Picked this guy up for $30 today. I am planning on stripping this bike down to the frame and custom painting and selling it, but until then I want to ride it around and get a feel for it! I’m in Seattle so it’s fairly hilly and I’ve never ridden fixed gear before, so tips would be helpful. It has a front brake and can be flipped back to a single gear if I wanted to.
Any tips would be appreciated. My regular rides are a modified schwinn volare road bike and a yuba mundo.
by pennyroyals
2 Comments
From now on always share driveside of the bike so I can zoom in a look at the components.
Looks like a decent road bike conversion. Personally I wouldn’t repaint the frame, Ross isn’t anything special but the blue metallic looks quite nice as is and matches the leather saddle and tape well. Cleaning the frame properly and using some rust converter can go a long way. Maybe paint the fork first and see how it goes.
As for riding tips, I’d say start small and get comfortable on the bike. Keep to quiet and flat roads until you’ve built some confidence. I think doing “intervals” where you go from a stop to a cruising speed and slowing back down to a stop, rinse and repeat is the quickest way to gain familiarity. Work on slowing the bike with backpedaling, but make use of the brake – it takes a few goes to build the necessary timing and muscle memory. There’s a few good YouTube channels that have tutorials such as FOAD gang.