fixed impressions

Fixed gear is SO hot. You can feel it. It’s like telemark skiing was about 8 years ago. A “cult thing” gone mainstream. But this is not a joke. Fixed is no fad, no passing fancy of short-term capitalist cash-in gratification, this is serious and here to stay. After all, how long has the fixed gear “safety bike” drivetrain been around? Why was the scorcher called a scorcher anyway?

If the counter at the left says “1000″ your the one. Leave a comment with an address and I’ll surely roast you and toast you. Thanks. Maybe I’ll even write about you. Really. When I was at like 65 hits in a couple weeks I wondered why I bothered.

Your support is greatly appreciated.

Gonterian

Remember when Neo meets the Architect….and all of the permutations of his behavior are exponentially montaged on all those monitors? I am visualizing hundreds of fixers dutifully practicing their trackstands and reverse loops, all in semi-sync. I imagine critical masses of reverse loopers blocking traffic as they all do synchronized reverse loops, choreographed by yours truly into a display of modern bike ballet that would thrill even the most jaded BMX flatlanders (I am a big fan of flatland :: amazing skills.)

Of course I can also visualize the dutiful trainees going through what I did to learn a little reverse: Falling on the ass. Almost falling on the ass and banging the knee on the handlebar or stem. Wondering why in the F#%$ I’m trying to learn to ride backwards anyway….

Daydreaming for the Movie, that’s all.

Read the “reverse” how-to here.

G

Well, it’s a really cool toy. Actually it will be mostly for writing, editing, and html/css. And fixed gear porn. FIXED GEAR GALLERY. I finally ponied up my PayPal donation and put my bike up. It’s there somewhere in the 2400’s. An old friend from the wine biz looked me up through fixedgeargallery. Thanks again Dennis for creating the silliness and satisfaction that is FFG.com. Anyway, this post is about continuing to enjoy riding the REK commuter to work when I can. I’ve had about a half-tank in the Subaru for about a week and the last time I bought gas it was $2.59. It’s about a dollar more than that now and I’m hoping to make it in to October only buying one more 10 gallon tank…about the 18th or so of the month. Place your bets in the comments section! I bet I make it.

I got into a testostero-fest with some other iDork commuter on the way to work yesterday. He had the obligatory agro-dad-with-wife-and-kids attitude, kit and bike. He made a polite “hi” at the bike lane crossing, then rolled the light, took off with intent to leave the helmetless, one-panniered, balding with salt-n-pepper doo, long-pants and tucked-in-shirt, fixed shredder dork in his rightful place. Well, his passive-aggressive thing tweaked my previously non-hormonal commute into a degenerate male “aura-fest”. He had the ubiquitous aluminumb “dad” MTB dumbed down with 1.75″ slicks (except for Moab, the dumbest MTB tires ever created.) I had 28mm/700c. I was hot to burn an iDork. I once had a carpenter friend named Ray. He always said, if you chase or attack, you must do it all the way! I had troubles with my inability to grasp the quick flip-and-go of clips and straps as iDork made 100 yards on me. Looking back to see me fumbling, he gassed it even more.

Keep in mind that I am certifiably slow, don’t race, and know my limits.

Well, when I got me feet set, I thought only of MC’s (Matt Chester) “120rpm non-speed”…away I went at 140rpm and left iDork commuter dad thinking I was the dick. And he was right. But I blew his doors hard off with my 45lb. cul of a fix that leaned twice as hard to the south with every other lean. Hard. I never looked back and he didn’t come back on me.

It took me 15 minutes to cool down when I got to work.

Men.

But I beat him!

iDork.

Commuting.

Bike commuter pre-rage.

More later.

G.

I’ve been riding the (uni)scorcher now for most of the summer as my primary MTB. I do own, for the record, a perfectly viable Kona Hardtail (yes, a coasting shifter from 1993) from the dark ages when Kona ONLY made hardtails…I did do a few nice hard rides on the Kona after I fell on V #10 in June. It’s still a fine bike. And still responds well, in spite of my neglect. Left with only a shredder (my term for a road fix) for singlespeeding for the summer I had to do something. So I decided to really try riding the scorcher for most of my trail rides. I had ridden my previous shredder (1998-2000) on trails before, even with tubular tires a couple times. So why not the Uni? You’ve seen the Uni’s transformation from shredder to scorcher documented here. She rocks the trail now.

The 44/44 700c Mutanoraptor allows for the most obtuse line choices, often calmly rolling over poorly timed logs, drops and roots better than you’d expect. On flat or slightly rolling terrain, the Uni rolls with the best. Clearly the 700c wheels at work. On climbs, the 40/21 is a bit stiffer than the 32/17 (26″) gear I ran for years on the V #10, but works well. Generally, I’ve decided that a lower gear results in more suffering on road and downhills, but only slightly more stalls (and walking) on climbs. Now that I have the 40/21 working with the 1/2 link, I probably won’t change it until it breaks. I have in the back of my mind a possible change when I finish breaking my current crankset (inevitable) to a road crank with a 39T. That I think would be just perfect, but of course that means new ring, crank, and of course a few angst-ridden hours of chainline tweaking and swearing.

Editors note: If anyone has ever tried to convince you that single speeds and fixes are easier to work on than derailleur bikes, they probably haven’t worked a lot on them. They can really be difficult. God forbid you change cranks or rear wheel spacing/chainline, ouch! Now, with that said, once they are built up right and working well they need way less maintenance than their derailleur kin.

