Ridin fixie

[pmb]

What's scary?

Your chain falling off the chainring on your bike.

What's scarier than scary?

Your chain falling off your fixie.

Other than that incident today, which was easily remedied, I've had my fixie for a year and still like it. I ride it almost every day, and still think it's fun. Slowing down can be hard on the knees, but it's fun to

Comments

[triath]

Holy crap, fixed-gear bikes scare me. I saw a guy go down the super steep long hill near my house. When the guy "braked" (er...stopped pedaling) at the bottom of the hill smoke came off his tire. Scary!!

Although I don't shift often, I really like coasting.

[purple_dj]

Just because you're riding a fixie doesn't mean you can't have regular brakes.

Consider adding some?

[pmb]

I have a front brake. But normally the chain is under constant tension, and losing that tension is still a shock, because I suddenly HAVE to coast to a (braking) stop, whereas normally I must NEVER coast.

[purple_dj]

Ah. I wasn't even considering it from the mental point of view.

Have you seen this?

[mauitian]

Goes the same forwards or backwards... or you use it to commute?

[pmb]

What's purple and commutes?

An Abelian grape.

[cosyne]

yup. that's beautifully, fantastically awful ;-)

[jondissed]

Q. What's purple, commutes, and oozes a lot?

A. An Abelian semigrape.

Ruminations

[canarasekal]

So...how does a chain fall off a fixie? Or rather, why? Did the rear wheel bolts come loose? Was it too loose to begin with, and you were just lucky 'til now? One wonders...

Re: Ruminations

[pmb]

Well, there's no chain tensioner because there's no rear derailleur. Which means that chain tension (and therefore the chain itself) is held in place by a) the rear wheel being firmly attached as far back from the front sprocket as the chain can handle, b) it staying in that position over time, and c) the chain not stretching.

The rear wheel, for whatever reason, wasn't far enough back to maintain proper chain tension. Perhaps the chain had stretched, perhaps the wheel had migrated forward, I dunno. So I was turning and went over a bump, and the bouncing that the bump induced in the chain (because it was a bit loose, due to that stuff I previously mentioned) caused it to bounce off the front gear. Which was pretty crappy.