Oooh, nice, I just got some omniums as well, they’re pretty nice. Do you know why they got discontinued? They have to be like on of the most popular track cranks out there.
I ran 48-17 for a lot of years, it’s pretty fun. I set up my new bike with 43-18, it’s pretty silly, I can spin out on flat land if I really try, but it’s tons of fun and like I don’t need to go super fast, especially since I ride in traffic a lot. I want to take that bike gravel riding.
I’ve been running 165mm length on my fixed gears for a long time; less risk of pedal clipping when I turn hard. I can definitely see the difference when I get on my touring bike with the longer cranks though.
I’ve run 165mm for quite a while; since it was buying used and all, choices were scant in terms of non flip pricing, but I decided to pull the trigger and try out the 172.5mm crankarms
I don’t do any super tight turns in most of my routes, so I think i’ll be fine; will post pics once it’s all assembled up!
Someone recently showed me that you can check your chain stretch without a tool by pulling on it at the front of your chainring, if it isn’t stretched it shouldn’t pull off the teeth at all, and if you can pull it a bit it might be time to look at a new one. I had never heard that before, but it does seems about right and my chain was pretty trashed.
Pretty cool to see people’s fixed gear builds on here. I just got done switching a few parts on this 2001 Fuji track I got on eBay. It’s actually shaping up to be one of my favorite bikes I’ve owned. Mostly due to lack of storage, I haven’t had a fixed gear bike in about 5 years.
Please excuse the pedals I’m waiting for Mash to re-stock their MKS Sylvan/touring hybrid pedal.
That’s a pretty sweet lookin build, although the lack of foot retention seems a bit scary. Have you tried super wide like MTB bars? they seem to be all the rage these days, I’ve been running 750mm bars on my fixed gear lately and it’s been awesome
This is my daily ride. Late model Falcon Olympic, 1980ish, Nitto moustache bars, vintage Brookes saddle, Shimano 600EX Arabesque groupset with long-cage derailleur, Willow tripliser because I live up a very steep hill.
No foot retention has been just fine besides an absence of whip skids.
I used to have a Mash work frame and I put some big honkin nitto risers on that but I sold that frame to a friend earlier this summer. It was always set up single speed with two brakes and gravel tires though.
Old bike got stolen, found this Marin Palisades Trail on our local Craigslistalike. Slapped on some new bars (Velo Orange Klunker), tyres (Schwalbe Billy Bonkers), pedals, mounts for child seats. Super nimble, relaxed riding position, perfect to bomb around the city and drop off kids left and right. Looking for a nice front rack without breaking bank, if anyone has recommendations please do tell.
Oh dear… that looks like a Pacific Cyles death trap.
Honestly I don’t think it should be legal to sell a bike that looks like a downhill / dirt jumping / whatever trail-ready when in reality it could barely handle a curb. I gurantee that there’s a disclaimer in this bike’s manual that says something to the effect of “only for use on sidewalks” while at first glance it looks like its meant to tear down rocky dirt trails.
I had a pretty bad accident as a younger guy because I thought a department store bike could handle a few bumps. I was riding on a maintained bike trail and saw a rock sticking up maybe the size of an upturned cereal bowl. I hit that rock at low speed and the front fork collapsed like a wire sculpture under a sumo wrestler’s foot. One second I’m riding, the next second I’m sitting on the ground with my legs out in front of me, my whole face and mouth burning.
Explicit yuck warning:
I opened my mouth to say something and a couple teeth and a bucket of blood poured out. A group of older guys playing basketball near by came by to help. One called an ambulance while another had to hold back throwing up - that let me know it wasn’t great. Turns out: when I hit the ground chin-first, I bit my tongue almost completely in half and and broke two front teeth in the process. I’d also broken my nose badly enough to lose most of its cartilage - the surgeon did an amazing job of making it look normal after healing, but it’s essentially a flesh-tent with little support.
It took years for taste speech to return to mostly normal, and I still have breathing issues because my nose likes to close itself.
Say all that to say…
Friends don’t let friends ride department store bikes.
About ten years ago I was working in a shop when that walmart fixed gear came out and lots of people were buying them for ungodly reason (I think it was like $100 or something). I dunno if they still make it but that thing was a legit death trap. We saw several that had like frame defects (out of alignment, bad welds, ect). Our store policy was to not touch them and advise the person to return it because it was not safe when one came in.
I’ve been working on my bikes a lot being stuck at home, my touring bike was really needing some love, I ended up going for an apex 1 drivetrain to replace the 3x9 I had before and some trp spyres to replace my old BB7s. I can’t wait to put a lot of miles on this setup!
