Bicycles!

It is just the picture, it was taken from a weird angle.
I've just ordered ?450 worth of stuff including basically a full SLX drivetrain and an XT front brake.
 
Alright someone explain to me the sub culture that is fixed gear bikes. After watching Premium Rush I'm totally curious on these no gear no brakes shenanigans. I've read the wiki article but I'm just not quite grabbing the benefits of a fixie. Is it one of those things where you have to try it out to understand? And seriously? No brakes? Do you need new tyres every month?
 
Pininfarina_ said:
Alright someone explain to me the sub culture that is fixed gear bikes. After watching Premium Rush I'm totally curious on these no gear no brakes shenanigans. I've read the wiki article but I'm just not quite grabbing the benefits of a fixie. Is it one of those things where you have to try it out to understand? And seriously? No brakes? Do you need new tyres every month?
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as a part of the non-fixie persuasion, i can't help but think those things are stupid and above all dangerous. apart from that, why would i want to keep pedaling like a maniac once i've reached a comfortable cruising speed or on a downhill run or something? man, that must be exhausting (maybe that's it, added fitness potential).
 
The no brakes part is idiotic, in my opinion. To operate a bicycle safely one should have at least a rear brake, and (very) preferably a front one as well. For example, what if your chain goes bust on a San Francisco downhill? You're gonna' have a bad time. This part is fashion.

The fixed gear part, however, I do understand. From talking to a few fixie riders (all of whom ride single-speeds and geared bikes as well), the extra pedaling makes you do a lot more work, making them, in some ways, more efficient for working out. One of these guys rides his fixie only on his local bicycle track for this very reason.

I too am curious about trying it, though I can't imagine ever wanting one as my only bicycle in LA?hell, I'm not even sure I'd want a single-speed as my only bicycle here. I want me a proper roadie with a double front and both brakes. Speaking of which, I really do need to get another bike ASAP...
 
I'm from a hilly area and therefore I don't understand at all how one could pass on having gears... but anyway:

Pininfarina_ said:
Alright someone explain to me the sub culture that is fixed gear bikes.
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1. Minimalism is "cool". 2. What isn't there can't break, be stolen or vandalized.

altoid said:
The no brakes part is idiotic, in my opinion. To operate a bicycle safely one should have at least a rear brake, and (very) preferably a front one as well.
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The other way around, because a front brake is much more effective than a rear brake.
 
But....from my experience slamming the front brakes usually result in a cartwheel T_T
 
Locking your front wheel is indeed bad but you need so much more force to do that. Locking the rear wheel is rather easy since all the weight is shifted towards the front when you brake, and loss of rear traction can be equally bad. Therefore I tend to use both brakes equally instead of just either one of them.
 
If you're on a slippery surface though, I'd be very careful with the front brake. Most of the time I just use the rear brake, it's safer. I have seen people locking up their front brakes on wet leaves for instance. Not excactly ideal :)
 
Guys, you do know that you don't have to pull the brake lever all the way, don't you?
 
If you're cartwheeling off your bike, you certainly are doing stuff wrong ;-) Locking up the rear is way easier to do.
Just try and shift your weight to the back, and brake 2/3 front 1/3 back...
 
I've had a front brake only for the past few months and never cartwheeled once.
One day it did look like I was going to, but there's something pretty simple to do at that point, just relax your fingers and the back wheel will magically drop back to the ground ;-)
 


Got it built up. About the only thing left to do is shorten the hose on the front brake. Hopefully I'll get out on it tomorrow. The full specs are:

Frame: 2012 Giant XTC XL
Forks: 2003 Marzocchi Bomber MX Comp Air
Front Wheel: Deore Disc Hub on Mavic EX721
Rear Wheel: XT Disc Hub on Mavic D521
Tyres: ITS C3 XC System 5
Crankset: Shimano SLX Double (40t-28t)
Shifters: SLX M670 10spd
Rear Mech: SLX Shadow Plus
Front Mech: SLX 2spd
Front Brake: Shimano XT M785 with 203mm rotor
Rear Brake: Hope Mono Mini with 160mm rotor
Misc: Bontrager bars, SystemEx stem, DMR V8 pedal, Da Bomb Mortar seatpost
 
A bit late to the conversation, as per usual, but I ride a fixed gear.

