Verbs and Nouns wrote:Nah, it's got a little clip that you slide off, and the chain comes apart. It's not a life or death thing, but the chain's got a little too much slack. I moved the back wheel as far back as I could, but the chains still got about an 1.5" play up and down. It won't slip off the sprockets, but I'm scared it will.

Oh cool - I remember those. The chain's probably slack from being used for years. I'm not sure how tight it would have been when it rolled off the factory floor, but probably less than that.

You could buy a chain tool and pull out a couple of links, but if you're going to do anything you should probably just buy a new chain. This one has stretched out and isn't going to hit the gears right for maximum pull.

Uncle Ovipositor wrote:

geiginni wrote:Lots of things.

You should try riding a track bike sometime - it's pretty cool. They do have a little more snap to them, which I assume is because of the simplicity and not having the chain slack riding around a few extra cogs. I don't know why, exactly, but they do.

The weight issue isn't going to be a factor if you're buying a bike to look cool, but for track bikes it's a big deal to get rid of the larger, freewheeling hub in back as well as the gear cluster.

Having said that, I ride with gears because I don't ride on a track and have hills to climb every day. Nothing against fixies or the hipsters who love them, it's just now how I ride.

And I'm glad to hear someone else rides eggbeaters. Brilliantly simple design.

I love my Eggbeaters. When I was shopping for clipless, I read quite a few criticisms of the bronze cleats and how they wore out. I've been riding with them for over four months now, and have not had any problems; and this is riding them every day, walking around on them for a few blocks at a time and such... If I end up having to replace them once or twice a year they're still great pedals, though I did crack my shins once. That hurt like a bitch for a few days.

I'd be curious to try our a track bike. Albeit there's no fucking way I'd ride a fixed gear anything in this city. I've had to slow down as I've built my strength up for fear that doing 25+ MPH in this city traffic is totally unsafe.

I'm not faulting anyone, hipster or not, for riding fixed/single. I just have a hard time buying into any of the justifications other than 'cheap', 'simple' and 'cool'.

Uncle Ovipositor wrote:

Verbs and Nouns wrote:Nah, it's got a little clip that you slide off, and the chain comes apart. It's not a life or death thing, but the chain's got a little too much slack. I moved the back wheel as far back as I could, but the chains still got about an 1.5" play up and down. It won't slip off the sprockets, but I'm scared it will.

Oh cool - I remember those. The chain's probably slack from being used for years. I'm not sure how tight it would have been when it rolled off the factory floor, but probably less than that.

You could buy a chain tool and pull out a couple of links, but if you're going to do anything you should probably just buy a new chain. This one has stretched out and isn't going to hit the gears right for maximum pull.

Yeah, I think I might do that. Chains are pretty standard in length...? I haven't ridden a bike or done any matinence on one for about 15 years.

For a bike that cost me nothing, it's getting a little expensive... paint, new pedals and I still need to buy a new seat, bar tape, a new chain and I need two new wheels (the back ones kinda warped and it's rusty, the previous owner just sprayed it chrome though, so from a distance of ten feet it looks fine), and the front ones okay, but I don't see me getting 28" rims easily, plus i'll need new tyres soon too.

Oh, and I think fixed gear track bikes look cool. The look so sleek. I probabaly wouldn't ride one, but it's the same as me thinking that Les Paul Juniors look good, even though I wouldn't play one.

Ben,

Yes, the kid is clearly trying to do a trick. Also, if you look, there's nothing to even suggest that the kid has shifted his weight forward. The fact that he's got one foot off the pedal is a pretty clear indicator that his weight is all on the seat.

Sure, if you break with less-than-full pressure on the front, and especially if you shift your weight back, you can use a front brake without flying over the handlebars. Duh.

But what it looked like to me was that Uncle O was saying it's impossible to throw yourself over the front bars by locking up the front brake, which is just plain false.

Okay, I got nothing good to say here, I'm gonna stop, please.

scott wrote:and while we're at it, maybe you need to stop pretending you understand physics!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_OElP4JXouk

This kid does actually look like he's catapulting himself in the manner I'm talking about being impossible, so good find. Unfortunately, it looks like he's pretty well off the bike the second he hits the brake, so the bike flipping is incidental. That is, it's not the front wheel locking up and arcing him forward on the axis of the front hub, it's him falling off the bike and the bike flipping.

I should have qualified that it's nearly impossible for an adult on a road frame riding to do this, but I'm going to guess that the math holds true for most bikes and most people.

Locking up the front wheel doesn't make a difference: if you break too hard, it doesn't matter which wheel you do it on, you're going down. But locking up the front brake will not catapult you over the handlebars as in cartoon.

Tests have been done. It is nearly impossible.

Hi,

As Jay wrote, I ride a freewheeling single speed and love it. I live in a city with no hills, and so don't see any need to have more than one speed. Sometimes I'm spinning pretty fast, sometimes cranking slowly using my weight to assist from a stop or into a heavy wind, sometimes coasting. I enjoy the variety.

As for the front brake vs. rear brake issue: I now have 2 brakes. But for a long time only had one and it was the front brake. From my experience and in my opinion, if you only have one then it should be the front. Forces, physics, science stuff, etc, say that you can stop more efficiently with the front than the back if you have to choose only one. Believe it or not, it's true.

No derailleurs = nothing to get gunked-up from riding in bad conditions or in winter. Nothing to have to clean or dry-off or lubricate or adjust (as cables and cable housings stretch or contract over time).

Riding single speed because it looks "cool"? Please.

yellow coranado
bob

I'll try and post pics of my new ride tomorrow, complete with my "rattle can" paint job tomorrow.

It looks kinda awkward at the moment due to the large wheels though.

I've got my eye on another single speed in a pawn shop (same place where I got my Acoustic head from, such ). it's only $15 and with a bit of work it'd be an awesome bike. I'm trying to convince my girl to get it.

Verbs and Nouns wrote:Yeah, I think I might do that. Chains are pretty standard in length...? I haven't ridden a bike or done any matinence on one for about 15 years.

[snip]

I don't see me getting 28" rims easily, plus i'll need new tyres soon too.

Chains come in fairly standard lengths, yes. Ask at the shop. You can make whatever adjustments you need by taking out links with a tool.

You should also ask them about your wheels. I know 27" is a standard size in the USA, so I'd bet that your wheels are actually 27", which should be no problem to replace. But they can tell you that at the shop. There could be 28"s out there - as the old joke goes, "we like standards in cycling, that's why we've got so many different ones."

i was told one is for people with a death wish, the other is for people with a death wish and a fat bank account.

that being said, the couple times i've ridden a track, i had a blast.

Bob Weston wrote:As for the front brake vs. rear brake issue: I now have 2 brakes. But for a long time only had one and it was the front brake. From my experience and in my opinion, if you only have one then it should be the front. Forces, physics, science stuff, etc, say that you can stop more efficiently with the front than the back if you have to choose only one. Believe it or not, it's true.

I remember this from my motorcycle riding class. Despite the fact that it was taught by a 70 year old Harley dude and his 30 year old ex-Army wife I do believe it to be true.