*the following story was emailed to me by a visitor to my website...Great story about recovery and fixed riding. Short and effective so I felt I would share it with all...enjoy. * Walt
CRACK....CRACK....FIXIE
by Steve...from Ca.
February 2003 crashed my 24 speed mountain bike and broke my right hip...Bummer!
February 2007 crashed my 18 speed road bike and broke my left hip...Bummer.
During my recovery from my second broken hip I started to read about fixed gear bikes. The concept seemed perfect...one with the bike, quiet and low low maintenance. I researched every fixie site and forum I could find to learn about the culture. Six weeks into my recovery I posted my road bike on Craigs list and sold it 14 hours later....put that money in the fixie fund......four days later I posted my mountain bike on Craigs list and sold it in 3 days......more money to the fixie fund. Now armed with $800 I started to research all my fixie possibilities...IRO, Surly, Kona, Bianchi and on and on. The key was it needed to allow fenders and a rack as I would use it for my 12 mile round trip commute to work throughout the years to come. I had time because it would be another 5 weeks until my doctor would clear me to ride on the road again. I found a lot of very cool fixed gear bikes, but as I soon discovered....not many would let you "fred them out" with fenders and racks. It seems the culture is young, didn't mind bacon strips up their backs and would wear messenger bags to carry their supplies.....Hmmmmm.
After 3 weeks I decided on the Redline 925 because it came with Planet Bike fenders, cool mustache handlebars flip flop hub so I could start out on a freewheel and graduate the the fixed side, steel frame (I had been on aluminum for many years).....and a price of $500 with great reviews on the web. Now to find a dealer....hmm only 2 in my area and neither one was a high end educated single speed shop. I chose my shop and picked up the bike a week later where it would hang in my garage until I could ride it. While it hung there I thought of upgrades I could add and stay within my $800 budget. Brooks B17 special edition saddle with matching leather bar tape for the cool mustache bars sounded good, Ritchey mountain bike clipless pedals and some nice Perlizumi shoes would keep me glued to the constantly spinning cranks, I would need a rear rack and a bag to carry my lunch to work......put it all on and presto....nice ride. Well the day finally came where I could ride the bike. It felt great to be on a bike again after 3 months of recovery. The bike was sturdy with a nice ride...the only problem was those moustache handlebars. They were very uncomfortable with few hand positions.
Well I had to change and say goodbye to that expensive leather bar tape. I went to the local bike shop and got straight mountain bike bars, brake levers, grips and new cables. The new setup was almost perfect, but I need to experiment with a longer stem at some point. So after 80 miles on the freewheel side I decided to go fixed....WOW! Very cool feeling which will feel even better once I can permanently turn off nmy urge to coast in my brain. The people who said to "take it slow" for a couple of weeks on the fixed side were dead on. I need to train my brain before I pick up the speed to much....after all I don't want to break something else trying to coast on a fixed gear bike. Well that is my recovery story and how I got into budget fixed gear riding. Now I am looking at fixed gear bikes I can ride on the local club rides, but hear they are running 50 x 13 gears for the 45 mile ride...ouch. If you buy the 925, make sure the local bike shop knows how to adjust chain tension and insist they tighten the cog lock ring.
Steve Redwood City, CA
Thanks to Steve from Redwood City!