixed.

So buy a new rear wheel for about £40 and then it's fixed. Job done.

Also think about 2nd hand

http://www.lfgss.com/conversations/265627
http://www.lfgss.com/microcosms/548/

Is the width on these disc frames the same as a 'standard' track setup? Been thinking about my next winter setup..

graeme_s-2

dhope wrote:

Graeme_S wrote:

So while browsing around I came across the Gensis Day One Disc and liked the look of it, but it's not fixed.

So buy a new rear wheel for about £40 and then it's fixed. Job done.

Also think about 2nd hand

http://www.lfgss.com/conversations/265627
http://www.lfgss.com/microcosms/548/

True - but then if I'm going to spend new bike money then I probably need something that will replace my old road bike as well as my daily commute, hence the PX London Road.

dhope

iPete wrote:

dhope wrote:

Graeme_S wrote:

So while browsing around I came across the Gensis Day One Disc and liked the look of it, but it's not fixed.

So buy a new rear wheel for about £40 and then it's fixed. Job done.

Also think about 2nd hand

http://www.lfgss.com/conversations/265627
http://www.lfgss.com/microcosms/548/

Is the width on these disc frames the same as a 'standard' track setup? Been thinking about my next winter setup..

Doesn't look like it.

Hub is a 'D236DSE'
Which google suggests is 135, which would be more normal for a cx/disc wheel

dyrlac

Having just passed 2000 km on my Charge Plug, this is a dangerous discussion for me, because that Macinato looks ace. Or is it possible to have too many Dolans? For Graeme, the Plug has full mudguard bosses (but no bottle bosses), to which I've fit a set of full size SKS guards (bluemels or trekkers or whatever they're calling them now). Am not sure I follow your London Road plan, that would seem to entail not having a fixie, which does not compute.

graeme_s-2

Dyrlac wrote:

Am not sure I follow your London Road plan, that would seem to entail not having a fixie, which does not compute.

It's the one (considerable) downside to this plan.

Charge Plug does look very nice. Just having a quick look on the Charge website the front fork doesn't look to have bosses for mudguards, or am I missing them?

dyrlac

Love the Plug, although the eye always wanders. I have the 2014 Plug 1 model--black with bullhorns--with an OEM fork. The guard bosses are there in the form of little holes in the dropouts, but worth a call (or inspect in person: a good-sized Evans will usually have them in stock). The stock 32mm tyres were a tight squeeze with the guards, so I run 25mm rubino pros. I also switched from stock 42x16 to 42x15 and changed to pursuit brake levers (I kept the rear brake for cockpit symmetry rather than actual use).

iPete

Pearson - once more unto the breach?

Am having a smiliar dilema. Keep running my track bike with Cruds on 23c OR find a frameset that has..

Proper mud guards
28c tyre clearance
Front disc brake (optional)
Rear track spacing (120mm)

dhope

iPete wrote:

Pearson - once more unto the breach?

Am having a smiliar dilema. Keep running my track bike with Cruds on 23c OR find a frameset that has..

Proper mud guards
28c tyre clearance
Front disc brake (optional)
Rear track spacing (120mm)

Condor Tempo you say?

The Fratello now has a disc fork option which I'm planning on getting separately to use in place of the Kinesis fork.

iPete

dhope wrote:

iPete wrote:

Pearson - once more unto the breach?

Am having a smiliar dilema. Keep running my track bike with Cruds on 23c OR find a frameset that has..

Proper mud guards
28c tyre clearance
Front disc brake (optional)
Rear track spacing (120mm)

Condor Tempo you say?

The Fratello now has a disc fork option which I'm planning on getting separately to use in place of the Kinesis fork.

I was thinking it'll need some mix and match, that's perfect and just the excuse needed to take a walk down there..

dhope

iPete wrote:

dhope wrote:

iPete wrote:

Pearson - once more unto the breach?

Am having a smiliar dilema. Keep running my track bike with Cruds on 23c OR find a frameset that has..

Proper mud guards
28c tyre clearance
Front disc brake (optional)
Rear track spacing (120mm)

Condor Tempo you say?

The Fratello now has a disc fork option which I'm planning on getting separately to use in place of the Kinesis fork.

I was thinking it'll need some mix and match, that's perfect and just the excuse needed to take a walk down there..

To save you a little walk, they're not expecting stock of the fork alone for a couple months. Called them this lunch and the first batch will naturally go to those that have ordered 2015 framesets, then once those preorders are done the fork will be available separately. I'm assuming it'll be late July at the earliest.
Might be if you were getting a Tempo frameset with a Fratello fork then they'd bump you up the queue though as you'd be spending more with them.

timothyw

The day one disc can be run fixed (although I haven't done it yet) - you just need to buy one of the velosolo 6 bolt track cogs and flip the rear wheel:
http://www.velosolo.co.uk/shopdisc.html

You will of course lose your rear brake, but that isn't the end of the world with a fixed rear anyway.


