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I use a very low gear (61 inches) 39 x 17 - have to have a prime number at the back for maximum skid spots to save on tyres.
Works well off road, on gravel and the rolling ups and downs of where I live but cruising speed is around 18mph on the flats road bits so not going to win any awards on the road and continually get overtaken by road riders, well until we get to a hill anyway.
This is mine - SS rather than fixie
[url= https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1939/45196168831_05f55b436f_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1939/45196168831_05f55b436f_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2bRQboc ]DSC_0602[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/25846484@N04/ ]TandemJeremy[/url], on Flickr
The frame and much of the rest of it I have owned for 30 years. the frame is probably 50 years old. the frame is sized for tubular tyres which means 7000c fits almost perfectly so it now has modern 700c wheels
I was very suprised how much I enjoy riding it. Its the complete silence of the ride that is weird.
Can’t face the pain of trying to post a picture. Currently on the most recent version of a Langster, second langster I’ve had, ideal bikes for commute into London which is only seven miles and no real hills. On 68” fixed, don’t really need anything higher for commuting and 68 was fairly traditional gear size for fixed. Now sports brooks saddle and halo wheels I was toying with changing the bars which are some odd sudo-pista shape to normal road bars but can’t be bothered at the moment. Mrs has a Pearson Touche which is also good but a little more civilised with clearance for guards
Hmm. Not sure if that works. Ex-geary bike built with parts from the shed. 74" for wales riding. Waiting on a dynamo front wheel.
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It's now got gears, different cranks - these snapped, some racier wheels, different bars, saddle and pedals.
It's been singlespeed on and off for mtbing in the hills and a cx race - wobbly 34/16
The dearly departed Bonty OR skip find commuter (spiral crack in rusted DT)
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And me and the mrs's SS mtbs. Mine is the further one. smaller and further away
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@grahamcottingham - you are "mostlybybike" and I claim my £5
We met at Grinduro on Arran this year - I was the guy on the Yeti ArcX with the tins of red stripe 😉
Here are mine - Singlespeed not fixed
Bimbling bike
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Mountain bike
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Some great bikes posted so far. Love my Flyer, so simple. I'll get a pic up
Most will be riding 42×16. I went to 42×15 for decent long distance rolling rides and 42×14 for medium paced club rides
Yep,
I tried 42:14 for a while and I've got a 13t somewhere but ended up going back to 42:16 for "General commuting" duties, the taller gear was OK on the flat, but as soon as I had to do a few local hills (admittedly there aren't many on my way to work) it became a bit of a chore...
For converting it to use as a town bike I'm trying to decide between keeping the old 42:16 (~70 inch) drivetrain or using some spares to drop the ratio a little, I've got an old 104 BCD 1/8" - 32t chainring and a pair of 165mm cranks to go with them, so I could easily have anything from a 50 to 66 inch gear for round town twiddling. Dropping the gear a bit seems like a wise choice for this bike, outright speed isn't the goal, arriving at the pub in less of a sweaty mess is... plus lower gears are easier to skid with... apparently.
I've posted it many times, but here's the Paddy Wagon on it's last #m25ride
Gearing
42x16 = 15 mph
42x15 = 17 mph
42x14 = 19 mph
I spin at about 90 rpm average
I won't bother with the other thre bikes, but Son1 has spent the last three years riding around Southampton on this fixed beauty. Spot the Kona parts
and for anyone that wants to mount mudguards to a Langster, you need a cateye rear seatpost light mount and a bracket...
Currently have a Longitude… had it a year but haven’t had much opportunity to ride it and haven’t entirely decided whether it should be a flat bar MTB (which it is at the moment) or a flare bar dinglespeeded thing (as below) that can double up as a road/green lane hack.
I think what I need is an XL Day One frame or something. I kind of miss road singlespeeding on my old Langster and Cross Check.
48:17 for me. It came as 48:16 which I used for years and years but now I'm old and unfit.
