England : London Sunday London ride

[User10571]

Ouch! @topcat1 That looks painful. None of this is boding well for me to go fixed....!

Mice

Hello
Unless I'm misreading things, TC's off was due more to ice and less to riding fixed.
You've two big, (mostly) traffic free parks close by - albeit the one on the south side of the river had fairly appalling road surfaces the last time I was in there.
Give yourself some (false) confidence by fitting some civilian pedals to the bike.
Put SPD pedals and a pedal spanner in your bag, and go to the park.
Wait until the first time you jar your shin on the pedal, or the pedal digs itself into your calf.
It won't take long.
That is the time to apply the elastoplast, take out the pedal spanner, change the pedals to SPDs, and away you go.
There isn't really much more to it than that.
The bike will 'remind' you, in the event that you forget that you are riding fixed.
It doesn't take long for the message to sink in. Really.
In any event, until you've tried it, you'll never know.
Good luck with that. You've nothing to lose.
Other than some dignity. And maybe a little skin.

Out of interest, how many gear-inches are you running on the fixed sprocket? How many teeth on the chainring, and how many on the rear cog?

Don't even think about riding it single-speed - that'll give you as much of an impression of riding fixed as you'd get if you took up the clarinet.

 

[Mice]

Thanks @User10571 - I will think on!!

Mice

 

[wanda2010]

When I return I'll give it a go.

 

[rb58]

This is not a good advert for fixed. Everyone I know who rides fixed seems to have ended up on their a*** at some point in the not too distant past.

I ended up on my a*** when riding fixed just once - and that was due to a pedestrian looking the wrong way them stepping out in front of me in a blocking move the San Francisco 49ers would have been proud of. I'd have been on my a*** if I'd had gears too. Other than that, I've not come close. Not at all. And even those gentle reminders from the bike are rare these days. I've yet to ride a geared bike in 2014...

And @User10571 is right - single speed gives you no idea what it's like to ride fixed.

 

[Flying Dodo]

[QUOTE 2860279, member: 1314"]I don't think I've ridden a geared bike for over 3 years. Go ss have to go fg, otherwise you have all the disadvantages of ss with none of the advantages.[/quote]


Remind me again - on that little ride up to Birmingham last year, what were the advantages of fixed?

 

[User10571]

Dinner plate chain ring, was it?
Just askin' like.....
Honest...

 

[topcat1]

is anyone out 2morrow?


just popping out to the rumclub

 

[wanda2010]

If food and/or drink is involved I could be persuaded.

 

[topcat1]

I've done the drink thing tonite, i'll be at hpc 9.30-10

apparently there's a second lmnh at Mare st

 

[topcat1]

At the view tube eating cakes

 

[wanda2010]

Good morning TC1. Hope it was a good one. I woke up, saw the temp and went back to bed. Arrived back in the UK yesterday so not keen to get reacquainted with the cold til tomorrow. Did a late night ride yesterday to get my cycling legs back and may flip the rear wheel on the SS today for my 'fixed' training sessions in the evenings. I did say 'may' didn't I?

 

[Mice]

Well done @wanda2010 and welcome back. I waited till it warmed up a bit - well 7 degrees at least and managed to whizz round Regents Park for a few laps on my new bike! 23 miles in all with a 13.9 average mph which includes stopping at red lights (obvs). Also stopped to take this pic for @CharlieB (was a bit shocked when a woman said to her husband "the tigers are much better" as they waked by)!!!

If the temperatures stay this cold so early in the morning maybe we could plot a slightly later start?

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I was going to come out but the frost looked pretty thick so I waited...and waited. I did get out eventually though and made my way to the café in the Olympic Park, near the Vélodrome. They do a decent coffee in there.

 

[topcat1]

wot time was you there? i left at 11.10.....ish i did a loop along the greenway and back into town

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

wot time was you there? i left at 11.10.....ish i did a loop along the greenway and back into town

Around 12:30. There's a small (well, actually, it's quite large but it's only a fraction of the whole park) squarish area that's open (and traffic-free) just to the south of the Vélodrome. I should have checked the food out at the Timber Lodge for future visits but I can assure you that it's nice and warm inside.