New job new commute

[Jsnyd]

Hello everyone. Im posting the typical “best route for my commute”, because I’m moving into VA on Van Dorn street and will be riding to the Pentagon. I’m sure theres a few pentagram employees on here so if you can’t provide directions then maybe what kind of set up they have with bike parking if any. Thanks!

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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=38.845361,-76.949915

Topic

[DismalScientist]

I’ve never understood the desire to take a perfectly good vintage bike with functional gearing and convert it to a fixie. If you want only one gear, just tighten the limit bolts so you can’t shift. :rolleyes: If you want a fixed gear, just slap on a rusted solid freewheel.:p
@One-eighth:
I’ve never thought that derailleurs took all that much to maintain.

Sorry, pet peeve. YMMV.

[OneEighth]

Personally, I’m not into conversions. If I’m going to put something together with a single gear, the frame needs to come with horizontal dropouts.

Ease/speed of cleaning is a function of the simplicity and the size of the mechanism.

Cleaning between multiple cogs on cassette takes a lot longer than thoroughly wiping down a single fixed cog. And, if you are really looking to clean it properly, you kinda need to pull the cassette and clean each part separately. And then there is still the derailleur which has lots of hard to get to places where abrasives and gunk can lodge.

1/8th inch chains are quicker and easier to clean link by link simply because the openings are bigger and threading a rag through them is consequently easier.

Just a question of how meticulous you want to be and how much time you are willing to invest. I want very clean but don’t want to spend more time than I must. It takes me twice as long to get my cx rig to the same level of clean and properly adjusted as either of the fixed gears.

Whatever turns our respective cranks, no?

[DismalScientist]

:rolleyes::rolleyes:Cleaning? What’s that?:rolleyes::rolleyes:

[eminva]

@DismalScientist 10770 wrote:

Cleaning? What’s that?

If one of the forum senior elders has already done a post on cleaning a bike, could someone link to it? Otherwise, would it be too much to ask for a thread on this topic?

After last week’s rainy commutes, my bike was a muddy mess, so I spent a good chunk of Sunday afternoon cleaning it. I dutifully used the comb and brush tool on the cogs, put the little washing machine on the chain, etc. However, I’m not sure how often to do this task, whether you need to do such a thorough job each time, etc.

I can appreciate the advantages of a fixed gear bike. Never tried one, but I’ve always suspected it would be more of a workout than I can handle. So in the meantime, I try to keep this more complicated bike in good working order.

Liz

[DismalScientist]

@eminva 10772 wrote:

If one of the forum senior elders has already done a post on cleaning a bike, could someone link to it? Otherwise, would it be too much to ask for a thread on this topic?

Ask and ye shall receive: http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?1175-Post-immersion-routine

[vvill]

@DismalScientist 10742 wrote:

I’ve never understood the desire to take a perfectly good vintage bike with functional gearing and convert it to a fixie. If you want only one gear, just tighten the limit bolts so you can’t shift. :rolleyes: If you want a fixed gear, just slap on a rusted solid freewheel.:p
@One-eighth:
I’ve never thought that derailleurs took all that much to maintain.

Sorry, pet peeve. YMMV.

I was always under the impression that with a proper single-speed/fixed gear bike the lack of a derailleur meant that you have a more exact chain length, thus more direct energy transfer and better pedaling efficiency?

I would really like to try a fixie but I don’t think I can justify it (yet), and I’m scared of what it’ll do to my (already bad) knees, especially with all the hills in Arlington.

[mstone]

@vvill 11156 wrote:

I was always under the impression that with a proper single-speed/fixed gear bike the lack of a derailleur meant that you have a more exact chain length, thus more direct energy transfer and better pedaling efficiency?

That’s called rationalization. You save a little friction not having to turn the pulleys, but not that much. You also save on carting around the weight of the derailleur. But the driving force is on the top part of the chain, and it doesn’t really notice whether you’re on a fixie or not. The importance of chain length on a fixed speed is more that if you screw it up you cant stop and/or your chain falls off.

[OneEighth]

You have to match the gearing to your intended use. If you are regularly doing the hill loop or Walter Reed up from Four Mile Run, skip the fixie.
Otherwise, figure out what gear you can comfortably climb in and use that as a starting point. If you get a fixed/fixed hub, you can always leave yourself some flexibility (though you still won’t be shifting on the fly…)
If you gear to make the hills easier, you just have to spin a bit more on the flats. (And, you’ll get passed a bit more.)
As long as you are sensible, your knees should be fine.
If you really start digging into this and have questions, holler. Happy to help.

[Author]

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