Teach me how to fixie

[Judd]

Drivetrain and wheel advice time:

I think I’m going to use the existing wheels on the build since they appear to be in good shape and lightly used. My understanding from some googling and youtubing is that means I would be giving up the option to do a flip flop hub. Opinions requested on whether I should go flip flop. If I did want to, could I just get a new hub and rebuild the wheel on the new hub?

Also considering gear sizes right now. What sizes do you guys have on the front and rear? Does it make sense for me to determine some common gratings and then bike my commute route while staying in a similar gear ratio to see what works well?

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[Judd]

@huskerdont 147412 wrote:

Since I can’t buy a new bike every week, I have to live vicariously. This is great. Glad you posted the pics.

Second the thoughts on clipless/platform SPD pedals. Nothing worse than having the egg-beaters going off while descending a steep hill. If you didn’t have a hand brake, your only option would be to jump off before it bursts into flames.

Glad I can ease the pangs of not getting a new bike each week. My roommate is out of town which has helped soften the addition of a fourth bike in the dining room. I told her that the cats need to get their cat condo out of the way of my bike room. I’m learning a lot already and appreciate everyone’s interest and advice

I’d be stoked if my bike bursted into flames.

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[jrenaut]

My method for finding my gearing was to start with what came with the bike (which isn’t an option for you) and then adjust from there. It came at 46/18 and I went to 46/16 because I couldn’t spin fast enough to go down even a mild downhill. If I go much bigger up front or smaller in back, I won’t be able to get back home from downtown.

Trying gear ratios on a non fixed gear bike should get you close, but it won’t really tell you what you need – riding fixed just feels different. I think climbing is a bit easier if you disregard shifting – the momentum of your pedals helps you along, which you don’t get with a freewheel. And no matter how hard you try, you can’t mimic the “MUST PEDAL FAST” when going downhill unless you really can’t stop pedaling.

On the bright side, there’s a good chance there’s a forum member with the size ring you’re looking for lying in a parts bin somewhere.

[DismalScientist]

From the stem photo:

I think it’s pretty clear you have an SR Stem.

(SR means Sakae Ringyo.)

@Judd 147441 wrote:

I think I’m going to use the existing wheels on the build since they appear to be in good shape and lightly used. My understanding from some googling and youtubing is that means I would be giving up the option to do a flip flop hub. Opinions requested on whether I should go flip flop. If I did want to, could I just get a new hub and rebuild the wheel on the new hub?

Also considering gear sizes right now. What sizes do you guys have on the front and rear? Does it make sense for me to determine some common gratings and then bike my commute route while staying in a similar gear ratio to see what works well?

If you use the original rear hub, you can only do a single speed (i.e. a one cog freewheel). On a flip/flop hub (or a fixed cog hub), there is one side with two sets of threads in the opposite direction. You screw on the fix cog and then screw on the lock ring in the opposing set of threads. In my opinion, since you need a new hub, I would just get a flip/flop for the flexibility of being able to easily convert to a single speed.

Jon mentions that you can’t use the original gearing. Au contraire. You can start with the old crank and just use the inner ring. It probably has about 40 teeth. Get a rear cog to give you a gear inch of about 68.

Rather than putting the old adjustable bottom bracket back in, you may wish to just install a square taper cartridge BB.

[vvill]

@Judd 147439 wrote:

Overall the current paint is in good shape and I somewhat like the color.

Cool. I was just curious because I like that original color too.

I agree with Dismal on the other points. On gearing it depends a little on how much of a masher vs spinner you are, and how hilly it is. I started SS at around 70-80 gear inches but fixed gear around 63 until I got more used to it – right now I’m in the high 70s but once winter hits I’ll probably go back down to around 70. I wouldn’t worry too much about spinning out – there’s always a steeper downhill somewhere, and it’s easier to spin faster with a fixed gear (on a downhill you’re almost not really pushing the pedals, you’re following them). Besides, you’ll need to learn how to control your speed (and therefore your spinning), either with brakes or backpedaling (or both). It’s more important to be able to get up all the hills you want imo.

On the hub, if you want to look realllllllllll legit get a fixed (on one side only) hub. Or just get a fixed/fixed. FWIW, you can comfortably put a single speed freewheel on a fixed hub (but you can’t put a fixed cog on the “free” side of a fixed/free hub).

[KLizotte]

While reading this thread I’ve discovered that I do not have any of the genes you folks do. As much as I love cycling, I view buying and maintaining bikes to be on a par with cleaning the bathroom and swimsuit shopping. A necessary but painful experience.

That said, I think the current color is boring. I think you should go for lime green, sunset orange, or a similar bright color.

[jrenaut]

@KLizotte 147449 wrote:

I think you should go for lime green, sunset orange…

Go for both

[ginacico]

@vvill 147447 wrote:

Cool. I was just curious because I like that original color too.

Same here. The copper color is kinda old school, and looks good on the vintage lugged frame. [OT: Did you see that copper Trek 520 at the warehouse sale, with Rohloff internal gears and a generator hub? We were busy dissecting it with our eyes when the cashier rudely whisked it away because someone else bought it. Great touring setup, it was a gem.]

I basically have no cred in this conversation, because I have little interest in fixies, but I do like projects where I get my hands dirty and learn stuff. If it was me building a first-timer, I’d give it a flip-flop hub and brakes, at least initially.

