In which Dommy flips his flop

No re-assurance needed here, just keep reading about how great fixed is and wondered how many others out there actually preferred the SS part of this forum rather than the F part.

Depends on what it's for. If I was doing descents on big hills I would love SS. Enjoyable effort to get to the top and the option to tuck into the most aero position I can to rip down the hill without braking my ribs. But on the open road, riding fixed is lovely.

You're right about the piss drinking though. Lots of people bang on about the health benefits but in the end you'll find it wrecks your liver. Don't believe me, just read some of the drinks threads.

Better skidding inside your pants than outside. So much easier to clean.

Just make sure you put them in the wash before the wife sees them

No re-assurance needed here, just keep reading about how great fixed is and wondered how many others out there actually preferred the SS part of this forum rather than the F part.

Riding fixed is wrong. It's basically the same as raping babies, you know. Except without the babies. Or the raping. But it's still baaaad... (like with four A's)

Myth No. 86: "You'll feel at one with the bike"

The truth: I am riding fixed. I am now the bike's bitch and it tells me when I can pedal. Which is actually all the time. It has become a harsh taskmaster (or Mistress, if you like that kinda stuff) and has assumed total control of my riding, in fact I am surprised it actually allows me to steer, since it's elevation to partial-sentience. This is where "TERMINATOR" starts you know. RUN FOR THE HILLS!!!!

Myth No. 423: "You have so much more control"

The truth: You gain loads of control, like... ummm... Well you can do a skid. Yeah I know you can do one now with that brakey thing but now you can do one like, WITHOUT using your hands. how cool is that. Next I'm going to learn to do a skid using my eyebrows. That's triple-cool!!! AND you can slow the bike down as you approach lights. AGAIN, without using your hands!!!! And finally, when you do do a skid, you won't have to worry about stuff like letting the brake go a little to kick the bike back into shape if it's sliding out a little too far. Now you can just let the skid happen the whole way and spin out onto your arse like a real man does. See how much control you have..!!! It's AMAZING!!!

NOTE: You may guess I still ride single speed, cos I can't get on with fixed either. I'll keep giving it a try, because I refuse to not master it. But I'm not in any rush, that's for sure.

you'll enjoy it once you get used to it. now scarper off back to crooked tongues

JV - CT Legend.

Thems are no myths Tea Bee, it's just they sound ultra-cheesy put into words. Everyone, EVERYONE laughs at them on paper...

then again the one about couriers "seeing fifteen seconds into the future" is complete tosh, unless couriers have at certain times in their lives decided "hey, I fancy going over a van bonnet and breaking my collar bone fifteen seconds from now."

Hold on a fucking moment. I've got 47 couriers locked up in my basement as part of a plan to line up a load in series in order to predict the winner of the Grand National. Have I been wasting my time?

"You (will eventually) feel at one with the bike"

"You (will eventually) have so much more control"

Takes some time for your brain/body to adapt to the spin so while you still have to think about it and avoid buslane buck-a-roo incidents it's pants. But that only takes about a week to get over.

Clipping into moving pedals and trackstanding etc. just take a little bit more time and concentrtaion but it's all muscle memory and repetition same as learning any new physical skills.

Not if you weld them togetehr into a super-racehorse.

It's been ages since one of these threads.

Let me consult my Rikki the Fist's Forum Facts book...

Ah, here we go.

The book says under RTF'sFF #27, that all threads on the benefits of riding fixed will lead to a) SS riders posting, justifying their choice of single speed due to commute/knees etc and b) Titanius Blackfoot posting that you should just ride what ever the fuck floats your boat.

:)

Hold on a fucking moment. I've got 47 couriers locked up in my basement as part of a plan to line up a load in series in order to predict the winner of the Grand National. Have I been wasting my time?

Get them to skid inside their pants at 88mph and your house will be transported to the 1950's

I didn't want to ride fixed for ages. The only reason I am is b/c I didn't notice the set of wheels I won in an auction along with everything else I needed to finish my bike were fixed/fixed. I also hated my first time out on fixed. Now I super dig it, except for toe overlap, which sucks in tight traffic. I do tend to have slightly better control over myself while going slowly and I am learning to slow myself down with my legs. I look at it now as just a whole new set of skills to learn, and I like that.

Hold on a fucking moment. I've got 47 couriers locked up in my basement as part of a plan to line up a load in series in order to predict the winner of the Grand National. Have I been wasting my time?

You better go check, you may have a rogue in there eating the weaker, more flashy ones like a particularly aggressive cichlid.

