Pimping My Bike
I’ve done a bad thing.
I’ve submitted three photos of Trixie The Fixie to the Fixed Gear Gallery. I know I said that I wouldn’t, but we went out for a ride today, and I had just so much fun that I wanted to show everyone what I’ve got. And now I feel like I’ve betrayed her trust . . . [hopefully] the photos’ll be up on the site early next week.
Actually, hopefully, she won’t be too cross - hell hath no fury like a bike with trust abused!
The ride itself was great though. 36 miles in and around Newcastle and Gateshead and North Tyneside. The links for a GMAPS Pedometer map - I must get a GPS thingie to track my routes.
There was a light-ish breeze from the SouthWest, so the ‘out’ leg was mostly into the wind, but it was nothing to worry about. The best thing though was the fact that it wasn’t raining! In fact, despite the forecasts I’ve been watching for the whole week predicting a mostly wet day, it was just beautiful cycling weather - sunny enough to put a smile on your face, but not so bright to burn, or hot enough to reduce me to a dehydrated sweat ball.
The return section was just great - a little tailwind can go a long way. And I also rode up a reasonably challenging hill - Dean Street in central Newcastle, which I normally struggle on even with the aid of gears. OK, so I normally just spin it out, whereas today was all grunt, but that’s part of the fun of fixed. And it’ll make me Big and Strong and Tough. Or something like that anyway.
By the time I got home, I was feeling a little tired, and looking forward to stopping pedaling!
Big smiley face, and here are three Beautiful Things . . .
- The weather was just wonderful today!
- Trixie the Fixie is fast becoming my favourite bike. Gina’s still got her place for longer rides, and Wilf’s just great for luggage, but I’m really enjoying being a Fixer - especially around town, where she’s a great, fast bike, but I don’t look like a lycra loon in amongst the civilians.
- I phoned my friend Seth tonight, and we had a great talk. Catching up with people you’ve not seen / spoken to for a while, and realising that with real friends, time and geography aren’t factors that influence your connection is uncanny and wonderful.
Maybe I should cut back on the Soma - this Brave New World in which we live don’t seem so scary any more!
Workout:
- Type: Cycle
- Date: 07/05/2007
- Time: 19:34:00
- Total Time: 2:20:00.00
- Distance: 36 miles
- Average Speed: 15.43 mph
With both you and Brad singing the praises of fixed gear cycling, I’m actually begining to wonder if I’m missing out. Would you enjoy it so much if you flipped to the freewheel and only had one gear? I’ve forced myself to ride that way before and didn’t find it so nifty. Is it the “keep pedaling” push you get when you let up just a little with no free wheel that makes it fun? I just don’t understand.
I can kind of hear someone’s mother saying, as they do with jumping off high things, “if Brad and Karl told you it was fun to ride without pedals would you want to try that too?”
I can’t explain it… I wish I could… but there really is something to it. I guess, like today, as I was riding up the hill coming out of Seward Park going south on Seward Park Ave… you basically know you have no option but to pedal your guts out, and it makes you face your fear (or whatever is inside you) and you realize that it’s you and the pedal and the chain and the wheel and the ground…. there’s no technology that’s going to help you through that hill.
Sure, you can say you’ve ridden “in only one gear”… but your brain knows you could down shift if you needed to. But the truth is, you never really need to… and so a fixie forces you to bring out your best.
At least that’s how it works for me.
I can’t explain it either. Before I converted my old road bike to fixed, I spent some time riding my Sturdy Commuting Bike on a single gear that’s pretty much the same as the ratio I now have on Trixie. Somehow it’s different - having the knowledge that you can change down (and up) when you need to, and the ability to coast makes it a completely different experience.
I think the lure of the fixed wheel is probably as Brad says, something to do with the simplicity, and the degree of connection you get between what you’re doing on the bike, and what you feel. The lightness of the bike, the speed of response, and the constant agonizing over whether or not to put a smaller / larger sprocket on seems to make the bike and rider more of a single organism.
Also, even the cool kids (who’re mostly now half my age) turn their heads in admiration . . .
There are of course down sides - with the wrong ratio, hills are a complete nightmare - both going up and down (which is actually harder), and cornering can at times be scary, especially when there’s an adverse camber to the road jumping up to grab your pedal.
The fixie is my favourite bike, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only one I’ll ride. In wet weather, my sturdy commuting bike’s mudguards and luggage rack stop me from getting soaked from below, and mean that I have a complete change of clothes with me. And for racing, or even longer training rides, the 18 speed road bike is a must (for me, at any rate, ZappoMan!)
My next project is to learn to do really good track stands on it . . .
I like your new site. I guess this means you have committed to the Ironman. That’s awesome!