Hey everyone!
I’m struggling to truly understand the differences between
-Track Bikes
-Road Bikes
-Fixie?
-Everything inbetween lol
My main use of a bike would be semi-long distance (10-20 miles) distances, fitness oriented, & taking it out of town to explore cities.
After some research, i’m seeing that fixie bikes are relatively cheaper but don’t have a breaking mechanism? do you back pedal to stop the back tire?
a lot of people say that fixie bikes aren’t meant for the road/bike paths and are meant for “track” riding
other people state that it can be used for long distance rides but people recommend installing hand breaks which ill most likely do.
I’m a complete beginner to biking. Would one of these two options be good as a starting bike for the foreseeable few years just for fun/leisure/fitness and long distance? Or, should I be looking elsewhere. Thanks a ton.
by nvves
8 Comments
As a complete beginner, shop hy rid,.gravel and road bikes in that order.
Hybrid bikes have roadnm wheels and flat bars. Cheaper to replace/upgrade parts. Not as aerodynamic in design or riding position.
Gravel bikes have road bike style controls, knobby tires for light off road riding and are more durable than road bikes.
Road bikes are for fast riding on smooth roads, potentially for long distance. If you’re considering going a club, you may want one.
Track bikes are meant to be raced on velodromes.
Fixies are anything with a fixed gear setup, no coasting. They may be track bikes or converted vintage bikes with horizonal dropout. Often have a flip-flop rear hub with fixed gear threads on one side and freewheel threads in the other.
Fixie is a one way ticket to a surgical reconstruction of your face. Total death trap.
You see the types of bike listed as being similar, as their frames appear the same. A road bike typically has narrow wheel/tire width, drop bars, and a range of gears. Very efficient and a pleasure to ride, but requires some maintenance. A fixie IS a track bike, so similar to a road bike but with only 1 gear. The other different is that a fixie has the pedals and rear wheel permanently conjoined. In any bike you have cycled before, you can ‘Free wheel’, IE. Stop pedalling. On a fixie, if the back wheel is spinning then so are the pedals. The way to stop on a fixie is to do a controlled skid of the back wheel (by stopping the pedals and therefore, the back wheel). On the street, this is simply dangerous. Of course, many people use them. I have a bike very similar to a fixie, but I have a ‘flip flop’ rear hub, so I turn the back wheel 180° and it then has a free hub like a road bike. I cycle this single speed ‘fixie style’ bike on a daily basis, with hand breaks. My recommendation to you is to assess the area you live in, if there is ANY type of hilliness in the terrain, get a bike with gears. Old, used road bikes can be procured for a very fair price. Just ensure it fits you properly.
EDIT: replaced word in sentence
I ride them all, people that are against fixed gear, do not have control on a bike.
A fixie/track bike/fixed gear are all the same bike. Horizontal drop outs, fixed into one gear.
I’ve done 50-100 mile rides on a fixed gear, the idea of stopping is just press up when pedaling to lock the rear end, you can always run a brake until you’re comfortable doing this or as a safety measure.
I got a gravel bike last year but I still ride my track bike with friends through the streets, it is an indescribable feeling & nice to take out something that cost me less than $1000 to custom build up.
Be prepared to fall until you get used to the bike, if you get a fixie, be sure to buy foot retention ( foot straps or clipped in, I’d recommend foot straps as a beginner)
A fixed gear will teach you good biking technics as you can’t stop pedaling.
If you want geared for less than $1200:
State All Road
Surly Premable
Salsa Journeyer
There is a lot of variation in single speed bicycles. All the bikes have one gear up front and one in the rear. This means you need to balance speed vs climbing ability
*Track/fixed gear/fixie*: the defining feature is that the rear wheel cannot spin faster or slower than the cranks are turning. This means that there is no way to coast. This does not sound like that big a deal until you get bucked by forgetting to pedal. Going downhill is difficult. A common place people coast is through corners. When you can’t there is a chance to have a pedal strike the ground. Backpedaling downhill is a skill as is spinning as fast as you are willing to go. There is a subcategory brakeless fixie or velodrome bike. On a velodrome fixed gear racing bikes are run without a brake. Some people get a thrill or like the skill of riding in mixed traffic without a brake. It requires the ability to read the flow of traffic and it is important to know how to skid. It puts a lot of responsibility on other road users to be predictable and nothing unexpected to happen. I would not recommend that style of riding. This is what people are talking about when they say fixies belong on a racetrack. Most places require at least one brake to be installed on a road bicycle.