There aren't many "true" advantages to riding fixed. However I'll try to lay out a few of the more major ones;

- Less Maintenance - No detailer, less brake cables, less, everything, results in less maintenance, which brings me to my next point,

- Lighter - Assuming all else is equal, a fixed gear has less stuff on it, and therefore will be lighter.

- It makes you a better biker - The reason being, there is no freewheel to take up the slack for sloppy pedalling. If your cadence gets too high, you'll feel it, therefore you need to become a smoother rider to ride fixed, especially to ride fixed fast. And, if you live in a hilly area like me, it gives you strong legs.

Here's where the advantages get a bit more grey;

- You have "more" control over a fixed gear. Because you are "locked in" or "fixed" so to speak, you can really control your speed without ever having to use a brake or anything. I kind of attribute it to driving a car with a manual transmission VS that with an auto. It's a bad analogy, but it kinda works.

- It's more fun! - This one is totally subjective, but after a while of riding "regular" road bikes, I became a bit bored and found myself riding for pleasure less and less. Riding a fixed gear just adds an extra element to the mix, and I find it enjoyable.

That's about it. As for brake VS no brake. No brake is stupid IMO. You should at the very least have a front brake (what I have) a rear brake will do next to nothing on a fixed gear, because your legs act as your rear brake. I hardly use my brake, it's mostly for emergency situations.
Some people I know claim that they can stop just as fast without a brake, but physics just doesn't back that up. So I keep to riding with my brake.
 
I haven't been biking since October now... starting to get really frustrated about that. Anyway... I brought my REBA fork to the shop because the lockout release didn't work anymore [again and again] and the negative chamber lost pressure over a period of a couple weeks.

First time I removed the fork by myself.. took me too long :-( Stupid that I also had to disassemble half of the handle bar, because the lockout release switch was mounted on the inner position. For me it is a pain in the a... to re-mount brake and shift handle again, because I'm never happy with the exact alignment until I had moved them in a couple of hundred increments.

So IDK's top tip for everybody who is considering buying a bike with a lockout:

Don't buy one with a button for it on the handlebar! If the bike already has it.. it is ok, but don't intentionally look for it.

When I was buying the bike, I thought having a lockout button on the handlebar would be better

--> it isn't. If you're really using the bike in muddy terrain, the steel cable for the lockout jams too often. Additionally it turns out, I don't use lockout very often... I guess I haven't used it more than maybe 50 times in 10 000 km biking.

My friend has the lockout on the fork itself. In situations where you actually wanna use lockout (uphill, smooth surface) it isn't a problem reaching to the fork manually and switch the button.

PS: Because I haven't posted here for a long time, some other good news on the bicycle front:

My gf always hated biking... no wonder her bike was an aweful shitty thing. Last year when I was at work, she took mine and was so excited about it that the next day she wanted to go to the shop and buy a proper mountain bike for herself. The budget was very limited and I suggested to look at the lower price range of the CUBE bikes, because I'm rather satisfied with mine and we LOVE the styling.

So she got this for 'just' 500?. The riding position is really really comfortable and I didn't expect to get such good disc brakes with this budget. And... I think for the price it doesn't look cheap in contrast to others that we looked at. Mine cost double, but the only thing thats noticeably better while driving is my fork. Mine weights also about a kilo less. But to be honest... I only notice that when I carry it upstairs.

Anyway end of story... since a looong while ago... last summer I didn't have to do my bike trips alone :love:

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PPS: It was freaking cold the day these photo were taken ;-) She wears like 4 layer of clothes.
 
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