Fixed AND Clipless?

"Gippledocks" <[email hidden]> wrote
in message news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Anyway, here's the thing. On my other bikes I ride clipless, but I built

up

Quoted message said:

the fixie with plain rat trap pedals, not even with clips and straps.
Prudent? Cowardly? You decide. Yet I swear I've seen folk riding fixed
AND clipless!! How on Earth do they disengage? Now maybe I'm an artless
fellow of the first order, but nine times out of ten I can't disengage on

my

Quoted message said:

freewheel bikes while the pedals are going round.

I found clipless made fixed much better - none of that trying to find the
toeclip having set off from a junction at speed (but I use double sided
spds).

I wouldn't want plain pedals - at least with clips/clipless your legs get
pulled round for you when you forget..

cheers,
clive

"Clive George" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Gippledocks" <[email hidden]> wrote
in message news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Anyway, here's the thing. On my other bikes I ride clipless, but I

built

Quoted message said:

up

Quoted message said:

the fixie with plain rat trap pedals, not even with clips and straps.
Prudent? Cowardly? You decide. Yet I swear I've seen folk riding

fixed

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

AND clipless!! How on Earth do they disengage? Now maybe I'm an

artless

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

fellow of the first order, but nine times out of ten I can't disengage

on

Quoted message said:

my

Quoted message said:

freewheel bikes while the pedals are going round.

I found clipless made fixed much better - none of that trying to find the
toeclip having set off from a junction at speed (but I use double sided
spds).

I wouldn't want plain pedals - at least with clips/clipless your legs get
pulled round for you when you forget..

cheers,
clive

Seconded - I've used fixed for winter training and (once upon a time) for
track racing, and always preferred clipless. It's possibly *slightly* harder
to get your feet *in* with road pedals (I used Shimano 7401s or Look
variously), but no problem whatsoever to get them *out*. Take a look at
www.simondaw.freeserve.co.uk/cycling.html for a picture of me on grass with
fixed and clipless! (Dura Ace, I think.)

---
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Quoted message said:

I've recently resurrected an indifferent '80s 10-speed light tourer as my
first fixie.

Which is very interesting to me, as I am just starting out on the same road.
What did you do for transmission, chain run etc? And what gears did you go
for?

I was hoping to get hold of an old disc brake hub and mod it for a sprocket,
that's looking unlikely now so I'm beginning to think I should get a proper
track hub and have (or try myself!!) a new wheel built up, unless I can find
someone selling a track wheel.

I'd be interested to read about your experiences doing the conversion.

bfn,

Tony B

Simon D [email hidden] opined the following...

Quoted message said:

Seconded - I've used fixed for winter training and (once upon a time) for
track racing, and always preferred clipless. It's possibly *slightly* harder
to get your feet *in* with road pedals (I used Shimano 7401s or Look
variously), but no problem whatsoever to get them *out*.

I actually found it easier to clip in on the fixer. Being able to put
pressure on the pedal when it is still rising, coupled with very
predictable movement means that I can usually clip in before I need to
apply power. This has dramatically improved my sprinting starts from
lights. Of course... if you do fail to clip in at the start, there is
the problem that the difficulty increases with speed and the only way to
slow the pedals is to slow down. I've only had this happen once and I'm
blaming it on having only had 3 hours sleep.

When I built my fixer earlier this year, it didn't even occur to me to
put anything other than clipless on it. I couldn't ride rat traps and
the thought of proper toe clips and straps terrifies me.

Jon

Gippledocks [email hidden] opined
the following...

Quoted message said:

I've recently resurrected an indifferent '80s 10-speed light tourer as my
first fixie. So I'm on the learning curve: long periods of mechanical
bliss and perceived efficiency punctuated by omigod moments when the brain
spots a hazard and lets the legs forget to go round. So far I've been lucky
enough to avoid being launched into oblivion, but it's not yet clear whether
my legs will learn before my luck runs out.

Twice I've done that. First time, I'd just built the fixer and was still
getting used to it. Second was about a week ago. I'd just been chatting
to a friend about how easy it was to get used to it, and how I barely
noticed any more. Rode down the hill hit a really rough patch of road
(Bloody buses) and tried to freewheel. I worked it out just in time and
wobbled to a halt at the lights 50 yards later.

Jon

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3676765964

Gippledocks said:

I've recently resurrected an indifferent '80s 10-speed light tourer
as my first fixie. So I'm on the learning curve: long periods of
mechanical bliss and perceived efficiency punctuated by omigod
moments when the brain spots a hazard and lets the legs forget to go
round. So far I've been lucky enough to avoid being launched into
oblivion, but it's not yet clear whether my legs will learn before my
luck runs out.

Anyway, here's the thing. On my other bikes I ride clipless, but I
built up the fixie with plain rat trap pedals, not even with clips
and straps. Prudent? Cowardly? You decide. Yet I swear I've seen
folk riding fixed AND clipless!! How on Earth do they disengage?
Now maybe I'm an artless fellow of the first order, but nine times
out of ten I can't disengage on my freewheel bikes while the pedals
are going round.

At various times I've ridden fixed with clips and straps and with clipsless.

The thought of riding fixed with platform pedals sound scary to me, what
stops your feet flying off down hills? What stops them slipping off up
hills?

Clips and straps are easy to get out of if the straps aren't tight. If you
tightened the straps and forget to loosen them before stopping, you get very
good at trackstands.

