Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Fixie Gods

Despite G's proclamation that fixies are dead, I have to ask:

How do I negotiate the issue of chain tension on a 20 year old POS steel bike with semi-vertical dropouts?

Is this currently geared bike worth trying to convert to a fixie this winter?

Help!

6 comments:

gewilli said...

lots of experimentation with cog chain ring sizes...

and sure - any bike is worth converting...

you r too old to succumb to such childish notions about what is in and what isn't

Moveitfred said...

Yeah. I don't give a shit.

I was back in my old home of Fullerton, California this summer and noticed at least a half dozen different youngins riding around town on fixies. It's a college town, and while there I noticed a new bike shop on Main Street. Popped in and talked to one of the guys at length about the fixie crowd--something that was never part of the scene when I was there. He laughed and said, "Yeah...all the hip kids do it now."

Guess this is one area where the left coast is lagging behind.

Moveitfred said...

So G, one needs to just keep messing around to find that perfect combo that, when pulled up and settled into the dropout, fits just right? Makes sense. That'll keep me busy futzing for awhile.

gewilli said...

in theory yes... in practice: ya just gotta have a handful of chainrings/cogs laying around to make it a cheap thing to do... that or be real good friends with the dudes at the super well stocked bike shop...

(hint - use a nice tight compact cassette build wheel with one chainring to see which cog is closest)

and turn this fahking word ver off... it is annoying

solobreak said...

when you get tired of messing with it, you can buy this. they have 61 cm in stock.

Moveitfred said...

Yeah, I get bored pretty fast with messing. Prolly need a 64 for my lanky ass. Good tip, though. Can't buy a complete outside of Walmart for that price.