The first gen Langster was a genius bit of kit - highish gear, it was proper racing geometry (it's fine on outdoor velodromes, it would probably get round an indoor one without too many issues but it's not quite pure track geo). The subsequent ones went full hipster with much lower gears, much slacker geometry (hipster fixie round town stuff rather than normal road).
They have done some pure track models which looked amazing but they didn't come with bottle cage mounts.
Andy
What flask is that on your MTB>
Merak - an old stainless steel Thermos Flask
Cheers!
Fixed. Sorry for the crappy photo. PS it's not the one with the basket of lavender. It normally sports a specialized rack bag for commuting.
@nedrapier SNAP!
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Was running 38/16 with 2in MTB tyres, now has 700X 45 WTB Riddlers and running 40/16, but then again i live in Norfolk. Find i can happily sit at 18mph with that ratio.
They have done some pure track models which looked amazing but they didn’t come with bottle cage mounts.
Specialized latest offering is lovely although a bit pricey for me at £1300 for the frameset
ask umop how much that cervelo frame was 😉 . Will be TT'ing on the Dolan Precursa next season!
BMC MC01 SS. 55:22 with a Gates drive. Totally silent.
Cannondale Bad Boy SS with Lefty
Will be TT’ing on the Dolan Precursa next season!
i made the mistake of doing a ten on the g10/42 on about a 90”fixed - bloody horrible, far worse than gears and I was racing track at the time so used to fixed
Our local ten is a good fixed course - J2/1 - undulating sort of road with a lot of small gradient changes that can really bleed your momentum. On good legs you can crush it with the fixed, like you're riding over the top of it all. On less good legs it will have you weaving all over the road.
Did my first TT ever there on a pompino running 92 - asked the timekeeper if that sounded about right for the course, to be told '92 is fk all lad' 🙂
<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">Gave up trying to post a picture </span>
Our local ten is a good fixed course – J2/1
Oh, you live near me. Did I push you off on an open 25 a few weeks ago? Blackenden Lane near Over Peover? There was one fixie rider, absolutely pissed it down with rain.
I use a very low gear (61 inches) 39 x 17
I don't have access to my bike right now but I think I ran a 38 x 18 which was you say it pretty low. This was on a 35c tyres commuting/all round bike which would get used on the TPT and bridgewater canal tow path quite a bit.
It was very good for that sort of riding and I'd only really start to spin out when there was a strong tailwind, and it's a small enough gear to manage even some of the worst westerly headwinds we can get.
On any road riding though you spinning out at anything more than a cruise.
I used to train on a bigger geared single speed years ago and hurt my back badly pushing a big gear. Prob some natural weakness or some other older injury that caught up with me. I like to keep my cadence >80 now.
Oh, you live near me. Did I push you off on an open 25 a few weeks ago? Blackenden Lane near Over Peover? There was one fixie rider, absolutely pissed it down with rain.
No mate, been riding a geared TT bike the last couple of years - just give the precursa a go on the tens once in a while for a change. You do see a decent selection of fixed bikes in the Cheshire TTs - not ridden many 25s so would like to try that fixed next year.
Here's mine, you can have my gears but get your hands off my nice forks and dropper 🙂
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On any road riding though you spinning out at anything more than a cruise.
I find it fine. I am not that fast so 18mph on the flat solo is about as good as I get and most of my routes only have a mile or so of flat section so I spend most of my time going up or down. 80% of my rides are typically not on the road anyway where the low gearing is even better.
BMC MC01 SS. 55:22 with a Gates drive. Totally silent.
Very nice! No chain stretch either, so you can go with regular dropouts.
Is the big gearing (front and back) necessary for the Gates, or was it more for the magic gear/ correct belt length?
my converted ktm for commuting dutys
Is the big gearing (front and back) necessary for the Gates, or was it more for the magic gear/ correct belt length?
I think its down to the nature of the belt. They do a 20th sprocket for 9spline hubs but thats it, there is a 19th option for a Rohoff. Maybe if it goes through too tight a radius the belt loses teeth?
