Robb Monn said:I am a solid and tall man (with a little bit of gut) weighing in at
240. After reading your pages, Sheldon, and with growing curiosity I
bought a Specialized Langster and set it up to be a fixed gear with the
stock gearing.... not sure exactly what it is. I love to ride it and
have not been on another bike since the day I rode it home.
But, I just cannot seem to slow down any considerable amount much less
stop
with my pedals and I realize this is a function of weight and gearing,
but is there some key technique that I am missing?
It's mainly a function of gearing. The stock 48/16 gearing gives a Gain
Ratio of 5.9 (79 inches, 6.3 meters) which is pretty much flatland
gearing. A gear this high doesn't give you much leverage to slow down
with your feet.
The lower the gear, the better the "braking" is. However, generally
speaking, the _higher_ the gear, the more fun the ride, as long as the
gear isn't so high you can't climb the local hia lls.
My snow bike is geared 28/15. That's a 3.7 Gain Ratio* (49 inches, 3.9
meters.) With a gear that low, I never need to use the brake.
Another aspect of this is that higher gears let you go faster, so the
reduced "braking" effect becomes more noticeable.
I said that you can't easily _slow_down_ with a high gear, but actually,
you can do a skid stop even with a fairly high gear. That's because the
sliding friction of the rear tire is considerably less than its rolling
traction. Once you get a skid started, you can keep it going until the
tire blows if you've a mind to.
There is a trick to this:
As one of the pedals begins to rise from the bottom of a stroke, lock
your knee so the rising pedal starts to lift your body upwards. When
the cranks get horizontal, pull up with the front foot and push down
with the rear. Because your body will have gained upward momentum from
the rising pedal, you'll be able to pretty much unweight the rear wheel
for a moment. That's when you initiate the skid.
Quoted message said:I have no desire to
remove my front brake in any case,
No, don't do that, it's much more fun to ride with a front brake, 'cause
you can go a lot faster without worrying about being able to stop.
Quoted message said:but I do feel like I'm missing out on some of the fixed gear good feeling.
No worries there, just keep riding fixed and you'll experience all of it.
Quoted message said:BTW: Thanks a million for all the help you've given me w/ your advice
and webpages.
Welcome to the cult. Now all of _your_ friends will think you're nuts too!
Sheldon "Had A Great Ride With My Wife On Our Fixed-Gear Tandem
Yesterday" Brown
(http://sheldonbrown.org/picchio)
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| Weed - a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered. |
| --R.W. Emerson |
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*Gain ratio is a new system for measuring bicycle gearing.
It is explained in detail on my Web site at:
http://sheldonbrown.com/gain
Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts
Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041
http://harriscyclery.com
Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide
http://captainbike.com http://sheldonbrown.com
