First ride on a fixie, on my freebie bike Options

[blu94gt]

I've been curious about riding a fixed gear bike for about a year now, and finally took my first ride this morning. Now...here's the story, before you laugh at the pics of my bike lol. I'm super broke as a college student. I saw a bike sitting in my neighbor's trash the other day, so I walked over to check it out. 26" Wal-Mart brand mountain bike with the front wheel off, but seemed to be in good shape. Dragged it home, put the wheel on, took a ride. Front wheel is slightly bent, but still rides ok (ok for riding around the block). Then got to thinking about trying fixed with it, but have no money. Pulled the rear freewheel apart, removed the bearings, and "suicided" it up by just filling every little orifice with JB Weld. Figure it's a good way to try riding fixed before dropping money on a decent bike, and if it breaks oh well I'll only be a block or 2 away from the house anyways.

So here's my $0 total cost fixie

Before:


As it sits:


Oh, and loved riding it, can't wait to build a real bike lol

[epocsirhc]

My buddie who was featured in decline won't ride one of those. I might have to make one just to try it!

[Hanyo]

I've been curious about riding a fixed gear bike for about a year now, and finally took my first ride this morning.

the whole point of riding fix gear bikes is to basically make the bike as light and basic as possible, so you feel the road.

You need to do some serious weight reduction and get some proper pedals so they can latch onto your feet. With fix gear bikes you use your feel to "engine brake" if you dont have latches on the pedals they can swing around and hit your in the shin.

good luck with that. I'll probably do the same once i find a cheap 10 speed bike to pick up.

[blu94gt]

I've been curious about riding a fixed gear bike for about a year now, and finally took my first ride this morning.

the whole point of riding fix gear bikes is to basically make the bike as light and basic as possible, so you feel the road.

You need to do some serious weight reduction and get some proper pedals so they can latch onto your feet. With fix gear bikes you use your feel to "engine brake" if you dont have latches on the pedals they can swing around and hit your in the shin.

good luck with that. I'll probably do the same once i find a cheap 10 speed bike to pick up.

Yeah, I know the idea to make it as light and basic as possible (pretty much the same principal I'm using on my old Yamaha motorcycle, nothing you don't need to go down the road). This bike was mostly an experiment to see if I even like riding fixed. If I'm going to be riding it a lot I will either put some money into it, or most likely buy/convert a better bike. If I keep this one I will ditch the rear brake and put a front one on, new wheels/tires/chain/crank, cut everything off the frame I don't need, etc. It will still be a pretty heavy bike though, would be better just getting a new one to work with but who knows lol

[96bluevert]

My buddy has both a fixed he made (like what you did) and one his uncle gave him that's a true fixed gear bike. I've ridden both, and I can say, if you wind up liking what your doing with this bike, you'll LOVE a real fixed bike.

The one he did himself just doesn't feel well put together, but the other one is well made and a blast to ride. (except uphill)

[95CelicaST]

Love my fixed gear.


And when you build one, make sure you put a cog on the single-speed side of your flip flop hub - because while fixed is awesome, you will want to coast, especially down big hills.

Remove the rear brake and utilize that brake cable to make a front line with a little more slack. Your front brake line scares me!