Hi all,


took my newly converted fixie out for a ride yesterday. i've never ridden one before and it kicked my ass. just couldnt keep up going down hill.

my question is... how much stress does it put on this front wheel to "ride the brake" when going downhill? should i just avoid hills until i can keep up with them ( i guess by starting small and building up?)? or am i worrying needlessly?

thanks,
Logan

Your front brake is for just that...braking. It does not stress the wheel in any way. If you are on a really long descent (more than a mile or two) and you're riding the front brake the whole way, your rim may get very hot and you will lose stopping power and maybe cause a tire blowout. This is a pretty rare occurence though, so don't get too worried about it.

You're doing a lot more damage to your rear wheel and lockring by regularly doing skid stops.

Silas

Why don't you just put on a rear brake too?

The white-belt hipsters are the only ones that care, and they're too skinny to do anything about it anyway. They'll just sneer a bit, and won't invite you to the under-18 club that you weren't invited to anyway. :D

Since you didn't complain about climbing it sounds like there's room to go up.

I find I can maintain a higher cadence trying to make the bike go faster than I can maintain trying to keep up with the bike. You'll need the brake less and less as you ride fixed more.

I agree with the suggestion to try a bigger gear. And you'll eventually get the hang of using back pressure and the front brake together on the downhills to keep your speed in check. With practice, you'll be able to slow the bike effectively without the redundancy of adding a rear brake.

A bigger gear could help, but you will of course pay a corresponding price climbing the hill. I'd select a gear that works well for you on the flats but still let's you climb as big and steep a hill as you need to. I think that selecting a big gear to ease the descent is backwards.

Just brake enough to slow yourself to a pace the feels comfortable. It's OK. Really. There's no loss of fixie purity to use your brake. I've ridden hills and mountains on my fixies. I've braked just a front brake on 15-20 mile descents on very hot days with no problem. Enjoy your new ride.

thanks for the advice. i eventually plan on moving up a gear but right now thats probably out of my league. most of the riding around here will include a lot of hills, some long some short. for now... practice practice practice. luckily thats synonymous with fun.

Actually, what annoys me most is that my braking hand tires easily on those long descents. Sure, those single pivot calipers look cool but if that's all you have in the front, they're not very effective for riding on the brake. Dual pivots are much more effective.....a front disc even more so. I've even considered installing a front disc for long distance rides.
But of course, an easiler solution here is to have front and rear brakes.....makes long descents much more ridable and less tiring....:)

Road bike levers aren't very good ergonomically. You get a lot more leverage with mtb style levers. There's always the tandem trick of hooking a rear brake to a shift lever as a drag brake.

Actually, what annoys me most is that my braking hand tires easily on those long descents.

A common problem which is easily resolved by setting up your front brake to act as a drag brake when you flip down that little brake lever.

Focus on your breathing when doing long descents. You'll be surprised how guickly your legs can spin if you remain calm. Focus on a deep steady rythm for breathing and then actively pedal, don't let your legs go all gumby. You'll be how quickly you can go down the same hill without scrubbing speed with a brake - not to say you won't ever need to scrub speed, just not as often.

Instead of resisting momentum with the brakes, try to focus on using your legs to ride the speed you want to go. Its counter-intuitive to pedal down a hill when you want to be going slower, but it can be much easier to control you speed than focusing on resistance.

I don't recommend riding the brake. I usually use it to slow down a little more than necessary so I can let off and give the pads and rim a chance to cool down.

In the meantime, while you practice, practice, practice (which is the real solution), you just need to relax on the descents. Your legs are able to spin safely a lot faster than you think on a fixie so long as you let them and don't freak out. Having a brake, you really don't have anything to worry about on the hills. Nonetheless, there's really only so fast that your otherwise limp legs can move without causing enough resistence to slow you down somewhat. It's not like you'll just keep going faster and faster. As long as your relaxed and comfortable, you'll be fine. You might try finding a fairly safe long straight hill and lettin' 'er rip to ee what I mean. And get a way bigger ratio while you're at it.

I have only front brake, and I found out quickly that I prefer two handbrakes.
Well, I'll put back the rear brake when the snow has disappeared.

BTW, if the descent is steep, it helps to stand up, lean back and resist the pedalling to get better braking with the legs if you need to slow quick or halt down the hill.
I live underneath a hill, so I was forcered to find out how to stop without using handbrakes. :)
Sometimes it helps to flick the bicycle, like when you are climbing, but be careful, it's big forces going wild here!
Be smooth and careful, and grip the bar really hard.

My first descendending with a fixie did really blow my mind, I did not expect that this was
so fun. Sometimes it is really awful when my legs are tired, so I uses the handbrake a lot.