I'm looking for a cheap fixie

[simon Lythgoe]

the best price I can find for one in the uk is Argos:
[url]http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?storeId=10001&catalogId=1500002901&langId=-1&searchTerms=FIXIE[/url]
Does anyone know if anywhere else that's cheaper or better value?
Thanks
Simon

[Andrew G]

It should be fixed not fixie .

Personally I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole, at that price it will almost certainly be scafold poles and crap kit.

Not having gears means you save money, but if you pay peanuts you'll still get a pile of rubbish. Just because you don't need gear shifters etc doesn't mean you should have rubbish tubing and finishing kit, and although the chainring/sprocket etc are tougher (especially if 1/8th track stuff) if they're cheap then they'll wear out or break very quickly. Quality kit isn't expensive for fixed so getting budget isn't worth it to my mind.

I have a Pearson Touche (aluminium) which is superb, they also do a steel version called the Hanzo (didn't come out until a couple of years after I'd got mine or I'd have got that), and Specialized do the Langster which is okay. Planet X do a Pompino which is also very good. All of these can be had for reasonable money, they won't be peanuts but they will be good bikes.

If you want it to ride it properly then you want normal drop bars and hoods to make it a proper bike (brake hoods make climbing much easier too), the Hanzo and Touche have mudguard clearances for winter riding. Silly little flat bars and short front brake cables are fine if you just want to ponce about pretending to be cool, but if you want to ride the bike then they make the thing steer with the grace and ease of swapping handlebars for a rudder, and the short cable means the braking is very urgent as it becomes much more like a switch operation - on/off.

[John G]

[quote="Andrew G"]It should be fixed not fixie .

Personally I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole, at that price it will almost certainly be scafold poles and crap kit.

Not having gears means you save money, but if you pay peanuts you'll still get a pile of rubbish. Just because you don't need gear shifters etc doesn't mean you should have rubbish tubing and finishing kit, and although the chainring/sprocket etc are tougher (especially if 1/8th track stuff) if they're cheap then they'll wear out or break very quickly. Quality kit isn't expensive for fixed so getting budget isn't worth it to my mind.

I have a Pearson Touche (aluminium) which is superb, they also do a steel version called the Hanzo (didn't come out until a couple of years after I'd got mine or I'd have got that), and Specialized do the Langster which is okay. Planet X do a Pompino which is also very good. All of these can be had for reasonable money, they won't be peanuts but they will be good bikes.

If you want it to ride it properly then you want normal drop bars and hoods to make it a proper bike (brake hoods make climbing much easier too), the Hanzo and Touche have mudguard clearances for winter riding. Silly little flat bars and short front brake cables are fine if you just want to ponce about pretending to be cool, but if you want to ride the bike then they make the thing steer with the grace and ease of swapping handlebars for a rudder, and the short cable means the braking is very urgent as it becomes much more like a switch operation - on/off.

[Andrew G]

Track's good fun. No need to worry about not having brakes, no-one else does .

You should try the Calshot wall of death John.

[Phil H]

I reckon a club trip to Calshott could be interesting. Ridden it a couple of times - as has Tom.

Anyhow, I converted my old 531 bike to fixed for commuting. Might have overgeared it a bit for days like today (trip home: savage headwind, uphill) but it's nice to pootle about on. The conversion wasn't hard - some washers for spacing the back wheel/getting the chainline right.

[simon Lythgoe]

No track riding, the other end of the spectrum..... attaching a kiddie bike seat/trailer.
The bike's for pootling around with the kids rather than anything serious.
That said, combing the two could create a new sport
Lessons for the day... "no" to buying crap bikes and "no" to calling them "fixies"

[John G]

[quote="Andrew G"]Track's good fun. No need to worry about not having brakes, no-one else does .

You should try the Calshot wall of death John.

[quote="John G"][quote="Andrew G"]Track's good fun. No need to worry about not having brakes, no-one else does .

You should try the Calshot wall of death John.

[quote="Phil the Pie"][quote="John G"][quote="Andrew G"]Track's good fun. No need to worry about not having brakes, no-one else does .

You should try the Calshot wall of death John.

[Phil H]

There are a couple of videos on my YouTube thing from Calshot (including my demonstration of what happens when a foot comes unclipped). It's possible to book the whole thing - not sure whether a coach is mandatory.

[Andrew G]

We went in Jan 2008 - [url=http://www.addiscombe.org/members/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5799&hilit=calshot]link[/url].

It is best to book with a coach, it keeps everything simple and they help out newcomers to both track itself and Calshot as Herne Hill and Calshot have somewhat different banking. The coach also sorts things in to exercises so you get a mix of things and some competition. It wasn't very expensive, the biggest cost would probably be your petrol bill for the drive down rather than your share of the track/coach costs.

[Sylv]

Yay to Calshot

[Mike I]

A coach is compulsory at Calshot. If you get a group of about a dozen, it should cost about £15 each for a couple of hours. By the end of that you'll be very dizzy but will doing team pursuit change overs without too much trouble. I'm up for another trip, as I had to bail out of the last one with food poisoning.

Back on topic, though, Condor do a few variations, no doubt to cater for the hipster and courier markets. I've been quite pleased with my Tempo, which I use for commuting and winter "training". Unlike many of its kind, it has (1) forward facing horizontal drop-outs (rather than track ends) so you can fix mudguards and still get the back wheel off and (2) rack eyes, so you can carry babies and stuff for extra resistance. Cost a bit more than the Pearson or the Langster though.

[Phil H]

Back off topic: I've sent a speculative mail to Calshot enquiring about rates, availability etc. Would it be worth booking a longer session and trying to get one group of mental fast boys and another group of slower novices? I know from experience that even a 35 lap scratch race without a break can do your head in there.

Back on topic: a lot of the older frames (like my commuter) have the dropouts as Mike described - forward horizontal. You can probably pick up a frame for < £100, front wheel as normal and find a fixed back wheel. Older frames built for 5/6/7 speed don't have quite as wide spacing as 9/10 speed but still normally wider than track so I just got a bunch of washers from Homebase.

And don't forget to keep pedalling.

[carl f]

+1 to what Andrew said about the argos 'fixie' , it also looks orrible.....
Calshot sounds like fun,any ideas of month or dates?