Why do I need a deraileur ?

[Smiley]

Why do I need a cassette , shifters or all the hassles that go with MOVING parts . I think my new Kogswell Fixee suits me just fine . Fact is I may never ride my Hors bike again , well not for training purposes , for that its fixee all the way . My new Kogs fits me so well and it's so stable that I really like what its doing to my strength training . So what that its heavy , its makes me STRONGER and that won't kill me . Please try to tell me why I need gears . Happy to be riding 42 X 16 and will brave a try at 42 X 15 soon :banana:

[coylifut]

you have my permission to ride fixed all you want, but it's really fun to go screaming down twisty mountain roads. You'll miss that on your fixe.

[Too Tall]

I like your enthusiasm Smiley.

Specifically you are hoping the fixed riding is making you stronger....yes and no. Others have give really really good throughts on this in other threads worth searching for. Personal opinion is that fixed riding beyond 1500'ish miles during the off season for folks who train for racing is not good and you will lose leg mass. As a means to an end for yourself I'd say it's a good bet for general cardio health and just pegging the fun meter.

Just saying that for comparision. Your new bike is toooo coool man.

[H.Frank Beshear]

Like TooTall Captain I like your enthusiam for the fixed gear. I like it so much that I'm willing to releave you of your shifting burden. Simply send the Hors to my address. :p I'll e-mail you with the paticulars, less shifting for you is a good thing for me err ahh I mean for you :beer: Love the Kogswell by the way. :D Frank

[weisan]

Smiley Captain, it looks like Fly-man has a very very bad influence on you. :D I tried fixie riding for the first time a few months ago and if I may offer some of my personal take on it. Yes, it's fun, no question about that. Would I want to do it ALL the time, probably not. It's a tool in itself. I used it to improve on my spin and constant pedal pressure throughout the revolution, that's it. Because I missed my lugged steel too much to leave it in its perpetual fixed state, I have converted it back to 9speed. But eventually I may use one of the steel frames I found in the junkyard for full-time fixie setup. The benefits I realized in riding a fixie are brought over to riding on rollers, so I don't quite missed it as much. The only regret I have is not keeping my fixie around long enough in order to master trackstanding. Well, that would be next time. Enjoy your Kogwell.

weisan

[Sandy]

"Why do I need a derailleur?" Come on my 42 mile ride from Laytonsville SC on Saturday with your fixee, and you will find out why you need a derailleur. I believe that there are a few hills there which will tell you why, either on the way up or down or both. There is one short but steep one that will certainly tell you why.

You certainly did look quite comfortable on your Kogswell during the ride. Really great looking bike. I love the color,lugs, and the white panel.

The big lug,


Sandy

[Smiley]

Sandy , David and I spoke on River road past all the hills and we both agree'd that the fixee forces you to conserve for the next hill or down hill as it maybe . You can't change gears for the terrain just the effort so you must drain these resevers conservatively . I am glad he LOVES the Raleigh I sold him . No remember I said training rides , club rides are anything but used for training purposes .

[bags27]

Don't want to overly-encourage you, Smiley, but I just read somewhere of the man who's gone 2/3 way round the world on his fixee. He's in Asia now (he's a British school teacher).

I love mine, too: the greatest challenge for me is when I'm on a roll on the flats and I want to go really, really fast. That's harder than the climbing (so far!).

[Ray]

Well, there's all the science of training, and then there's the fun meter, as noted before. I know that I rode fixed almost exclusively for almost a year or year and a half after I first took it up. I dug it so much and it felt like such an elemental form of cycling that I just didn't want to ride the geared bike. Gears felt like some unethical form of cheating. For rides over about 60 miles where I knew there were a LOT of hills, I rode the gears, but otherwise I pretty much stuck to the fixed. I tackled some insane hills on that bike that I wouldn't even think about trying on it now, but it's amazing what you find you CAN do when sufficiently motivated. I eventually learned to appreciate the geared bikes again and now I don't ride fixed that much except in the winter and for around town rides. But if you're on that fixie high, don't fight it unless you have some specific racing/training reason to fight it. When something is THAT much fun, sometimes you just have to run it into the friggin' ground!

-Ray

[Marron]

I am down to one geared bike which my son is borrowing. This weekend I went totally around the bend and fixed my Merckx Ti-AX. With the vertical dropouts it took some experimentation to find a combo that would work, but I settled on 48X17. The resulting bike feels like a rocket on the flats and climbs like one one of my steel fixies set up wtih 44X16. I guess frame weight does matter. I haven't weighted it yet, but I'm guessing the whole bike is under 17 pounds.