| Topic: | Re:Re:A Pro-Cycling person's comment | |
| Posted by: | Francis Sheehan | |
| Date/Time: | 08/04/22 11:26:00 |
| Hi Andrew thanks for the kind words. Indeed I got out of it lightly. The Range Rover bent my back wheel and sent me flying. Luckily the Lithuanian lorry driver that was coming next was quick on his brakes. Anyway, fixies are fixed wheel bikes. Basically they don't have a freewheel, meaning that if the back wheel turns then the pedals turn too, and if you want to slow down you need to resist pedalling. Many fixies only have a front brake only and alas a large minority haven't got that either. They were designed to be used in velodromes, where braking isn't really needed, but they've become quite common in towns as well. I rode one for a couple of days, found it terrifying (and I used to do MTB downhill in my younger years! in the Alps!) and promptly changed it to a single speed with brakes front and back. I mean a fixie is super fun on an empty street - it feels like a riding a skateboard, or a snowboard, you got to slide a bit in order to brake - but in traffic they are way too tricky, at least for my liking. I have a hybrid flatbar bike with 28mm tyres and SRAM hydraulic disk brakes and even on it, when I need to really pump the brakes - say for instance a car pulls in, or a door opens ahead of me - it takes a few metres and I slide a bit. On a fixie, I'll be crashing. As I said, fixies are really rare in West London (I think I saw only one in Chiswick, and I do check people's bikes as I go around!) but in East London they're a lot more common and, in my opinion, aren't safe for travelling in the city. |