I ran 43:19 on my old Fixie Inc in Sheffield and the Chilterns - I could climb up just about anything on that with a bit of grunting (as long as I didn't try Winnats or anything too daft), and I can spin pretty quickly. Found I could cling onto club rides for about an hour, but it tired my legs out too much after that,
I don't currently have one built up, but I do have a lovely fifth anniversary All City Big Block I'm curating ( 😉 ) bits for currently - got a Thomson post and stem, Chris King headset and Dura Ace NJS chainset so far. If anyone has a nice set of wheels they want to sell - must be all silver - drop me a PM.
Will post mine when I get a decent updated picture.
Just put a lower gear on for winter base miles, 38x16 on 35c tyres, works out as low 60s gear inches.
Feels great and just what I wanted as it'll be a commuter mostly and used for recovery rides between turbo training sessions. Can just about sensibly maintain 30km/h before it gets silly spinny. Bit embarassing this morning when I got passed by someone on a road bike and tried to give chase, will have to swallow my pride for the next few months I think.
What is a good, go-to wheelset for a 120mm singlespeed frameset? Stock wheelsets (e.g. Mavic Ellipses) still seem to come in surprisingly heavy (1900g?)
I run ellipse on one bike they really are good. And a set of Chinese track wheels off AliExpress 1800g(you’ll not get really light track wheels as it’s the hubs that are heavy) you can spend silly money on a few boutique track hubs to get weight down a bit but I never seen the point.
These will serve you well also
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F392024272579
<div class="KL4Bh">From Festive500fixed last year. Kona paddy wagon, which is slightly too big for me.</div>
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I eventually managed to stick a chain, and a couple of hundred miles on this:
Started off as an old Charge Filter, all that's left now are the frame & forks - had it powdercoated in RAL 6034 (pastel turquoise), Thomson post / stem / seatclamp, Deda bars, TRP RRL levers / Spyre calipers, Shimano Alfine cranks & chain tensioner, Cane Creek 40 headset, wheels I built myself from Novatec hubs with Halo Aerotrack rims, currently on 32c Voyager Hypers with full mudguards.
Set up with 39x16 which is about 66 gear inches - so far so good, my commute is a pretty flat 10 miles each way and up until this week when I became inexplicably lazy arsed i'd been using it 4 days a week for the last few weeks, got used to it quite quickly - actually now tempted to strip down a road bike & make something really light for the nicer weather commuting...
ask umop how much that cervelo frame was
A lot less than £1,300!
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used once but not suitable for new commute so selling
What is a good, go-to wheelset for a 120mm singlespeed frameset? Stock wheelsets (e.g. Mavic Ellipses) still seem to come in surprisingly heavy (1900g?)
I just replaced the wheels on my precursa - wore out a cheap tubular set that actually rode pretty reliable on the commute, sealant dealt with almost all punctures. Time for a change, though, so got an open pro UST built on a track hub at the LBS, and just stuck something cheap and tubeless compatible from halo on the front, think it's called a white line.
Can't go too big with tyres on the precursa but it's not too bad - a set of pro-one 25s (which seem massive for the size, 28 easy) go in fine on the back and just about on the fork.
Yeah, I guess solid steel axles in the hubs count for a lot! Might just rebuild rear hub onto a CXP Pro rim with some double butted DTs, and buy something silly and aero for the front.
After the winter though!
Cotic Roadrat (1st gen?), parts bin build that's my current town bike. Aiming for as low maintenance as possible, need to get a rear brake sorted as it's running singlespeed.
What is a good, go-to wheelset for a 120mm singlespeed frameset?
Handbuilt wheels from Harry Rowland. I have two sets of Miche Primato hubs, Sapim spokes and Open Pro rims. About £250 and 1600g. Fabulous wheels. lighter is possible for a lot more money in the hubs. The track nuts rust as the hubs are cheap, but other than that, I'm delighted. They've covered 1000s of miles.