Fixed gear growing in popularity?!!?

wrote:

I also commute on a fixed gear. Another advantage when riding in
traffic is that it limits my downhill speed (here in San Diego there
are a lot of hills), giving me a little more time to react to bonehead
actions by motorists.

I like it in traffic too, because you can modulate your speed so easily, without
thinking about it. With a freewheeling bike, it's pedal, coast, brake, pedal,
coast brake, pedal, BRAKE!... etc.

I used to feel the same way about diesel cars, because they don't coast as
freely. They're more relaxing in traffic.

I saw a lot of fixed gear bikes in central London, which is as flat as a
billiard table. Multiple gears are unnecessary. Fixed works great in traffic,
which is too heavy to go fast safely anyway. So a medium effort single fixed
gear is perfect. I'm thinking about building a fixed gear bike to leave at my
Mom's house in Myrtle Beach, which is awfully flat too. However, I'll probably
want a flip-flop setup with two gears, for upwind and down.

Matt O.

Booker C. Bense writes:

Dry rot doesn't happen to any tires made since the 1960s when
Nylon replaced cotton canvas. 20 year old Japanese tires may be
treasurable, if they're not worn out or lumpy.

Explain then what you call the condition of the Panaracer slicks
that came on my recent find (see thread "my $8 Rockhopper").

The rubber is dry to the touch and showing fine cracking, the
sidewall threads are starting to unravel, and the sidewalls
themselves are chalky and papery.

The decals were hard to peel off on one side, so perhaps the bike
spent some time hanging on the back of an RV and it's sun damage.

The tires show no noticeable wear, btw.

UV damage is not dry rot, but the result is largely the same.
Ozone will do this to nylon as well.

Dry rot is a misnomer. It is only dry when you discover it. Dry rot
occurs with moisture.

# 1a : a decay of seasoned timber caused by fungi that consume the
# cellulose of wood leaving a soft skeleton which is readily reduced
# to powder

# 1b : a fungal rot of plant tissue in which the affected areas are
# dry and often firmer than normal or more or less mummified

Fungi operate in moisture.

Matt O'Toole wrote:

I saw a lot of fixed gear bikes in central London, which is as flat as a
billiard table. Multiple gears are unnecessary. Fixed works great in traffic,
which is too heavy to go fast safely anyway. So a medium effort single fixed
gear is perfect. I'm thinking about building a fixed gear bike to leave at my
Mom's house in Myrtle Beach, which is awfully flat too. However, I'll probably
want a flip-flop setup with two gears, for upwind and down.



Looks like flip flop hubs are a little more expensive.

In article ,
"Matt O'Toole" writes:

I'm thinking about building a fixed gear bike to leave at my
Mom's house in Myrtle Beach, which is awfully flat too. However, I'll probably
want a flip-flop setup with two gears, for upwind and down.

If you don't impose purists' limitations on yourself,
Sheldon Brown's Rivendell Quickbeam might be of
interest to you:
http://www.sheldonbrown.org/quickbeam/


cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

Tom Keats wrote:

If you don't impose purists' limitations on yourself,
Sheldon Brown's Rivendell Quickbeam might be of
interest to you:
http://www.sheldonbrown.org/quickbeam/

Neato, but probably costs as much as a good car! (But I'd still rather have the
bike.)

Matt O.

Tue, 22 Mar 2005 14:39:29 GMT,
,
RonSonic wrote:

If you've never seen artistic cycling, this will blow your mind. Four
guys riding synchronised, hands free, mostly backwards, on one wheel.

Baaah. It's a unicycle show. It's done on acrobat bikes but it's still a
unicycle show.

Yeah, and the way they kept holding up each other looked really
amateurish. At the end, they seemed challenged riding on two wheels.

UCI sanctioned artistic cycling routines have compulsory exercises on
the handlebar.

Here's how Euro Pros ride.

http://www.asti-akrobatik.de/
--
zk

Scott G.? wrote:

...
What would Fausto Do ?

More importantly, What Would Fabrizio Wear (WWFW)?

--
Tom Sherman - Earth (Downstate Illinois, North of Forgottonia)