Commute Bike

[djcromie]

is a single speed a wise idea for a commute to work?? the distance would be about 16km, from blanch to santry with not much in the way of hills

seen one of these on ebay can be fixed or free wheel, cheap and low maintenance

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=280348510777

what say you

ta

mark

[ollietrex]

I think they are ok for using around town and stuff but on rides of any distance I found them to be just hard work. I went from a 10km fixie ride to work to a 16km and changed my bike for a normal road bike.

That said those fixies do look quite cool.

[paddyobrien]

jaysus .. simply mentioning a singlespeed brings him out of the woodwork!

[djcromie]

thats amazin he must have sensed a disruption in the singlespeed/time continuum.....

thanks Ollie, it was the look of the bike that caught my eye at first, then the price, made me think.........

the hub is one of them flip flop yokes with a freewheel would that make any difference, or is the singlespeededness a factor as well??

[Gavin]

Plenty of discussion on those bikes on boards.ie. The conclusion is that they are tripe, poor components and will fall apart.

A decent singlespeed/fixie is fine for a good distance. I did 15k each way on my trusty fixie Banana bike for a few years. You won't have much luck finding a decent singlespeed for 200 quid, unless you get lucky with a secondhand, or a good offer. Giant Bowerys were going cheap for a while, as were Specialized Tricross's.

[tommyv]

I saw one of those up close a couple of days ago, not great quality, you can see instantly why they're so cheap. I commute from Milltown into the city centre on my single speed Tricross, don't need gears, works fine without. Geared road bikes can be found cheaper than SS's however, single speed is an advantage in that it is less maintainence and a far decreased chance of chain breakage, gears I don't think are that much of an advantage, you'll rarely change if you have a good ratio, I have 44/16 which is fine for me.

[djcromie]

Thanks for that Gavin, I was like a magpie drawn to their fancy colour schemes....

[djcromie]

thanks tommy, yeah I like the idea of no maintenance as I would rather spend the time lookin after my yeti and sx trail than the work horse

them tricrosses look nice.....hmmm food for thought

[rockinupthebigstuff]

Mate i only ever ride the fixie to work these days
With the crap weather and the crap roads the 20km spin each way every day was killing my nice trek.
Fixie is great for the legs although the first week or so u will be dying.
also if u are doing distance maybe 44/15 would be good .. i just changed from a 16 rear and am loving it (might even go a 14). if there are no hills and u are doing distance u want a fairly heavy ratio as your legs will be going a million miles an hour on the flats.

those fixies look nice but the real joy of a fixie is building her yourself out of an old banger. On that note i rekon i spent almost that much building my last fixie : ( turned out to be a nightmare.

The real things is the wheels and the crank and BB (as they are under a lot of pressure if fixed), if those things have nice wheels and a good crank set you are in business i rekon.
u can build up the rest from there if u want to buy nicer stuff.

[djcromie]

Thanks Josef, in fairness I'm a lazy bugger and would rather just get something ready to rock. Think Tommy and Gavin were sayin them bikes aren't the best even though they look right good, I've my eye on a couple of things on ebay, so you never know what i'll end up with.....

[ollietrex]

I was looking at a Tricross of something as I really wanted a flip hub thing but when I looked at the price I ended up getting a cross bike so if I wanted to in the winter I could go cross racing.

Guess its just what you really want it for....