A used fixed Gear or single speed track/road bike

I ride a 42/16, but then i climb a 200m hill at grades of up to 11% everyday, to and from work. Still hit 40 km/h in the city, on the flat, though. It’s good spinning practice.

And my bike has brakes because it’s a single speed, not a fixed gear, so they’re kind of important.

YMMV
have fun!

Setting up for the flat is going to cost you customers. Most people who take the sport seriously AREN’T the ones on the flat bike paths, most of whom are happy with their NT$1,500-NT$3,000 bikes – just look around. The ones who spend more serious money (and NT$13,000 in Taiwan is considered approaching serious money for a bike for a non-fanatic) spend MOST of their time riding in the hills, because let’s face it, apart from Taipei City, MOST of the surrounding country is very hilly indeed. Certainly the nicest roads for cycling are hilly.

This is simple a different style of riding and urban culture that is under your radar at this point. youll understand a bit later once it becomes more main stream. once you ride a fixed gear there is no going back. i met a lot of bicycle company owners and designers from all over the world at the taipei bicycle trade show. people who sell folding bikes, road bikes, electric bikes they all rode fixed gear in their personal lives. This is a younger sport. if your over 40 you will never know about it till its real main stream. There must be a market if nike has decided to launch a shoe for it this july.

42/16 is great for a single speed because its versatile and you can coast. for our single speeds people can choose a smaller cog but the chain ring will be a set 48t. so maybe 48/15. going 40km on a fixie or bike period is fast 42/16 pushes the cadence way to high for a comfortable ride on a fixie.

if your ever interested in riding around anyone let me know. i live in dongchu area.

Well, I sure hope that’s not directed at me!

I may be over 40, but i have been reading fyxomatosis for years, almost since Track Cunt first started it, for one thing, and for another, it IS mainstream already, except not in Taiwan. Why else would Nike be doing anything for it? In fact, it’s so mainstream already, and has been so hipstered to death, that the really cool people are riding singlespeed cyclocross. Messenger bags? Meh. Knuckle tattoos? Double schmeh. it’s not about the ‘style’, it’s the fact that you ride that’s important.

It pays to have a cycling-mad family, including track stars and road racers.

And if you miss out on riding the hills in Taiwan, as the Sandman says, it’s a crime. Taiwan has some of the best roads in the world, all of them hilly.

But fixed gear is good too. There’s room for all perversions.

edit: the mass market here IS the bike path users, and they won’t ever need a gear that high either. how about 45/17 for a gear with lots of skid patches, but not too tall? better for skids too with a lower ratio than the massive 48/15 you’re proposing. and I know Sugino makes a 45 for the messenger.

Yeah, I’m over 40, but I live in an area very VERY popular with cyclists and I’ve cycled myself for many many years. I also work in media and I’m fairly confident I’ve got my finger fairly close to the pulse. Urban cyclists? Hardly ANY, dude, except for old obasans on their rusty old shopping bikes. Not many people cycle on the city streets unless they’re on their way to the outskirts of the city to cycle in the surrounding areas.
Sure, there’s bound to be a fad among a small clique of youngsters with money to spend, but you need to remember, this isn’t the states or Europe – it’ll be a fad like all the other fads that come and go here. Plus, those kids who can afford these bikes for fun will most likely be looking for established brand names and won’t be very interested in a cheap no-name bike. Brand consciousness is king here, not price or even quality.
If it were me, I’d be for sure trying to get them made here, but for export. The idea of making money locally off what will remain a tiny niche market here – especially selling a low-price unit that isn’t really very low price – I’d need to be very very sure of the market.
If you want to see what the vast majority of young people ride in the city, go to the Taida campus or the bike racks at Gongguan.

That said, I just discovered an old but nice Giant road frame on my roof, which I’m thinking of making into a project bike – strip and refinish the frame and make it into a fixed-wheeler. Are there places to buy parts here in Taiwan such as wheelsets, etc? Are they so expensive I’d be as well just buying a new bike, or what?

my first comment was directed at sandman. I can tell uradocus knows about this type of cycling. My comment also wasnt meant to be negative but more to shine a light on the fact that our perspectives are different. within my age group and social circles i am up on whatever is new and trendy at this moment. i come from a city that had this fixie/hipster culture and see it growing here just a few years behind. I see fixed gear as becoming way bigger than bmx ever did in its day since i was a little kid. my perspective is different than someone who has been out of it for a while. parents never understand why their kids dress a way or listen to a type of music but it always happens generation to generation. anyway to each their own if your riding a bike thats great and i have been missing out on hills and other types of cycling and would be down for all of it. its just at this point i am focusing all attention on riding fixed gear because it takes so much practice. i love it though. its like skateboarding or surfing or any other individual sport that gives you the feeling of accomplishment when you learn a new trick or skill.

i was thinking 48/15 for single speed because you could coast so skid patches wouldnt matter. ill order a bunch of different cogs to swap out but will probably stick with the 48t chain ring.

Sand man for that old giant on the roof. check the spacing for the rear hub. if its 120mm then finding a fixed gear hub souldnt be a problem. most likely it will be a bit bigger and then you will need to get a conversion kit or a longer axle. also be for that you need to make sure the drop outs are horizontal. http://images.google.com.tw/images?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=I8W&ei=xhMNSoz_F6HOMtjmrJ8G&resnum=0&q=horizontal+dropouts&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=yBMNSvTbJ4SUMt2dxbkG&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title
the kids at any univeristy here are not a good representation because they dont know about fixed gear yet. taiwan is slow. go to a university in a major metro city in the US and 30% of the bikes there will be fixed/single speed bikes. possibly old bike converted.