[Judd]

@jrenaut 147450 wrote:

Go for both

I’m going to paint it like one of those 5 gallon buckets of sherbert.

[Judd]

@vvill 147447 wrote:

Cool. I was just curious because I like that original color too.

I agree with Dismal on the other points. On gearing it depends a little on how much of a masher vs spinner you are, and how hilly it is. I started SS at around 70-80 gear inches but fixed gear around 63 until I got more used to it – right now I’m in the high 70s but once winter hits I’ll probably go back down to around 70. I wouldn’t worry too much about spinning out – there’s always a steeper downhill somewhere, and it’s easier to spin faster with a fixed gear (on a downhill you’re almost not really pushing the pedals, you’re following them). Besides, you’ll need to learn how to control your speed (and therefore your spinning), either with brakes or backpedaling (or both). It’s more important to be able to get up all the hills you want imo.

On the hub, if you want to look realllllllllll legit get a fixed (on one side only) hub. Or just get a fixed/fixed. FWIW, you can comfortably put a single speed freewheel on a fixed hub (but you can’t put a fixed cog on the “free” side of a fixed/free hub).

I rank high on the masher spectrum. I’ll likely mostly use it to commute. My normal to work commute has 160 feet of elevation gain over 10 miles. (Example: https://www.strava.com/activities/737059259 ) My standard commute home has about 300 feet of elevation gain most of which is up Southgate Drive behind the Air Force Memorial. (Example: https://www.strava.com/activities/597516667 ) As I climbed tonight, my brain kept saying, you want 18 in the back on a fixie for this. Some days it feels hard and some days it feels easy. I think I’m more inclined to go with gearing that will get me up the hill on the way home a bit easier at this point.

[Judd]

@DismalScientist 147446 wrote:

From the stem photo:

I think it’s pretty clear you have an SR Stem.

(SR means Sakae Ringyo.)

Thanks for identifying! It definitely is their logo from googling.

@DismalScientist 147446 wrote:

If you use the original rear hub, you can only do a single speed (i.e. a one cog freewheel). On a flip/flop hub (or a fixed cog hub), there is one side with two sets of threads in the opposite direction. You screw on the fix cog and then screw on the lock ring in the opposing set of threads. In my opinion, since you need a new hub, I would just get a flip/flop for the flexibility of being able to easily convert to a single speed.

Jon mentions that you can’t use the original gearing. Au contraire. You can start with the old crank and just use the inner ring. It probably has about 40 teeth. Get a rear cog to give you a gear inch of about 68.

Rather than putting the old adjustable bottom bracket back in, you may wish to just install a square taper cartridge BB.

You called it. The inner ring does have exactly 40 teeth. I’m thinking about starting out with this on the front while I learn what works for me.

What’s the advantage of a square taper cartridge BB?

[DismalScientist]

It’s a drop in replacement for the old adjustable cup and cone bottom brackets and it’s cheap.

Your bottom bracket needs to match your crank and square taper is the old standard and is still standard for non-fancy pants bikes.

[Tim Kelley]

@KLizotte 147449 wrote:

While reading this thread I’ve discovered that I do not have any of the genes you folks do. As much as I love cycling, I view buying and maintaining bikes to be on a par with cleaning the bathroom and swimsuit shopping. A necessary but painful experience.

That said, I think the current color is boring. I think you should go for lime green, sunset orange, or a similar bright color.

Agreed–let someone else deal with the mess! I just want to look at pretty colors!

[huskerdont]

I like the idea of using the inner ring at first–it’s what I did with my old Schwinn Varsity. But at 40 teeth versus maybe 46 on a store-bought fixie, you might need a smaller cog on the back than the 18 you’re talking about. I’m going to have to look up and learn about “gear inches” because I don’t really understand what those are, but I’ve usually just done a quick gear ratio calculation. I started out at 2.88, which I found really good for the downhills in the area and not too bad for most of the uphills (although it about killed me on 41st St). Then after knee surgery and aging, I moved down to 2.70 to better get up the hills of Custis from the river. So, if you have a 40 in the front, 18 in the back would be around 2.22, and while up hills would be easy, you’d be spinning out really quickly on descents. With a 16 in the back you’d have a 2.5 ratio, which you might end up feeling is too easy and want to change, but it wouldn’t be that far off to get an idea. Swapping out cogs is easy with the right tools, and the cogs are not expensive. And if you go with the fixed/fixed double hub like vvill is talking about, you can put different sized cogs on each side.

I may get corrected here since I’ve admitted I don’t know what gear inches are and they’re probably more precise, but that’s just the type of quick calculation I’ve used over the years and it’s worked well enough for me. It doesn’t take into account crank arm length etc. like Sheldon Brown’s calculator, but I don’t find I need all that for a quick-and-dirty idea.

[dkel]

@DismalScientist 147455 wrote:

Your bottom bracket needs to match your crank and square taper is the old standard and is still standard for non-fancy pants bikes.

Your bottom bracket will also give you the correct (or incorrect) spacing for a straight chainline to the rear cog. If you swap out the BB, make sure it is the right length to give you a straight chainline with whatever chainring you are planning to use. Also, you can use whichever ring you want if you get a BB that will give you the proper chainline to that ring. Don’t forget you can usually put a chainring on the inside or outside of the spider, and you can also use spacers on the chainring (or even the BB) to finely tune chainline.

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