I have written on the subject of fixed-gear riding, and enjoy sharing the pleasure of this purest form of cycling. This page contains testimonials from other happy fixed-gear fans Dennis Cotcamp, Steve Cox, Andrew Eddy, Brad Evanoff, Steve Johnson, Patrick Murphy, Kent Peterson, and (Kimwei) FullTimeFixie

Hi Sheldon,

I don't want to take up too much of your time, but wanted to write a quick note to tell you how much I'm enjoying riding my newly converted fixed gear bike (and to thank you for all the info I found on your web pages about it).

I must admit you were right about how much people coast without realizing it. Get on the bike in the driveway, get moving, COAST while looking both ways...drift up to stop signs, standing to stretch and check traffic, COASTING... I went with plain pedals, no clips or straps the first couple of 25 mile rides so that when I did something stupid I didn't get lifted off the saddle, and I had less to think about in traffic, approaching stop signs. I'm much more comfortable now, and have put my clipless pedals back on.

Initially I stuck to flat areas around here. This past weekend I rode quite a bit in northern lower Michigan, with continuous rolling hills, some quite steep, but none very long. It's fun, almost a game, plotting stategy about how fast I can spin downhill, whether I think in advance that I can get up the next hill seated. It's probably all in my head, but it does seem that I'm more aware of the pedals moving in circles, and to what extent my legs are with them. I can see how riding a fixed gear in the snow would be a lot of fun.

Anyway, I'm a fan now. I find myself grabbing the fixed gear bike whenever I'm planning to ride a couple of hours or less.

My favorite bike is a Cannondale track bike with a Kinesis aluminum road fork instead of the original round-bladed track fork. Unlike most track bikes, the Cannondale's seat-stay bridge is drilled to accept a brake, and the bike has front and rear brakes. A rear brake is on the bike, [in addition to the front brake-SCB] not so much for stopping purposes, but to make the bike legal for competition in road time trials. The bike is outfitted with a mix of components: a flip-flop rear hub, Sugino headset, Phil Wood bottom bracket, 175 mm TA cranks with a 53 tooth chainring, Aerolight pedals, American Classic titanium seat post and Flite saddle, Profile cow horn handle bars and clip-ons. The bike is extremely light and handles well on the road, even when I'm in an aero position. (The bike handling was slowed down a bit, i.e. made less twitchy, by the Kinesis fork.) The bike has a relatively high bottom bracket, and I have never hit a pedal on the pavement in tight turns, even with the 175 mm cranks. It probably helps on tight turns that I am cautious, have narrow pedals, the Kinesis fork raises the bottom bracket a bit more than the original fork, and that I attempt to steer the bike and keep it as upright as possible.

Nearly all of my road riding is on my track bike. The terrain in SW Michigan is relatively flat; the hardest hills within about 50 miles of my home rise about 300 ft in one kilometer. Most of the hills are gentler rollers with elevation gains of only about 100-150 ft. When I'm fit, my selection of gearing is decided not by the hills on the route, but instead by the anticipated wind velocity. With the flip-flop hub, I have a gear for going into the wind and another, higher gear for finishing the ride with the wind.

Because of the ice and snow during a typical winter in Michigan, I can't plan on doing much, if any, road riding until March. Even road riding in March can be iffy. I begin each season in a low gear, typically 53 X 22, and get good spinning workouts as well as endurance training. As I gain riding fitness, I gradually increase the gear so that by July/August, I am in a 53 X 14 gear for 50 mile group training rides with other racers (who are on freewheel bikes). I need the high gear to stay on wheels when the group, which usually includes a tandem or two, flies down hills or when the pace winds-up for extended periods. My favorite solo training ride is a 60 mile loop with lots of rolling hills. In peak season, I usually go into the wind (first half of the ride) in a 53 X 15 or 16 and come back with the wind in a 53 X 13 or 14. Keeping a reasonable cadence (ca 80+ rpm) over the rollers in the big gears develops strength. In my 25+ years of riding and racing, I have found that mountain riding is the best way to develop cycling strength, but that riding in big gears on flat/rolling ground on the track bike is a close second. Too many of these big gear rides could hurt my speed, so if I were doing criterium racing (with a freewheel bike), I would do this strength workout less frequently and substitute more speed workouts (i.e. more high cadence intervals).

