Prototype is here. anyone interested in having a look. let me know. i will post it on my blog as well if you just want to look at the picture. I have just met with the manufacture to make a bunch of changes but the main idea is the same. its a fixed or single speed bike built for a track feeling within the city that can handle tricks. if you wanted to you could take it off a nice set of stairs and it wouldnt fail. In the end we used maxway. but the biggest we will make is a 57.
that is a nice, clean and simple rig. no brake or fender mounts though? gotta have a front brake if you go freewheel instead of fixie. i’ll be keeping my eyes open for your launch and will get ahold of you to pick one of these up when the time comes.
OK. for all the blah blah blah, that Lazarus is one SWEET-looking machine. Sweet! Give it a freewheel and front brake and I’d have one in a baker’s second.
good to hear.
brakes and single speed no problem. simple, no maintenance city bike. point A to point B conveniently.
i will let you know more when things get closer. we have the next proto rolling out in about 45 days. the changes from what we have now to what is going to come out will only be felt by the rider and not noticed by your average consumer. As riders we have to release something we can really stand behind and is respected in the fixie community.
My flatmate just finished riding around Taiwan with a fixed gear group. He’s going home and looking to sell his track bike frame.
It’s a beautiful lugged steel frame, all shiney and chromey. Seat tube length is 51cm (it’s a little on the wee side). He said he wants 14000nt for it. You could easily build this bike into a nice fixed gear for under 20k.
Just PM me if interested.
That’s a nice looking bike you had made. I’ll wait until the second proto comes out and get one off you. I only got to Kaohsiung about 2 weeks ago so 45 days will be perfect timely as I’ll be settled by them.
Good work.
hey just jumped onto this thread. really tossing up between a mtb or a fixie. never really considered one until last week where i rode a friends fixie and thought it was such an unreal feeling!
will definitely stay tuned to this thread to see the updates on your bikes chrisone
that’s why the fixed gear is about to take over the streets! its a strange feeling that is crazy addictive.
prototype 2 is coming mid August. i changed a lot from PT1. shorter wheel base and BB drop is 55.
feel free to get at me with any questions or if you want to learn about or how to ride fixed gear. i have two bikes.
for my sake, and maybe a few others on this thread (?) could you explain the gearing to me. i saw some numbers/fractions being thrown around before and im assuming its got to do with the gearing/teeth of the cogs
what should i be looking for in any particular riding type?
Since the rear cog and front chain ring are fixed you only have one all gear all the time. therefore you have to choose a gear ratio that will fit most activities. a ratio of 46 teeth on the front and 17 on the back is a pretty good all around gearing for city riding. your not going to want to see many hills but can power trough a few. it will also allow a comfortable cadence while going fast. you dont want to be pedaling too fast when going quickly. also the gear ratio determines the number of skid spots on the tire.
so what would less/more gears on the front/rear acheive
i understand its basically a tradeoff between rpm’s and hence speed and ease of going uphils and such
so if i get…50/17 what would that mean? likewise with 46/14?
sorry for the number of questions, i just like to be sure about things before i buy!
[quote=“brianb”]so what would less/more gears on the front/rear acheive
i understand its basically a tradeoff between rpm’s and hence speed and ease of going uphils and such
so if I get…50/17 what would that mean? likewise with 46/14?
sorry for the number of questions, i just like to be sure about things before i buy![/quote]
With Galen Evans and Osman Isvan, Brown developed a method to determine and compare bicycle gear ratios. His method, which for any combination of front chainring, rear cog, wheels size and crank length, results in a number that Brown terms the “gain ratio.” This method purports to be the only formula that takes into account crank length in addition to chainring, cog and wheel size,[5] and has the advantage of producing a unitless quantity and is thus independent of the choice of units for the contributing quantities.
http://sheldonbrown.com/gears/
[url=http://sheldonbrown.com/fixed.html#vertical]Gearing
Gear choice for a fixed gear is a very personal matter, and will depend on your style, your goals, and the terrain you ride in.
I live in New England, with small rolling hills. For a bike with normal road-type wheels and 165 mm cranks, I find that 42/15 suits me best. This gives a gain ratio of 5.77 (75.6" / 6.05 m gear). This is low enough that I can make it up the hills where I usually ride, but high enough that I can go reasonably fast down the other side.
Racers using a fixed gear for winter training usually like a considerably lower gear to improve their spinning technique.
Those who live in the flatlands will likely prefer something substantially higher. When I visit my sister in Illinois, I flip my wheel around so that I can use the 42/14, a gain ratio of 6.18 (81.0" / 6.48 m).
Generally, the higher the gear, the more fun the ride, as long as your gear is low enough to let you climb the steepest hill you need to climb.
Time trialists often prefer something higher yet. (Many British time-trialists prefer a fixed gear for these road events.) Beryl Burton, probably the greatest time-trialist in history, used a fixed gear almost exclusively. If I recall correctly, she usually ran a 52/14 or 52/13!
The higher your gear, the more desirable it is to have a brake on your bike.. There are two reasons for this:
* Just as a low gear lets you apply a higer forward force to the tire for hill climbing, a low gear also allows a greater resistant force at the tire for the same amount of leg effort.
* The lower your gear, the lower your maximum speed will be, and if you're not going so fast you don't need as powerful a brake.
If you plan to do skip stops on a regular basis, you might also consider the number of skid patches your chosen gear ratio will create.[/url]awesome info and links Bodo 
Prototype two is out and about in the city. sizes 53 55 57. all are currently being tested by our riders to ensure quality before placing our first order. colorways are not concrete yet and pre-orders will have a larger range of colors to choose from. if your interested in a bike made by me or just into fixed gear in anyway feel free to contact me.
my use of forums in general is limited due to the time it takes up so if you want to stay up to date with my bicycle venture, release dates and events follow my RSS feed or Twitter
I used a 53 front 15 or 17 back to go to work everyday in Taichung. It was 31km one way 62km total a day on single gear. I find 53 / 17 combination more easy to keep average speed high but lack the top speed.
I ride mostly on flat road so the setup didn’t bother. I wasn’t on a fixie though, just single speed with front and back brakes.
forgot to mention that our bikes can come as a single speed also if you just want a simple no hassle city commuter.
I’m not on the market for one, but your bikes look really nice.
i looked over those bikes and basically you get what you pay for. the are made of the lowest quality steel. there are a lot of way better bikes for the same price here on the island. if you wanna super cheap bike just buy one of these junkers off yahoo.http://tw.page.bid.yahoo.com/tw/auction/f13727773
just type fixed gear into yahoo auctions for lots of bikes both cheap and expensive. http://tw.search.bid.yahoo.com/search/ac?ei=UTF-8&p=fixed+gear
if you find something that looks good post it here and i will tell u if its a square deal or not.