Also, you don't need to pay 25% at the end of the first year on cycle scheme to take ownership of the bike - with cyclescheme.co.uk you can pay a small fee and ownership of the bike transfers from your employer to cyclescheme, who then transfer the ownership onto you after 5 years. It's a bit of a fudge but the clear implication is that once you've paid them the fee they aren't going to come asking about their bike (plus you can at that point change jobs without penalty etc).

The Rookie

TimothyW wrote:

You will of course lose your rear brake, but that isn't the end of the world with a fixed rear anyway.

Not sure the guy who nearly went under the bus would see it that way!

timothyw

The Rookie wrote:

TimothyW wrote:

You will of course lose your rear brake, but that isn't the end of the world with a fixed rear anyway.

Not sure the guy who nearly went under the bus would see it that way!

Which guy or is this hypothetical?

It's generally acknowledged that under maximum braking force the entire weight of the bike is on the front wheel - fixie riders can confirm this by feel on the pedals when they brake hard at the front.

The day one disc has excellent spyre disk brakes - in the average traffic situation quite honestly I'd feel safer with just a spyre front than I would with both rim brakes.

dhope

TimothyW wrote:

The Rookie wrote:

TimothyW wrote:

You will of course lose your rear brake, but that isn't the end of the world with a fixed rear anyway.

Not sure the guy who nearly went under the bus would see it that way!

Which guy or is this hypothetical?

It's generally acknowledged that under maximum braking force the entire weight of the bike is on the front wheel - fixie riders can confirm this by feel on the pedals when they brake hard at the front.

The day one disc has excellent spyre disk brakes - in the average traffic situation quite honestly I'd feel safer with just a spyre front than I would with both rim brakes.

Apparently that guy's (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2Q5ldUE-u8) brake cable snapped.
You can see him skidding to try and stop. Not sure whether a rear brake only would have been more effective or if he'd just have fishtailed into the bus rather than skipped/skidded into it.

graeme_s-2

My mechanic has worked out that my frame seemed to be a rebadged Pearson (from the same far eastern source), so if I ever do go for a fixie again in the future, I suspect a Pearson Once More Into the Breach might be the way to go.

However for now my fixie riding days are at an end. I've just ordered a Planet X London Road with Rival 22 Hydraulic Discs which will also replace my old knackered Focus Variado.

Good bye sweet fixie - we had good times!



A little bit concerned that not only is this not N+1, it doesn't even maintain N. Do I lose my cyclist ID card by doing N-1?

rick_chasey

That's quite a relaxed seatpost angle.

graeme_s-2

Looking at that photo, I suppose it is, yes.

I crashed it not long after I had it when someone deliberately pulled in front of me and slammed on the brakes. I went into the back of their car and they immediately drove off. Forks, frame and front wheel were all surprisingly undamaged, but the drops on one side of the bar folded flat against the top when I fell onto the road afterwards. I was never that happy with the replacement bars which seemed to have a very long section immediately behind the hoods.

veronese68

dhope wrote:

Apparently that guy's (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2Q5ldUE-u8) brake cable snapped.
You can see him skidding to try and stop. Not sure whether a rear brake only would have been more effective or if he'd just have fishtailed into the bus rather than skipped/skidded into it.

I reckon he would still hit the bus. That video tells me how important maintenance is, not that fixies are dangerous. Unless f course you choose to ride one with no front brake.

dhope

Veronese68 wrote:

dhope wrote:

Apparently that guy's (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2Q5ldUE-u8) brake cable snapped.
You can see him skidding to try and stop. Not sure whether a rear brake only would have been more effective or if he'd just have fishtailed into the bus rather than skipped/skidded into it.

I reckon he would still hit the bus. That video tells me how important maintenance is, not that fixies are dangerous. Unless f course you choose to ride one with no front brake.

Yeah, I don't think a rear brake would have done a great deal more.
I can't/don't skid when riding fixed. Maybe I should learn, as I don't fancy the thought the front brake failing and suddenly having to rely on muscle memory that doesn't exist.

roger_merriman

dhope wrote:

Veronese68 wrote:

dhope wrote:

Apparently that guy's (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2Q5ldUE-u8) brake cable snapped.
You can see him skidding to try and stop. Not sure whether a rear brake only would have been more effective or if he'd just have fishtailed into the bus rather than skipped/skidded into it.

I reckon he would still hit the bus. That video tells me how important maintenance is, not that fixies are dangerous. Unless f course you choose to ride one with no front brake.

Yeah, I don't think a rear brake would have done a great deal more.
I can't/don't skid when riding fixed. Maybe I should learn, as I don't fancy the thought the front brake failing and suddenly having to rely on muscle memory that doesn't exist.

maximum braking is often claimed to be around the point of locking a tyre, but no further.

locking the wheels up, will less effective, than holding it at that point.

good fun though as a kid on unmade roads, but not a very effective way of stopping.

The only bike I have/had that brakes well using only the rear is the old MTB with panniers and what not, with a fairly upright riding position, wide soft tacky tyres, you can brake quite hard with out locking, while indicating right, braking with the rear.

don't get me wrong it will still lock the rear before the front but the gap is much less than other bikes I have/had/used.