Fixed commute

[Karthick Gururaj]

Hi folks,

Sharing a bit about my start in fixie commuting.. long email. I would have written a shorter version, but I didn't have the time :)

I have been planning to buy a fixie for a while now.. The primary use-case for me is city commute (only 100k of the last 6000k of my rides are non-commute, everything else was between my home/office). I have been using a hybrid (Schwinn Sportterra) for commute. I carry stuff (laptop, lunch, clothes,...) in a shoulder bag pack, don't use a cycle rack. My route has medium to heavy traffic (Hebbal, Mekhri, Windsor being bottlenecks).

Before buying, I decided to first try out Purefix. I rented it for a week from BOTS @2k, but could only ride for about 3 days/100k. This was my first experience on a fixie and the all rides were in moderately heavy traffic. It certainly was quite challenging to slowly cycle in traffic... while I can't do a track-stand for extended time, I was able to manage slow cycling without any incidents. Uphills were much easier than I an anticipated and downhills.. much more difficult.

I had an early (and only, so far) accident just 1k from my home, where I was "surprised" when I stood up from the saddle and my legs automatically tried to coast while going over a bump (at the end of a short downhill). Needless to say, I lost control for couple of secs with the pedal "throwing" me up, but thankfully didn't crash. My phone however flew from the bottle-pouch of the bag-pack and sustained some damages...

How much ever you try to logically reason, it is hard to unlearn muscle memory :)

But otherwise, the ride was great! I tried to ride the "fixie" way as much as possible, using front brakes only in emergencies (and there was one such..). While I didn't know how to skid stop/skip stop, I was slowing down gradually by resisting the pedalling motion. At the end of three days, my thighs were slightly sore.. guess back-pedalling uses different set of muscles.

Decided to buy a fixie finally.. I started looking at what options I have..

First Purefix itself. The cycle looks and feels well built. Far lighter than my regular commuter (from purefix specs page, it is 10.5 kgs). Had bosses for bottle-cage and rack. The deep-rim wheels feel very sturdy and solid (and looks great too!). One issue I had was with the paint on the rims. The wheels look great with paint, but the brake pads cause the paint to flake out and come off when being used (the braking area is also painted). It was only a minor irritant and when I asked about this at BOTS, I was assured that the paint will come off soon with braking and the rim will be seen underneath.

One requirement I had for the cycle was that I should be able to install fenders. The person at BOTS (sorry - didn't ask his name) told that the rear fender install shouldn't be a problem, but may not be able to install a front fender. I found out later that Purefix themselves sell "half" fenders for their fixies - https://www.purecycles.com/products/mini-fender?variant=30376302151. Also, looks like we should be able to install SKS "race-blades".

The riser handle-bar was nearly as wide as my hybrid (I think..) and very familiar. Grips were comfortable. I was planning to only use platform pedals, and I liked the Wellgo pedals that came with the bike. Other thing I liked was the minimal branding/decals on the cycle.

The other "metric" I used was how much more expensive the bike was w.t.t it's US price.. My (admittedly kinda shaky) reasoning was that the US price represents how good the bike is (more accurately than INR price can). Purefix sells for $ 350 in US and the INR price from BOTS is almost the same (23.5k). That seems like a great deal to me.

I started doing a little bit more research and saw how many recommended Cromoly alloy frames over hi-ten steel. Purefix _is_ hi-ten steel. I found later that Purefix also has a "PureFix Premium" range with CrMo alloy frames (https://www.purecycles.com/collections/all/pure-fix-premium) for about $ 100 more, but I didn't see those on BOTS website. I didn't enquire around more, but started checking other options..

Fyxation was an other choice. BOTS/Happy Earth had Pixel in stock. It is about 38.5k (or about double the USD price). Happy Earth also had Fyxation Eastside track frameset for 18.5k (about same as USD price). I directly checked with Aravind of Happy Earth and got useful inputs. Eastside is a "full" Cromoly frame, but building a bike will be ~55k. Pixel is Cromoly for the main triangle and the stays are hi-ten steel. Comparing PureFix and Fyxation, components are generally better in Pixel. I also spoke to Riyaz at Crankmeister to get an opinion on custom build and Fyxation in general. His commuter was Pixel and he recommended it unreservedly. Pixel, being a commuter bike (and not meant for track racing), also had enough thrown in for fitting a rear rack, fenders and such. Pixel was indeed a good choice, if only I could get it at its US price :) I briefly explored options there - to check if I can get it with me during a future trip to US, but dropped that idea later.

I also checked few other bikes (just on the web). One was Scolarian, which had very reasonable priced (25k - 30k) good looking bikes (and is an Indian brand). Other was Astr Sidewinder (also Indian) on which I saw a favorable review by Lord Venky (http://www.govenkygo.com/2016/04/bike-review-astr-sidewinder-indian.html). While Venky writes that Sidewinder felt better to handle than Pixel, I also heard the other way around from some folks I spoke to. Sidewinder comes in many colorful forms, but there is an all black version that I was considering. Price was about 35k, slightly cheaper than Pixel. Both Scolarian and Sidewinder feature Cromoly framesets.