Troll.

just the fact you distinguish between lap direction in Richmond Park shows you never had what it takes to ride fixed.

That's fkn gold. Head of the class for you Mr Man!

Ah, here we go.

The book says under RTF'sFF #27, that all threads on the benefits of riding fixed will lead to a) SS riders posting, justifying their choice of single speed due to commute/knees etc and b) Titanius Blackfoot posting that you should just ride what ever the fuck floats your boat.

:)

Is that definitely the correct section? This isn't really a thread about the benefits of riding fixed. Almost the opposite. Although it's contents are roughly similar.

You have to get used to it - what your saying is the equivalent of going sking without knowing how to ski and hating it, then never going sking again because your one experience sucked.

It takes a good week to get used to it, and a month or 2 to get it fully down, but once it clicks its game on.

Its not for everyone, but you will never find out unless you persevere - in many ways its like learning how to ride a bike again, and remeber how fun it was when it all came together? - well thats how it feels when you get riding fixed down

Doesn't it come down to what you find fun?

Interesting (well, marginally).
I was hooked the first time I rode fixed, coming from a geared road bike (so not SS). I also rode it brakless the first time (test ride round the block) so had no choice but to brake with my legs. I may get teh flamez, but I really think this helped me become accommodated to fixed much more quickly, otherwise it might have just felt like riding an irritating road bike.
Still, I'd keep at it (if you want to, that is. If you don't want to, you'll never have the right attitude to learn to like it)

Where's the fun in doing what you've always done?

Surely trying something -even if you ultimately decide against it- is part of the point of life?

Unless that something is incest or folk dancing.

^^That's exactly why I tried it Dammit.

Maybe I was expecting too much after all the stories I hear about people being 'hooked' the first time they tried it. I felt hooked, but more like a fish than a junkie.

I guess this is one of those topics that comes up on here on the regular, thanks for humouring a relative n00b.

I'd always ridden MTB's in my youth, moved to London and found that 4" travel front and rear was not the fastest way around town (although it could be great fun).

I (as dyed in the wool MTB'er) would only piss on a Roadie if on fire etc.

So I was searching for something that would be a) faster than the MTB around town b) a challenge and c) not a road bike.

Fixed seemed to fit well.

Being a stubborn type I built up my first fixed from a Cannondale 1FG frame- an MTB frame with an eccentric bottom bracket. I built it with 700C wheels.

Sadly that was almost immediately stolen, however whilst I had been building it I had bought a Specialied Allez- the entry level one.

Fuck it was fast- I had at once been informed why road bikes were cool- look to people like Hillbilly who competed at a National/International level in downhill MTB, they will tell you that it is all about speed. That's what road bikes are for me.

So after my first fixed got nicked (and it was so hard to ride) I built another one.

I'm on my third fixed now- and it gets used 90% of the time.

I still have the MTB, I now have a fairly expensive road bike as well.

But out of choice, having stuck with it, I'd grab the fixed for riding around London every time.

I guess what I was saying (albeit with tongue in cheek) was that people say it and I believe the people who say it mean it. I'm just not there with them yet. TBH, I'd LOVE to be able to trackstand at lights like the messenger doodz do, but that's coming. I'm learning to use the clips first, then try fixed, then do the trackstandy things...

ATM, I refuse to accept that you can skid better with foot braking than using a back brake on a freewheeling single, just because you inherently have fewer ways to move/control the bike mid-skid. But even that I may have to concede on in the end.

Unless it's all some vast in-joke... Have all all the "fixed" riders been sniggering behind their hands saying, "Seriously, I never thought they'd fall for it. Like, everyone's riding fixed now. It's even caused the invention of the entire hipster movement. Seriously man, HOW did we pull it off. Ha ha ha ha!!!" . . ?

It is inclusive- trackstanding, skidding etc, these are things which are tricky.

I could trackstand with a freewheel for ages, doing it fixed meant relearning it.

Skids- I have a 180mm disc brake on the rear wheel of the MTB, not really hard to lock that up.

Returning to the point- you have to learn how to do things again when you ride fixed.

So by that token it is a club- in the loosest possible way, just because you have committed to learning how to do something a bit different.

Like all these things people get carried away- I still remember that chap who (as one of his first posts) stated that he was having a print run of T-shirts made stating "Gears are for Queers", not really spotting that a lot of us both rode gears, and objected to "My first prejudice" labeling.

I don't recall that chap being around anymore.

Ha ha, yeah what hippy and timmy said. You're not going to get it on your first go, give it another. Anyone who says the first time they rode fixed everything came magically together is talking bollocks.