Why I Ride Fixed Gear

Why do I Ride a Fixed Gear Bicycle? by John Z.

It's hard to say exactly why I choose to ride a fixed gear bicycle. Part of it is just a

feeling you get from a bike or style that fits you just right. It may be that old road bike

from the eighties that still has a home in your garage or an English three speed that

feels so right on a quick trip to the coffee shop.

That perfect fit is hard to quantify. It can be just a matter of a few millimeters here or a

few degrees there. An old seat that is broken in just right, or maybe a set of really

comfortable fatty tires. It may be a bike that has just the right gear combinations or a

quick shift and brake action.

For me I find that fit in an old steel frame that has just the right millimeters and degrees

for me with nothing but the absolute minimum stripped from the bike (Although, throw

experience I do have a full set of brakes on my bicycle). I crave simplicity in my life and

in my bicycle and that is what a fixed gear gives me.

There is not much more simplicity then a fixed gear bicycle. Stripping a bike of the

derailleurs, gears and freewheel obviously makes a bike lighter, but lite weight is not the

only benefit. I think the true beauty of a fixed-gear bicycle is in its reliability, there is a lot

less that can go wrong. Derailleurs go out of alignment, jockey wheels need constant

cleanings, cables stretch and need replacing, parts wear out and become more difficult

to tune.

I have ridden many miles in my life, I have ridden over 38,000 miles on a favorite

Cannondale derailleur bike from the eighties alone (not counting all the other bicycles I

have owned), and have near that amount on fixed-gear bicycles. My bicycle seances

have become super sensitive to every small bit of feed back a bicycle gives me that

even the slightest bit of derailleur chatter, misalignment or soft shift action drives me

nuts. Is that my OCD coming through? The fixed-gear drive train gives my seances

wonderful silents.

The first bicycle to resemble today's bicycle was the Safety Bicycle around the late

1880's. It featured a chain, two wheels the same size and a fixed-gear cog. It was a

decade plus before the first freewheel became available. However the invention of a

freewheel did not spell the end of the fixed-gear bicycle.

Henri Desgranges, the creator of the Tour de France, stated in 1902 his feelings of

freewheels and derailleur bicycles, "I still feel that variable gears are only for people

over forty-five. Isn't it better to triumph by strength of your muscles than by artifice of a

derailleur? We are getting soft.." As a result, the Tour did adopt derailleurs until the

1930's.

I love bicycle racing, I love watching the Tour, Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta de Espania. I

love the strategy, the races within the race and the competition, but I really would like to

see racing the way it once was. Racers unsupported, ridding all hours of the day, no

stages, just first one across the line. Racers with the support of only themselves, like I

have to ride.

Brevets are the closest thing today to the races of old, the oldest and most well known is

the Paris Brest Paris. A brevet is a race where the race starts at a given time and the racers

ride morning noon and night, or when you are capable of riding, until the racer crosses the finish line.  No stages, it's up to the racer to figure out when to stop and when to ride. There is a group

that rides fixed-gear in these races, but they really are not races. They are basically

individuals riding against the clock, beat the maximum time allowed and get a metal.

The last time Paris Brest Pairs was truly run as a race was 1951.

I hope I have conveyed my love for a fixed-gear bicycle, it's not easy to put into words.

It is my hope that all cyclists give a fixed-gear a try at least a couple of times in there

lifetime to experience what words can not describe. If you need help in converting or

building a fixed-gear, drop an email and I will do my best to help you.  It is also not my intention to put down any other forms of bicycles, if you ride a bicycle of any kind, you are my friend.

Love of an Old Bicycle

My Schwinn World Today

Love of and Old Bicycle by John Z.

If you are anything like me you own a new high tech bike, with a space age frame, super expensive super lite wheels, integrated shifters and twenty speeds.  If your also like me you only ride it about 5% or less of your riding time. So what do I ride the other 95% of the time?  It is defiantly not my mountain bike, I don't even own one. The answer would be a 1983 Schwinn World. And before that it was a 1985 Cannondale ST-500.

I know, I know, I am nuts right?  Well let me explain a little why I have grown to hate my space age bicycle and I will start with my riding style.  First of all I am a practice cyclist, I ride everywhere I can that has a purpose, need a bolt or a lite bulb at Home Depot.  I ride.  Need to get to class.  I ride.  Need to get to work.  I ride.  Need groceries.  I ride.  Going out with friends on Friday night? I ride.  The list will go on...

This does not mean I don't ride for enjoyment, I do.  I feel lost and foggy if I miss my morning ride, like that feeling you have if you forgot your phone at home.  One of the great joys in my life is riding with no destination in mind, just out riding and seeing what happens, what I find, what's around the corner?  Riding on a long trail in the fresh air out in the country.

You would think that with all this riding I would be singing the praises of the newest everything in bicycle technologies when if fact the new technologies do nothing to improve my riding.  I need versatility in my bicycle for all the demands I put on it, and i don't want to own five or six bikes to meet these demands.  This is not what a Trek Madone one is designed for.

For years I have been trying to come up with a bicycle that fits all my needs.  First and foremost the bike needs to be comfortable, 30 year old bike, check, space age bike, no check.  The bike needs to be capable of fitting wide tires for the diverse surfaces I ride, old bike, check, modern bike, no check.  It needs to be simple and reliable, old bike, check, modern bike, no check.  It needs to have a rack and carry heavy loads, old bike, check, modern race bike, no check.  And most of all it needs to be inconspicuous, old bike, check, new race bike, no check.  Can you imagine locking up a Cannodale Caad 10 locked up outside the grocery store?

It has been an evolution, but I believe I have finally put together the bike that fit all my needs and that is my Schwinn World.  It is not even a world sport, just plain old world.  I got the bike for $10 at a rummage sale.  I rode it for many years as a ten speed with a ridiculous bio pace crank.  It has churned out many miles to work, school and everywhere in between.

Over time I have made many changes and I have kept a running total of the costs I put into it.  The first change I made was replace the suicide brake levers with ergonomic aero levers I got for $8 on clearance.  Next a traded the bio pace crank for a new single speed crank that I originally put on another project to sell, but ended up crashing before I sold.  The rear wheel with a flip flop hub and cogs came off that same bike, that I paid $40 clearance for the wheel and $1 for the fixed cog at a swap meet and $4 used for the freewheel.   The front wheel was donated from a customer that I switched the wheels off of a project for him.  Cost, free.  I had some 27" cross tires laying around the shop for years that where still in good shape, still had the mold fringes, cost? I don't remember where they came from the have been around so long, so we will put free on the tag.  The bar tape is used, it was replaced on a customers bike.  A little soap and water and the price tag cleans up at free.  The rack came with the bike.  Grand total $63, not too shabby.

I forgot, I did add new modern brake calipers this week, price, $20 and a mountain bike bio pace crank at a swap meet.  Grand total $83 and a parts box crank.  Next on my list and probably not the end of the evolution will be some scavenged cross brake levers.

Now you may be asking, what about speed?  That must be the slowest hunk of junk around.  My answer to that, I ride two-hundred plus miles a week rain or snow, even more in the summer, these legs aren't slow on any bike.

In the end I love this bike, the fit, the steel, the character.  I hope I am not the only one who has fallen in love with a bike like this.  Its bikes like this that I believe can change the world, not thousands of dollars modern race bikes.

Soon I will be writing about the true weight of a bike and the new bicycle tunnels that are under construction in our area under some pretty major roads.

P.S. anyone want to buy a Trek Madone or a Trek 1.5?

My Schwinn World - Angle View

My Schwinn World - Front View

My Schwinn World - Drive Train