Thursday, February 01, 2007

thoughts on fixed gear bikes

I have been running little errands on the fixed-gear bike but I was nervous about commuting through the city on it. Today I jumped on and went for it.
Not so bad. I had to use my front brake only once, and that was at the bottom of the hill at the end of my street.

Here's what I learned on my fixed commute.
  • 99% of the time it's no different than any other bike. I guess I don't coast much.
  • The remaining 1% of the time is 'exciting'. Some would call it scary.
  • 'Sudden stop' is deprecated, and is replaced by 'swerve' or 'crash'. You decide.
  • My commute time was significantly slower because I was being so cautious.
  • My legs are sore. Riding fixed uses different muscles, especially when going down hills and trying to slow down.
  • My lockring needs to be tighter.

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