Fw: [CR]Stopping a fixed gear in Ted's day.

(Example: Framebuilders:Masi)

From: "ternst" <ternst1@cox.net>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: Fw: [CR]Stopping a fixed gear in Ted's day.
Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2006 17:37:21 -0800
reply-type=response


----- Original Message -----
From: ternst
To: Elizabeth & Warren
Sent: Friday, December 08, 2006 5:36 PM
Subject: Re: [CR]Stopping a fixed gear in Ted's day.



> Ok guys and gals, here's the skinny "when WE used to ride" hah!.
> First: Be careful on putting brakes on the front round blade forks and how
> hard you stop.
> Not all those old forks have design line crowns and the round blades will
> flex somewhat more than the oval road blades and remember that's why they
> put the uneven line on the lugs to break up the stress riser lines.
> Putting a road fork in is not that bad an idea if you use the bike a lot.
> The rear bridges also are not that strong, so it's nicer to put /make up a
> clamp arrangement that that won't squeeze your seatstays and do damage.
> I don't think I would ride a fully restored vintage frameset and bolt on
> frame clamps, etc. to ride around on.
> Learn how to glove your wheel and ride for show and around on flatter
> ground. It would be a shame to damage a primo bike by putting brakes on.
> Warren's finder CCM on "E" is nice and those brakes work?
> Those old contraptions some times can be adjusted to stop fair, but
> remember kiddies, the hard core riders grin and tell you brakes are only
> to moderate , modulate, and slightly control speed, they are not there to
> stop.
> What the hell, you some kinda sissy? Snicker, or so say the hotshots when
> pulling beginner's legs.
> Back to the track. I keep getting side anecdoted.
> By the way, 50x16 is 25x8 or an 88" gear as we used to measure with 28"
> wheelchart. That was a most popular gear for average fixed racing. 26x8
> was for the good guys on road, and the team race and six-day gear of
> choice, which was called 91. The sprinters used 25,24,23x7 which had more
> leverage from chainwheel
> to crank end so had a slightly quicker jump, but not the rolling of the
> larger chainwheels for longer distance races. The smaller CW's "died"
> sooner and you had to push a little harder to keep them rolling than the
> big chainwheel that rolled longer and it was just a little easier in the
> team and mass start long events.
> First you need to get nice heavier duty gloves so they don't wear through
> too fast. Best to use two so you become ambidextrous, just in case.
> You stop the front wheel with your glove and a firm flat palm/hand which
> is forced down on TOP of the front tire with the pressure to stop as you
> need by placing your forearm behind the bar , flat palm on tire, and the
> wedging/pushing your forearm against the bar like a lever and fulcrum.
> If you do it hard enough, you can lift your back wheel off the ground real
> easy if you practice it when standing next to your bike and executing the
> discipline correctly.
> At first you will have a little bruising or a soreness in your forearm,
> but pretty soon you toughen up and you get so hard you can eat brick ice
> cream and rock candy.
> Now as Popeye's playmates you are ready to ride faster and practice
> quicker stopping.
> Oh yeah, remember to loosen your toe strap before you start slowing so you
> can get your foot out and not fall down on your osteoporitic hip. That's
> why we never put the top of the strap in the loop so we could flik the
> strap open on the downstroke with our thumb just before we start our
> stopping.
> All you old fogies ain't getting any younger except in your mind and when
> you look at the Playboy calendar.
> As you start gloving the wheel, the reason you keep you hand flat is to
> prevent sidewall friction and wear on your sewup tires, too much rubbing
> and you could damage the sidewall casing.
> Rider's have grabbed the front wheel and locked in extreme cases for a
> panic situation.
> While gloving your wheel, it's important to slide your butt backwards on
> the bike proportionally to the intensity of braking.
> This keeps your balance better and puts weight on the back wheel so it
> doesn't skid as easily, because as your doing this you are gently back
> pedalling to resist the motion at the same time.
> It's the gloving and simultaneous backpedalling with backwheel weight done
> skilfully that gives you the quickstop!
> Your non-gloving wheel is steering and holding your body weight back on
> the saddle to balance you out, to make this tricky sounding manuver much
> easier and fluid. Guys with bigger butts could be called pearshaped like
> the guy in the old cartoon strip, but in our street parlance we referred
> to them as BA's
> After awhile it becomes psychosomatic, the braking that is.
> Like the guys in the plumbing shop two doors down from our bikestore used
> to tell us,(they were all fat, cigar smoking redneck kinda guys) as they
> always came out and kidded the riders when we had 10-12 guys out front on
> the sidewalk in their cycling attire going for training rides, that we all
> had size 60 chests and size 2 hats.
> So bikes rider being notorious for not having any brains anyways or they
> wouldn't be riding bikes, could obviously do the track bike fast stopping
> without thought.
> You knew I could tie all this together, just like a bike race strategy.
> Yeah it always felt faster when wet, but gloving didn't work worth a damn
> in the rain, so we always sloed down in training, but when caught out in
> rain during a race you REALLY had to be careful on oil sliks, painted
> street letters/lines and stuff like that. Many a rider and bunches fall
> down go boom with track bikes because it was an accident waiting to
> happen. But it was fast and fun.
> Hope this gives a little better idea and trust youse all will chime in
> with a few of your war stories and we can have some timely timeline
> exchanges for our very own.
> There I go, right back to team race mode.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Elizabeth & Warren" <warbetty@eastlink.ca>
> To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> Sent: Friday, December 08, 2006 3:03 PM
> Subject: Re: [CR]Stopping a fixed gear in Ted's day.
>
>
>>I think you really needed to develop that braking skill to survive. Have a
>>look at this original condition 30's CCM racer on ebay.
>>
>> #*http://tinyurl.com/yat8og
>>
>> *It came stock to the public with a 50 X 16 fixed gear and those Endricks
>> are the rare Dunlops with 647 mm beads. (no replacement tires there.) I
>> think that's over 90 gear inches. Inagine the potential horror when you
>> flip the wheel over to ride the 18 tooth freewheel and start downhill.
>> Near certain-death on todays urban streets.
>>
>> It has the rear Phillips boat-anchor brake of course. You just had to
>> heave it into the gutter and maybe it would catch a sewer grate.
>>
>> Warren Young
>> Wolfville NS.
>>
>> Kristopher Green wrote:
>>
>>> Chuck Scmidt wrote:
>>>
>>> One additional note here: you just know that if today's bike
>>> messengers knew about how the hard men (Ted's a Charter Memeber)
>>> braked the front tire with their hand back in the day, they'd be all
>>> over it.
>>>
>>> ______________
>>>
>>>
>>> Yup.
>>>
>>> http://tinyurl.com/tty7m
>>>
>>> Kristopher John Hicks-Green
>>> Olympia, Washington (State)
>>> United States of America