and profit.
cleverness of my stupidity will be revealed. Being a bicycle mechanic (or in my case, pretending to be one for the last 20 years) the maintenance schedule on my bikes is at best described as the emergency/crisis program. This schedule is also known as the “if it ain’t broke then don’t fix it” or as we fixed wheel types say “if it ain’t fixed then it must be broken“. If your maintenance schedule resembles this then you are definitely a candidate for fixed wheeling. The only maintenance needed is oiling the chain when it gets so noisy that it drowns out conversation. Plus, new brake pads when the stubs of the posts make a loud scraping noise against the rims, see... its simple. I’m a simple kinda guy and the my bike works just as well in 3 feet of water as it does in a foot of sand. Fixed wheeling also helps break down age and social barriers. Since I went fixed, old people have been talking to me about “Mocka” & “Patto”, the old Essendon board track and a whole era that I was born 25 years after. Although to be fair I’ve gone a bit retro in other areas as I always wear a woolen jersey (find me a synthetic half as good as wool and I will wear it ) and the classic Brooks team professional leather saddle (again ,find me a saddle as good as a Brooks , I
know they are heavy but, comfort has a price, also, when else can you legitimately slap your groin around with a bit of studded leather since the Hellfire Club closed ?). Another benefit of the fixed wheel is that when conversing with old people, I can “talk the talk”. That is, I know what they are talking about when they talk to me about gear “inches”, roll out etc…aaahhhh its good to reminisce with strangers (it saves alotta time!!). XT what? Dura who?…. Since going fixed (Ed- not being fixed, much to his wife’s dismay) I haven’t had to pay any attention to the latest trends. I am so far ahead of the trends that they will never catch up (Ed- or are you so far-far-far ahead that you’ve almost lapped the field and you only “appear” to be trailing behind.) Gear selection for single speeders should be done at home , not on the trail. I don’t have any compatability problems, I fit on the bike, my feet fit in my shoes, my shoes fit on my pedals...compatible...simple. The most vital component of any fixie is of course, the chain, it’s gotta be tough, ’bout the same size as the ones that drive the cement mixers on “Readymix” trucks. Without a chain you’ve got a scooter. How does it ride? I hear you ask. Well grasshopper, listen on and all will be revealed. With a clutch you only pedal or do nothing (Freewheel...Hey I just got the pun!) but, with fixed-wheeling there are three phases of pedaling . The first phase is obviously power or “drive”, the second is “neutral” where you learn to let your legs go with the flow (49 kph at 196 rpm max speed to date). Obviously you gotta get your head around the fact that that you are gunna spin your tits off on any downhill, although there has been no reduction in the size of my manboobs, despite spinning like Ryan Bailey. The final, but most useful phase for off road fixed-wheeling is of course “reverse” or reverse thrust. Riding a fixed is like driving a manual car (auto’s are for the handicapped) you have an “engine brake” so you can wash off speed without touching the brakes. On twisty single track you can “pedal” around corners (Ed - what other choice do you have?!) A great bonus is that the back end of the bike only slides out a wee