countless tarckbike polls and posts all agree that this is the best fixed-gear bike available.[/quote]
lemme add a little more noob sauce to this ridiculous thread that i cant believe tarck is humoring…
Can anyone explain the advantage, appeal, and/or purpose, of an up-sloping top tube?
My initial guess is that its to reduce saddle to bar drop while still maintaining proper leg extension, but im not sure, and i want to be.
i just had the impression that no one had brakes on their fixed gear bikes.[/quote]
I would strongly suggest you run a brake for some time, or forever, while riding.
I would think that the OP, not knowing much about bikes, would be much better off spending the extra $150 to get a complete, rideable bike. In fact, I’m not sure why anyone would pay $200 for the frame when it would seem you could easily dump any unwanted components on eBay or Craigslist for more than $150.
Get brakes. Almost everyone has a brake on their velocipedes these days what with the price of india rubber and shoeleather.
The only reason I don’t have a brake right now is that I re-wrapped and shellacked my bars without the brake on (damn Yen Xing and his everfull bowl of poppy juice!) and can’t be fucked to redo it all.
So, in summary:
Unless you have a sticker-bike with a negative-rise stem and risers with pink track grips and dirty hair and wash your pits with AXE-brand hygeine products and listen to some insufferable pop music played by bearded men in girls pantaloons, get a brake. Or don’t. It is really all up to you.
Really, I don’t think riding without brakes is so awful. I mean why do we ride track bikes on the street in the first place?
They aren’t faster or more efficient in any way (riding off track)… the answer always just comes down to… “zen”.
I believe riding brakeless adds to my zen.
That being said I have a very awesome (light) bike and everything is much easier to do on it then on a steel conversion. It is much easier for me to skid on my very light (sexy) aluminum frame/carbon fiber fork bike, and so the cost of going brakeless is less than it is for your average hipster.
[quote=duckwars]Really, I don’t think riding without brakes is so awful. I mean why do we ride track bikes on the street in the first place?
They aren’t faster or more efficient in any way (riding off track)… the answer always just comes down to… “zen”.
I believe riding brakeless adds to my zen.
That being said I have a very awesome (light) bike and everything is much easier to do on it then on a steel conversion. It is much easier for me to skid on my very light (sexy) aluminum frame/carbon fiber fork bike, and so the cost of going brakeless is less than it is for your average hipster.
I’m an above-average hipster.
Also, might I suggest getting a dura ace hub.[/quote]
Aren’t you the guy who keeps stripping hubs?
Get a brake. You are a danger to yourself and more importantly others without one.