I have so much fun riding the track bike that it is frustrating that I can't convince riders to spend more time on a fixed gear. The fixed gear builds a wonderful sense of oneness with the bike that can't be duplicated with a freewheel bike. I am absolutely convinced that the fixed gear is better than a freewheel, not only in developing and maintaining the pedal stroke, but also in developing strength and power. I particularly like the fixed gear in biathlon competitions (usually 5K runs, 30K bike rides, and a final 5K run), because the fixed gear allows me to get more quickly into a smooth, economical pedal stroke, something which can be difficult to achieve after a hard run.

I rode a fixed-gear bike exclusively from early in 1979 to late 1981, and in parallel with a touring bike until 1984. In 1979, my (only) touring bike was stolen and I hadn't enough money to replace it, so I scoured the second-hand parts bins for the smallest number of low-cost parts that would make me a working bicycle.

The most important part, the part which made a fixed gear bike possible, was a rusty 22" mild steel frame with rearward-facing fork ends and a one and a half inch bottom bracket drop! This gave me nearly twelve inches bottom bracket height. A hard pedal strike was almost impossible, even on off-camber bends.

I had some cottered six and a half inch (165 mm) cranks and a 46 tooth by eighth inch chainring and bought enough other parts to have a fully functional commuter (lights, guards, rack, single brake) for $65. I even had an old mechanical speedo with odometer.

I loved that bike. It was the fastest bike I ever had and it handled as part of my body. At 36 pounds (16.4 kg) (in full commuter trim) it was also one of the heaviest bikes I ever had.

Sydney, New South Wales, is a hilly city of drowned river valleys, sandstone cliffs and gullies and very busy major roads and bridges. The fixed-wheel was a joy to ride in traffic; I had perfect control over direction and speed. I had to work hard on all those hills, and ended up fit enough to be able to draft buses to maintain minimum exposure to traffic on the most exposed, narrow bridge lanes.

A few times I drafted buses or trucks uphill at 70-75 kmh (45 mph), on the flat at 85 kmh (53 mph) and twice I descended Gladesville Bridge without drafting (a one in twelve slope or about 8.5% grade) at 85 kmh. In a 69 inch (5.31 gain/5.52 meter) gear that was a cadence of about 260 rpm! My legs have definitely deteriorated over the years; they now have a built-in limit of about 120 rpm, closely tied to aerobic fitness level and the lack of any need to spin really hard.

Commuting in heavy traffic took a lot of new skills. I still had my cleated shoes, but my freewheel technique of starting up with a half pedal revoltion, coast, flip the other pedal with my toe and reach down to pull the strap tight, did not work at all. I found that the best way to start up in the Transit Lane in morning peak hour was to start at full bore and pick up the other pedal during the first or second revolution, then tighten the toe strap with a quick flick of the free end, once I had a good cadence up (say around 90 rpm or 28 kmh {17 mph}).

Another useful skill I learned, was flat-out acceleration from a seated start. This works well once you learn to do a track stand, as track racers do in order to jostle for position in a matched sprint. This is an easy technique on a fixed-wheel, even when facing downhill. I quickly developed the skill of staying absolutely stationary at traffic lights; some motorists even leaned out and asked "What are you leaning on?"

Over those years I tried a number of gear ratios, but always came back to 69 inch (5.31 gain/5.52 meter), as the most comfortable all-round gear for local riding. The only other gear that saw much work was a 65 inch (5.00 gain/5.20 meter) gear; more of a winter gear, when a lot of riding was at night, perhaps in rain, with the dynamo running around 40 minutes a day.

Very few parts changed on that bike over about 15,000 km of commuting. I used a few tyres and started a new chain. Its total cost topped out at $110. The fixed-wheel was the cheapest in running costs of any bike I've ever had: an all-up cost (including capital) of about seven cents per kilometre. Compare that with 35 cents per kilometre for my Alex Moulton AM14!