Adjusting the strap tension at speed is tricky, even at low speed you have
to take a hand off the bars and reach down. Flipping the pedal round at
speed is tricky and inelegant.

Loose straps are great for practising trackstands, your feet cant slip but
you can always get them out.

Nowadays I use SPD's. I find them very easy to get into, I start with my
left foot clipped in and usually get my right foot clipped in within 1 or 2
revs.

I haven't fallen over yet, but for the first few days found my ankles and
calfs got very tired, now I don't notice it at all.

Trackstands are slightly tricky.

If both feet are clicked in I tend to give up sooner as it does take a
second or so to unclip. I did once bog it up and had to lurch forward and
sideways when I really didn't want to.

If one foot is unclipped you don't feel fully 'engaged' with the trackstand
and also have to worry about slipping off the pedal.

--
Andy Morris

AndyAtJinkasDotFreeserve.Co.UK

Love this:
Put an end to Outlook Express's messy quotes
http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/oe-quotefix/

Cheers for that, I'll have a punt later.

Tony B

ebay said:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3676765964

Did you have to tell him?!

Colin

Gippledocks said:

Anyway, here's the thing. On my other bikes I ride clipless, but I built up
the fixie with plain rat trap pedals, not even with clips and straps.
Prudent? Cowardly? You decide. Yet I swear I've seen folk riding fixed
AND clipless!! How on Earth do they disengage? Now maybe I'm an artless
fellow of the first order, but nine times out of ten I can't disengage on my
freewheel bikes while the pedals are going round.

I ride fixed and clipless. I only tried non-clipless a couple of times
while I was waiting for my SPD-shoes to catch up after moving to London.
I find it a lot easier clipless for those moments when you "forget" to
keep your pedals turning.

AFA disengaging goes, I'm usually pretty much at a standstill by the
time I disengage. The cadence is so low that unclipping is a trivial
affair. In emergency stops, I'm not sure what happens since the
conscious part of my brain is usually occupied with other things. It
seems to work though, prolly because I don't put my feet down while I'm
still moving, regardless.

The two times I've come off my fixie were: a. in my first week of
riding, my foot was way too far forward on the pedal when taking off and
got caught the wrong side of the front wheel (nowhere near the clearance
afforded by my mtb), and b. when hit from behind by a lorry. Neither of
these were disengaging related, so I guess it's not that much of an issue.

richard

"Tony B" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I've recently resurrected an indifferent '80s 10-speed light tourer as

my

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

first fixie.

Which is very interesting to me, as I am just starting out on the same

road.

Quoted message said:

What did you do for transmission, chain run etc? And what gears did you go
for?

Well I accumulated the bits over quite a period so I don't know whether
they're all available from where I got them, but you should be able to find
similar. Sheldon Brown and the Web in general was very helpful in
crystalising my ideas.

The original bike had horizontal dropouts but needed a bit of drill and file
work to lengthen the drive-side dropout (this bike is no thouroughbred).
Beyond that it was just spanner work and credit card.

The transmission is all 1/8 inch (mostly aesthetic grounds, I admit) with
42T chainring and 18T sprocket (received wisdom, but tested by riding my
hack for a week in a similar gear - and it wouldn't be the end of the world
if I had to change it later). These plus some chainring spacers (of which
more later) were from St. John Street Cyles.

My idea was to bung the lot together and see how the chainline ran,
correcting it with the chainring spacers if poss or with a new bottom
bracket if not.

I had Spa Cycles of Harrogate build me a wheel with Suzue flip-flop hub and
MA3 rim spaced to the bike's 125mm (if memory serves) dropout spacing.

Imagine my disappointment when the wheel arrived with 10mm of spacers one
side and 5mm the other! Although fixed / free hadn't been a priority I'd
been thinking dishless, but I hadn't told Spa. Anyway my head won over my
heart and I convinced myself to offer up the wheel before getting on the
phone. Whoopee! The chainline was spot on and the spacers were redundant!
Well done Spa. How could they have known?

So the message seems to be two-fold...
1. Just do it.
2. Be lucky.

--

Richard

--------------------

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"AndyMorris" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

At various times I've ridden fixed with clips and straps and with

clipsless.

Quoted message said:

The thought of riding fixed with platform pedals sound scary to me, what
stops your feet flying off down hills? What stops them slipping off up
hills?

Clips and straps are easy to get out of if the straps aren't tight. If you
tightened the straps and forget to loosen them before stopping, you get

very

Quoted message said:

good at trackstands.

Adjusting the strap tension at speed is tricky, even at low speed you have
to take a hand off the bars and reach down. Flipping the pedal round at
speed is tricky and inelegant.

Loose straps are great for practising trackstands, your feet cant slip but
you can always get them out.

Nowadays I use SPD's. I find them very easy to get into, I start with my
left foot clipped in and usually get my right foot clipped in within 1 or

2

Quoted message said:

revs.

I haven't fallen over yet, but for the first few days found my ankles and
calfs got very tired, now I don't notice it at all.

Trackstands are slightly tricky.

If both feet are clicked in I tend to give up sooner as it does take a
second or so to unclip. I did once bog it up and had to lurch forward and
sideways when I really didn't want to.

If one foot is unclipped you don't feel fully 'engaged' with the

trackstand

Quoted message said:

and also have to worry about slipping off the pedal.

Many thanks indeed for the benefit of your experience. I sense an impending
project for my next few free weekends.

--

Richard

--------------------

Individual replies to [email hidden]

less the Misdirections (and note the underscore after r246)