You are reading a single comment by @polybikeuser and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@polybikeuser
I previously had a Langster, that I mainly rode single speed rather than fixed before I passed it onto my brother and I have a track bike, but have just (almost) finished my first proper "road-going" fixed bike. It's a Soma Rush fitted with a carbon fork, bullhorn bars, Ambrosio chainset and Miche Hubs laced to Mavic Open Pros, the wheels are temporary (spare set of track wheels), I have a set of Ambrosio hubs (with flip-flop rear) that I as going to build up into wheels for this, though I'll now fit it with the Mavic Ellipse wheels I buying of Mr. Smith.
The bike's currently fitted with brakes front and rear, which I realise many will consider sacrilidge, but I originally intended to start out riding it single speed and I feel unsafe enough in traffic as it is, without brakes front and rear I think I'd be a complete liability. Anyway here's a pick of the current set-up
Sorry it's taken at night, but having ridden the bike today have already decided to change a couple of things and wanted a record of the bike with this setup. First off I'd already decided to change the fork for a steel one, this is ordered and should be here in 3-4 weeks. I'm also going to swap the bullhorns for risers, I normally find bullhorns really comfortable, I put them on the Langster, but they just don't feel comfortable on this bike, they just feel precarious. So it's going to be risers. I'm also going to take the back brake off.
First impressions, apart from the bullhorns feeling precarious, are that, at least at the moment, I'm a damn sight slower on this than my roadbike, on the other hand it also feels a whole lot more direct, I feel much more "in-touch" with the road, also think I'll get faster as I start to feel less tentative in traffic. Though I can't see it ever being as fast as my road bike, not in traffic, but maybe I'll be proved wrong on that over the longer term. It is though a whole lot of fun and I'm sure will be even better once I've got the bars right.