I sold the fixed wheel to a friend who was a student at (coincidentally!) the University of New England in Armidale, NSW. Now that's a hilly city! The frame finally rusted through in 1989 and they had a full funeral at the Armidale Tip (rubbish dump).

The only time that I ever came to grief on the fixed-wheel was when I got a shoelace caught in the chain, in traffic. I locked the rear wheel deliberately, but was unable to save myself from falling over when I stopped. Elbows were meant as gravel-buffers anyway.

The fixed-wheel gave me skills which have stayed with me all the intervening years: the stand-in-place trick in traffic; the skills to read surfaces and camber; seated acceleration; oddly enough, a strong wish to maintain a very steady cadence on a geared bike; greater ability to avoid potholes and road debris with just a flick of the hips; the mental techniques to power up hills as if they aren't there and use anaerobic power at will. I might have learned some of these things if I had ever raced, but the fixed-wheel was a better teacher, by necessity!

The fixed wheel stays with me as a bundle of fond memories. I might never have another one, but I do enjoy having had that old clunker.

Copyrignt 1997 Andrew Eddy

Sheldon:

You may recall that you sold me a Sovos flip-flop hub last year, after kindly answering my many questions on fixed gear cycling. You asked me to let you know how it all worked out.

I converted a venerable (early 60's) Atala road bike to a fixed gear, using the inner (49t) chainring of the original Campy crankset (172.5 mm arms, 151mm boltcircle) and an 18 tooth cog. I installed the entire 5 spd freewheel on the other side of the hub. Too lazy to take the thing apart. Besides, with the relatively long chainstays and the amazingly long horizontal dropouts I can use at least two of the freewheel cogs with each of the chainrings. I added fenders and a rack, and switched to a moustache handlebar. The handlebar switch was done mostly because the braking from the tops of the hoods was inadequate and I wasn't comfortable enough yet on the fixer to ride the drops often. I have old Diacompe and Weinmann long long reach sidepulls on this bike. Even with Mathauser pads the braking leaves a bit to be desired. After a few tries with clips and straps, I switched to clipless pedals and find them much easier to use. Getting in and out of toe clips was pretty challenging with this bike - it was hard for me to flip the pedal up and stick my foot in while the crank was revolving. Double-entry clipless pedals let me just stomp and go.

This bike is now my main commuter bike and my weekend "I-have-less-than-an-hour-to-ride-and-want-to-breathe-as-hard-as-possible" bike. I ride it 20-40 miles per week. It's been a lot of fun learning a new biking skill set. I find it fun to learn new sports skills, especially ones I can master without too much time or pain! I think that riding this bike has improved the smoothness of my spin, has forced me to spin at higher cadences, and has improved my out-of-saddle climbing. I'm also a bit more confident at bunny-hopping - it took me awhile to learn this on the fixed gear. I still can't do a trackstand, but that's a project for the Spring. It is no surprise that I feel more "connected" to this bike when I ride, since I am quite literally connected to it and it's movement! I notice that the drivetrain feels very "smooth" and fast. I also have noticed that this bike is nearly silent - I hear my own breathing and the tires on the road but no clicking of pawls or noise from the derailleur. I find more need to give warning to joggers and dog-walkers; I also seem to see more animals and hear more birds when riding this bike.

Added to all this is the added thrill of danger, particularly on corners. High-speed corners are exciting because of pedal grounding (only done that once - didn't fall, but it was enough to engender caution on future corners). High bottom brackets and/or shorter cranks are indeed good features on a fixed-gear bike. Low speed corners (particularly U-turns) can be challenging because of toe overlap - I can't just put my cranks in the right configuration and coast through corners.

Besides the fun of riding the bike, I've also enjoyed the reactions of bike shop personnel. I'm shopping for a new road bike now, and the treatment I get from bike shop personnel often seems affected by what bike I ride into the shop. My beater mountain bike with road slicks, fenders, racks, lights, and an American Flag bell seems to peg me as one sort of rider. The fixed gear bike as quite another. It's fun to watch.

Thanks for your help in setting this thing up last winter. It's been a source of amusement to me and to my favorite local bike shop who built the wheel up for me.

