Knowing Robert, I have to say that he may be too heavy to make into a pleasant-to-ride fixed bike (sorry Robert). This is not snobbery, hear me out! There is at least one practical concern. You can gear him as low as you like, but when you stop in traffic, you will still be unweighting the rear wheel in order to spin the pedals to the comfortable starting position (unless you trackstand). This is going to be a pain in the @$$ with a frame of his mass. But he is your bicycle, and that is only my opinion, and you know what people say about those.
I don't know whether I agree re starting at intersections; you could just roll the bike forward a bit, like you would with a coaster brake bike, no big deal. It's really all about getting that one gear perfect, without either making it too low or too high.
The fixed gear conversion on my mixte tok us just a few hours, not counting borrowing somervillain's dremel to make some (aesthetic) modifications to the front chainring setup.
I should ironically lock my Pashley like that. 65 lbs of honking English cast iron beast. It will buckle the fence.
ReplyDeleteI always envy light bikes for that!
ReplyDeleteSoon I will have to lock my mixte Marianne like that... she is getting fixed as I type this. And I bet you think I am joking!
ReplyDeleteNo, I believe you-
ReplyDeleteI've been contemplating making Robert's old frame into a fixed gear bike. That or a 650B conversion..
Knowing Robert, I have to say that he may be too heavy to make into a pleasant-to-ride fixed bike (sorry Robert). This is not snobbery, hear me out! There is at least one practical concern. You can gear him as low as you like, but when you stop in traffic, you will still be unweighting the rear wheel in order to spin the pedals to the comfortable starting position (unless you trackstand). This is going to be a pain in the @$$ with a frame of his mass. But he is your bicycle, and that is only my opinion, and you know what people say about those.
ReplyDeleteI don't know whether I agree re starting at intersections; you could just roll the bike forward a bit, like you would with a coaster brake bike, no big deal. It's really all about getting that one gear perfect, without either making it too low or too high.
ReplyDeleteThe fixed gear conversion on my mixte tok us just a few hours, not counting borrowing somervillain's dremel to make some (aesthetic) modifications to the front chainring setup.