I spoke to Shariq of Life Behind Bars that will stock Astr cycles, and got useful general gyan on fixie. Seems these guys go on "brakeless" fixie rides (not for me!). Shariq also mentioned couple of cheaper SS options - Fomas Road king/City king (http://cyclocraft.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=64_66&product_id=417) - steel single-speed for about 11k. I looked these up, but was sure that I wanted a fixie, not just SS. Shariq also mentioned Fuji stocked by Cycling Boutique (http://www.cyclingboutique.in/83-fixies-single-speeds). There were two models that cost nearly the same: Fuji Declaration and Fuji Track comp. Declaration main frame is made from "Elios 1", that seems to be Fuji-speak for hi-ten steel. The slightly more expensive Track comp has forks made of "Elios 2", seems to be Cromoly and main frame is "some alloy"... I spent some time researching on Fuji (and realised the INR prices are again quite high compared to the USD prices of these). But reviews were mostly favorable. 

BTW, I should mention that Mercier Kilo TT got the most favorable reviews (in terms of value for price) that I could see.. http://www.cyclesmercier.com/big_tt.html

Finally I chanced upon an old FB post by Venky (the other one, from Wheelsports) on Polygon Zenith fixie. I had a tough time finding a good review online (most were in non-English - I read those too with google translate). But I liked what I saw and also liked that it was available for 26k from Wheelsports (last piece!). This went "against" some of my original requirements - can't fix bottle cage, rack or fenders. But I also liked that it was very "simple". So one fine day I went to Wheelsports - a very nondescript office that had lots of cycles hanging about and some folks that were just talking about cycling - and bought it just looking at the boxed piece. Venky and Naveen helped with setting the cycle up and I rode it back to my place. Venky fed a lot of tit-bits on the cycle itself, his earlier experience with racing and stuff. He also noticed my shoes (Vivo - a barefoot brand) and we talked about Sharath who used to have a Vivo store in Jayanagar few years back. Anil's name also came up as someone who has promoted fixie for last few months in BLR :) What Wheelsports lack in glitz, it more than makes up with a sense of homeliness.

I have used it now for about 2 weeks/160 km and like it so far.

- The bull bar handlebar makes perfect sense on a fixie, IMHO. You are never going fast enough to really need aero advantages of a drop-bar and the bull-bar offers more comfortable holding positions than riser on an uphill.

- The cycle is really light - at 9 kgs (with pedals/front brakes) (measured on home weighing scales, could be +/- 100 gm). The Schwinn weighs 14.5 kgs (with fenders, pedals, bottlecage, kickstand, lock...). That difference is telling

- Uphills are really easy. Being a commuter with a fixed route and fixed timings for years, Strava PRs are usually very hard to come by.  But could manage 2 PRs in 2 weeks with the fixie

- Downhills are much tougher. My mental route map earlier included all uphills, now I'm aware of downhills as well. Obviously a different gearing might address this - but I wanted to cycle with stock setup as far as possible

- The cycle stands out! Almost on every ride someone has asked about the cycle and waved at me. And it gets attention when I'm waiting at signals

- The hard plastic seat is comfy, but getting discoloured.

- The white bar-tape is no longer white, obviously. Will be one of the first things I'll change.

- Minimum decals

- Surprisingly, the chain doesn't seem to get the "black stuff" (Al₂O₃)! I don't fully understand this magic, guessing the chain and cogs are also steel?

- Hating traffic, obviously.

Some pics attached.

There are couple of holes on the stays - visible in one of the pics. Any idea what these are?

- Karthick

[sandeep shet]

Wow.. Awesome review and awesome post. You make me want to get one these now :)

Thanks a lot for the detailed analysis. 

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Regards,
Sandeep Shet
+91 9986122862

[Chidambaran Subramanian]

I've been wanting to buy one for ages now , and have budgeted for it as well. Unfortunately I'll have to figure out how to accomodate one more cycle at home. I still retain the child bike (20 inch) since I use it to teach

Regards

Chiddu

[Karthick Gururaj]

Sandeep, thanks! One thing I forgot to mention is to start easy.. I managed to pull my calf muscle in my enthusiasm to spin fast and taking rest now (since I'm anyway on travel/vacation now).

Chiddu, I too need to work on parking these at home.. next project is to install a cycle stand in my parking lot.

Karthick

[Chidambaran Subramanian]

Cycle stand is a good idea. Only people tinker and remove the magnet, cyclocomp and stuff, so have found leaving my cycle down in my parking lot a pain.

[Pradeep Naidu]

Congratulations karthik

It's an awesome bike.. But you may have to change the chain ring.. it's 42 teeth.. 

Consider 48 .. you will get it from happy earth

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[Karthick Gururaj]

Thanks Pradeep! I saw a post from you about a year back on the same bike. I'll run with stock components for a while, but I agree 48 teeth cog makes sense.. 

- Karthick

[Shailesh Mistry]

Really well written.

- Shailesh

[Blackmamba]

There are couple of holes on the stays - visible in one of the pics. Any idea what these are?

- Karthick

those holes are to let in the airflow to drive out the moisture.

its been 2 years on zenith fx for me on my commutes, every single ride is a pleasure, i ride in SS mode not in fixie mode thou  

[Sandeep]

On Wed, Dec 28, 2016 at 8:20 PM, Karthick Gururaj <karthick...@gmail.com> wrote:

There are couple of holes on the stays - visible in one of the pics. Any idea what these are?

http://davesbikeblog.squarespace.com/blog/2013/2/18/vent-holes.html 

[Karthick Gururaj]

Thanks Sandeep, Blackmamba/Guru! The comments in the blog URL that Sandeep sent are also interesting to read.

- Karthick

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[Shankar Shastry]

Wow. That is a very detailed buyer's review. Congratulations on the new bike and thanks for sharing your experience!