Copyright © 2005, 2007 Brad Evanoff

Through my attempts at racing in the late 70s, on into the early 80s, the other racers would talk about "the book from Italy." In this special book were all the secrets to becoming a successful racer. One of the real unique ways to be successful was ride a fixed gear 1,000 miles. Pedaling powerfully and efficiently in perfect circles would come by just riding.

As a student working lots of jobs, and with little money, helping out in a bike shop was the easiest way to get bike stuff . It was hard just to keep one racing bike on the road.

Break a wheel on a cattle guard. No problem, 12 dollars for an Arc en Ciel, 8 dollars for spokes, build it, and it was time to go again. There was no time or money to build and try out a fixed gear bike.

On a trip back East I picked up a catalog from a line of bikes called "Lotus." They had a fixed gear bike (road or track?) for about 320 dollars on the dealers price list. I had the money, wanted one and asked. They said, "We have to order it, takes a week." I was leaving in two days. Once again, experiencing the mystery of the fixed gear ride was thwarted.

In a used book store in Spring '96 I find the secret book, the C.O.N.I. manual. Cost? One dollar. I had the secret weapon in my possession, fifteen years too late. The fixed gear training program was all laid out. Chapter six, Preliminary Training, lists the benefits of starting out the season training on a fixed gear:

In another section of the C.O.N.I. another secret is revealed: Cabbage leaf?

Finally on the web, I run into Sheldon Brown's article laying out the three ways to covert to fixed: use the existing rear wheel, flip flop, and track hub. The article clearly laid it out, no expensive and frustrating trial and error stuff. Also now, I have plenty of frames and parts to play with.

It was time to make the first conversion. Just to see.

For 15 dollars (I always shop classy) I find a thrift store Bridgestone with a shiny Tange replacement fork. The bike had hit something hard, and the head lugs were slightly crimped. On the frame was a model name "100," and it was post Kabuki, but not cool Bridgestone. I took a steel rimmed QR rear wheel from a Kabuki, took out the freewheel side spacer, cut the axle and redished. A visit to a long established bike shop came up with a 16t 1/8 width cog for five dollars. A trip to Wall Mart came up with a chain to hook up the 40t front to the rear.

Ever notice how when you take the spacer off the freewheel side, you get a 110 mm spacing? I only go back to the 70s, but I imagine cycling history went something like this:

Back to the Bridgestone. So finally, 15 September 1996 the fixed gear was ready to roll. It was time to ride and see if I would like it. Other than tricycles, the only other fixed gear I'd ridden was a Boneshaker repro bike we had in the bike shop. This was a real different experience. By habit, I always clip in and then coast. That is not allowed on a fixed gear. I did a shaky 20 mile ride to, and on the local bike trail. It was weird, it was fun. I did the same ride every day for the next week, and became more confident.

At the end of the week, I took a trip to Florida. Where my brother had my old Fuji Finest Mark II. I recovered the bike along with a wheel that had strange Suntour BMX type freewheel on it. The hub said Campy, and the flanges seemed to very far apart.

In 1983 the Fuji to sparkled, but Florida had rusted the chain, rear der, brakes, the Avocet seat was broken and the Campy crown race was also cracked. The strange Suntour BMX freewheel was removed with my equally strange, never before used, Suntour freewheel remover. Revealed was a real live 120 mm spaced Campy track hub! My LBS ordered a rear cog, and they even had a scratched Campy lockring for 15 dollars. I did the Sheldon Brown track hub conversion. A hollow rear axle replaced the solid one along with 4 mm of spacers. Some more tweaking and parts, and the Fuji became a fixed gear road bike!

I sold the Bridgestone to a local racer (he still hasn't paid me yet) for 25 dollars. (Have to keep my bike stable down to nine bikes.) [??? ed.] After about 450 winter miles on the Fuji I am hooked. My multispeed racing and touring bikes are dusty. In the works are a flip-flop hub bike, and another regular hub conversion beater bike. For centuries and long club rides, the derailleur bikes will be used. Rides less than 30 miles, and without long climbs, I go fixed.