*Single speed*: while the term can be used in a general sense it more commonly is describing a bike that allows coasting. The wheel can spin faster or slower than the cranks. There can be a lot of variety. Dutch style bikes are often single speed. Beach cruisers are similar. Young kids bikes etc. There are nich categories like single speed MTBs or belt drive bikes.
It is common for bikes being sold as fixies to come with a flip-flop hub. If you put the wheel in one way it is fixed gear. Flip it 180 then it is a single speed that can coast. A velodrome bike won’t have that feature.
I commuted on a fixed gear/single speed bike for several years. The upside is that there is almost no maintenance needed. A little oil on the chain every now and again. Replace tires when they wear. The area I was in was very flat. The biggest climb was going over a highway. Much of the time I used it as a fixie. When I started riding it less I made it a single speed.
Complete beginner to biking.
True track fixie.
Oh boy, who’s got the popcorn. (Non-sarcastically. Just no. Absolutely not. Get something with gears and brakes.)
When I was a stupid 22 year old in college town I rode around on one of those things, no brain bucket or anything. I’m lucky to be alive lol. They’re incredibly difficult at times, and if you loose your footing you’re fucked. Like, turbo fucked. I had been riding for years and I could not pull off a skid stop. Only intense back pedal pressure and “planning ahead” so to speak. So it does make you more situationally alert, I’ll give it that. It is impossible to stop one as efficiently and safely as a bike with brakes. Without contest. Not open to discussion. Physics dictate this.
If you really must have a single gear ratio, get a single speed which is differentiated from a fixed gear/fixie as it has a freewheel and brakes. I don’t recommend it unless you want every day to be leg day. And it will be. And it will also be cardio day when you have to maintain a cadence of 100 rpm at speed. And as a beginner without time to perfect form, you’re going to injure yourself.
As a complete beginner don’t buy a fixie.
Buy a classic urban bike, commuter bike, maybe trekking bike depending on the brand.
Yeah the Tsunami SNM is a great option. The weapon is cool but i think anyone’s first fixie should be steel. Definitely run brakes.
There’s kinda two camps for fixie folk I’ve noticed; one of em is the hyper aggressive, alley cat racing, brakeless and careless vibe. The other one is like 90% of the folks I’ve ran into in the scene. Jus chill. I’ll bang out a metric century on my brakeless endurance setup but you best believe I’m not trying to race the lights or give anyone a hard time. I converted my surly mtb to fixed too, and it’s a killer, but it’s a lot like that Monty python scene of one of the knights rushing the hill… and still rushing the hill… and still rushing…
Anywho the nice thing about a Tsunami is that it’ll come with a flip flop hub, and prolly a single speed cog. They’re also geared towards endurance, and you can make it a lot faster if you’re there.
Lookin back, even though I wish I had made my first serious bike a tsunami, that is a bit of an off the deep end sorta choice. Do you know what size frame you ride? I’d start with the local used markets. Even a beat to hell fixie is gonna roll a lot harder than a road bike in similar condition.
And just to clarify, a fixie and a track bike are almost exactly the same, but a track bike tends to be designed around velodrome racing, and can have a price tag to match. A fixie is either the exact same bike, or designed for the street. The main thing we get outa a fixed gear set up, is an ungodly amount of momentum. Because the bike can’t coast, there’s a lot more energy in the system. You have to be thinking a lot more about where that momentum is gonna go, and I always say that my mind is on the next three intersections at any given time. Feel free to shoot me a message bc I will keep on talking about this.
Welcome to bicycling. Yes, it can be very confusing. The key thing for you to remember, is that with a fixie bicycle, if that back wheel is rotating, the pedals will always also be rotating. You cannot coast, or simply stop peddling and keep the bike moving forward like you could on old kid bikes. Those are called coaster break Bikes. You pedal forward for momentum and speed, and you can stop peddling, and the bicycle will coast and slowly eventually on its own stop. On a coaster break bike you simply back pedal a little bit and it engages a break in the rear hub. You cannot do that on any other kind of bicycle. Go to a local bike shop and talk to them so they can make sure you get what you need. You will never regret it. Don’t be afraid to try more than one shop as not every bike shop personality matches with every potential customer.