As far as downhill goes, I can say this after my first summer of riding the trail fix. You will learn from the beginning. Many techniques you use on a coaster and are second nature to an experienced rider are useless or impossible. The brake lever is not your friend anymore. Your legs get pummeled on downhills. There is no rest for the weary trail fixer when you go over the top of the climb. The fix will toss you over the bars, even if you don’t touch the brake. Drop-offs and run-outs are F$$&ing scary. Each time I survive a new hard downhill section I get a sense of pride I never had when I coasted down the same trail. Go figure. I’m sure I’ll be pondering the subject for years to come: hopefully much to y’alls amusement.

Next time :: the Ollie-Oop, Jumps and yes, Bummy Hops (not to be confused with Bunny Hops!). Till then, Over and Out.

gonterian

I’m so excited I’m getting ahead a bit here. After holding my cards for over a year, I contracted to buy an iBook from a friend. Cafe wireless dorkdom here I come…got my 802.11G ticket. I’ll see you on-line tonite.

I calculate, roughly, that commuting on my bike is now a 60% better value than it was say, a month ago. Faced with it actually costing about $3 in gas for me to commute round trip to work each day, I can’t help but confront the math. I know that the drive involves a pitiful 8 lights in just the first mile, and I burn a lot of gas when the old Subaru idles when it’s not warmed up. Ah, the drive is so short the car never really warms up. Anyway, I can easily ride my bike to work, walk to work, and probably ski to work. Assuming I hit a 75% other-than-the-car commute rate, I should save over $400 a year. Enough cash to buy a video camera, a season pass to ride the lifts, etc…I’ve been driving to this job a bit too much in the 6 weeks I’ve been there, but that has a lot to do with getting adjusted, being sick the first couple weeks on the job, and actually needing the car to do errands for work (which I get $.40 a mile for.) Now its time to put up as a self-described bike commuter. DO IT.

I’ll have a short bit on my “commuter” also known as REK later this week. Here’s a sneak peek.

• ‘78 Cheesehead Built TREK 710. Sweet Ferrous Reynolds 531!
• Low-Flange Campagnolo Chorus? Road Hubs. Rear tied, soldered, redished.
• “Blue Loctite Brand” Lockring with 18T 3/32″ EAI, 46T Front SR and 170mm SR Crank. Also, crappy SR road pedals with one working strap : Binda.
• Mt. Zefals, Cheap Aluminumb Rack, 28mm Contis, Lights, Rivendell Japan-Made Brass Bell (sweet!), Pump, Cars-R-Coffins Water Bottle.

Proper Commuter iDork ride.

I finally made a good (pretty clean) house mix. House is just harder to mix than I ever thought it would be. I’ve been working with it for years and it’s starting to flow for me, finally. I’m not sure that too many people in the US even care about club music that doesn’t have rap or go 80-100bpm…but I do, and I hope you do too! If you don’t like it, try Gonterian Radio 2 :: 80’s.

I’m sorry I’ve largely filled the blog with non-fixed stuff of late. I’ve always got a ton of fixed related ideas sloshing around in my head, waiting for an outlet. Lately I just haven’t been getting it out. Well, part of the energy went into my reverse article here at 63xc.com. The follow up will be better, in the December Issue. I got the inspiration late at night for the piece and finished off a bit under the gun. Uber-editor and superb-writer-as-well Will Meister fixed my stuff and made it work. Big ups to Will as always for keeping up a great site with limited sponsorship and zero time. Amazing. That project combined with some real world obligations (I do have a real job) kept me from this journal.

Back to fixed.

I still haven’t signed up for Matt Chester’s mail-bot list for future ‘zine subscribers. I guess I’m having a hard time accepting that he’s planning to end his blog next year. His blog was (and is) one of my main inspirations for Fixed Impressions. He’s a man of clear conviction and walks the walk. So, he’s planning to start a printed black and white “newspaper-like” journal. OK, I’ll sign up. But I hope he changes his mind about the blog.

The Uni is now just about fully dialed-in. I got the half-link setup to make the 44 Mutano happen as previously reported. I also finally broke down and got an old Brooks professional off of eBay. Its comfy, in great condition, apparently barely used and at least 35 years old. Sweet. And works. Duh.

I’m running 40/21 and that seems a little harder to get up the hill than the 32/17 I’ve run for years on 26″. 26″ seems to accelerate better on climbs. The scorcher takes a little longer to wind up. Nevertheless, I think I really like the scorcher even for climbing. The touring frame climbs nice and seems to keep its momentum a bit better with the 29″ wheels, but its a bit harder to crank out of stalls than the little wheeler. I’ll be interested when I get the new 26″ to see how I use it. This 26″ will always have the rear brake on it. Well, the mount will be there, and if the mount is there I think it’s better to just keep the brake on there even if riding fixed. I’ll always wonder if the rear brake had anything to do with the crash when I broke Vulture #10. I’ll never know for sure, but I had touched the rear brake moments before, but knew I was gonna do without….

As far as the new Vulture goes, I’m starting off in coasting mode for a bit. It’s been an almost totally fixed summer. I’m looking forward to coasting a bit on downhills after monkey-mocking my way up a few climbs. I’ve come to think that I climb at least as well on single speed fixed as I do on free. But I’m longing for the the mindless high-gravity affected coasting. It’s so nice a feeling when your singling and bust up a hard climb to just act like a free-rider on a 12 x 12 and just point it at the features and lean back. It sometimes is hard to accept the amount of work involved in pedaling down some shit. Sheesh. My own doing this fixed fetish stuff. Wasn’t single speeding supposed to be the end all?

This September chill
morn’ marks autumnal tone change
come oaks, maples! the thrill