The point of all this? Just as when I tried racing, I am still having fun cycling and playing with bikes. Always there was my fixed gear ride, just waiting to be built and ridden. Quality skinny tire bikes are easy to find now, and cheap. So now I am maintaining bikes in the following categories: tandem, road touring, road racing, road fixed, BMX and mountain. Building and riding the fixed gear has simply added another dimension to cycling for me.

Now, if I can find an 80's mountain bike frame with horizontal dropouts. Oh yes, and a nice old quality three speed frame for that other Sovos flip-flop hub.

Steve Johnson, Millersville, Maryland
Cyclist
Copyright © 1997 Steven M. Johnson
This was originally posted on the Internet BOB Mailing List March 19, 1997

After watching the track racing at the Major Taylor Velodrome, I thought it would be neat to build and ride a fixed-gear bike. A co-mechanic at the bike shop I used to work at gave me his next-door neighbor's old Nishiki ten-speed, which was in great shape and made an excellent guinie-pig for the conversion. I can't begin to tell you how tickled-pink I am with this bike. Some of my riding friends think I'm crazy, but it's actually my favorite bike to ride (I have seven).

Here's a little bit about my project. I got rid of the heavy steel 27" rims and I built my own wheels using Wolber Super Champion Mod.58 rims, DT 14g spokes and Suzue high-flange BMX hubs. I'm using an inexpensive zinc-plated track cog without a lockring. Actually, I've never heard of a lockring before until I read your webpage. Learn something new everyday! Haven't had any problems with it loosening up.

As for the crank, I've manage to scronge up a crank (Sugino, I think) with a swaged-on 52t chainring. I'm not sure if it's actually a true track crank and the local pro shop isn't sure, either. Since I obviously can't remove the chainring, I'm using a 20t cog to get a ratio that's ridable. I've also fitted a narrow-spindle, non-sealed Campy bottom bracket. The chainline is perfect. I think I just got lucky!

Rounding out the package, I've fitted a Dura-Ace headset and an older Dura-Ace standard-reach brake caliper for the front wheel. With the Mathauser brake shoes, it stops on a dime! It also has an ITM Mondial handlebar, a Nitto Aero stem, and an old Special 03 leather saddle, tightened up with leather shoestrings. It's more comfy than these new-fangled comfort-gel things! For tires I'm using Panaracer 700x28s because they're a little more meaty for commuting.

At 23 lbs, it's still heaver than what I would like, but it must still be at least 10 pounds lighter than what I started out with!

When I rode it to work for the first time, I gotta tell you it caused quite a sensation! Several people gathered around it asking all kinds of questions (how can you ride that thing? Isn't it dangerous? how do you get up/down hills? where's the rear brake? does it improve your sex life?) Okay, maybe they didn't ask the last question, but everybody was very curious about my new creation. I sure got my fifteen minutes of fame that day!

Fixed-gear is a totally new dimension in riding. I really feel like I'm part of the bike. It's also a brand-new challange, too. I love to go up hills as long as they're not too steep. Going downhill, however, is also more of a challange. One time on a club ride I unclipped from my pedals and let'r rip! That was very scary, sitting on my seat at 35+mph with my legs flailed outward. One wrong move and it would've been curtains for me! In many situations they demand total concentration. After the same ride (40 miles) my legs felt like spagetti strands. I sure got a workout and it was very satisfying because I felt that I really accomplished something.

I'll always have a fixed-gear in my bike stable. They're challanging and alot of fun. It's a great alternative to gear bikes!

Patrick Murphy

by Kent Peterson It doesn't coast. That's the thing about it. Say "it's a fixed gear" and you just get a blank stare from people, they don't get it. Say "it doesn't coast" and they understand. Sort of.

Why would anyone chose to ride a bike that doesn't coast and that can't change gears? Well, why do you ride a bike instead of drive a car? Do you like the wind rippling over your legs as you spin the planet beneath you? Do you like the feeling of going faster and farther than you ever could alone by adding a bit of machinery to your life? Take all that bikeness, strip it down to it's essence and put it on the road. What you have is what I'm riding.

