Why not post a picture of your Fixed/Singlespeed bike

[Zojam]

Replacement for Langster which failed to survive crash just before Christmas. Looked for ages and ages for fixed gear frames with water bottle mounts. Persuaded myself that none (or very few existed) so had to go custom route. Went with Justin Burls, had him design a frame with a starting point of my Specialized Roubaix SL3 which I find really comfortable. A few iterations and discussions later and we were good to go. Frame arrived on Thursday, built it up last night, and went for a 50 mile shakedown in the rain this morning,

I'm bound to be biased, but it's a lovely smooth ride, a lot more comfortable than the Langster, and pushing on the deals is immediately satisfying,

Just need to get fitness back, and shoulder fixed.


View attachment 91792

Nice looking bike

 

[Basil.B]

Lovely bike you got there, must have legs long as a giraffe though!

 

[mangid]

Lovely bike you got there, must have legs long as a giraffe though!

I hope it's an optical illusion caused by the sloping top tube, I'm 5" 10', and fairly normally proportioned :-)

 

[MrFixed]

Here's mine. I bought it second hand and I'm in the process of giving it some TLC.

 

[Rafferty]

It's taken a couple of weeks to get to this point and I have enjoyed every minute, I did it all myself including building a front wheel, bearings replaced in rear wheel, new bottom headset bearings,, new chainring, sprocket and chain, replaced rear brake caliber with one from another bike and touched up the paintwork. I finally have my dream bike and the least expensive though worth a tad more now.

Me want!

 

[totallyfixed]

Me want!

Thank you, and you would be right to want it, an absolute joy to ride and the best climbing machine I have ever ridden. It cost me less than any bike I have previously owned yet it is the most valuable.

 

[zigzag]

i'm sure it's a nice bike to ride, but struggle to see how can a heavy/flexy steel bike be best climbing machine. it does look nice and is very practical though!

p.s. some lovely bikes appeared on this thread while i was away

 

[cdx]

Here's my definitely-not-a-climber.

If you look close you can see the result of a recent slow-speed dooring close to the rear hub

The electric tape is my attempt to make it less appealing to steal, i.e. uglier. I think I was successful

 

[zigzag]

upgraded cranks/bb from alfine to fsa slk light. lighter by almost 300g and the colour of axle matches the colour of track ends. from this morning's ride:

 

[totallyfixed]

i'm sure it's a nice bike to ride, but struggle to see how can a heavy/flexy steel bike be best climbing machine. it does look nice and is very practical though!

p.s. some lovely bikes appeared on this thread while i was away

First off, the weight, it's 853 so light and stiff compared with the overwhelming majority of steel bikes. Compared with my alu Pearson, which I always think has a very lively feel to it [also remarked on by a friend who gave it a spin], the Rourke has a shorter wheelbase but same length top tube so I am guessing the frame angles are more akin to a track bike and indeed having raced on a track bike it has that kind of feel. Finally, don't underestimate the "feel good" effect, I even feel better on a clean bike and I am sure plenty of others will identify with that, so when I climb on a clean Rourke it is amazing.

 

[zigzag]

fair enough, i just couldn't imagine that a heavy steel bike with longish wheelbase can climb well - it must be the strong legs propelling it!

i've got the same bluemels mudguards on my hybrid btw, they are very effective in keeping the white bike clean(er).

 

[Tim Hall]

upgraded cranks/bb from alfine to fsa slk light. lighter by almost 300g and the colour of axle matches the colour of track ends. from this morning's ride:
View attachment 97045

Two things:

That's a big front garden you've got.
That's a fairly toothy front ring as well (although not as huge as @cdx 's)

 

[zigzag]

Two things:

That's a big front garden you've got.
That's a fairly toothy front ring as well (although not as huge as @cdx 's)

- takes a long time to mow the lawn..
- 52t, it works well, the bike is fast and can go up moderate hills (vanbrugh hill at 17% no problem); i've got a bigger sprocket (20t) and longer chain for hillier rides, which take about 5min to swap around

 

[totallyfixed]

May I ask what size sprocket you are running with the 52t?

 

[zigzag]

May I ask what size sprocket you are running with the 52t?

16t and 20t