Well, I wish you all the luck in the world. But I still think you’re WAY overestimating your Taiwan market. And thanks for the info. I have one of those calibrated measuring caliper tools, so I’ll measure up tonight.
If I can swap parts straight in it might be a go. Depends on how much they’ll cost, though. I’m also a pessimist, though, so I just bet the seatpost and headstock dimensions will be some no-longer-obtainable size and “by gum, lad, I haven’t seen a bottom bracket that size since Chiang jing-kuo was in nappies!”
I’m betting the frame doesn’t have horizontal dropouts though. No matter. I’ll probably rig something up with a chopped old derailleur or even just try the tensioner that’s attached to the swingarm of my old MTB. I’m sure it’ll do for the kind of riding I envisage, i.e., no tricks – I basically just like 'em for their sleek uncluttered looks, vain git that I am.

if i had my druthers i’d buy a fixed gear, a mountain bike and a road bike and an LEV and ride them on different days of the week dependin’ on how I felt (to paraphrase Tom Waits).

Sandman: if the spacing is wider than 120mm, you can always cold-set a steel frame fairly safely to get thre. I’m guessing your bike has a 125mm rear spacing.

I can supply you with a 1 inch diameter carbon fork with reasonable Ritchey headset that should press fit right into that old Giant. and even a classic bend drop handlebar and stem!

wheelsets will not be the easiest to source here, but there are a couple of fixie shops recently opened. see top of thread. then all you need are a crank, pedals, etc… I have some decent second hand bits if you’re keen on making my move easier by taking them off my hands.

Are you KIDDING? I’d be very grateful indeed! Problem is, I don’t have any money – certainly not the kind of money I imagine you’d be looking for. Bike bits that you’ve used probably aren’t made in Cambodia out of old sardine cans, I’m guessing.

I ride my bike to work every day. I don’t think I’d ever ride a fixed wheel bike. That’s why they invented gears. I guess back in the 1870’s they were pretty popular. I can tell you now riding a bike to work is not a cool activity in Taiwan either physically or socially. Physically it is either raining or your cooking and socially your swinging it with the recyclers, retired, and the retarded.

If anyone knows Bristol in England (where I live) then you’ll understand the sheer effort of hills. Fixie’s have exploded here over the past 2 years so I don’t think hills is too much of a problem, albeit it does make life difficult.

I think the prices for complete bike that Chrisone has proposed, are very reasonable. He is targeting newbies who don’t want to spend too much straight away.

As for Fixies in Taiwan, I think it has already grown and I don’t even live there, yet. Check these photo’s out of Fixie’s in Kaohsiung alone flickr.com/photos/freshit/3459597415/

fox: thats like saying you only drive automatic cars. yeah changing gears in a car takes more effort and practice but also provides more of a connection with the car. same with fixed gear. you are connected directly to the drive chain and have to learn to control the bike with your legs which takes practice but in the long run gives you more control. Dont get me wrong fixed gear is not easy but it provides more enjoyment as you learn. anyone can ride a bike but not everyone can ride fixed gear.

It is an unrealistic dream to say that riding a fixie gives you more control, but i will agree that you feel pretty much connected to the machine. You have FAR more control if you run a brake as well (on the road of course, not on a track where everyone is going the same speed, roughly).

man, the number of times I’ve wanted to stop faster on the track than I could, and with a bike with brakes, you can!

Please run at least a front brake, guys, hipsters be damned on that point. It is way better to look a tad ‘uncool’ than to get squashed by a blue truck or a taxi, or a scooterpunk.

My first bike was a fixie.

I was three, and it had three wheels.
No brake, though.

You couldn’t get more connected to your machine than they were in the 1870’s they didn’t even have a chain, just a pedal and wheels. Fortunately, technology advanced and we came up with the chain, disc breaks, and gears. Fixed bikes are more fad than fun. That’s my guess, but to be honest I’ve never ridden one so I don’t really want to make an asshole out of myself. It’s just what I think, not what I know or have experienced.

fox- come and ride mine. its crazy addicting. one skid/trackstand and you’ll be hooked. that goes for anyone on this thread. just let me know and i will teach you.

Thanks for the offer. A one skid/trackstand sounds like a potential broken leg to an old codger like me. I would like to try out one though. No point in raving on about something you know nothing about (of course that’s rarely stopped me in the past). Where’s your shop?

I’m looking for a new fixed gear and currently trying to scheme a way to pick up a Maxway frame. They make quality steel frames that get re-branded and sold by a handful of bike companies. I suspect Chrisone will go through them but he’s not planning to sell a size big enough for me. Does anyone know of a Taiwanese brand that uses Maxway frames or a way to procure just one from their factory (as opposed to the minimum 100)? I heard about a guy who’s Taiwanese brother talked the factory (in Taichung) into selling him a frame through some kind of back-door deal…

I visited maxway and have their contact info. maxway only produces frames so we went with another manufacture that could source and assemble whole bikes. Maxways biggest fixed gear brand is Surly but thats not sold here. Maxway mainly exports so finding a local brand using their frames will be difficult especially one with horizontal dropouts because the scene hasn’t caught on here yet. Back door frames aren’t too hard to come by but without an in its hard. im in the middle of negotiations right now for more sizes. hopefully i will get some larger bikes but otherwise importing one is the best bet. But definitely keep looking for back doors into the factories.