The bike is simple, about as simple as you can get. The frame is flat black, made for the track but amazing on the road. The frame is old enough that it still made allowances for the possibility of road riding. Fenders can fit and so can fairly wide tires but the weather is nice now and I can't bear to install the fenders.

The bottle cages are sleek and black and attach to brazeons that were installed by someone who did the job in exchange for a six-pack. While he was at it, he'd brazed a bottle opener to the left seat stay. How can you not love craftsmanship like that?

The flat black paint was chipped in places but it was nice, cheap spray paint and I touched it up with nice, cheap spray paint that I pooled into a hunk of aluminum foil and dabbed on with a brush.

The flipflop hub has an 18 tooth gear on one side and a 16 tooth gear on the other. The 16 was loose, so the first night I ride around on the 18 but it's just too easy and before I go to bed I mix up some JB-Weld epoxy and lock that 16 tooth cog in place. The next day I find that yes, I can punch a 20 lb bike up Mountain Park Blvd with 42/16 gear.

The bike is black but the bars are ultra-violet. Jason had put a new set of tape on the moustache bars before he boxed the bike up to send it to me and the effect is stunning. Moustache bars answer the questions your body thinks to ask on long rides, things like "is there someplace wide I can grab for leverage?", "can I get narrow and stretched out and aero?" or "can I just be comfy for cruising around town?". The answers are always yes and the bars look like an artist's brush stroke instead of a chiropractor's adjustment rack.

The saddle is my own, an Ideale 80 from some dusty thrift store bargain bin and the old Lyotard pedals had come my way via some path lost to memory. They replaced pieces on the bike that worked OK but weren't as right as these components feel. My seat, my pedals, my bicycle. You know how it is.

And how is it to ride? It doesn't coast. You don't coast as you start out and put your foot in the second pedal. No, you grab the pedal on the fly. The bike won't ever let you forget -- it doesn't coast. If you want to go fast, you pedal fast. To go slow, you pedal slow. When you stop, it stops.

How are the hills? Really fun to go up, really a workout coming down. I am the engine and the brakes. Yeah, there's a little I-know-it's-Shimano-but-the-105-is-still-a-nice-brake up front but the big brakes are my quads and my kneecaps working to slow those big wheels down. And in one instant I have to be strong and in one instant I have to be fast and always I have to be paying attention. This is riding. This is a bicycle that teaches me something every time I ride it, that makes me more by virtue of it's being less. It's the bike I ride until the street lights come on and sometimes even longer. It's the bike I put away sadly and take out joyfully. It's the bike that never forgets why we ride.

Enough writing now. I'm going for a ride. Copyright © 2005, 2007 Kent Peterson

Last year I did a lot of research on what type of bike to get before buying a fixed gear bike. Sheldon's articles were really helpful in my decision making process. I have to say that I haven't looked back. I have a flip-flop hub on my 68inch SS roadbike and I have to say, I ride it fixed all the time. A little while ago I tried it on the freewheel setting for a week and hated it. I am a convert. I'd like to stress that I'm not an experienced road cyclist who decided to try out a fixed gear bike to create a greater challenge for myself. I am simply a commuter who decided to ditch their car, upgrade their bike and cycle more. I'm confident that you don't have to be a keen and experienced cyclist to convert to fixed gear. Now I enjoy riding more than ever, am fitter than ever and love the fact that riding fixed gear helps you improve and get fitter automatically by constantly encouraging you to ride in a way that allows you to practice both high and low cadence.

Many people tried to put me off the idea of getting a fixed gear bike and my local bike shop still think I'm mad not to own a geared bike. Most people haven't even heard of "fixed gear". Others who have seem to think they should be reserved for short journeys or stunts and that riding one "full time" would be impractical. Well, so much for those myths! Thanks Sheldon - the website was a great help.

I am currently writing a weblog charting my progress that can be viewed here if you're interested. FullTimeFixie blog I hope it might encourage others to cycle more, or to take up riding a fixed gear bike. I aim to keep the project going for at least 1 year (ending Jan 2013)

Many thanks
FullTimeFixie

Copyright © 2012 FullTimeFixie