First Fixed Ride

Ray Mears

Doodle.

Poodle

Strudel

Product placement^

viaduct faceplant

I've skived off work today because its not raining to finally get around to swapping the back wheel from the freewheel side to the fixed side. The charming gent at the shop has left a "danger of death" sticker on it.

I am soooo keeping both brakes on. Any practical advice that perhaps hasn't been covered in the prior pages?

Read page one of this thread and follow the advice there.

1st of all i havent smoked a fag in a week now! :-)
and secondly i finally finished my Brooklyn and went out the other night for a ride, my first time fixed and it was a fun but odd and slightly un-nerving experience.

I got home thinking 'how am i gonna get used to that' !!

Rich

Cool story bro.

good way to quit smoking haha ,you'll get used to it just need to ride it more :)

great story, deserves a thread indeed

Two even, start a new one telling everyone about your first daytime ride, it's a whole nother world

ahahah, 1st daytime ride! ... not ready for that yet, 11pm on friday around the back streets of tufnell park was just fine for now, i did have myself a proper stiff drink when i got back though.
I got some new pedals and the cleats are just a little sticky too!

Come to Souths, we're a bunch of clean living healthy types, who certainly won't tempt you by smoking outside even when it's sub zero.

utfs

?? whats ufts

?? whats ufts

Thats not what hippy said. He requested that you UTFS.

I'm not in a position to reveal this, as it is the path to enlightenment.

path to enlightenment...really? mmmm im very interested ;-)

ahahah, 1st daytime ride! ... not ready for that yet, 11pm on friday around the back streets of tufnell park was just fine for now, i did have myself a proper stiff drink when i got back though.
I got some new pedals and the cleats are just a little sticky too!

Ill be sure to congratulate you next time i see you riding round tufnell park

#ogtufnellparkresident

I remember when I first rode fixed.

Nearly came a cropper in Mare st in Hackney when I started to coast.

Just remembered to keep pedalling all the time.

Now I love it. Not sure when I would go back into geared riding again.

stick with it, i think you just need a bit of time to get used to it, afterall riding fixed develops a smoother pedalling action, so you wont find it nasty for long

:-) Ill be sticking with it of course the build cost a lot of time and money, ill be taking it out for a spin every night this week getting used to not being able to coast around corners and practicing stops and starts etc . . . One thing I can say is lots of folk dislike the Brooklyn's for various reasons but in the short time ive spent on it, the geometry rides really really nice!

Ill be sure to congratulate you next time i see you riding round tufnell park

#ogtufnellparkresident

Yep!:-) do you know if the guy that parks his union jack mercian outside the thai on the hill is on here? or is that you?
I want to tell him he's a bloody great chef!

I just built myself a shiny new fixie and I just went out for my first, short ride.
I knew it would be different and that I would find it hard because that's what everyone says, but boy was that an understatement for me.

So off I set, while going slowly I came to some traffic lights, I tried to coast and I felt a small kick - understandable.
So I tried going a bit faster, then naturally I tried to coast again.
I can't really describe what happened next, it felt inexplicable.
But to try and put it into words, it felt like my pedal lifted my leg and whole body, then pushed me over my handlebars and onto the floor, then my bike fell away.

I usually ride geared, and I have pretty much no idea about what to do with a fixie. And I have some questions, I looked around for advice, but I couldn't really find much more than "its different".

Firstly, can I have some advice as to the mindset that I need to be in to make the transition? Do I just need to constantly think about not NOT pedaling, or take it in naturally like you do when learning to coast?
What changes can I make to help the transition become easier?
What about my bike? Does anything to do with my bike make anything easier?
What happened when you first went on a fixie? Anyone else flip like me?
I haven't even thought about skidding, the thought of me purposefully trying to stop pedaling fills me with fear. But how do you actually do it? From experience, I know that if I try and stop pedaling, the pedal lifts me up, is this right? Is this part of the skidding process? Do straps help with skidding?

Any answers or advice you guys can give me will be a massive help, thank you in advance.