Back on Fixed

Yesterday was my first ride on fixed gear since the disintegration of the rear hub bearing on my Voodoo Dambala in the spring. It went surprisingly smoothly; I don’t seem to have picked up too many pernicious coasting habits since April. The saddle needs to go up a little and I think I may raise the gearing from 42 x 17 to 42 x 16. The Dambala came into service last year after the discovery of a crack in the head tube of my Kuwahara (a touring bike set up as a fixed gear.) In the early spring the rear hub bearing fell to pieces and I started commuting on the Marinoni. I think the ability to change gears made my commute a little faster but I’m not sure it improved my fitness any. I was forced to actually get something done by a horrifying discovery about the front wheel of the Marinoni. Last week I noticed the braking feeling a bit grabby and by Friday it was really, really grabby. I took off the front wheel to have a look and discovered that the rim was beginning to split along the brake track. So one bike is back in service and another is out. I really need to get more than one bike going at one time.